Suit and Tie (republished)

Cooling Coffee and Failed Attempts

I flipped aimlessly through a portfolio. It was scary. Knowing that Victoria will hate it, I threw it unceremoniously into the trash and reached quickly, after cooling down, a cup of coffee off my desk.

The door to my office opened and a moment later came into the room, my best friend and roommate, Jace. He wore black tailored pants and a dark green sweater, contrasting with his blue eyes.

"Hey, bitch," he greeted me, scanning me. "You look brilliant today." I turned around, chuckling softly and jutted out my hip, which was covered in my leather pants.

"I tried," I said, teasing him.

"We have a meeting in 10 minutes. I thought you forgot, so here I am," he informed me.

"Thank God one of us is organized," I grumbled, finding my cell phone and laptop.

We walked side by side and talked about recent trends, reaching the conference room. We took our place at the end of the table: Me across from Victoria and Jace sitting across from me. He wiggled his eyebrows funny, and I tried to keep from laughing when Victoria entered the room.

"Coffee, Norah," she snapped. I got up immediately and went back to the small coffee cart. As I waited for the machine to work, I silently begged that the machine wasn't broken, as it tends to do in my presence.

As soon as the coffee was done, I grabbed the steaming mug and raced back to the conference room, where everyone had already taken their seats and began reviewing their documents. I put the coffee in front of my boss and took a seat next to her.

"Okay, the number for the next month," Victoria began, leafing through documents. "I was thinking about the formation of power in the workplace. Ideas." Here we go.

"A section of leather clothes. They're on top right now," said Jace immediately. Everyone nodded, tapping something on their MacBooks.

"And what about a section on women CEOs? Powerful and sexy?" tried a woman named Alice. She was a pretty blonde with a bob haircut styles. Her ideas were never original, but once given a subject she can write the perfect article.

"Too corny," someone groaned. Alice gave him a rebuking look at the same time Victoria started talking.

"I agree," she said. "We need something fresh."

Everyone started butting in their ideas. Some of them were immediately excluded from the discussion, others were subject for a later issue. I gnawed absently at the end of my pencil when it dawned on me. I waited for a moment of silence in the editor's discussion, in which they've thrown non-stop ideas towards Victoria.

"What do you think about 'Being You Own Boss'? Someone who rose to the top through hard work and has very good taste?" I tried.

Victoria gave me a strange look before she smiled.

"I like. Who, for example?" Think.

"Maybe this blogger, Leighton something? She started off running the site, which is becoming quite popular. She's also hot," flashed a man named Aaron.

"This is good. It may be interesting. Any other ideas?" said Victoria.

"Oh my god," Jace squeaked suddenly. All attention was directed towards him as he clapped his hand in excitement. "Harry Styles!"

I heard murmurs of approval around the room, and then each one of them typed something on their computers. It seemed to me that everyone knew who he was except me.