Ms. Starke, what are you doing here?”
Startled and feeling like she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t be, Jane spun around to face her boss. She tried to look nonchalant as she shrugged and said, “Working.”
“I can see that. But why are you at Ms. Brown’s desk?” He motioned toward the picture of herself she’d tacked on the bulletin board behind her monitor.
“Oh! I’m…finishing up the Muffin House project.”
He didn’t look satisfied with her answer. “The Muffin House is Ms. Brown’s account. Why are you working on that?” Good question. “Um…because…she asked me to take a look at it for her?” she rambled, adding, “As a favor. I owe her.” “Really? That’s very interesting.” He tipped his head, looking as intrigued as his words suggested. “Can I ask why you owe her a favor?”
You can but I don’t know if I can answer. Wait a minute. Duh! I couldn’t have planned this better if I’d tried. At her feet was the perfect opportunity to tell him about the yogurt account. Maybe that’s why she was changed into Monica. Some kind of supernatural opportunity to correct an injustice. That was the first logical explanation she had found.
“Well,” she began. “Last Friday I got into a bind and I didn’t have time to finish up the yogurt ad. Jane was kind enough to finish it up for me, even setting aside her own projects and putting her job on the line for me. I promised to give her credit for the fantastic job she did but it kind of slipped my mind until now.” She tried to look remorseful, hoping that would make her speech somewhat believable. Just about everything she’d said sounded so unlike the real Monica that she wondered how he’d ever buy it—outside of the obvious, what he saw.
Mr. Kaufmann’s eyebrows rose high on his forehead and he crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head in disbelief. Nope, he wasn’t buying it. Not at all. “Ms. Brown designed the yogurt ad?”
“I know it’s hard to believe—a girl with an associates from a community college for God’s sake,“ she added hoping that sounded more like Monica. “But it’s true. She did the entire thing. I started it, but frankly my original design was worse than garbage. I’ve seen better stuff in an elementary school’s hallway. She threw it away and started from scratch.” “When was the last time you spoke to Ms. Brown?” “Uh. Last night. Why?”
“Because this morning she came in early, finished everything she had for the week and took the rest of the week off, paid.”
“Paid? She used my—er, her—vacation days? Four whole days? You saw her?” He nodded. “I did.”
“She turned in everything?”
“I have it all, including the Muffin House project. And it’s perfectly acceptable. So I suggest you get to your own work.” “Okay.” She punched the power button on her monitor, swept up her purse and briefcase, and walked back to Monica’s office. As she settled in Monica’s comfy leather chair, she sighed. Oh yes, the perks were nice. She glanced around the room. Perks like four walls that reached the ceiling and a real door that could close. Monica’s office afforded her space to move around as she brainstormed. She spun around in the chair, facing the door, and ran her hand over her U-shaped desk’s smooth work surface. “Oh yeah, I could definitely get used to this.” Then she glanced up and caught Mr. Kaufmann watching her through the open doorway. She answered his puzzled expression with a silly grin then turned toward the computer to see what Monica had to work on.
Good God, the girl had a load and a half! And everything was due by next Monday. Despite the obvious advantages, this part of walking in Monica’s shoes—designer or not—wasn’t looking so great. Resigned to late nights and early mornings for the next several days, and possibly no time during the weekend to try out Monica’s hot looks at Jane’s favorite hangout, Jane set to work on the first project—a full page spread for a pet store.
