Now, I was in a meeting with the graphic design team. Everything with this department was outdated. From the way the name of the company looked on the side of the building all the way down to the fucking letterheads on all of our official documents. Everything needed to be brought into the twenty-first century.
“Minimalistic doesn’t always mean monotone. You can use color in your designs and still be professional,” I said.
“Can I just say, thank you?” a man asked. “I’ve been telling them that for years, and no one’s been listening to me.”
“Why not?” I asked.
I watched the head of the graphics department stumble over his words and I rolled my eyes. While he got his footing underneath him, my mind traveled back to that girl that fell asleep in her office that night. She was sitting there in the front row yesterday of the conference meeting. Just staring at me and gawking like she was in shock. With her standing and clapping, I got a wonderful look at the curves she hid underneath those ugly ass cardigans. Rounded thighs and luxurious tits I wanted to bury my face in.
And those damn glasses. I just wanted to slide them right off her face and lose myself in her…
Shi
t. What color were her eyes again?
“... but I suppose we could swing a blue to gray scale for the new sign?”
I drew in a deep breath and turned my head towards the man who was talking. But it wasn’t his attention that caught mine. It was the woman sitting behind him. With the thick-rimmed glasses and the cardigan around her shoulders.
It was the woman from that broom closet office.
She had been in this meeting the entire time?
“Mr. Walker?” someone asked.
“Yes? Okay. A blue to gray scale sounds nice. Professional, but not overbearing. You can’t do overbearing until you’re on the top. And we’re not on top yet. Get me a mockup of the new sign, and once we get it approved that’ll dictate what we do with the letterhead and even advertisement going forward,” I said.
“Will do, sir. On it. Now, the next item on the agenda. It says you had questions about the current commercials being run on television?”
“I’m sorry. Okay. Can we pause this meeting?” I asked.
“Is everything all right?”
“Yes, except I know none of your names. Is this how meetings are always conducted?” I asked.
“We haven’t had to introduce ourselves in a while,” another person said.
“Well, it’s time we started. Let’s go around the room so I can catch all of your names before this meeting resumes. Sound good?” I asked.
“Um…okay. I’ll start. I’m Padma Rashad, head of the graphics department.”
“Wonderful, and you?” I asked.
“Deena Courey, Padma’s part-time secretary.”
“Wonderful. Next,” I said.
We all went around the room and everyone introduced themselves. I finally had some names to put to some faces, but I was anxious for the introductions to get around the room. This was the first team I was officially meeting with to change things, and I needed to start learning names.
Then, it came to the woman in the back.
She had introduced herself a little bit a couple of nights ago, but I wanted a formal introduction. Plus, I needed a refresher on what her name really was. I wanted her to look me in the eyes, give me her name, and state what her job was. I wanted her to know that I knew she was there. That she was an important part of this meeting because she would be how I kept my head screwed on straight.
You know, if she did her fucking job right.
She had her head down and was scribbling something in a notebook. My eyes locked on her as everyone swiveled around in their chair. Padma cleared her throat to try and get the woman’s attention. I watched the girl whip her head up and look around the room, then she did something that didn’t surprise me.
Though it should have.