I Do

“Did you hear what I said?” Roxanne asked snapping Josie back to reality.

“What?” she asked.

“I said why don’t you go to the conference room and check it out?” Roxanne said as she sat down.

Josie nodded and took a long, deep breath.

“Yeah,” she said in a soft voice. “That is exactly what I should do.”

Roxanne nodded.

“I’ll just be here. Sorting the mail and everything,” she said in a low voice.

Josie didn’t hear her. She was already walking down the hall as fast as she could. When she got to the conference room, she stopped for a minute and took her time to compose herself before she walked in. Her heart was beating so hard as she walked into the room, that she could almost hear it. The world seemed to have slowed down because, for some reason, she was seeing everything in slow motion. She stood at the back and realized that she was just in time to hear the announcement. She looked at her boss who was standing in front of everyone with a goofy smile on his face.

“What this lady has done in four months is more than I can put to words,” Anton McGray, her boss, said as she stood at the back. “She managed to bring in eight hundred thousand dollars in billable hours in just those four months.”

Josie clenched her fist hard. It was all she could do not to point out the obvious. The clients she had brought in totaled two million dollars in billable hours annually.

“That is definitely more than the mere four hundred grand she brought in,” she thought.

At the back of her mind, she could not fathom Anton’s thought process. After all, who would ever consider a few hundred thousand dollars over two freaking million. She sighed loudly as she watched her boss go on praising the tall leggy blond, together robbing Josie of her well-deserved promotion.

“I can only imagine a world where everyone brings in four hundred grand in four months,” Anton went on and Josie rolled her eyes.

“You already have people getting you more than that,” she thought. “Maybe if you were not sleeping with all the blondes that came through here, you would know that.”

“We would be rolling in hundreds of millions in just a couple of years!” Anton said excitedly. “That is why I would like to announce that Sienna Miller is no longer just an advertising sales representative. She will be joining the market research office and of course, getting that highly coveted raise.”

“What the hell…” she wondered as the conference room erupted in applause.

She shook her head before she walked back to her desk. She sat in silence as she wondered what her next step was going to be. She had been at that company for a long time and she could not help but feel like things were not going to get better. There was condescension in the way the partners and bosses treated her at Rank Media that did not sit well with her. It was not just her. It was all people of color. She was not the only one who had been passed over for a promotion. There was Lisa Torres, one of the most brilliant market strategist, who had been stuck as an executive assistant for as long as Josie had known her. There was also Michelle Chan who would have made a great creative director given the chance but she was just another glorified assistant in the production office. Josie could see the trend. Anton McGray was only going to promote pretty little blondes who offered him certain favors behind the scenes. It was the worst feeling ever. The only other feeling she could compare it to was finding out that Lucas was not as serious about her as she thought and just as she had quit that relationship, it was about time she quit Rank Media.

That was the thought that had her fired up as she walked to her boss’ office. Her heart was pounding harder than ever as she walked up to his assistant.

“Hey, Josie,” Sasha, Anton’s assistant said. “How can I help you?”

“I need to see Mr. McGray,” Josie said coldly. “Is he available?”

“Well, he has a meeting in fifteen minutes…” Sasha started and Josie shrugged.

“This won’t take much time and it is not a meeting he wants to miss.”

Josie did not know if Sasha could see the seriousness in her eyes but the tone in her voice made one thing clear: she was not going to take no for an answer.

“I’ll just let him know…” Sasha reached for the intercom but Josie had already walked into Anton’s office. She was not in the mood for being cordial or being polite to her superior at that moment.

“Josie….is everything okay?” Anton asked when she walked in.

“No.” She closed the door behind her. “Not at all.”

“Oh no, what’s going on?” he asked.

“You have just promoted Sienna Miller even though she’s been here for less than a year,” she pointed out.

“Well, her track record has been amazing. You have to admit that she had had an impressive run.”

Josie shrugged.

“I guess it all depends on what you are basing your judgment on. She was not pulling some stripper moves in my bed so I guess I cannot really support your report without any further knowledge.”

Anton’s eyes grew so wide that for a moment Josie thought they were going to pop out of their sockets.

“Excuse me?” he asked.

“I have brought in two million dollars in billable hours and that is this year alone. Over the entire course of my career, Rank Media has made millions off my hard work yet you constantly overlook me when it comes to promotions,” Josie said angrily.

“No, it is all about the output in the workplace and the tangible results…” Anton started and she rolled her eyes.

“Is that what you call sleeping with your co-workers? Workplace output and tangible results?” she asked.

“Josie, you are walking on very thin ice,” Anton hissed and she shrugged.

“Well, I don’t really care about being on thin ice since I have been on eggshells trying hard to make sure I secure this promotion!”