h. Olive is a nice girl with what I’m sure is a nice body underneath the bulky clothing. But she is also a complete mess. She apologizes every five seconds and has zero confidence in herself. She’s still an assistant. I want a strong woman, like Jamie, who can equal me in bed and in the business world. Not Olive.
“I think you’re crazy, Jamie, but you do have one thing right. I love you and will do anything for you.”
“So, you’ll run the company for the next year in exchange for owning half of it?”
“Yes, but me asking Olive out on a date is not part of the deal. She’s an unconfident mess.”
Jamie laughs. “Olive is the strongest, most confident woman I know. Who else would have the confidence to wear half of a face of makeup, boots, and no pants in winter? I know I wouldn’t.”
I laugh. “I guess that’s one way to look at it.”
2
Olive
I hate him.
Sean.
He’s an asshole.
I don’t know what he’s doing here, but he’s been in Jamie’s office for almost an hour now while I’ve been sitting outside, at my cubicle, waiting. All I was told was to pick him up from the airport. Jamie didn’t tell me anything else. And, even though we are best friends and she tells me everything—including that she found out she was pregnant from her boyfriend of a total of two months—she is often forgetful. I don’t think she would remember anything if it wasn’t for me.
But, still, I can’t stop thinking about how handsome he is. I can’t stop thinking about his dark brown eyes, the five o’clock shadow that covers his strong jaw, or how his muscles bulge beneath his clothing.
The door to her office finally opens, and Sean steps out. He walks past me without even glancing at me or anyone else in the office, and he leaves just as quickly as he got here.
“Olive, can you come in here a moment?” Jamie calls out from her office.
I stand up and walk into her office with a large grin on my face, carrying her dry cleaning that she asked me to pick up on my way into the office today.
I’ve been Jamie’s assistant for far too long. Today is the day I have been waiting five years for. Today is the day I’ll finally get promoted. There is a management position open, and I know that she wants me in it. That way, when she takes a couple of months off to be with her baby, I can step in and run things for her. She just needs to make it official.
This is the moment when my life changes. This is the moment when I stop being an assistant. I can stop getting coffee or baking cookies. Although I have a feeling, no matter what position I hold in the company, I’ll have to keep making cookies. But at least I’ll get paid well. At least well enough to afford more than a studio that holds nothing more than a bed and a small couch and something that resembles a kitchen that wouldn’t even fit in one of those tiny houses that you see on TV. They should start videoing my life if they want to know what it’s like to live tiny.
“You’re an angel, Olive,” Jamie says standing as I hand over her dry cleaning. “I couldn’t very well work today in sweatpants.”
I smile as I look down at Jamie’s attire to see that she is indeed in sweatpants. I know she has two closets worth of clothes in her apartment, so she should have had something else to wear. Unless she didn’t sleep at her apartment last night.
Jamie takes a seat behind her desk and motions for me to do the same.
I take a seat and wait for her to speak, trying to be as polite as I can even though, inside, I’m bursting to say, Yes, I’ll take it!
Whatever job she is going to offer and whatever level of money that comes with it will be better than what I get paid. I know everyone else in the company makes at least three times as much as I do, and that’s being conservative. The best in the company make ten or more times than I do.
“So, I bet you are wondering why I called you in here this morning.”
I nod even though I know exactly why she called me in this morning instead of just emailing me a long list of things she needs me to take care of, like she usually does every morning.
“As you know, some things are about to change with how the company is run around here.”
I nod again, smiling brightly, as my suspicions seem to be confirmed.
“And, as you know, I’m pregnant. But, at my last checkup, my doctor said I needed to start taking it easy and be on bed rest until the baby is born.”
I nod as I look down at her still-flat stomach. There is no way this woman is five months pregnant. I still can’t believe it.
“But, anyway, I want to take at least six months off when the baby is born. I want to just be a mom, which means I need to leave someone I trust in charge of the company to ensure it will continue to head in the right direction.”