The pen made a noise as I rolled it across my desk. I heaved a sigh and then looked blankly at my computer. The company I worked for was in charge of bringing other companies back on their feet and building them back up financially. Employees would go out and get involved to help these companies out. One would think it was exciting, but for me…it was anything but.
My job was to assist the employees, to make their lives easier, so they could do the real work. So, basically, I was a gopher. I would get coffee, file paperwork, doing errands for these high paid individuals. All the while, they would have the fun and interesting parts of the job, while I would be stuck in the office and shuffling papers around. Somehow, it didn’t seem fair.
No matter how much I explained it to the boss, he didn’t seem to understand my issue with it. So, really, it was like talking to a brick wall. It was just sometimes I felt more compelled than others to make my move and hope that he finally would see that I wasn't any longer the woman that was fresh out of college and looking to do any job I could get my hands on. I was now a grown woman that knew her mind and wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted.
So, one day after getting the umpteenth coffee for one of the co-workers, I knocked on his office door. Max looked up and motioned for me to come in. “How can I help you Jasmine?” he asked.
I took a deep breath, before I just laid it out there. “Look. I’ve been with the company for two years now. That’s two years of filing papers, getting coffee, running out and getting laundry from the dry c
leaners, and any other task that came about.”
He groaned, knowing full well where I was going with this, but I continued.
“You keep saying that I just need to give it time and eventually I might be asked to do an assignment. How much time?” I asked.
He snickered and continued to look at me.
“Jasmine, you know I think you’re a great worker and I would love to give you some field work, but come on…you’re just not ready.”
My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe he was still playing that card.
“What? How can you say that? I have worked just as hard as any of these other people.” I then frowned. “Is it because I’m a woman?” I asked. It was true that the majority of the people working on assignments were men, with only a couple of women. Those women just happened to have been employed with the company from almost day one.
His eyes grew wide when I asked the question. “You know I don’t discriminate. This has nothing to do with whether you’re a man or a woman. Trust me that it doesn’t.”
I knew that he was right. I didn’t see him as the type to discriminate, but I didn’t know why I wouldn’t be given a chance.
“Then why won’t you give me the opportunity?” I asked.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair.
“The truth is that we just don’t have any more cases that aren’t being handled.” He shrugged. “If we did, then it’d be yours. I’m sorry, but things have been slow for us.”
I crossed my arms and looked at him. “When you get a call with your next project, will you give me a chance?”
He tilted his head and for a minute or so we held a staring contest. He tossed up his arms. “I’ll consider it. That’s the best I can do.”
That was better than a no, so I had to make it work. He was going to consider it. I nodded and left his office. It wasn’t quite the resounding yes I would have hoped for, but it was better than what I usually got.
I got back to my desk and was only seated for a few minutes before my phone lit up. I answered it, putting a smile on my face. “This is Jasmine.”
“Hey, it’s Roger. Will you come scan in some of my files? They’re getting backed up.”
I rolled my eyes, but was right on it. “I’ll be right there.” I hung up the call and got up from my desk.
I went down the hallway, until I got to his office. When I walked in, my eyes immediately went the stack of paperwork on his desk. I pointed to it. “Are you talking about this?” I asked.
He snickered. “Yep!” He motioned towards his wall to a cart. “That will help you transfer them to the scanner.”
“Gee…thanks,” I mumbled. I started loading the papers up on the cart, then glanced at him when I was finished. “Anything else you need?” I held back the urge to say, sir. He shook his head and never looked back up as I left his office. I pushed it back down the hallway and to the large scanner in the corner where I started diligently working, humming the words to a song to stay awake. I didn’t know how much longer I could put up with this, before I had to get out of there.
A week passed by and there were no other jobs that came into work. I went about doing the everyday tasks that had come so familiar to me and trying to forget about the fact that I might never have a prominent job within the company.
On that Saturday night, it was Sydney’s engagement party. It was the first night I had gone out since she had told us she was getting married, which was the same night I caught my boyfriend screwing another woman. So, this was a milestone. It’d been a month of spending time at work and home, leaving no time for play.
I got dressed and basically forced myself to leave the house. Driving to the club, I thought about how I had let myself go since Josh and I broke up. Last time we spoke, he apologized profusely, begging me to forgive him, to which I gave him my reply. “I do forgive you, Josh. Life is too short to hold grudges. But I’ll be damned if I let you break my heart again.” I then dropped it and was relieved after the second time, he didn’t try to get me to change my mind.
I pulled into the club and looked up at the name in lights. Mercury Wild. It wasn’t normally the place I would grace, but that was because I wasn’t a member. It was too elite for my blood, but it didn’t surprise me that Sydney was a member.