Not A Bad Thing

2 - Work Drama & Assignments

The room fell silent for a while, everyone immersed in their own thoughts about what to do next. "Maybe we could have a whole section of several businesspeople giving tips on how to succeed," I offered with a thoughtful tone. It was not something that was done often, and innovative things always sold.

Virginia pondered for a while. "I like that idea," she finally said and I let go of the breath I had no idea I had been holding onto. Virginia stood up from her leather chair that was way more fancy and elegant than the one the rest of us had, which was plain and basically just a white chair. In other words, she was letting us know that she was more important than us.

"I will have most of you on it. Only Jacqueline and Henry will continue to work on the fashion and makeup tips and new trends. The rest of you, gather up now and discuss which these men you will interview will be and I'll be back in half an hour to see who you have and approve." She had made a simple but effective scheme on the whiteboard we always kept in here and then after a curt nod walked out of the room.

Jacqueline and Henry waved goodbye to the rest of us before hurrying their way back to their offices. "Poor guys," George whispered from beside me into my ear. I turned to face him and motioned for him to carry on by scrunching up my face in confusion. "They have a lot of work ahead of them," he explained. I only gaped and nodded. My mind was already racing with ideas on who I could interview and what kind of questions to ask.

"Well, we do too," Jennifer interrupted with a scowl as she got up and grabbed the marker her mother had left on a side.

"Jennifer is right. Let's start brainstorming," Amelia announced as she walked up to Jennifer. Amelia did not like her either, because she knew Jennifer was dead set on making my life a living hell. We were working right now, though, so this was not the time to quarrel. The only one that had the freedom to act childishly and stupidly here was Jennifer, because she would not get fired for doing so. The rest of us, we were dispensable.

Virginia never failed to remind us.

"Alright, so let's start giving names. Depending on the number of men, we can divide who can interview how many and so on," George suggested.

"That's a great idea," I agreed as I crossed one leg over the other one.

"Alright, let's start giving names, then," Amelia said.

"Lloyd Maxwell, Harry Osborn, Otto Gatsby," Jennifer started calling out, looking up as she remembered all of the Big Apple's most famous entrepreneurs. I was actually surprised that she knew them all, but I had never said she was not smart either. She was just a pain in the ass.

"Those are really good choices," Amelia appeased and Jennifer smiled in response and started writing them down on the whiteboard.

"Kaila Goudy," I proposed after doing some brainstorming myself.

"Women are included as well?" Jennifer asked out loud –I knew she would never speak directly to me in such a sweet tone unless she was up to something bad. She turned around and stared at the rest of us with an expectant stare.

"It is funny that you only think of men. This is the Big Apple, there will be plenty of women to interview," I said.

"Well, and right now the equality of genders is a big deal. It might help us sell," Amelia shrugged, agreeing with me.

"You're right," Jennifer agreed before turning around and writing down my choice.

"You know who else could be interesting?" I drawled out. I knew my option could be debatable, but there was no loss in suggesting the eye candy I had seen today in the morning on my way here. The three of them turned around to see me. "Andrew Disick," I blurted. The flashbacks of the picture I had seen this morning of the handsome man flooded into my mind, fueling my idea of wanting to interview him. it was not every day that one met such a handsome and successful young man. He was only a couple years older than me.

They gave me skeptical looks before George spoke up. "We were talking this morning about it, Tess, he does not give interviews."

"To anyone," Amelia finished for George.

"Oh, right. I just thought that since this is a big magazine, he would agree," I rebutted with a small shrug.

"We all know all you want is an excuse to try and get into his pants," Jennifer bitterly spat out.

"Oh, not this again," I scoffed as I rolled my eyes at her. "Get over it," I shot back afterwards.

Jennifer's face flushed a bright red as she glared daggers at me. It seemed as if all of her attempts at being civilized and trying to forget about what had happened had failed. What a shocker. "You are the slut here-" Her voice had raised an octave, making not only me but George and Amelia to wince in pain, but she was soon interrupted, much to my pleasure, and for the sake of my ears as well.

"I'm back. I see you have sorted it out already. Walk me through it," Virginia demanded as she walked into the tense room. She either did not notice or did not care. She only stared right at the whiteboard which had the names we had discussed scribbled down in Jennifer's neat writing.

The room fell silent for a few moments and as Virginia only frowned at us, her face starting to show annoyance, George cleared his throat and explained our idea to our cranky boss. "This is the list of people we are thinking about interviewing," he narrated as Virginia walked up to us, shoving us aside with her presence before standing in front of the whiteboard with George by her side, trying to look fearless and in control.

"Actually," Jennifer chirped in, a mischievous glint firing inside her eyes. I clutched onto Amelia, who was also tense, sensing something was wrong. As I had said before, Jennifer only used that sweet tone when she was up to something. "There is someone missing from the list," she stated.

She wrote down one last name and I felt my heart sink down to the pit of my stomach at the possibility of events coming ahead. Whatever it was, it was bad for me.

Andrew Disick.

"Andrew Disick?" Virginia read skeptically. "Why?" she asked next, turning to face her daughter with a confused frown. "You know he does not do interviews," she pointed out.

"Oh, it turns out Tess knows him personally," Jennifer chirped. "So, she will get us the exclusive interview with him."

"Oh, that's great!" Virginia cheered, turning to me right away. I had never seen her so excited and it terrified me. "Alright, then I expect this to be an amazing issue, guys. I will see you later." Without another word, Virginia spun in her expensive and tall heels and walked out of the room, not giving me a chance to let her know her daughter was just trying to screw me up.

I turned to face Jennifer, shock written all over my face. "What the hell did you just do?" I asked in sheer panic.

"I," she began, "just got you fired." She beamed at me and then said she would interview Kaila Goudy. Then, she left the room with a satisfied smirk. 

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On the side you have Jennifer.