15. The New Job

Chrissy saves her new boss, Derek, a lot of money!

Chrissy settled into her new job at Brosky Software Solutions with little incident. Derek introduced her to Patrick, the office manager, who then gave her a tour and introduced her to the rest of the staff. To Chrissy, the place was a yuppie wonderland. These were definitely not her kind of people. No matter... she didn’t like to mix her work life with her personal life anyway. She was here to do a job and that was all. Patrick did mention that, while they didn't technically have a dress code, everyone was expected to look 'professional'. It was obviously a pointed hint at her appearance. She went clothes shopping after her first day. Always the rebel, she bought a number of tops with three-quarter sleeves that didn't quite hide the tattoos on her arms and she wore sleeveless shirts on Casual Friday. She wore black jeans and black work boots with everything. Patrick never mentioned anything about how she was dressed from then on.

She ended up sharing office space with two other employees, a man and a woman, both in their late thirties or early forties. Chrissy wasn't sure what their job duties were and, frankly, didn't care. Patrick had introduced them as Aaron and Lori. They quickly learned that Chrissy wasn't a fan of office chit-chat. Attempts to start any conversations with her were met with either terse, one word answers or stony silence. Before long they simply shrugged to each other and ignored her, which suited Chrissy just fine. They also thought it odd that she kept her workspace so bare. She didn't decorate her wall space or desk with photos, posters or witty sayings. It looked decidedly odd!

For her lunch break each day, Chrissy brought a lunch from home and walked a block to a small public courtyard where she ate and read in solitude, sometimes sitting on the ground with her back against a planter when the benches were taken. On her third day it was raining, so she ran across the street to a deli. She should have guessed that most of her co-workers would be there. Out of politeness they invited her to join them and out of politeness she accepted. She ate in silence while the others talked. One of the young men decided that she must be shy and took it upon himself to try to break through her shell with some good-natured teasing. She glared at him icily until he gave up. From that point on she was referred to behind her back as the 'Ice Queen'.

Derek was having some second thoughts about hiring her. She seemed to be a hard worker, but she certainly wasn't a team player. It was during her second week, though, that Chrissy managed to save Derek a lot of money, though in an unusual way. On Tuesday, Derek stuck his head in the door and told Chrissy to stop by his office to speak to him about something before she left for the day. She wondered if she was in trouble. He seemed pleasant enough when he told her. Perhaps some of her fellow employees were complaining about her attitude and he was going to ask her to be more pleasant. Oh well, she'd find out later.

At 4:15 she finished up her work for the day and went to Derek's office. She stood at his open door and knocked. He looked up from his desk and smiled. “Oh, good. Thanks for stopping, Chrissy. How was your first week here? Good I hope?”

She shrugged. “No complaints”.

“Great! No complaints on my end, either. I do have a favor to ask of you, though. I'd like you to go to dinner with me tomorrow night.” He quickly held up his hand before she could protest. “Let me explain! It's strictly business. I'm entertaining a couple of gentlemen from a company in Montreal. They're looking for someone to design a tracking system and a job costing system for their factory, and I'm trying to get that account. I've already met with them once, and I'm taking them to dinner tomorrow night to try to clinch the deal. During our last meeting though, they started speaking to each other in French. I had no idea what they were saying. I thought that it was incredibly rude, but if I want their business I can't complain.

“I want you to come with me to this dinner tomorrow. If they speak to each other in French again, you can tell me what they said after the dinner is over. It's a little underhanded, I know, but if they want to play it that way, I can, too! You'll be on the clock the whole time and you'll get a free dinner out of it. What do you say?”

Chrissy shrugged. “Sure.”

“Great! We'll meet here at 5:45 and I'll drive us over to the restaurant from here. Oh... we're eating at Anton's, so dress up.”

Chrissy had heard of Anton's. It was supposed to be one of the fanciest restaurants in the city. She never thought that she'd ever eat there!

The next night after work, she went home and changed. She wore a rather clingy, sleeveless black dress with a burgundy pashmina that did little to cover the tattoos on her arms and shoulders. Against Ian's advice she kept the rings in her nose and lip. She wore a simple stainless steel chain necklace and no other jewelry, except for her many earrings. She toned down her usual heavy dark eye makeup a bit and put on dark burgundy lipstick to match her pashmina. She thought about combing her short black hair, but decided against it, opting for a disheveled urban chic look instead. “Well, what do you think? Am I dressed up enough for Anton's?” she asked Ian.

“I think you look great, Bittersweet. You’ll be fine.”

When she met Derek he was wearing a suit. He looked at how she was dressed and sighed, but said nothing. They drove to the restaurant in silence. When they got there Derek handed her a small notebook and said that he would introduce her as his assistant and that she should act as if she were taking notes throughout the dinner.

Anton's was even fancier than she had expected. Most of the men were wearing suits and many of the women were wearing evening gowns. She obviously stuck out in this crowd and got a lot of looks when she walked through the place. Whenever she caught someone staring at her, she simply stared back at them with her icy blue eyes until they looked away nervously.

The men they were meeting were waiting for them in the cocktail lounge. Derek introduced her to them and they greeted her warmly. One of them was an older gentleman with slightly greying hair, while the other was much younger. The maitre d' led them to their table in the dining room and Derek ordered a couple of bottles of wine to start with. The waiter quickly brought the wine and poured everyone a glass, then left a basket with small loaves of bread and butter on the table along with some menus.

Chrissy looked at the menu while the men talked business. She noticed that there were no prices listed. Apparently if you needed to know the price, you couldn't afford it. She had never been a wine drinker, preferring beer or bourbon instead, but this wine was quite good! She wondered how much it cost per bottle. The bread was delicious, too, and she had to force herself to not gobble it down.

She really didn't pay much attention to what the men were talking about. It was all about pricing, deadlines, contracts and other boring business things. From time to time she would pretend to take notes. She hoped Derek didn't really expect her to be jotting down important things. She was looking around the restaurant to see if anyone else was staring at her when she heard their two guests start speaking to each other in French. She saw Derek give her a sidelong look to see if she was paying attention. She grabbed another piece of bread and began to butter it nonchalantly while the men spoke. The older one spoke for a couple of minutes, then the younger one said something followed by laughter from both of them.

Derek had wanted her to tell him what they said after the dinner was over, but she made the decision to go ahead and translate it now. While continuing to butter her bread, she said, “That one (she pointed with her bread at the older man) said not to worry, that he's sure they can talk you down another five percent on the price. Then, once you're about two weeks into the project, they'll demand all sorts of extra options and features. By then you'll have put so much time and money into the job that it will cost you more to cancel it than to give into their demands. Then that one (she pointed to the younger one) said, 'Maybe we can get him to throw in a blow-job from the Goth chick, too.' Then they laughed.” She took a bite of her bread and looked at Derek.

All three men stared at her in disbelief! Then Derek looked at the two men across the table from him. The younger one threw up his hands and said, “I was joking! It was just a joke!” He gave a nervous laugh.

That was all Derek needed to hear to know that Chrissy had told the truth. He threw his napkin on the table and said, “Gentlemen, this meeting is over!”

He stood up, threw several bills on the table to pay for the wine and said, “Come along, Chrissy!” He turned and stormed out.

Chrissy stood up, drained her glass of wine, grabbed the last two loaves of bread from the basket, stuffed them into her purse, and trotted off after him.

Reviews

[John Lauterbach]

I find it interesting that Ian's taken a back-seat lately. It's cool how multi-dimensional the story's become by going between two main characters.

I'd take out the line about Chrissy saving Derek money in the beginning - it removes a lot of potential tension from the dinner, knowing how it will end. I was entertained by the scene regardless, but I see a see a good opportunity to hook the reader in with that.

[Craig2591]

Thanks for continuing to read and review.

[Bella Luna]

I love how Chrissy is continually able to prove herself an asset! Very funny and great chapter!

[Nienor Niniel]

I'm quite enjoying the story so far. :)

If I could offer a thought for consideration, I'd suggest removing from the fourth paragraph this sentence: "It was during her second week, though, that Chrissy managed to save Derek a lot of money, though in an unusual way." (and then make the necessary tweaking to the very beginning of the following sentence; it could be "On the Tuesday of Chrissy's second week..."). It would build a little bit of tension, since in the first sentence of the paragraph, Derek is having second thoughts about Chrissy's employment. The tension wouldn't last long, of course, but, just a thought.

[Craig2591]

Hmm... good point. I'm always open to suggestions. Thank you.

[Tabitha t]

I love then ending where she took the bread. This is so typical of her. I love how you have developed her character so mucht that the reader feels as if they know her personally. I would love to be friends with her~

[Craig2591]

Thank you!

[Christine Mae]

Chrissy is such a influential character in this story. I truly love her! She's so confident and driven. Again, I have to say, you're a very talented writer. I was debating on the first time I read the beginning chapters, but now I truly know, I LOVE this story! ;)

[Kaya]

I love Chrissy, I'm sure I've said it before and i'm sure i'll end up repeating myself again. She's just got so much character.

[Tina Kline]

Great one for Chrissy. I hope that there are no regrets that sh was hired now. She did him a good deed there where it seems no other employee could. Enjoyable chapter.