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“That is funny,” I said. “How are you Steph?”
“Oh, I’m good,” she said. “Same as always. The real question is how areyou? How’s life in your new city? How’s the new job?”
“You know, it’s mostly good. Some bad, but I’m hanging in there.”
“I talked to Gina yesterday, and she told me something very interesting about the man who runs the company you work at now. Oh dear, I hope that wasn’t a secret. Then again, if it was, you probably shouldn’t have told Gina since she’s pretty bad at keeping secrets. She also told me you are in a fight with Rose.”
I laughed. “Gina is such a blabbermouth. But it’s okay, neither of those things are secrets, per se. In fact, I was calling to get your opinion on something having to do with my new boss. I keep getting into these petty arguments with him—”
“And by him you mean the man you had hot, wild sex with in Hawaii, right?”
“Yes,” I said with a sigh. “I mean the man I had hot, wild sex with in Hawaii. His name is David, and since when doyouuse phrases like hot, wild sex?”
“That’s not my phrase,” she said. “That’s howyoudescribed it to us the next day, don’t you remember?”
“Not really, but whatever, that doesn’t matter. The point is, he and I keep getting into these fights. We got into it again today and I’m feeling upset about it, but I’m not sure what to do. I like this job, and I honestly think working for this company could take me places, but I’m not sure how much more of this tension and anger I can handle. This isnotwhat I signed up for, you know?”
Steph sighed. “That sounds rough. I’m sorry. How do these arguments start?”
I told her all about our first conversation in the break-room and then got into what happened that morning at work, and once I was done with those two stories, I was sort of surprised to realize that’s all I had to complain about. In my head, David had been wronging me for the last week, but really, I had just been so hurt and so bothered by the first comment he made that I had been thinking about it non-stop; therefore, inflating the single argument into something much larger.
“That’s it?” Stephanie asked when I finished ranting. “The one joke about being left at the altar and the one joke about firing you if you don’t win the case?”
“I mean, you should’ve heard the tone of voice he used when he said those things!”
She laughed. “Lily, don’t you think you’re being a bit hard on the guy?"
“No,” I said, walking over to my bed and sitting down. “He was being rude for no reason whatsoever.”
“Maybe,” Stephanie said. “Or maybe he was just trying to be funny? Did it ever occur to you that the altar joke had nothing to do with your situation? I mean, you didn’t exactly get left at the altar. What happened between you and Bret was different. Not to mention, the night you met David you both had been drinking quite a bit, and there’s a chance he doesn’t even remember the full story of why you were in Hawaii in the first place.”
I frowned and started pulling at a loose thread in one of my pillowcases. “I guess that’s a possibility,” I said.
“And the thing that he said today, wasn’t that a joke about parameters thatyouset up? You’re the one who told him he could fire you if you didn’t win the case, so why did it make you so mad when he joked about it later on?”
“He wasn’t joking today,” I said. “I could tell he was trying to remind me of our deal, trying to scare me before I got back to work. Like, put me in my place, you know? I hate it when men do that.”
“How can you be so sure that’s what he was doing?”
“Because that’s what men on a power trip do,” I said.
“And you’resurehe’s on a power trip? I mean, what else does he do that makes you think he’s so desperate for control? Do the other people at work fear him? Is he mean to them?”
“Er… Not exactly.”
She didn’t say anything, and I knew she was waiting for me to continue. I cursed myself for having called Stephanie, the one friend I should’ve known would spend the entire conversation in the role of the devil’s advocate. Damn her and her need to give people the benefit of the doubt.
“Everyone in the office loves him,” I said. “He’s a nice guy, he gives out raises and bonuses every chance he gets, and for the last five Christmases that he’s been in charge, he’s sent everyone home with these huge gift baskets that are worth over $500 each.”
“That doesn’t sound like someone on a power trip to me.”
“There is more than one way to gain power. Buttering people up is a method of doing just that, you know?”
“Whatever you say, Lily.” Steph chuckled. “All I’m getting at is that it sounds to me like maybe you’re being a little overly sensitive. It sort of reminds me of what happened between you and Jacob Stone in fourth grade.”
“Jacob Stone?”
“You don’t remember?”
