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“I ordered before you.” She turns around again, and I tap her again, and she glares at me.
“They aren’t lattes. That’s three black coffees and a green tea.” I try not to raise my voice though the shop is quite busy.
“Oh, fuck off,” she snaps.
“Maria.” The guy calls, and the woman looks up. Without apologizing, she shoves the drinks into my hands and pushes past me. The hot coffee spills on my hands and I hiss.
“Thanks for nothing,” I mutter.
I hurry out of the store and make my way down to the office as quickly as I can while balancing the coffee.
I nudge my way into the elevator even though people don’t seem too happy with being squashed up a little. Nothing can get me down today, not my curves or what anyone else thinks of me.
It’s a shaky confidence, but I have to put my best foot forward to show everyone that I’m best suited for the job. They need to respect me from the word go.
When I walk into our offices, everyone is bustling and talking about the promotion announcement. I cannot believe it’s happening soon. I feel a bit shaky and sip my green tea to ease my nerves. I’ll have a granola bar once I’m at my desk.
I head straight toward Rosa’s office, but I stop short when I hear her talking to her manager, Michael. “She just doesn’t represent what the company stands for. If Penny can’t watch her weight and take care of herself, how does that reflect on us as a company.”
“She is the best candidate, but I have to agree, the clients have a certain taste, and Penny just isn’t it. She’s sweet and good at her job, but she’ll need to focus more on her image if she wants the position of manager.” Rosa says while clicking her pen.
I step back, trying to fight back the tears.
They’renotchoosing me.
Because of me.
Because I have curves and I am larger than everyone else.
I take my drink and put the others in the coffee room for others to take. What stings more is that I know what their only other option is.
They’re going to choose Carmen.
The person who works the least amount in the company.
I sit at my table and sip my drink before I open my desk drawer. I reach for the granola bar and hesitate and then grab the slab of chocolate. I open the wrapper and pop three blocks into my mouth, enjoying the silky smoothness of the dairy milk chocolate.
Several people give me a look, knowing I’ve been dieting for weeks. Before anyone can approach me, Rosa comes out and calls for everyone's attention.
“Morning, everyone. It has been an absolute honor being your manager, but as you have heard, I am being promoted to the next level in my career, which opens up a position as national sales manager. We’ve considered this carefully and would like to congratulate and welcome Carmen as the new national sales manager.” She motions to Carmen, who feigns surprise.
She knew the whole time. I can tell when her eyes meet mine, and she smirks.
Everyone half-heartedly claps, and they start whispering my name. Like me, everyone else thought I was the one who would get it. People congratulate Carmen but are trying not to make a big deal of it as most of them don’t like her anyway and know their work is going to triple now because of the way Carmen ‘delegates.’
People don’t seem to want to talk to me after that, and I’m quite happy with that. I leave work the moment it ends. Rosatries to call me back, but I can’t. I can’t deal with this right now. I go and catch the bus back home.
As I climb off the bus, it starts raining—go figure. I sigh as I kick off my new pumps and tuck them into my oversized handbag as I hurry to my apartment.
I’m sopping wet when I reach the security gate, which is propped open. That’s weird. No one ever leaves the security gate open because this is generally considered a bit of a questionable area.
I shut it behind me and headed upstairs to the second floor. As I walk down the corridor, I notice a rectangle of light at the end of the usually darker hall. My heart sinks when I realize it’s my apartment door.
The maintenance man, Kojak, is there. “Oh, Miss Winters. I’m so sorry. Someone got through the security gate, and well… I mean, I’ve fixed the lock, so you’ll be fine tonight, but I’m afraid you’ll have some cleaning to do.”
I look inside my apartment and see it’s tossed upside down. My blood runs cold as I dump my bag on the sofa and hurry to my bedroom with Kojak behind me. “Miss Winters?”
“No. No. No. No,” I whimper as I look for my jewelry box, but it’s gone, along with my grandmother's necklace.
