Fight to the Top

by S. L. Gape

  “Hell, I did. I mean seriously, who treats people that way? What a jerk. Oh, and then the gas station guy from last week? Yeah, so we went out. He was cute, complimentary, a good sense of humour, had all the same interests I did. I’m like right on, this is awesome, he’s checking all the boxes; he says you wanna come back to my place? I was like, ummm, I’m gonna respectfully decline, but would you like to arrange another date? He was like, really? I have pulled out all the stops, tonight’s the only night my wife’s away. He called me a frigid bitch, threw 30 bucks on the table and said, ‘looks like I’m not paying, after all we can go Dutch,’ and left. Just like that, he threw the money on the table and left.”

  “Oh, my God, you’re kidding? Oooh, honey. I’m so sorry. What a jerk. Listen, ignore the idiot that wants a blonde and ignore the idiot that wants to get laid. You are stunning, you know that? You are incredibly stunning, come on. You’re fresh off a Calvin Klein infomercial. Listen, mister right is close by, who will love you for your beauty and your brains, and all the wonderful things about you. I’m sorry it’s been tough. The alternative is you turn into a lesbian,” Erika said to her laughing.

  “This is a real possibility,” she laughed. “But don’t sweat it. It’s fine, I’m fine.” She shrugged. “I’m not looking for love. I am so close to finishing school, so I really should be concentrating on that. I just wouldn’t mind a little fun once in a while, you know? Someone to kiss occasionally. And hell, some action,” she laughed, topping them both up with more champagne.

  “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be you know? Don’t rush it, promise me that?”

  “I know, I know. You okay? You and Dan having problems? You know I’m here if you wanna talk, right? Just lemme know?”

  “I know,” Erika said, resting her hand on Taylor’s. “I’m fine, I’m always fine, right?” she said sadly.

  “Just because you say that regularly, it doesn’t mean I buy it. You work so hard, and you keep everything boxed up. Maybe you should make Dan stay home one night and you and I go out. We can have a girl’s night out, or go away for the weekend. You are always stressed, so we could go to a hotel for a couple nights and have a spa day and a drunken night,” Taylor said.

  “Hmm, that sounds awesome. I could do with some relaxation,” she said distantly. Daydreaming about hour long massages, spas, saunas, facials, putting on her little black dress, and nice jewellery, drinking expensive champagne in a spectacular atrium with stunning chandeliers. “I like this idea a lot.”

  “Well you were either daydreaming about the relaxation or about checking some hot piece of ass out. Knowing you as I do, I’m guessing the former.”

  “You are so wrong. And, so sex obsessed,” Erika said, shaking her head vigorously.

  “Hey, nothing wrong with window shopping,” she smirked.

  Chapter Nine

  Erika got up the following morning, her head a little sore from the alcohol and the long ass week she had been subjected to. God, she hoped it would all be worth it. She looked across the bed, and surprise-surprise, Dan wasn’t there. Sighing heavily, she looked to the clock. Damn, it was after 9, and she never slept later than 6, not even on a weekend. She tried to remember what time Taylor had left, after they stayed up late chatting. She needed to get up and find Dulcie. She’d promised her little girl a work free day, and that she would most definitely get. They could make plans, as presumably, Dan was working again.

  Erika quickly freshened up before leaving her room and going downstairs to find Dulcie. She could hear the TV going, Dan must have left her sleeping and got up with Dulcie, she thought. Please lord, not Frozen again. She walked into the lounge, and found Taylor asleep with Dulcie snuggled into her, watching a movie, interestingly not Frozen.

  “Hey, mommy,” she said lazily.

  “Sssshhhh, baby. You’ll wake Taylor,” she said.

  “It’s okay, Taylor’s awake. We finished the movie yet, buddy?” Taylor said, sitting up and pulling Dulcie up onto her lap.

  “Not just yet,” she said, not looking away from the TV.

  “Okay, you finish here. I’m going to have some coffee with mommy until it finishes okay?” she said, lifting her up and putting her back on the couch.

  “Hey, what are you doing here?” Erika looked over to a tired Taylor, crossing her arms as they walked side by side to the kitchen. “I thought you left last night?”

  “I did,” she sighed. “I got a call this morning from Dan to look after Dulcie, as you needed to sleep.”

  “Oh, as opposed to you!” Erika said pointedly. “Thanks, Tay. I wish you had called me. Dan was out of line doing that. But, yet again why use your common sense! I’ll pay you extra. I can only apologise. I know you need to study,” she said, turning her back to Taylor, and breathing heavily. She was so mad, but it wasn’t appropriate to do this now with Taylor or in front of Dulcie, since she had been kind enough to come over.

  Taylor walked over to Erika and turned her around. “It’s the weekend, and it’s your time with Dulcie. This? This right here,” she said, pointing to them both. “This is no big deal. Only if you make it one. Now, go sit down. I’ll make us coffee and some pancakes. Dulcie wanted to wait before eating breakfast so that you could eat together, so we can all eat together. Luigi’s made me super hungry this morning,” she said, switching on the coffee maker. “Oh, and Erika, you will not pay me more money. And I’m okay with my studies, I am keeping on top of it, okay? Look, unless you have anything else planned for today, why don’t the three of us go to Katy Mills? I promised her I would take her to the mall to buy a new movie, we need a new movie,” she rolled her eyes. “And do a girl’s lunch? Maybe rainforest café?” Taylor said making the coffee.

  “That’s very kind, but I can’t ask you to do that. It’s your weekend, too. You need some free time, too,” she said, thanking Taylor for the drink.

  “Cut it out already. You didn’t ask me Erika. If you want time alone with your daughter, say that and I’ll happily leave it. However, if you are saying it simply because you feel you are putting me out, then don’t,” Taylor said, sipping her coffee.

  “You really are the greatest,” Erika said, covering her hand with her own, smiling slightly.

  Dulcie ran in. “My movie is finished. What are we gonna do today, Mommy?” she said enthusiastically.

  Erika looked at Taylor, smiling.

  “Well, Dulcie, I think we should let mommy go shower, and we make breakfast. Then, how bout we go to the mall? We can go choose a new movie, and maybe get lunch at rainforest café as a special treat?” Taylor said.

  “Yayyyyyy, I love the forest café. Can we watch the g’rillas when it goes dark?” She clapped her hands excitably.

  Erika shook her head smiling, “Go choose some clothes,” she said to her daughter. “She goes there far too often if she knows that much about it. I’m surprised she didn’t mention Dan, maybe she’s just getting used to a lack of 2 parents?” she sighed.

  “Maybe she just has a good memory? She doesn’t go there too often, because if she did she would be complacent about it and wouldn’t have gotten that excited. Stop overthinking. You both have extremely demanding jobs, so she may just be stoked to have some time with you and has not realised it won’t be the three of you. Seriously, going back to last night’s conversation, we need to arrange a girl’s weekend away, a spa weekend where you can de-stress, okay? Now go shower, I’ll make breakfast.”

  “Why do you do all this, Tay?” Erika said sadly.

  “Because I love you guys, and it’s truly the very least I could do. Given all you have done for me,” she said, hugging Erika. “C’mon, we’re gonna have an awesome day today, for that little bambina. Go shower,” Taylor said, kissing her cheek.

  Manchester, UK

  Chapter Ten

  Georgia walked into the office, glued to her phone. “You look like you have a spring in your step,” Georgia heard as she looked around, seeing Julia sittin
g on one of her team’s desk, swinging her legs beneath her.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Georgia responded with a glint in her eye.

  “Of course, you don’t, you look like you’ve had the weekend of your life,” Julia smirked.

  “Well wouldn’t you like to know?” she smirked back, and walked to her office.

  “What was that about, Jules?”

  “Who knows? Maybe she’s heard about her promotion after last week’s success,” Julia said, walking back to her own office.

  ***

  Julia returned back to her office and began typing an email. She smiled to herself before typing in her boss’s email address, and drummed her fingers whilst she thought of a subject title. “Got it,” she said to herself. ‘Advice needed’, perfect. Julia leaned back in her chair, smirking to herself at the recollection of Friday night. God, she was hot. She moved forward again and began typing.

  Hi, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I have a slight issue that I could use assistance with. I would like to tender a proposal to HR and think I would probably need your support. I think we should implement a ‘dress code’ policy.

  She smiled to herself as she pressed send before grabbing her file, and leaving for the board meeting.

  ***

  The board meeting was predominantly ran by Georgia, however Derek the CEO was up, and insisted on chairing due to the recent success of the new office. It was her objective that if she successfully opened it, and was awarded at least 2 million in business, she would get the promotion to Managing Director. So, the fact that the global board was impressed was great. She had not only met her objective but exceeded by at least 57%, and additionally, pissed all over the 2 million and strode away with a sensational 3.4 million. Georgia didn’t like to blow her own trumpet, but it was also pretty great that all of the hard work and long hours had been worthwhile.

  Having spent the horrendously long meeting slumped further into her chair; Georgia had been constantly embarrassed as her boss praised her, commended her, and hyped her up. She wasn’t personable at all, probably more likened to a loner by most, in fact Friday night socialising was probably the most personable anyone would have ever seen her, and that was completely by default. Derek had pretty much alluded to the fact that the promotion was in the bag, however, had been oddly furtive. He confirmed that he would be back in the North West on Friday and had planned a meeting for the end of the day to go through all of the details, before leaving the meeting and allowing Georgia to continue on.

  “Okay, well I guess we have covered everything. I would also like to thank you all for the excessive hours, the stress, and the nagging on the lead up to the launch. I will be sure to arrange something as soon as it’s all over.” She smiled, and listened to her staff all offering congratulations and well wishes in her race to the top. “Okay, okay, you’re embarrassing me. Right, so I think that’s all. Is there any other business from any of you?” she asked, before concluding and closing the monthly board meeting.

  “Great, well if that’s all then…oh, actually, there was one other thing; Julia you sent me an email this morning, I thought this would be a good forum for us to discuss it? We can broach it with HR whilst Di’s in the meeting,” she said, pointing to her HR Director. “So, you want to take the floor and highlight your reasoning for requiring a ‘dress code’ policy to be put in place?” Georgia said, smiling softly to Julia, trying desperately to ignore the flashbacks of how the night had ended on Friday. Julia was looking at Georgia concerned, and she was flustered. “Is everything okay, Julia? Are you feeling okay? You look a little peaky?” Georgia said, passing her a bottle of water.

  Flustered? Seriously, of course I’m bloody flustered, Julia thought to herself. Shit how was she going to do this. She took a swig of the water Georgia had offered her and coughed a little, swearing under her breath. “No, no I’m fine,” she said, smiling to all of the eyes on her and shuffling her papers. “So, basically, I was looking to impose a dress code policy. We don’t have an established one, and whilst we have elements within other policies, I think it would be beneficial to address it. This given the nature of business and the route we are looking to go down moving forward,” she said, praying that nobody would ask why she thought this was required. Nope, of course not, She squirmed in her seat, as Georgia’s assistant Paul spoke up.

  “But what’s the reasoning? Can we not just ask HR to amplify what we already have?” he said.

  “Yes, actually I think that may be an idea,” said Georgia. “Has something specifically happened?”

  “Well, I guess we could, I…ummm…I was just a little disappointed in the lack of commitment from certain people through the launch. And that’s pretty much where it’s stemmed from. It’s okay, leave it with me and I’ll speak to Di later. Nothing further from me,” Julia finished and slumped further into her chair, wishing the ground would swallow her up.

  “Okay, that’s all then, guys,” Georgia said, smiling at her team before leaving the office. She would go and check on Julia in a while, as she really didn’t look so good.

  She got back into her office and checked her phone. “Jesus Christ, I was gone a couple of bloody hours,” she sighed, rubbing her temples.

  “Problem boss?” Paul said, walking into her office and handing her some folders.

  “No. Just no let up. Eleven missed calls. Eleven,” she sighed, sitting back down.

  Georgia spent the next few hours returning calls and clearing her emails. She couldn’t remember the last time she was actually on top of things and not just fire fighting through her weeks.

  ***

  Julia heard a knock at her door, calling to come in. Her head was deep in her work and she was desperate to get everything finished, as it was late already and her head was killing her.

  “Hey, just wondered if you were feeling any better?” Georgia said, walking in to Julia’s office.

  “Hi, bloody hell, this is a shocker. You out of your office?” she said, smiling and leaning back in her chair. “Come. Sit. Have a chat?” She smiled.

  “Don’t be cheeky, I’m still your boss, remember? And you’re good, I’m okay here,” she responded. “So, you feeling better? I was a little concerned earlier.”

  “I’m well aware of the fact you are my boss, and how you like to maintain that level of, ummm, authority…control,” she smirked. “I am okay, I was… I was fine. Nothing to worry about,” she said, looking away as she felt the flush rise.

  “What’s going on? What are you blushing for? I thought we were all good?” Georgia said, shutting her office door and going to sit down opposite Julia after all.

  “I’m fine, seriously.” Julia smiled. “Just me being a dick, and it backfiring.”

  “Why? Has something gone wrong? Look I’m sorry if I wasn’t about much recently, but if we have issues then we can manage it. You just need to tell me. We can’t have people taking the piss, were still a business,” Georgia said seriously.

  “Oh, God. George, leave it. There were no issues,” she sighed, putting her head in her hands.

  “What? What do you mean? I’m so confused right now,” Georgia looked strangely at her.

  “Oh, for fucks sake. Seriously, you can’t just leave things, can you? Look, I was being coquette. I was being…I was trying to be funny. I was expecting you to come back via email. I was going to elaborate on the reason being that I wanted a dress code to be put in, was to block people from wearing anything which could be deemed as…,” she stopped, shaking her head. “God, this is so embarrassing. Which could be deemed as being too provocative. Namely the senior members of the board. I thought I was being funny and flirty, following Friday’s antics. I never expected it to have backfired like this,” she said, shaking her head. “I certainly never expected you would call me out in front of the rest of the board.”

  “Oh… OH,” Georgia covered her mouth to stifle the laugh.

  “Do not. I mean it.
Do not laugh at me,” Julia said, smiling herself.

  “You are a loon, I can’t believe you did that? What possessed you?”

  “What possessed me? Oh, I don’t know, maybe the fact that I shagged my beautiful boss on Friday night. Come Monday morning, she saunters in wearing an incredibly short dress and a sexy little smirk to match. I mean, you’re not really playing fair. Oh God, I’m far too sober for this,” she said, holding her head in her hands.

  “Well you wanna change that?” Georgia smirked.

  “What do you mean? Are you asking me if I want you to take your clothes off?” Julia asked, confused and a little concerned.

  “What the hell?” she said. “Get your head out of the gutter woman. And no I was NOT asking that. I was asking if you wanted to change the fact you’re too sober? I.e., if you fancied going for a drink after work?” Georgia said, shaking her head.

  “Oh, right. Yeah that makes more sense, unfortunately.” She winked. “On a Monday? You do realise that us, together, drinking, may not end well?”

  “I’m sure we can maintain a level of professionalism and restrain ourselves. I mean, we’re both adults,” Georgia said seriously.

  “Listen, the professionalism went out of the window, probably about the time you were checking my arse out, or possibly when I was screaming your apartment down,” she smirked. “Yes, go on then. I’ll be done in about half hour, if that’s okay?”

  “Sure, and you need to stop with comments like that. Wrong, you are very wrong!” Georgia said, leaving her office.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Hi, can I get a bottle of corona and? What would you like?” Georgia asked.

  “Same is good, I’ll grab a seat,” Julia said, in search of a spare table in a quiet corner.

  Georgia found Julia at a table hidden away. “So, how’s your day been?” she said, splitting a bag of crisps down the middle and putting them in the center of the table, taking a couple.