“Huh? Relax, Claire. It would start at eight thirty.” I said to her and grabbed my planner from my bag to check the time. And yes, of course, I was right again.
“The schedule was changed last week. Don’t you remember?” she retorted, or more like shouted to me.
‘Oh no, Claire dear, you have no right to shout to me,’ I wanted to warn her. But before I even got the chance to defend myself, I noticed that yellow piece of paper stuck between heaps of papers on my table. I turned to my right and saw the post-it that failed to make its way into my planner.
Reschedule: 7:30.
I realized that I, for the first time in my entire life, was wrong. Crap! I was late. I looked at my watch and saw that it was already 7:45. Fifteen minutes late. That was a long time especially if VIPs were waiting for you.
Doomed!
I hurriedly grabbed my laptop and proceeded to the conference room in haste. I caught a glimpse of my boss, Bridget, who was standing in front of the door and tapping her feet in dismay. Seeing how she aged fifty years in fifteen minutes, I realized that I was so busted. Gosh, she must have had been really mad at me. Her face flared in anger as soon as she saw me running towards her.
Chapter 2
“Why are you late?” exclaimed Bridget, her eyes twitching in anger.
“My bad. I’ll get on it,” I replied apologetically.
Or at least I was trying to sound a bit contrite.
“Go inside, they’re waiting for the presentation,” she told me before she pushed me inside the conference room herself.
I straightened my walk as I went up front. I heard my audience’s disapproving chatters as I passed by. I ignored it and just headed my way for I evidently knew that they would be shocked once they see how perfect my presentation was. I had put so much time and effort on this one to make sure that nothing could possibly go wrong.
I connected my laptop to the video cable and searched for the presentation that I made for today. Presentation 01. Open. I cleared my throat and looked up to face my audience. I was quite surprised that they all had friendly faces now. A moment ago, they all appeared like they wanted to eat me alive.
Then suddenly, one started laughing. It was a quiet chortle but audible enough in a room wherein everyone was keeping their silence in place. And for some reason, one VIP was followed after another. Soon, the rest of the attendees were doing the same thing.
What were they laughing about? It couldn’t possibly be me.
“Uhmm... good morning,” I ignored them and started with my presentation instead. But instead of containing whatever they were laughing about, everyone continued laughing and disregarded me altogether. Rude people. And here I was thinking that I was working with a bunch of professionals. I looked around for my partner, Margaret, at the far side of the room. She pointed to the white screen behind me.
Huh?
I turned back and my eyes widened in shock as I saw a photo of myself from years ago. It was actually taken from my ballet recital when I was young. It was the one where I tripped and was about to hit the floor. Embarrassing moments in life. Instances when I still hadn’t learned that I was born for perfection. And I had my mom to thank for that. For convincing me to do her a presentation on how I grew up through the years so she could show it to her support group. And she didn’t fail to mention that I should include that specific photo.
But how did it end up in my presentation?
Maybe it got mixed up with my work. I always named my photos 01, 02, 03 and so on. As well as my presentations. I must have had put it in the wrong folder. Argh. Talk about the shame when everyone saw the pictured you wanted to delete or burn to ashes if not for your mother who would be so disheartened to lose the memory of that moment.
I hurriedly pressed the exit button and started looking for the one I prepared last night. After frantically searching through all the files, meaning, opening up some other embarrassing files along the way, I realized that my presentation was nowhere to be found. That couldn’t be. If not here, where else would my presentation go?
I gave it a thought. And slowly, as if speaking to me carefully, the fear that I accidentally erased it crept inside my mind. I quickly, and anxiously, searched for it in the recycle bin. And that was when I remembered that I emptied it at the coffee shop this morning.
Oh shoot!
When did I make such a mistake? And why now? This was the turning point of my life. Mistakes shouldn’t be happening by now. I had been working on making everything fall into their rightful place for years.
But without the presentation in my stupid empty recycle bin, I pulled the video cable from my laptop and walked out of the room in total shame. These people were VIPs. My VIPs. Of all the things to go wrong, why wasn’t I spared from this one?
I said to them before heading out the door, “I’m sorry.”
And as soon as I got out of the room, I came face to face with my boss. By now, she must have already heard of everything that had happened inside. And her face told me that she wasn’t pleased at all. I didn’t blame her though. Why would she be? I wasn’t pleased with myself either.
But only this time around.
“Come with me,” she said in between clenched teeth.
Okay, so maybe by now I should have had realized that this wasn’t the grandest idea of all. When Bridget called you to her room in this kind of mood, it could only mean one thing—trouble. But before that, she called another assistant and requested for back up. Then she walked towards her office and I silently followed behind her.
Peering eyes came from all direction as I walked along the corridor towards her room. I held up my head—proudly—as if I had done no wrong. Everyone had their fair share of bad moments and it sort of happened to me now. Big deal. Pfft. I knew that I could easily make it out of this one, knowing how talented a person I was.
The door slammed closed as I got in. She carefully walked across the room and faced the glass window overlooking the whole city. She tapped her temple with her index finger for a while and frustration was notable all over her wrinkled face. Bridget was in her early forties. And since she aged like fifty years a moment ago, due to my being late, and another fifty for my flopped presentation, she looked like a hundred and thirty now. I cut out ten because she looked gorgeous in forty and could probably be mistaken to be in her mid-thirties.
I nervously swallowed the lump that formed in my throat and offered her, “Do you want me to grab you some water?”
She had been asking me for water, coffee, and tea all her life.
“No, just stay there for a while,” she said to me instead, holding back her anger. I wasn’t blind to see that she was riled.
I nodded.
Okay, Bridget had to calm down. This was the first time that I made such a mistake. She didn’t have to take it too hard. I mean, I never got her coffee wrong before, or misjudged if she wanted some warm water or an ice-cold one. I was such a sublime employee and she really had to go easy with me.
I narrowed my eyes and tried to channel my thoughts to her, ‘Listen to me, Bridget. You won’t be angry at me. And yes, this is just a petty talk and everything will be solved at the end of the day.’
“Pack your things,” she began.
I was taken back for a moment, thinking that she would still give me my promotion and my own office. Well, that was actually what I had thought last night, thinking that today would go on according to plan. I must have underestimated her all this time. She surely knew a talent when she saw one.
“Wa... wait, you mean...” I stalled with the words, foolishly smiling as I came to know that after all this while, Bridget was fond of me. And even if I messed things up this morning, she’d still give me what I truly deserved.
“You’re fired,” the words came out of her mouth, abruptly, which held back my previous thoughts.
“Pardon?” I said. Oh no, I must have had heard it wrong. There couldn’t possibly be any valid reason why she wanted to do that to me.<
br />
“You’re fired,” she said again. This time more calmly but she clearly imposed every single word.
“I... what?” I asked her again, still smiling. I thought that maybe she was just kidding. You know, I kind of heard that she was quite a joker from way back then. Although, the years that passed had done a pretty good job in erasing it all out.
“You heard me, Ms. Wilson. Pack your things and hand me over your resignation letter,” she said to me as she walked towards her armchair.
“Oh… no… you can’t possibly be doing that,” I blurted out words.
She couldn’t. She had no right whatsoever to fire me out of the blue. I’d sue her!
She adjusted her glasses and looked up to me. “Yes, I am firing you.”
“No. You’re not,” I said. “And why?”
She mocked me with a smirk. “You should probably know how important those clients are to our company.”
I silently nodded.
Of course, they were important. But I was also important. Everyone in this room was important. And important was my middle name as well as perfect. You know, important perfect. But whatever, she had no right to do this to me.
“And you were the one who insisted that you would do this presentation. You even convinced Claire to let you do it saying that you could do better,” she continued. “And yes, I did give it to you since you said that I should give you a chance, which I did. Now look where all that takes us.”
“Yes. But it won’t happen again. I promise to do better from now on,” I said, almost pleading. I couldn’t lose this job. With the economy backfiring every job-seeker rummaging the streets, I refused to lose my job.
“You just don’t get it, do you? I’m firing you and that’s final,” she said as she turned her back on me. “Close the door when you get out and tell Claire to come see me for a moment.”
“But...” I protested. No other reasons at all? How absurd was that? She couldn’t do this. This was totally against my human rights.
She swiveled her chair and pointed to the door. “Get out Ms. Wilson or I’ll call security.”
Security? What was I? A criminal?
“You’ll never find anyone as good as me,” I said to her as I headed out the room. “You will regret this all your life!”
I slammed the door as hard as I possibly could. Tsk. Who needed this job anyway? I had such a good fortune and nothing could possibly go wrong. Everything happened for a reason and it was certainly because a fine job was waiting for me tomorrow morning.
I stomped my heels angrily down the hallway. This was the last time that I would be going here and I made sure that they would never forget me—the witty and perfect girl, Kayla Wilson. Everyone looked at me and started gossiping as soon as I passed them. I held my head up high.
Go ahead. Talk all you want. Like I’d care, haters!
I got a carton from downstairs and started packing my things right away. I hadn’t told Claire that she was being called. Why should I? Bridget already fired me. Why should I obey her now?
“Is everything okay, Kayla?” asked Claire as I was putting my things inside the box.
Argh.
For a moment I wondered if she was blind or what? I got fired. Couldn’t she see any of that? Well, I guessed there was no helping it if that was the case. I would never admit to anyone that I was cut off a moment ago.
“Yes, everything is fine. I’m quitting this job,” I credulously told her.
“What about the presentation?” she asked me. Then right that instant the VIPs walked pass our corridor’s glass wall.
Oh, shoot!
I hurriedly hid myself from them. They were still sniggering and talking about my mishap earlier. Gossipers. Haters. So unprofessional.
“Where are they going?” asked Claire as she was looking at them. Then she looked at my directions and was about to ask me what had happened.
“Kayla...” she said, searching for me. It took her a while before she noticed that I was squatting on the floor. She asked, “What are you doing down there?”
“Uhmm... I dropped my favorite pen,” I carelessly answered. Then I suddenly grabbed the pen from my pocket and purposely dropped it on the floor without her noticing.
“Want some help?” she offered.
“Oh, it’s okay. I’ve found it,” I said then hurriedly got up.
I straightened my skirt and showed her my ‘favorite’ pen. She slowly nodded but you could clearly see that she was still puzzled about what was going on with me. One moment, I was packing my things. And then the next, I was fiddling on the floor.
“What happened to the presentation?” she asked me, yet again.
I looked away and proceeded with my packing. I pretended that I hadn’t heard what she just said when we were obviously in a close range that I couldn’t even miss a thing that would come out of her mouth. But then let’s just say that there had been some phenomenal happening that prevented the sound waves she made from reaching my ears.
“Kayla?” she asked me again, an octave higher than before.
Gosh, couldn’t she just let it slip by?
As I put the remaining things inside my box, I was relieved that I finished right on time. At least I didn’t have to listen to her endless questions now. I carried the box in my arms and told her, “I don’t feel like doing the presentation after all. I’m going now. See you around, Claire.”
I tried my best to put on the most business-like smile I could give her. Then I walked out of the room and everyone was of course looking right at me. Right, they could stare all they want. There would come a time when I’d be very famous that these people wouldn’t be able to talk to me without getting an appointment.
I headed to the elevator and made it a point to those who were seeking to join the ride that I wanted to be alone, even if I had to shove my box around. Since they were all goody-goody employed, they could wait for like several minutes if they wanted to use the elevator. It wasn’t stated in the employee manual that we shouldn’t use the elevator alone. This was one of my basic rights and they couldn’t take it away from me again.
And they had everything! What else did they want? An elevator?
Clacking my heels loudly as I was in the lobby, I held my head up high. They stared. I was used to it so it wasn’t like that should bother me. But as soon as I walked out of the building, I suddenly realized what had happened. It was the moment when reality poured down on you, hitting you head on.
I was jobless.
The economy was suffering a breakdown and I was unemployed. How could I pay the bills? My apartment? How? And this was my third job. I blew it again.
It was the same old thing. They were into saying, ‘Kayla, you’re fired’.
I started to wonder what was wrong with all of them. They had no clue how to value a talented person as myself. Anyone would never be able to live up to what I was.
What was going on with my perfect life? Luck gone wrong?
Forcing back the tears, I walked straight down the road without looking back to the job that I had longed for all my life. That went without saying that I agreed to be Bridget’s assistant for almost two years because I really wanted that job. Archer Advertising was the company I wanted to belong to ever since I was in college. I could still remember how happy I was when I got hired among thirty others battling to be Bridget’s assistant.
And my promotion. Now I’d never get that promotion.
I held back all the emotions inside, my chest starting to tighten in despair. After twenty-eight years of existence, I realized that the clock always ticked on, it never ticked back. The things that I lost would never find its way back to me.
And then suddenly, as if to mock me some more, one of my heels snapped. Oh great, even my shoe gave up on me. I sat down the stairs of a nearby building, placing the box that I was carrying beside me. Then I hammered the heel against the pavement.
It fell off.
I took a deep breath, calming myself
as I looked at my broken stiletto for a moment. Then suddenly tears started to stream down my cheeks. It was broken. My favorite stiletto was broken. I sniffed back as more tears flowed down my cheeks. People stared at me from all directions. They must be thinking that I was crazy.
A lunatic.
I removed the other one and put both of my shoes inside the box. After all, I couldn’t possibly walk with just one. Save me all the trouble. Ignoring the rips I felt my pantyhose was making, I hurriedly hailed a cab and headed back home. The driver gave me sympathetic looks all the way back but I did not respond to his senseless notions of pity.
Tsk. What did he know anyway?
“I quit my job. I did not get fired,” I told him while getting off the taxi and slammed the door so hard that it resonated for a good while. I walked away with a smug as he was still shouting angrily to me for almost breaking his taxi door.
Whatever.
I was heading back to my apartment when I noticed that people around gave me horrified and compassionate looks as I passed by. Okay, now what? I was only carrying a box.
And had no shoes.
Ignoring them, I abruptly noticed the smudge of mascara on my hands. Now that said a lot. Argh. I must have looked like some crazy zombie. I totally forgot to wear waterproof mascara today. Of all days, well, who would have thought that I will have to cry today? I was not a cry baby to start with.
Regardless my current situation, I avoided their gazes and headed straight to my apartment. I opened the door and hastily slammed it behind me. I felt relieved as soon as I was out of other people’s sight. And the moment that I was alone, I felt the urge of hopelessness settling in.
I dropped the box that I was holding and all my things scattered around the floor. I held my face with both of my hands as more tears streamed down from my shaking eyes. Furiously wiping away the droplets that had found their way out, being a failure kept on popping and popping inside my head.
I didn’t want it.
I had done everything I could for the last ten years to avoid being that way. To name a few, I took crash diets, bought thousands of magazine, and studied like crazy when I was still in the university until I got hair fall due to excessive stress. I did all those because that was the only way.
My Kind of Perfect Page 2