Chapter 1 - The meeting
Ana leaned around her cubicle to ask a question, "hey Kate, do you know what time that proposal is due?""Um, I have no clue," Kate said with a frustrated tone, "just get it done so I can bring it to Christian ASAP."
Kate often treated Anastasia with disrespect. They were both in their mid twenties, but Kate was very thin and had the attention of every man in the office. She was Christian's personal secretary and Anastasia was an intern. She joined the company about three months prior and had been working under Kate.
"Ana, did you make sure when you ordered lunch you asked for Organic rice?" Kate asked.
Ana paused, "I really don't remember if I did or not, sorry.
Kate let out a long sigh, "you can't keep doing this to me. Christian flips out any time something like that gets screwed up and I'm the one that takes the hit."
"Sorry, I won't let it happen again," said Ana as she starred down at the floor ashamed.
Kate stood up out of her chair frustrated. She grabbed a file from her desk and began walking down the hall. Ana happened to notice two of their co-workers checking out Kate's slender figure as she swayed down the hall in heels.
Ana reached in her drawer and pulled out a prepackaged cupcake. She scarfed it down quickly and chased it down with some coke. She did this often when Kate was away form her desk as she didn't want to get judged. Ana was well over 250lbs now and she knew she probably shouldn't keep such a habit. At the same time though, she absolutely loved food and felt very comfortable at her current size.
Kate returned to her desk looking like she was in a rush, "so Christian is already in that meeting with the investors, I'm ***ing screwed. Listen to me, finish the proposal right now! Text me when you're outside the conference room and I'll walk out and get it."
Ana got very nervous, "ok, ok I'm on it."
She began typing as fast as she could. It took about ten minutes to complete, but it looked good. She got out of her chair and walked quickly down the hall.
Ana was so nervous she forgot to text Kate and just walked right into the conference room. She had realized what she'd done but it was too late to walk back out.
"Next quarter I can guarantee..." Christian was speaking while pointing to a projection screen but paused when he saw Ana storm in. Kate's face turned bright red.
Ana began, "I'm so sorry I didn't mean to..." "It's no problem at all," Christian interjected, "how can we help you?"
"This is for you sir," Ana said as she approached Christian with a folder containing the proposal.
"That was uncalled for Ana, please let us get back to work," Kate said angrily.
Ana turned around and headed towards the door.
"Wait," Christian said. Ana paused, confused. She turned around quickly, "yes sir?"
Christian smiled, "what's your name?"
Ana looked at Kate, Kate nodded to hurry up and answer. "Oh, um, Ana sir."
"How long have you worked here?" Christian continued.
Ana was now even more nervous, "um, 3 months or so."
"Where is your desk?" Christian inquired.
"To the right in the back when you walk into the office," replied Ana, still confused.
"Oh," Christian said, "I see. Can I ask you one more question?"
"Yes sir, of course," Ana replied slowly.
"What do you like to do for fun?" Christian said still smiling directly towards her.
Ana looked at Kate, but Kate was perplexed. Kate then looked at Christian. At this point the five investors in the room looked up from their notepads and turned around.
Ana started shaking. Christian was the President of the largest dairy company in North America, she had taken an internship there to finally find a serious job, and here she was stumbling into the board room making a fool of herself. She couldn't tell if Christian was being sincere or was about to fire her.
"Seriously, what do you do for fun, like on the weekends?" Christian asked again.
Ana racked her brain. She was boring, what the hell did she do? She wasn't exciting at all. She thought for a second she should make something up, but she couldn't. So she answered honestly, "I don't know, I like to try new restaurants with friends."
"Oh," said Christian. "You should try La Femme Graisse downtown, it's delightful."
Ana suddenly felt better, she wasn't nervous anymore, "I think I will," she said as she smiled and then walked out the door.
Ana went backed to her desk. She tried to work, but she couldn't get the whole fiasco out of her head. Why did Christian even speak to her? What was Kate going to say?
Kate came back to her desk about an hour later. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Kate yelled.
"Listen, I'm sorry, I have no idea why I did that, I guess I was nervous."
"I bet you don't have any idea do you?" Kate replied. "Sometimes I don't have any idea why I hired you."
Ana sat quiet for a second looking at the ground, then she looked back at Kate. What did Christian say after I left?"
"What did he say??" Kate said angrily. "He didn't say anything, we just went back to work. You're lucky he didn't fire you! In fact, I can't believe he didn't fire you. Those investors are about to give us $200 million if Christian can close them.
"Again, I'm sorry, I won't let it happen again." Ana replied softly.
"You're damn right you won't!" Kate was still furious.
Ana went back to work and avoided speaking to Kate for the rest of the day. When she drove through downtown on her way to her apartment that night, she noticed a sign for La Femme Graisse. Once again she though about the fiasco in the board room. Then she thought about what the menu there looked like, she began feeling really hungry.
The next morning when she went into work Kate already had a great deal of worked lined up for her. She dove right in and began typing away.
A few hours went by and she started to feel a bit famished. Kate was away from her desk so she figured she would grab another chocolate cupcake from the box in her desk. When she opened her desk she found herself in shock. The entire drawer was filled to the brim with all different kinds of cupcakes. Vanilla frosting, strawberry frosting, rich custard frosting, etc.
She slammed the drawer shut and immediately looked around. Was someone playing a joke on her? Was someone poking fun at her snack habit? She felt very uncomfortable and went back to typing away.
4 chapters, created 9 years
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