Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 135604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
A word greater than amazing. For sure.
I sighed and dropped the side of my head against the cushion. Jamie watched me do that, then he turned his head so it was tipped toward the sky again and closed his eyes.
It was time to give him my last truth.
“After I got my MBA from Duke, I applied for a position at Rivera Frozen Foods,” I began, and immediately Jamie’s eyes were flashing open and he was looking back over at me. Once I had him, I went on. “I wanted something in advertising,” I continued. “I had an internship where I focused on that and really liked it. I knew I could be good at it. So I checked online. There were two jobs posted. A low entry-level one and then one for senior management. I applied for the first, figuring I could work my way up. The head of marketing interviewed me—Walt. Sweet older man I’ve known since I was a kid. I didn’t even tell my dad I interviewed for it. He had no idea I’d even applied.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Jamie asked.
I laughed a little. “’Cause I wanted to do it on my own. But looking back, it wouldn’t have mattered either way.”
Jamie’s brow furrowed.
I turned my head and pressed it back against the cushion, staring up at the sky above the railing. “I was hired for the position in senior management, which was crazy, but given my degree and the experience I had interning, Walt was confident I was fit for the position. My dad agreed after he found out. He was really proud of me.”
“I bet. That’s fuckin’ awesome.”
“He was also pissed I didn’t come to him about a job, but I didn’t want that, you know?” I turned to look at Jamie again. “I didn’t want anybody thinking that I used my name to get where I was. That was important to me. I wanted to earn it.”
“Sounds like you did,” Jamie offered. “Hired you for a reason, babe.”
“Yeah, well, not everyone thought that.” I looked away again and drew my knees up, staring at the tops of them while I picked at my cuticle. “I was brand-new and fresh out of business school, and all of a sudden I was a boss. I had people under me. People who had to report to me and answer to me. Who were older than me. They hated it. These women who had bachelor’s degrees or who were working toward graduating, they looked at me as if I’d done terrible things to them. They hated me. And when women hate women, it’s bad, Jamie. It’s really bad.”
I glanced over at movement. Jamie was sitting up and throwing one leg over the cushion and planting his feet on the wood between our chairs. Then he leaned forward and dropped his elbows to his knees.
“How bad?” he asked. His voice was sharper. Jamie was getting tense. He was growing worried and I didn’t want that. He had enough on his mind.
“It wasn’t like I was getting beat up or anything,” I explained, hoping to quickly settle him. “They would just … talk.” I shrugged. “Say things behind my back. Sometimes not behind my back. They didn’t think I earned the position I had. They said I wasn’t qualified.”
“They were talkin’ shit,” he threw out.
I nodded.
Jamie leaned closer, adding, “They were cunts, babe.”
I pulled in a breath. That word was like nails on a chalkboard to me. It was tough to hear.
Jamie was right, though. Those women were … that word, but still. Tough to hear. I couldn’t help but react to it.
“Jealous ’cause you were younger, smarter, probably hotter,” he continued, staying pitched forward. “Couldn’t handle the fact you had all that goin’ on plus everything else you got goin’ on, which is a fuckin’ lot, babe, so they dogged you for it.”
“They dogged me all right,” I echoed, laughing a little at that expression.
Jamie didn’t laugh watching me. He didn’t smile. He didn’t lose that tense, worried look in his eyes either. If anything, it grew thicker.
“Babe,” he mumbled, and I knew his next words before he even asked them. “Tell me you did not let those bitches run you out of there. That’s fucked up.”
“I did not let them run me out of there,” I told him, watching his head jerk and his eyes lower. “Me leaving was my decision. They might’ve influenced it, but they did not make that choice for me. I did.”
Jamie’s eyes lifted again. They narrowed and his mouth got tight.
I sat up then, swinging my legs over the side of the cushion to join him in his position. Reaching out and taking one of his hands between both of mine, I planted my feet so they staggered with his and slid forward, putting our knees together.