Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 by Lost (and) Found (v5.0) Page B

it. You’ve done enough. Thanks.”
    And just like that he briskly
walked back into the conference room, leaving her standing in the hallway
alone, clutching her computer. She was the geek who was laughed out of the
cafeteria by the cool kids. First the loser that has to sit on her own, now the
unwanted geek.
    The bitch of it was, she was a cool
kid in school, and was always nice to the geeks. She did not deserve this
karma.
    With teary eyes she slowly walked
back to her desk, everything she did and said tumbling through her mind. She
came to one conclusion: She should have waited for Sean to answer that
question. Obviously she messed up there. She’d done her presentation for the
clients exactly how she’d gone over it with Sean. If there were any problems,
he would have pointed it out then. It had to be that question. That was the
only missing link!
    And what was with the sexual
overtones? What was with staring her down like she was supposed to take off her
clothes and dance around for dollar bills? That wasn’t professional, it wasn’t
cool, and it made her so angry and frustrated she wanted to find where he lived
and set fire to his bushes. She hadn’t deserved that. No one deserved that.
This wasn’t 1940. There were rules against that behavior in the workforce!
    Krista’s anger, once ignited, now
fumed. If Sean hadn’t been daydreaming about the best way to get her into bed,
maybe he would have done his job and answered that question so she didn’t have
to make something up. Maybe this was exactly how he got ahead. He made sure
everything was ready and foolproof then waited for the right moment to let an
up-and-comer hang themselves.
    Krista’s resolve crackled. She did
not quit. Not for her own mistakes, and certainly not those of others. She
wouldn’t go down without a fight for this. If her boss talked to her about it,
she would tell him exactly how it all played out. It wasn’t her fault she had
to step in and do Sales’ job! And she knew that Mr. Montgomery, despite his
faults, would have her back on this one!
    If only she could pin sexual
harassment on them, too. She’d have to think about that. Assholes!
    The remainder of the day was a
blur. The rest of her department was working on the thing for Dell, so they
weren’t around, and she didn’t hear a peep from her so-called team about the
presentation. All she did, then, was stew. Stew, and plot revenge.
    When 5:00 rolled around Krista was seething. She shut down her computer and headed out
with a scowl.
    She walked the three blocks to the
pub where she would meet the girls for Friday happy hour. She’d been there
before a few times, and every time Kate had gotten there first she chose to sit
in the miniature booths. Usually Krista would sit there until Jasmine came in,
then they would all move to the bar. This time, however, Krista went straight
to the bar.
    “I’m over here,” Kate called from
behind her.
    “I know that. I saw you. But we are
going to end up at the bar anyway, so I’m heading there now.”
    “Wow,” Kate said as she changed
locations. “You’re in a mood.”
    “My day sucked!” Without further
ado, Krista launched into an account of the specifics, starting when she got to
the conference room, ending with why she thought it had to be that last
question. Kate listened without saying a word until she had finished, then
finished her beer and looked for the bartender.
    “Well?” Krista prompted. Sometimes
Kate had A.D.D.
    “Are you sure it wasn’t something
in the presentation itself?”
    “Like what?”
    “Fuck, I dunno. Are you sure you
didn’t miss a slide or say some numbers wrong?”
    “Even if I did, no one noticed, so
it couldn’t have been a deal breaker.”
    “And you’re sure you answered that
question how you told me you answered it?”
    “Not verbatim, but something like
that. I know as much now as I did then, so the content is the same.”
    “Well, I think that answer was
fine, so I can’t see