Won’t fade away June 28, 2012

 

Life doesn’t get much stranger than it has over the last few days, starting with my water heater exploding.

On Tuesday, I spent just enough time in the main office to suffer through a meeting in which it became clear she was did not intend to talk to me or even look at me, perhaps noticing me noticing the intense flirting going on between her and the owner at the top of the table.

The usual office gossips reported on party for the magazine like fashion reporters, claiming she dressed up, making my decision not attend all the wiser.

If she can put on a show at the meeting, how much worse might it have been in her own environment, when she clearly knows how much it bothers me?

She has the routine down to a fine science.

Our once temporary boss said she asked the owner for a raise about four weeks ago. He doesn’t think she got it from what she’s said to him.

I suspect she did, which would explain the good relations between her and the owner.

In leaving the main office early, I managed to avoid any possible conflicts with the owner, who seems not particularly happy with me lately and I’m not sure it’s on account of her or not.

But I feel so out of touch with the rest of the company, an exile at the annex, which may well be her intent. I went to the main office yesterday just to prove I could and to collect information that somehow, I miss when I’m not there.

Bosses and petty bosses seem to like keeping information to themselves, even when it is vital for doing our job.

I refuse to face away just because she might want me to. I refuse to cease to exist. While I will never go into a bar where she is, I have every right to come and go in the office.

Although it was odd when I came out of the office and found she and the owner conversing on the street. They stopped when they saw me, and the owner scurried back inside as if he had something to hide.

I went for coffee and did my best to ignore her the rest of the day, although more than once, she stopped near my desk – perhaps trying to listen in on my phone conversations.

Or she may simply have been showing her frustration as mine being there.

 

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