Crisis Point - scene 2

I caught up with Karen just as everyone was filing out of the meeting room.

“Really sorry... you won’t believe what happened but I was on the bus and...”
“I don’t have time to talk about this now. I’m extremely busy,” Karen responded without making eye-contact. She was only disconnecting her laptop from the overhead projector - hardly extremely busy. She’d always claimed to be an outstanding multi-tasker, so put your money where your mouth is I say.
“Did they like my chart?” I said.
“What?”
“The chart I did for your presentation - the one that took me a whole day to put together.”
“Oh yes that one. Despite the pretty colours most of the figures were totally inaccurate.”

She ceased unplugging for a moment, in order to eyeball me with an irritating, condescending look. It was an expression of contempt that was all too familiar me and my female counterparts. The men, however, saw a very different side to her personality - all eyes, tits and teeth. One might think she was exercising her sexuality; but I think she was trying to exorcise her masculinity, basically because she looked like a bloke. In some departments she was even referred to as ‘Tranny’. She was so uptight it was obvious she hadn’t had a shag for ages, which I found very funny indeed (despite my own considerable dry-patch).

“We need a version that accurately reflects spend in the last quarter, and is preferably just black and white,” she said eventually, after glaring for a full 60 seconds. “Please attend to that this morning as a matter of urgency, and deliver it to my desk by noon.”

Download chapter 1 for free...