2: 2
2
I gripped my phone hard, my chest burning like there was a fire inside it.
From the day this project was greenlit, I hadn't gone to bed before one in the morning once.
On top of pulling all-nighters building the framework and running the numbers,
I'd doubled as the girl who poured the tea and ordered the afternoon coffee.
All because I'd swallowed her nonsense about how I needed to do more groundwork to build experience.
But she didn't know.
If I hadn't pulled strings through my grandfather,
the client on this billion-dollar deal wouldn't have spared us a second glance.
I opened my mouth, wanting to say something.
But Mr. Pruitt spoke first. "Virginia, since when do the decisions of company leadership need your approval?"
Virginia froze, the color draining from her face.
Mr. Pruitt stood, tapping a finger against the table. "And as for your comment about the company misusing its people…"
He picked up the microphone, his voice pitched neither high nor low, clear to the entire department.
"Personally, I think Flora has strong professional ability and solid character. She's an excellent fit for Director of the East Coast Region."
"But there's something you said that's right. Experience matters more than money. HR, take note. Virginia's position is not to be changed for the next five years. The company will give her all the time she needs to accumulate enough experience in her current role."
Virginia's head snapped up, her lips trembling.
Even with her head bowed those extra few degrees,
I still caught it at the corner of her eye, the faintest trace of regret.
Anyone with eyes could see it. The whole reason she'd staged this decline-the-bonus performance today
was to get Mr. Pruitt to "beg" her to take the East Coast director's seat.
Every promotion and raise she'd ever gotten had come through that exact routine.
But this time,
she'd not only thrown away her "three-hundred-thousand-dollar shoe," she hadn't lured out the wolf either.
That afternoon.
The whole company knew Virginia had turned down three hundred thousand and lost the East Coast director's seat too.
Yet she carried on as if nothing had happened, still working away "diligently."
On my way out, I passed Virginia's desk. A copy of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations lay open on it.
She looked up when she saw me and smiled.
"Flora, Mr. Pruitt may have said you'd be the East Coast director, but I've managed this region for years, after all. Some of these clients only deal with me. If I suddenly stopped handling them, the client side would…"
She didn't finish, but I understood.
The point was that without Virginia, I'd never hold the director's seat steady.
"Don't worry." I pulled out a chair and sat, letting out a small laugh. "Clients trust ability, not a face."
The smile stiffened on her face. I went on.
"If anything, Virginia, I hear your mother's condition isn't looking good, and the hospital's pushing hard for the surgery fee. Do you want us to crowdfund together, bring in the best doctor in the country to operate on your mom?"
The moment I said it, the smile vanished completely from Virginia's face.
A few coworkers still working late spoke up.
"That's right, Virginia. My family's had an elderly relative fall ill too, so I know what a bind you're in. Just listen to Flora and let everyone help."
Virginia stared at me, a tangle of emotions churning in her eyes.
She tucked the loose strands of hair at her forehead behind her ear, lifted her head, gentle and composed, and smiled at everyone.
"Thank you all for the kindness, but I absolutely can't accept that help. There are plenty of people whose parents are in far worse shape than my mom, and their children grit their teeth and carry it alone. There's no reason I should be treated as a special case and get some coddled little exception."
"Really. No one needs to spend money on me. Your paychecks don't fall out of the sky either. I don't want everyone paying a price for nothing on my account, and I don't want to be the kind of person who only holds out her hand and can't stand up to a little hardship."
At that, coworkers took turns praising her, saying she was as kind as she was lovely, always thinking of everyone else.
Virginia was pleased with the reaction and kept up the "high-minded" act.
I pressed down the smile at the corner of my mouth and played right along with what she wanted.
"Virginia, at first I thought you were just too 'shy' to accept the company bonus. Then I heard you didn't even take your boyfriend's sixty-six-thousand-dollar engagement gift, and honestly, that made me admire you from the bottom of my heart."
The moment I finished, the coworkers were stunned all over again.
"Oh my God, a sixty-six-thousand-dollar engagement gift? Virginia really didn't take a single cent of it?"
"But Virginia, if you'd accepted that sixty-six thousand, wouldn't that have covered your mom's surgery right there?"
