It was too much to deal with. She drove home with tears streaming down her face. She walked into her house, took off her shoes and dove into her bed without bothering to take off the rest of her clothes. She was too tired, both physically and mentally.
Saturday morning, she woke up to sunshine streaming down onto her face. She rolled over and tried to understand why she was so depressed. Then the events from the day before hit her and she pulled her head under her pillow, wishing she could turn back time or at least ignore the future.
Unfortunately, the phone started ringing.
“Hello?” she said, not pulling her head out from under the pillow.
“Good morning, Darcy,” an odd voice replied.
Darcy couldn’t identify the voice initially. “Yes?”
“This is Norman. I was calling to say that I’m giving you another chance. You can reconsider your position,” he said smugly.
Darcy sat up in her bed, shocked and disgusted. “I’m sorry?”
Norman Finch chuckled. “I thought that might grab your interest.”
“My interest?” Darcy replied, getting angrier by the moment.
“Yes. I wanted you to know that I want you enough to let you have a second chance.”
“I don’t think…”
“Tutt, tutt, Darcy. Don’t be so quick to reject what I’m offering. I can make or break your career, you know.”
“My career?”
“Yes. I can make sure you either win the contract or don’t. And if you don’t, I’ll make sure everyone knows that the reason you didn’t win it was because you made a pass at me.”
Darcy was speechless for about five seconds. Then the anger that had been simmering just under the surface flared up. She jumped out of bed, landing on the scuffed hardwood floor in her stockings and grabbed the phone so she could pace as she talked. “Let me get this straight so I can make the appropriate decision based on all the facts,” she said, trying to keep her tone even.
“That’s a smart girl,” Norman replied and Darcy gritted her teeth as she imagined the disgusting little man sitting back in his vinyl covered chair in his greasy kitchen.
“You’re willing to ignore my recent rejection of you and award ATI the contract on the condition that I sleep with you. But if I don’t sleep with you, I will not only lose the contract, but you’ll go around telling everyone that I was willing to purchase the contract, so to speak, on my back in your bedroom. Did I miss anything?”
There was a slight hesitation before he responded. “Well, yes. I guess that about sums it up.”
“Neither is a very attractive option, I have to warn you. But I think I’ll stick with my previous rejection. We have a very good solution that we can build for you. If you want to go with an inferior product, I can’t help you. And I’m willing to let my reputation speak for myself.”
“You’re not thinking this through very clearly, Darcy. I have your CEO’s phone number on speed dial and I’m willing to call him up immediately to complain about you. You’ve bought me breakfast, lunch and dinner. And didn’t you say this was your first proposal? or break you.”
Sounds a little suspicious, doesn’t it?
Don’t blow it. Like I said, I can make
Darcy wanted to slam down the phone, she was so repulsed. “Mr. Finch, this is sexual harassment. If you persist in going down that path, I’ll fight you on it.”
“Is that your final word on this issue?” he said, his words clipped and angry.
Darcy didn’t bother to reply. She simply hung up the phone. But then she crumbled to the floor, the tears starting over again. She wanted to fight him. She hated the man and he deserved to be prosecuted. But she just didn’t have the energy at this time to deal with the awful man.
She took off her suit and tossed it in the closet, knowing it would have to go to the dry cleaners before it had a chance of surviving another wearing. Sleeping in work clothes wasn’t the best way to present a professional image.
She showered and put on a fluffy, yellow robe and some thick socks. She padded into the kitchen and forced herself to make a pot of coffee. She contemplated making breakfast, but her stomach wasn’t up to the task of eating, so she discarded the idea.
Once the coffee was made, she sat down at her kitchen table and sipped it, letting the hot fluid seep into her bones as she considered what her next move should be.
Should she call Michael? Would he believe her? A tear slipped down her cheek as she rejected that idea. He didn’t know her well enough to believe her instead of a client, especially a client that held the controls to so much money.
Besides, Michael thought she was too involved in work. He might actually believe that she would sleep with a man just to win a contract. That thought horrified her. Would he really believe something like that of her? She pushed the idea away but it kept coming back to her. She remembered his comment several months ago about how she was “afraid of living”. Would he hear Norman Finch’s accusations and think the worst? What else could he believe? She hadn’t told him her side yesterday when she’d had the chance. Why would he believe her now?
She was crushed by the thought but pulled herself up and out of her depression. If he was going to think that, then she couldn’t stop him. All day Saturday, she cleaned her house in order to get her mind off her work situation. She scrubbed the kitchen floor, took out all her pots and pans, then reorganized everything. She cleaned out her closet and separated her clothes, constantly forcing her mind to make decisions. The moment she stopped thinking about the next item to clean or organize, her mind drifted to Michael and what he must think of her now and she started to break down again.
By Saturday night, she was exhausted. Darcy didn’t do much for the rest of the weekend. She slept and ate, watched movies on the television and ignored the rest of the world. The phone rang several times, but she refused to answer it. She turned down the volume on her answering machine so she couldn’t hear whoever was leaving her messages.
Since it was a three day weekend for the proposal team, she stayed away from the office on Monday. Originally, she had planned on coming in and doing a debriefing with Jim and some others in upper management. She called into Jim’s voice mail and canceled the meeting instead. She didn’t want to have to explain anything yet.
By Tuesday morning, she’d come to the conclusion that she’d have to resign from her job. ATI was a great company, but who would believe her over a potential client? She could move to another state, somewhere that didn’t have connections to this area. She didn’t have to work here, she could go anywhere.