Houston, We Have a Problema by Gwendolyn Zepeda

Author:Gwendolyn Zepeda [ZEPEDA, GWENDOLYN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC000000
ISBN: 9780446543637
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2009-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

26

The next day, Wednesday, Jessica put on another new suit. As Madame Hortensia had said, it was time to show Mr. Cochran that she was ready to be promoted. She put on the pale blue pants and jacket as though they were a suit of armor and she was ready for battle. Underneath, she wore her chocolate silk camisole with the blue lace. The matching leather mules with the blue satin trim had seemed like a good sign when she’d found them last week at Shoe City. It was time to see what they could do for her now.

She pulled her best bag — the real Gucci she’d found on clearance after Christmas — and her laptop case over her shoulder. One last check in the mirror: She looked damn good if she did think so herself. Seriously — how could Mr. Cochran not see that she was the best person for the job?

On her way to work, she hit nothing but green lights. Then, in the garage, she got a space right near the elevators. Then, right outside the elevator, there was a shiny new quarter lying on the freshly vacuumed carpet. She picked it up and dropped it into her bag.

Not just a penny, but a whole quarter — it had to be a sign. She was going to talk to Mr. Cochran today, and the promotion was as good as hers.

An hour later, she was sitting at her desk, working and looking awesome, when Ted dropped a legal pad on her desk and almost knocked over her latte. “Safety poster,” he muttered.

Jessica’s flash of annoyance with Ted instantly evaporated. If there was anything about this job she enjoyed, it was designing safety posters. Instead of using the same template over and over, like everyone else, Jessica preferred to customize the posters for each client. Today’s was for Brox, an oil rig manufacturer.

The first thing she did was pick out a good background picture of a flaming oil rig from her collection. She was laying out a palette of burnt orange, steel gray, and gas-flame blue when Mr. Cochran strolled in with his morning paper. Jessica followed him to his office in order to take hold of her opportunity.

“Mr. Cochran, do you have a minute?”

He looked up from the papers in his briefcase, then closed it. “Uh . . . yes, Jessica. What do you need?”

“I was wondering what was going on with the new broker position for our department.”

He made a perturbed face. “How did you know about that?”

Jessica frowned right back. Did he not remember their conversation from the week before? “I helped Olga with the posting. Remember, I asked you about it last week?”

“Oh yes. That’s right.” Mr. Cochran seemed to have lost the conversational thread. He was already unfolding his Wall Street Journal.

Jessica persisted. “So, I was wondering when you’ll be interviewing for the broker job. Because I’m planning to apply.”

Mr. Cochran scratched his ear with his pen and peered at the wall behind her.

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