The Last Thorn

3. The Deadline

 As she sits down at her desk to work, Marcus comes back. He startles her, because she didn’t expect anyone to suddenly talk to her. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Marcus speaks as Florence turns around in her chair, ” I was talking to May from the warehouse and she told me there’s good progress with sorting and that you proposed a possibly better working system. I don’t mean to keep you from work any longer, so I'll cut the chase. It's the big meeting of the month tomorrow and I'd like you to make a presentation. All the board, the Boss included, will be there as usual. I think you’d make a great impression if you’d make a presentation about your suggestions and tell them about the benefits.” 

Florence freezes. She doesn’t know much about these meetings, but she knows that it’s a big deal in the company. Everybody freaks out, because they’re afraid boss’ll fire them, because their clothes aren’t ironed enough or something. 

It seems like a huge deal and Marcus gives her a day to prepare while there's a warehouse problem to solve?

“And don’t worry about the warehouse," he says as he's just read her mind, "If you’re up to making a presentation, I’ll give the task to Frederic or Audrey. I can give you bullet points to guide you or I can even go over it in the evening if you want.” 

Florence spaces out from the sudden stress, but comes back after 3 seconds. She's a hot head, so, at the heat of the moment, she doesn't think much about it and agrees. It's just a presentation. How hard can it be, right? 

It seems like Marcus could finally be useful. Plus, she is irritated, because her code doesn't work as she wants to. She'll gladly do anything else. “Thank you, Marcus. I’ll get to it right away.”   

However, it turns out that the presentation doesn’t come to her as easily as she intended to at first. She sees the end result easily, but there are problems with planning and trying to explain it, so everybody would understand. She writes Marcus an email and asks for help faster than she'd like to admit at first.

Marcus answers her quickly and his suggestions are a big help. That’s when she realizes she actually lacks experience and why Marcus is one of the main programmers.   

Anyway, she hopes he won't read too much into her talking to him so much suddenly. Even though he’s actually been a big help into adjusting her points, it'd be too complicated to get rid of his affections.  

It's lunchtime when they decide that it'll be easier if Florence would work at his office today. She takes her laptop. Sofa in his office is comfortable and it saves them a lot of time that they're right next to each other, so Marcus can help right away if she needs something.  

They work for all day with no rest. The time passed by fast. Marcus occasionally did the tasks that are urgent, but they spent practically the whole day together.   

Shortly before 8 p.m. they’ve finished and the presentation looks neat. “And.. that’s it,” Marcus says as he clicks “save” on Florence’s computer and transfers it to the cloud, “That's how I like my day ending.”  

“Thank you so much once again, Marcus. I hope I didn’t keep you off your actual work with my silly questions too much.”   

“Not a problem. This,” he says as he points in the monitor, “will save the company a good sum of money. This is good.”   

“I hope they’ll see it that way as well,” Florence says unsure.  

“It’ll be alright, don't worry. Are you by car? I can give you a lift home if you want.” Florence chuckles. She knows Marcus doesn’t live near her neighborhood. He practically lives next to the building. He could walk here if he would want.   

“I’m pretty sure I’m not on your way. Thank you anyway.”  

“Suit yourself,” Marcus says reluctantly, “See you tomorrow.” They both take their things and get out the office. Marcus locks the door and heads out.   

Florence gets into her cubicle. Even though Florence is as anxious as never before and would like to stay and prepare for presentation for the rest of the night, she knows that she should go get some rest and freshen up. The meeting is 8 am sharp. "Only sadists schedule meetings that early," she thinks.   

When Florence gets home, there isn't Eugene anywhere. He's probably  at Garrett's place. However, Florence doesn't see Eugene nor that evening, nor the next morning. She doesn't think much about it.  

Florence puts on the brown pantsuit her mother bought her when she first got her job. She has refused to wear it before, because it feels stiff. She doesn't feel like herself when she wears it. However, she has to admit that it makes her seem more professional. She puts her hair up and puts her makeup on. Now she looks fresh and rested.   

She takes her bag and puts the only pair of high heels in it. She doesn't want any more blisters on her feet like yesterday. She will put the heels on for the meeting only. As Florence puts her old Oxford shoes on, it feels like heaven. "I swear I’ll never wear high heels ever again. It's just for today only," she thinks.   

Her mother always told her that women who wear high heels and don't whine, are the strongest. That's what she wants to show everybody today. The strength.   

It’s still dark when she gets out the house. She sees the sunrise through the window on metro. There’s something relaxing in facing the sunrise. It's nice that metro is practically empty, so there's room to sit. Maybe she should go to the office this early every day.  

Florence reaches the office in high spirits. She’s an hour early, because she isn’t sure where the meeting actually takes place. She’s surprised to see that Marcus is already in the office waiting for her.  

“Take your laptop and come with me,” he says as he holds the door open to the lobby. They reach the 12th floor which looks like a dark brown wooden maze. They’re taking countless turns in the narrow corridor as they reach another elevator.   

"So it's true. There's really another elevator. It's so silly," she thinks. She couldn't thank Marcus enough. It’d take hours for her to find it on her own.   

They get inside and Marcus pushes 33. It's almost the top floor. Luckily, Florence isn't afraid of heights. The elevator opens and they get out. Florence is mesmerized. The whole floor is practically made out of glass.   

Marcus takes the key and unlocks the conference room. It’s spacious and light. There are windows to all four sides of the city and nothing blocks the view. Florence is so mesmerized that she almost forgets why she’s here. She’s happy that she’s got a minute for surroundings to sink in before everybody comes in.  

A group of people start to gather inside. Marcus doesn't pay attention to her much, he greets all the colleagues, that she’s never seen before. She gets acquainted with some of them, just because it's polite. She's pretty sure she won't come to these meetings ever again. She's not that important.  

"I wonder why everybody’s so early. The meeting doesn't start in half an hour," she thinks. She opens her presentation from the cloud on the computer and sets it to be ready to show at a second’s notice. The last thing she needs is some hitch before her presentation.   

Florence stands in the corner, looking at her phone. As she goes over her presentation for the millionth time, an elevator opens and someone she knows comes inside the room through the glass door that’s left open for everyone. Florence turns around and spots Amanda. The woman stops right in her tracks as she recognizes Florence.   

Amanda rushes to the girl with short brown hair that’s standing the closest, probably asking what Florence is doing here. She barely started working here! She's a nobody! Why would she be at the main meeting? Marcus joins them after a brief while.  

However, after a brief discussion, Amanda sighs. It turns out she can't do anything about Florence's presence. Amanda's phone beeps and she asks everybody to get into their seats, because Boss is coming in a minute.   

Everybody practically runs to their places. Marcus points Florence to the seat next to him "Come on. Alex is on the way," he says impatiently. An elevator dings. Marcus leans towards her and whispers, “Be quiet unless you’re spoken to.”   

It feels like time has stopped. It’s dead quiet in the room when the door opens. All you can hear are slow staccato clicks on the marble floor.  

"That should be the boss. But why do I hear high heels?" Florence thinks before she turns around to look at the person who's coming.