The Christmas Party

1.

I was staring at myself in the mirror thinking about how I really didn't want to go to this office Christmas party, when my doorbell went off and almost gave me a heart attack.  It didn't chime softly like every other doorbell on the planet but sounded more like a dying fire alarm.  On that was currently ODing on crack.   But was else was to be expected from my crappy apartment.

            I answered the door to find my new friend Sylvia standing there.  We had only met two weeks before when I started my new job at the large law firm I was currently working at.  It was ran by a brother and a sister and had hundreds of employees.  I was a temporary secretary and Sylvia had been showing me the ropes.  Now she was dragging me to this office Christmas party where she was going to be the only person I'd know, and definitely the only person that was probably going to speak to me, although I was hoping to run into a certain guy from the mailroom.  

            "Megan. Wow," Sylvia said when I opened the door.  "You look great."

            I shrugged.  I didn't think I looked great.  I had tried, but I wasn't convinced.  I thought Sylvia looked a lot better than me in her little black dress with her four-inch heels and her platinum blond hair swooping down around her shoulders like it had just come from a music video.

            "You look way better," I said.

            "Girl, stop," she said touching my sequined red dress.  "You are amaze balls."

            I hadn't worn this dress in forever and had forgotten I'd even had it till I started to panic about finding something to wear tonight.  It was a formal Christmas party.  Sylvia had told me everyone dressed up like it was the Oscars or something every year.  I'd done my best, but I still wasn't convinced.

            "So, let's go," Sylvia said, jumping up and down with excitement.  "We are going to have so much fun."

            I sighed.  "I don't think I want to, Syliva," I said.  "You're the only person I know.  I've only worked there for two weeks and I'm going to be leaving in less than a month.  I feel like I'm crashing."

            Sylvia rolled her eyes.  "Girl, you're not crashing.  One, you're with me and I've worked there five years and haven't missed one yet. Two, you work there, too, and when they see how awesome you are, they are gonna hire you permanently.  Trust me, Megan."  Sylvia gave me a playful look.  "And I'm sure that Aden from the mail room will be there."

            I didn't trust her, but it sounded good.  Being a temp stunk.  I definitely could use a full-time stable position.  And I really hoped it was at this firm.  I wanted to become a paralegal, maybe even a lawyer and working at such a prestigious firm could only help me.  And seeing Aden outside of work wouldn't be so bad.  Only two weeks on the job and I was already flirting with him when he brought the mail every day.

            "My boss doesn't even know my name," I complained.  Which was true.  My boss, Michael Hayes, was one of the founding partners.  He was thirty-five and already a force to be reckoned with in the legal world.  And he couldn't have picked me out of a lineup.  He had three secretaries, an executive and two assistants, and I was filling in for one of the assistants.  He'd said about twenty words to me in the last two weeks, usually good morning or good night.  I wasn't a blip on his radar.  

            "He knows who you are, silly," Sylvia said.  "He's just busy."  Sylvia was the other assistant secretary.  I was so glad she had been nice to me.  Janice, the executive secretary, was a hardcore bitch and didn't like either of us.  She barked orders all day like a drill sergeant, then turned on her fakest smile when Mr. Hayes was seen.  Then went right back to being queen bitch when he was gone.