The Job, Mary-Kate Olsen

XII

She shrugged playfully. "Maybe I am. But it's a little suspicious how they treat you compared to everyone else. Maybe it's because you're that good at your job?"

I smiled. "Yeah yeah, that must be it" I said.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Ana, I wouldn't want you to be late because of me," she said, grinning. "Not that it would even bother them!"

"Alright, alright, I'm going," I chuckled, waving as I headed out the streets.

I entered the building, got in the elevator, then made my way to my office. I got rid of my coat and bag and went straight to deliver the coffee to the twins. I went to Ashley's first. She was on the phone, so I swiftly placed her coffee on her desk, and she nodded her head with a smile as a greeting. I left and headed to Mary-Kate's.

I knocked softly, the sound echoing in the quiet hallway. After a quick moment, Mary-Kate's muffled voice invited me in but as I stepped through her office, the atmosphere was much different from usual. She studied me for a couple of seconds, an impassive expression on her face as if I were an unwelcome interruption. She directed her eyes back to the screen of her laptop, mouth shut.

I lingered for a moment, hoping for any sign that she might acknowledge my presence, but she remained engrossed in her work. She was ignoring me completely, just like the days when she avoided me the first week I arrived at The Row.

I stepped forward and carefully placed her cup on the edge of her desk. I watched her for a beat, waiting for her to glance up and say something, anything. But the silence stretched on.

I scoffed softly in an attempt to get her to look at me, but it was useless.

I couldn't simply walk away like I could have done when I first started working for her. Now, I knew she was struggling. I remembered our conversation at Valentina's and how vulnerable she was back then.

I took a deep breath, pushing aside the fear and hesitation that was here because of the professionalism that I should maintain. "Mary-Kate?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. I spoke calmly, but inside, I was truly turmoiled. I thought for a brief moment that I saw a flicker of recognition in her eyes. Like a pause in her movements that hinted that despite her calm facade, there was something more on the inside. But as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, replaced once more by ignorance.

She remained silent and I got no answer.

My voice was calm, but I couldn't help feeling like I was being shut out. I felt invisible in Mary-Kate's world, which was tearing me inside because from now on, apart from the first week I had spent at The Row, I had always felt like being the center of her attention whenever I was with her. When I was next to her, I was all she cared about. But I hadn't quite realized this until my conversation with Florence at the café this morning.

I felt a knot in my stomach. I didn't even know why I was reacting this way but my heart started pounding in my chest and an odd sensation of heaviness settled in my eyes. I abruptly turned around and left her office. I crossed the hallway and rushed down the corridor, feeling my breath catching up in my throat as my vision blurred. I jostled my way into the toilet and locked myself in one of the cubicles.

I sat down on the floor and brought my hands to my face. Before I even knew what was happening, I found myself crying on the bathroom floor of The Row's head office. I tried my best to muffle my sobs, taking deep breaths. It reminded me of those times when I would have panic attacks back in high school and calmed myself down in the school bathroom. It had been a while since I had one of those. I used to have a lot of them after the elevator incident.

After a few minutes, I had calmed down and my breath had gotten steady again. I took a moment to look back on what had happened and what could have caused the state I was in, but I couldn't figure it out. I took a deep breath and gathered the courage to get up. I stopped for a moment to try and hear if there was any noise from anyone around me, but it seemed to me that there was no one in the bathroom. Good, because I didn't really want to get out of that toilet and have someone see me with smeared mascara and puffy eyes.