"Ready?" Malik walks into my office and asks me.
My stomach's been in knots all morning. I'm not ready. "Yes." I lie standing from my desk. He reaches for my hand. I take his. "Now or never right?" I relax in his grasp.
We walk hand in hand to the conference room. He opens the door for me to walk in. Mason pulls out a chair for me at the head of the table. I take a seat and everyone quiets down and all the attention is on me.
"I'd like to first thank you all for taking time from your busy schedules to be here this morning. I'd first like to introduce myself, my name is Sharice Freyling, some of you may also know me as Sire. I'm not going to go over my entire resume with you right now, but just know that I'm very good at what I do." I start. "I take my job very seriously, and my goal is to ensure things are being done properly so things run smoothly for all of us and our clients."
Once the meeting is over I hand my business cards out to everyone at the table so they know how to get in contact with me. I feel much better about the way the meeting went.
I leave the conference room and go back into my office to set my things down and I decide to head out for some air.
"Let Malik and Mason know I'm stepping out please," I tell miss attitude.
"Yes, Ms. Freyling." She immediately responds grabbing the phone.
I haven't heard a peep from her since our talk in the bathroom yesterday. Not even an eye roll. I'll speak to her before the end of the week because I don't like the way things went, and as women, we have to stick together. Especially black women. We can't always be tearing down one another. In the corporate world, we have to have our unspoken sisterhood.
I step outside the building to enjoy the beautiful April day. I love the view from my office, but I love the actual air. I do enjoy this place, but I can't wait to get home. My neighbor Jade has been keeping my packages and mail for me so they don't pile up outside.
My phone vibrates. It's a text from Malik.
Ready for your interview.
Main conference room.
Be there in 5.
"You think you got everything you'll need?" Malik asks the interviewer and editor, Tim.
"This is more than enough. I'm excited about this one." He says closing his laptop. "Thank you guys for sitting down with me and giving me this exclusive with me. It's was nice meeting and talking with you today Ms. Sharice."
"Thank you," I tell him.
"Can I tell you, I didn't know Sire was a woman, let alone a black woman. You're a pretty big deal." He says to me.
"That's why I think it was time to reveal myself. It was so hard for me to get my foot in the door, I was judged before people met me, until they thought I was a man." I confess.
"Yeah, I believe it. It's hard. Now that you're here they can't stop you. It's great that you're building this platform for people who look like yourself."
"That's what's important to me," I tell him.
"I'm really proud of her. She's handling all this much better than I am." Malik laughs.
"Be prepared for the publicity though. Everyone will want to talk to you." He warns
"Oh, I'm ready."