It was a normal day, as normal as any day at least, and Meredith was running late for work again. She had gotten a job in one of the top marketing companies right out of college and had been working there for nearly a year now with no promise of advancing. She didn’t mind too much. She didn’t think she needed to go too far to the top. She just wanted to enjoy creating with the graphic design team at Maxwell Sharpe Marketing Inc. and live a peaceful life with her cat Dino.
She had tripped coming out the subway steps and her leftover bag of popcorn from two nights ago spilled all over the sidewalk attracting a flock of crazed pigeons. She was afraid of stepping on one’s feathers and getting revenge poo all over her before work so she hopped carefully back and forth around them like she was in some strange frogger game only instead of cars she was dodging pigeons.
Meredith managed to escape the pigeons and turned the corner, nearly colliding into a handsome man just outside of the doors to Maxwell Sharpe’s office building downtown Chicago.
“I-I am very sorry.” Meredith told him as he helped her pick up her belongings that had spilled out of her purse. He paused to look at the brass knuckles and raised an eyebrow as he handed it to her. “Can never be too cautious?” She said as a way of explanation.
“Indeed.” He replied in a low voice that sent her belly in loops. He smiled briefly at her and then quickly steered her by the small of her back to the side and towards the entrance of the building as two men who looked extremely expensive strode past into a waiting town car. “Sorry about that Mr. Maxwell.”
“No worries, Sean.Let’s get going.” The man responded in a commanding voice as he climbed into the back of the vehicle.
“Yes, sir.” Then the handsome man, Sean, closed the door behind Mr. Maxwell, quickly walked around to the driver side door, and got in before pulling the car into traffic, leaving Meredith behind gaping.
Here I am drooling over the boss’s driver, Meredith thought to herself before realizing she was already late to begin with and now even more so. She quickly pulled herself together and entered the building. She was fishing for her badge in the chaos that was her purse as the guard waived a hello at her.
“Hi Ms. Glenn” He said as she finally pulled out her badge. She looked up into his warm brown eyes that were smiling back at her. She always pictured him as having a Sponge Bob tattoo over his heart holding a mom banner. He seemed like a big softy that would love to cuddle every night.
“Good morning, Ben.” Even though his name tag said Smith he had told her on many occasions to call him Ben. He was about five feet eleven and built as though he definitely spent time in the gym nearly everyday. He had a dazzling smile and his cropped hair was just the right amount of wavy. He was endearing and cute and definitely had a crush on her. But she was stuck in the past.
Meredith’s last boyfriend, Chad she had met in high school and chose to go to school in Chicago to be close to his school. He was set on going to University of Chicago and so she also applied to the with her portfolio to the arts program and got accepted. While her boyfriend became a different person once he entered college, she did manage to refine her portfolio and win an internship at one of Maxwell Sharpe’s competing companies. So the choice wasn’t entirely a waste.
She was still heartbroken. Chad had cheated on her several times and didn’t even try to hide it. When she confronted him about it he told her it was her fault for always dressing so dopey. Meredith wasn’t the hottest dressed girl on campus that was for sure. She spent all her savings to help her parents pay for school and shopped mainly at Thrift stores, Target, and Walmart. While on a budget she still managed to get some decent finds and dressed conservative with a slight flare. Her brother had once told her it was called peacocking. She usually had some odd accessory that she felt made the outfit more her. But Chad apparently wasn’t impressed.
Meredith was in love with Chad and tried to make the relationship work. She bought a few lingerie pieces and tried to spice things up. But Chad was busy with school and his new friends and brushed her off several times before she was ever able to reveal them to him. When she finally did he told her he didn’t have time and had to study for an exam the next morning. She later found out that he had agreed to a date later that night with another girl and while he didn’t have time to have sex with Meredith that night he was turned on by her outfit and with her in mind cheated on her with his date.
When Meredith found out about his date and how he had cheated on her he again blamed it on her and told her it was a study date for the exam and that if she hadn’t been so sexy and made him so horny he wouldn’t have cheated on her that time. It continued this way until Meredith found herself becoming desperate to do something to fix the situation and finally Chad broke up with her to date the hot foreign exchange student from China.
“Ms. Glenn?” Ben brought Meredith’s attention back to the present. And while he was cute and polite and clearly into her she still was heartbroken even though Chad had broken up with her nearly two years ago.
“Sorry, I spaced out for a moment there.” Meredith responded. She grabbed her badge that she finally found in her messy purse and scanned it on the reader before entering the gate.
“Have a good day.” Ben said after her as she rushed to the elevator.
Meredith reached her floor and tried to slip into her desk but her boss had already sent her an email to meet him in his office as soon as she arrived.
“Mr. Hubert?” Meredith rapped her knuckles on his door frame.
“Please come in and close the door.” Mr. Hubert told her. He was in his early forties and seemed to think he was still in his twenties. He often winked at the office girls as though they had some sort of inside secret, which they never did and always found it a bit creepy when he did it but he never took notice. He had curly short blonde hair, wide-rimmed glasses, and a thin mustache. He always wore a sweater vest and looked like he could pass for Jeffrey Dahmer’s cousin, which didn’t help with his winking attempts.
“Yes, sir.” Meredith closed the door leaving them in silence although his walls were made of glass and they were still fairly visible to the rest of the floor.
“You were late again.” He declared and lifted an eyebrow as though he were awaiting an excuse.
“Y-yes, I-”
“I need you to work on this next ad campaign project that is coming from Edward Maxwell’s office.” He interrupted her, apparently not caring why she was late at all. “Your style will fit this project perfectly and we want to make a good impression on Mr. Maxwell. I am trying to get our budget increased for next quarter so we can get a few upgrades down here.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I am forwarding you the information on the campaign and Karen will be assisting you on this. Also if you two need further assistance you will have full priority over our intern, what’s his name?”
“Greg.”
“Yeah, him. They want this done in two weeks. I'm giving you one. If we need to revise anything I don’t want us waiting until the last minute. We need this. Your future supplies and programs depend on it.”
“I understand, Sir.”
“Good get to it then. You have already wasted enough time today.” Meredith nodded at Mr. Hubert’s words and promptly left his office to return to her desk. She found the campaign information in her email and took a look over it. Apparently they were working on a luxury car company and needed to revamp the marketing around a specific model that was being launched during the next auto show. She forwarded the information to Karen and set up a time to meet her and Greg in the small meeting room that the graphics department used to present and brainstorm ideas. She would meet them after lunch.
Meredith called Edward Maxwell’s office and his secretary transferred her to Edward’s assistant. Meredith asked several questions regarding the project and also was given direct contact information to the car company for any additional clarification.
She had taken enough notes and organized the information so she could go over it efficiently in the meeting after lunch. Meredith looked at the clock and realized she was five minutes late to meeting her friend Taylor at the front doors for lunch.
-- Author Note:
I hope you enjoy these characters. I am having fun starting a new series. I'm looking forward to their story. Don't forget to add it to your library. :)
Meredith stepped off the elevator and was met with a frown a red head against a wall to the side.“You’re late.” Taylor told her as she pulled her along and out the front doors. Taylor was what Meredith described as cute as a button. They had met in film appreciation class in college and became fast friends. Taylor was five-feet-one and weighed practically nothing. She loved kickboxing and anything with pumpkins. She had short naturally red hair that fell just to the top of her shoulders. She wasn’t too curvy but just enough to say: “Yes, I am a woman.”Taylor always wore heels to make up for being so short and always had on cherry red lipstick which only added to the allure of her red hair. She had far too much energy and drank far too much coffee. She rushed her friend Meredith down the street and around the corner to
Taylor was in a great mood as the walked back to the office building. She was excitedly thinking about all the ways she could make Meredith sexy without going too over the top into the slutty zone for her meeting. She would have two weeks to try out different outfits so she could come up with the best one.The biggest question was how to teach her to put it all together right in such little time. She couldn’t use up all of Meredith’s time because she needed to work on the actual project. If it wasn’t good enough Edward wouldn’t even attend the meeting.“Sleepover.” Taylor mumbled as they continued to walk.“Huh? Did you say sleepover?” Meredith asked. Taylor had been off in her own little world randomly mumbling things since htey had left the cafe.
Meredith got back to her desk and began to gather her things for the meeting. While Taylor was making this project a big deal for the completely wrong reasons, it actually was a big deal. If they could win the favor of Edward Maxwell and get an increase in budget it would mean departmental upgrades on software and possibly even computers. But most importantly it would increase the allowed amount Mr. Hubert could spend on raises.Meredith turned the corner as she thought of the possibilities. She could maybe actually go shopping for some new work clothes somewhere with more than one dollar sign on Yelp. Karen and Greg were already in the meeting room with notebooks ready to hear what it was Meredith had for them to do.“Hi guys.” Meredith said as she unloaded her packets on the desk and asked Greg to close the door. “So Mr. Hubert has asked me
Meredith headed home, having gathered up some relevant material to continue to sketch into the night. She usually didn’t bring work home for several reasons. Firstly she wanted to have a work free environment, at least that’s what she told herself. Really she just wanted to resist overworking herself, which would be very easy to do considering her Hermit lifestyle.Secondly she was afraid of losing something and having to come up with a lame my-dog-ate-my-project excuse. Or in her case her cat.And speaking of her cat, thirdly, she didn’t want her cat to interrupt and felt it was rude to not give him some much needed attention after having been at work all day.This was a different situation and she had promised herself as she walked down the subway stairs towards her L train that she w
Taylor had been true to her word of keeping distractions away from Meredith so she could focus on her project. That being said she did send a picture of Edward Maxwell to Meredith when she woke up along with heart emojis and a text that said “For motivation purposes. GL on your presentation.” Edward had piercing green eyes and dark brown hair with a perfectly groomed matching dark brown beard. His nose was angled just right so as to not be overpowering but not hidden behind such a majestic beard. He was wearing a pinstriped suit with brown derby shoes and his tie and top three buttons were undone exposing his a little chest hair that had peeked up from beneath his shirt. He was built but not popping out of his suit built. He wasn’t as muscular as Ben the guard but he definitely worked out. Meredith could see why Taylor called him one of The Davids It was Friday and Meredith, Karen, and Greg weren’t actual
Meredith had gotten an email from Edward Maxwell’s assistant, Henry saying everything looked good but the font looked old. What did he not understand about classic? That was okay because she had anticipated as much and in fact held back so as to truly wow them next Friday. She still had two fonts that she had created and she knew just which one she was going to use. She talked to Karen before heading out and called it a day. She still had to get ready for this mixer that Taylor was taking her to.Meredith arrived home and had racked her brain the whole way from the office building to her apartment about what to wear tonight. She wasn’t even sure what a mixer was. Is it a date? Is it just a coed hang out of some sort. What was it? She decided to try google.A mixer is an informal social gathering where people interact with the purpose to get to know
Meredith woke up the next morning feeling good about herself. It wasn’t love at first sight. She didn’t believe in that. The guy wasn’t even Prince Charming even though the had a princely accent. She had finally stopped saying no and went out. Even if she hadn’t had a decent time with one of the guys there she had fun. She tried sushi for the first time. And although she wasn’t excited to go try it again she didn’t find it terrible, except that weird green paste. She did karaoke for the first time and actually really liked it. The whole event was pleasant. She didn’t have to date the guy she had been paired off with but he seemed like a nice enough person to hang out with again. He was funny, he had interesting hobbies, and he was smart. She decided to text both Taylor and Jordan the same message: Thanks for last night. I had a lot of fun
Meredith avoided the pigeons and made sure she had no loose popcorn in her purse as she headed to the Metra the next day. She would take the train to Schaumburg where her mother lived. Meredith’s mother picked her up at the train station and the went to Yu’s Mandarin for lunch. Meredith really had been craving Chinese food since the sushi left her wanting a little more asian in her life. “So how have you been this week?” Meredith’s mother asked her after they ordered drinks. “I got a big project at work so I have been crazy busy. It’s due on Friday so I still have a lot of work to do.” Meredith looked around the restaurant. She felt uneasy as though someone were watching them somewhere. “Oh! Meri, that's wonderful.” Her mother had called her Meri since she could remember. “Will you get a promotion?”