The new dress code had been most surprising to Maria. She spent most of her time on the computer anyway, so what did it matter what she wore to the office? The gray carpet, pale walls, and brown chairs were all so drab. Her cubical looked like an oasis in the middle of the desert with her colorful herbal pots and her collection of birdhouses. She kept only a few small ones in her cubical. Some of them she’d built and painted; others she’d found at thrift stores.
Her co-workers had even gone so far as to give her a birdhouse on her last birthday, and she’d loved it. But with the new company policies, she’d have to get rid of all of it. Maria typed a quick reply to her friends before starting to drive, then flipped down the mirror and decided to go with the red lipstick after all. She dug out a tube from her purse and lathered on the dark red color. Perfect.
She turned up the radio as she drove to the office. She’d planned to be thirty minutes early, but when she pulled into the parking lot, she only had ten minutes to spare. Maria hated to be rushed and especially for a meeting like this, when she’d have to argue her case against some stuffy corporate type.
She climbed out of her car and headed for the office doors. She wondered if she should have called her co-workers last night to explain what her plan was and ask them to support her if there was any pushback from Mr. Harris. I should have at least called Josh, she mused. Josh— who was over HR and whom she’d been dating on the low-down. He didn’t want to make their relationship known at the office yet, and it seemed that had carried over further than the office. Maria had told her friends, of course, but Josh hadn’t said anything to his friends or his parents.
Except for that one irritant, Josh met all of her requirements for a relationship. Maria was attracted to him, Josh got along with his parents, he was easy-going, he had a steady job, he wanted kids when he married, he was only a couple of years older than she, he didn’t have an ex-wife, and he was okay with Maria’s fashion choices and quirks. The list wasn’t too impossible, Maria decided, especially since Josh met all items. She just felt impatient about the whole secret relationship thing.
She understood it from an employee perspective, but it wasn’t like Josh was her boss. She just didn’t know why, after several months of dating, they had yet to meet each other’s parents. Maybe tonight would be the night she’d bring up the subject again on their dinner date. If she was on a roll from the company meeting and fighting for her fashion and cubicle rights, what was one more request?
“Hi Maria,” Lisa said as Maria entered the building.
Lisa sat at the reception desk, her turquoise-framed glasses perched on her nose. Lisa wore a different pair of glasses every day, it seemed. She believed in matching her eyewear to her outfit, and Maria wholeheartedly approved.
“Is Mr. Harris here yet?” Maria asked. “I was hoping to get here earlier to talk to people in the office.”
“Mr. Harris is running about twenty minutes late,” Lisa said, drawing her brows together. “So you’ve got some time. What’s up?”
Maria leaned on the counter separating her and Lisa and explained that she was going to request that the dress code remain flexible and that the cubicles remain personal choice.
“I totally agree with you,” Lisa said, snapping her gum and pushing up her glasses. “I don’t want to say goodbye to my turtles.”
Maria smiled. Lisa’s “turtles” were a row of ceramic creatures she lined up on the left side of her desk. Apparently, she collected them in odd touristy shops when she traveled.
“Save the turtles?” Maria said, holding out her fist for a fist bump.
Lisa bumped her and smiled. “Save the turtles.”
Maria continued through the next set of doors, where her cubicle sat connected to eight others. On the other side of the cubicles was Josh’s glassed-in office. She could see that Josh was already at his desk.
“Love the skirt, Maria,” Ben said from his cubicle as she passed by.
“Too flashy?” she asked.
Ben’s brows arched. “I don’t think so. But this dress code is wearing me down. I had to go with the blue tie instead of the rainbow one today.” Ben was a heavy-set man who never wore anything as formal as ties, said they made him feel like choking. His wardrobe of choice was golf shirts, which lent him to frequently boasting about his weekend golf scores.
Maria laughed. “What a sacrifice.” She asked him if he’d support her when she made a case for the dress code change.
“I’ll drink to that any day.” He held up his coffee cup.
“Thanks,” Maria said and moved past him, walking straight to Josh’s office.
He looked up from the computer as she entered. Josh’s blond hair and blue eyes contrasted with Maria’s olive skin, dark hair, and brown eyes. Josh was good looking, but not in the striking way that attracted women left and right. His looks had grown on Maria, and although she wouldn’t say that she lost sleep over thinking about him, she felt comfortable with him and enjoyed every minute they spent together.
Right now, though, Josh cast a furtive glance at the door.
“Didn’t you get my message?” he asked, standing and shutting the door.
“Um, no,” Maria said, pulling out her phone. There was a voicemail alert, but she’d had her radio turned up and must not have heard her phone while driving.
Josh puffed out a breath and folded his arms. “For the next week, we can’t be seen talking one on one while the new executive is here. I read through the HR policies last night, and it specifically forbids any inter-office relationships. It even goes so far as to say that after-work activities aren’t allowed either. Every employee is to be on strictly professional terms with each other, or they’ll be subject to termination.”
Maria wanted to laugh. This was really going overboard, and how would corporate monitor it anyway? She tilted her head. “So, one of us will have to quit, huh?”
Josh snapped his gaze to her. “Are you kidding?”
Maria’s stomach tumbled at the panic in his voice. “I am kidding. You’re really wound up about this. I mean, who’s going to monitor all of this?”
“Me, Maria,” Josh said. “I’m the human resources manager.” His usual soft blue gaze had turned cold.
Maria took a step back. This was not how she thought her morning was going to go. She’d steeled herself for the company meeting, not a confrontation with her boyfriend. “All right, I… We can talk about this later. I just wanted to tell you that I’m going to argue the dress code and the cubicle restrictions in the meeting. I’m hoping that a few of you can back me up.”
Josh stared at her as if she was crazy. “Do you understand that all of our jobs are on the line here? When a company is restructured, it’s only a matter of time for most of us.”
“You think they’re going to let us all go?”
“Not all of us, but I think there will be cut-backs,” Josh said, his tone softening. “I think the dress code is ridiculous, too, but I’m not going to rock the boat right now, Maria.”
Maria swallowed against the growing lump in her throat. She was mortified to feel her eyes stinging with tears. The company meeting hadn’t even started, and now she felt like she was going to lose it.
“Look,” Josh said. “We’re not doing anything different than before in keeping our relationship a secret.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Maria said. Not anymore. All of this was getting bigger than she could live with. She didn’t want to be twenty-six with a secret boyfriend or being told what to wear. She was a college graduate, she was smart, she was independent, and she liked to think she was at least a little pretty. She didn’t like being put down or locked away by anyone— not her boyfriend or some hot-shot executive.
“I’ll see you in the meeting,” Maria said, and before Josh could say anything else, she opened the door and left his office. She hurried to the ladies’ room to compose herself and meet her own determined gaze in the mirror. Either she’d have to be accepte
d at this company for who she was, or she’d start looking for another job.
Mind made up, she sent a long text to June and Sydney, telling them about what Josh said about the new “relationship” policies, then ending with, I won’t be able to check back for at least another hour.
Maria tapped her pen on the table as she and her co-workers sat in nervous silence, waiting for Mr. Harris to arrive. Lisa had announced his arrival on the intercom, and everyone had quickly straightened up and put away their phones. Maria had her notepad and pen out, but she didn’t have her laptop with her like the others. She wanted to take more organic notes. It helped her pay better attention.
At the top of the note paper she’d written two things: dress code and cubicle décor. Then she’d added another in parentheses: interoffice relationships. It was something she wanted to bring up to Mr. Harris alone, if at all possible. She didn’t know if she’d be able to secure a private conversation with him though. But Lisa said he’d wanted individual meetings with each department. So Maria hoped she might have a chance, since she ran the social media division.
Lisa sailed into the room, her face flushed beneath her turquoise glasses, and behind her a man walked in. All eyes snapped up to study Mr. Harris.
He was younger that Maria expected, maybe thirty tops, and he was… stunning. Maria didn’t know how else to describe Walker Harris. Her friend Sydney would call him a babe, and June would call him gorgeous, and Maria would call him… off-limits.
Every woman, and even the men, were staring at him like he was some sort of exhibit. Now Maria understood Lisa’s flushed face and the extra-high pitch in her voice as she began to make the introductions.
Mr. Harris’s hair was dark, wavy, and perfectly styled, like a male model photo-shopped in a magazine. His custom-tailored dark gray suit looked like it cost more than Maria’s two-month salary, and it accentuated his olive skin and flashing green eyes. Mr. Harris was tall and seemed to dwarf the small conference room, as if he was larger than life. His broad shoulders did little to diminish his intimidating size. If it wasn’t for his perfectly even, white teeth and his elegantly long fingers, Maria might have thought he was a former football player.
As it was, he was too well groomed to dirty himself up with sport, but he must do something to stay in shape. To top it off, he seemed completely nonplussed that everyone in the room was trying not to openly ogle him.
“And this is Maria, our social media director,” Lisa said.
Mr. Harris held out his hand, and like the others, Maria stood and shook his hand. Their contact was brief, but Maria could still feel the warm imprint of his hand after he moved on to the next person.
Her stomach tightened, and her thoughts scattered. Stop it, she silently ordered herself. She would stay on task, no matter how good this man looked. He was probably married, although there was no wedding ring visible. Maybe he was one of those men who was married but didn’t wear a ring. Or, more likely, he had a girlfriend who was royalty, or a celebrity… Stop looking at him, she commanded herself again. She had a boyfriend.
Mr. Harris was here to conduct a meeting and recreate their company structure.
He moved to the head of the table and sat down. “Thanks for making this early-morning meeting a priority,” he said. “I apologize for being late. And please, everyone, call me Walker. I know there are a lot of changes going on that you’ll have to get used to, but Mr. Harris is my father, not me.”
Ben chuckled, and everyone looked at him as if he’d just breached some sort of code of ethics.
Mr. Harris, or “Walker,” shifted forward in his chair. “Just a little bit about myself, then,” he said. “I’ve worked for Baker Corp for about eight years now. My father started the company, and even though I’m the boss’s son, I’ve had to prove myself like everyone else.”
His voice was firm, and Maria wondered if he’d been given a hard time over the years by other employees.
“I’ve been assigned this company to bring it up to Baker Corp’s standards and to train you on our policies and procedures,” Walker continued. “This will mean flexibility on each of your parts and a good deal of understanding. At Baker, we’ve developed policies and procedures that have contributed to our business success, so as we acquire new companies, we feel it’s important to take the time in the training phase.”
Everyone was nodding, and Maria, in order to avoid staring at him, took haphazard notes that looked more like doodles than actual words.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw him hold up a stapled stack of pages. “Lisa will hand out the agenda, and we’ll start going down it line by line. You can ask for clarifications as we get to each item. But let’s try to stay on task. One of our priorities at Baker is staying on task and optimizing each work day.”
When Maria got the copy of the agenda, she scanned the items. Half way down the page it said “dress code” and a few lines farther down “cubicle space.” She braced herself for what was to come. As Walker went down the items, he did 99% of the speaking. Basically everyone was agreeing with everything and asking no questions.
When Lisa did ask a question about the length of lunch breaks, her voice was so breathless and giggly that Maria found herself cringing. But Walker didn’t seem to notice her fawning. He must be used to it, Maria decided.
Maria glanced over at Josh. He had on his typical HR face: no emotion.
Maria’s heart began to drum as they reached the topic of dress code.
Walker read through the dress code policy, the same words he’d emailed out to their group, then said, “Are there any questions?”
Predictably, no one said anything. It’s now or never. Maria lifted a hand and said, “I’d like to ask a few questions.” She looked at Walker for the first time since they’d shaken hands.
His green eyes locked with hers, and she knew she had his full and complete attention. It unnerved her.
As she spoke, Walker’s gaze slowly trailed along her hair, her earrings, and her blouse, which was all conservative compared to her usual outfits. Her lipstick was red, yes, and she could have ditched the red-, black-, and white-checked scarf and not added stripes to her nail polish to match her skirt.
“I’ve never met one of our clients in person,” Maria continued. “Wearing bright colors or strappy dresses hasn’t had a negative impact on my job performance and shouldn’t for anyone else either.”
“There have been studies… Maria… that have been conducted for decades that prove that a dress code in a workplace adds to the employees’ productivity,” Walker said in a slow voice as if he was speaking to a child. “It ensures fewer distractions and fewer temptations to veer into off-topic conversations.”
“That might be the case,” Maria said, “and I don’t mean to refute decades of research, but this sounds like an argument between parents discussing whether or not their kids should wear school uniforms.” She looked around the table at her co-workers. No one met her eyes.
Really?
She turned back to Walker, finding it disconcerting that he was watching her carefully.
“I’ll make a note of your thoughts,” he said, when in fact he wasn’t writing anything down at all. Then, as if he’d just cut her off, he said, “Next on the agenda is the cubicle spaces. I trust everyone has read the guidelines. Are there questions?”
Maria waited a heartbeat, then lifted a hand again.
Walker acted as if he’d expected her to. One side of his mouth lifted ever so slightly as if he was amused. Was he mocking her?
“Yes, Maria?” he said in a perfectly even voice.
“I work better if I don’t feel like I’m going to fall asleep surrounded by gray and tan partitions.”
One of Walker’s eyebrows shot up.
Maria pressed on. “I mean, we’re a marketing company. We should be allowed to bring things in that give us inspiration and encourage our creativity.”
Across the table, Lisa was nodding. Maybe she’d at least supp
ort Maria in this.
“Studies have shown that tangible distractions can actually curb creativity and diminish profitability,” Walker said in his perfectly even tone, which was becoming perfectly annoying.
“Decades of studies?” Maria asked, then felt instantly contrite.
Walker didn’t react. In fact, it was like her quip hadn’t registered with him. Instead he said, “What sort of décor do you have in your cubicle?”
Maria glanced at Lisa again, who was now conveniently studying her nails. “I have a collection of bird houses and a few herb pots, but that’s not the point. Any of us should be able to surround ourselves with things that make us happy.”
“Happy?” Walker said.
She couldn’t read his expression. She couldn’t tell if he was baiting her or merely wanting to understand. But how could he be so obtuse? How could he buy into these white-washing policies?
“Yes, happy,” Maria said. “Things like bird houses, colorful skirts, big earrings, and spicy food shared with a co-worker makes me happy.”
The faintest bit of color stole across Walker’s cheeks but was gone before Maria could be sure.
“I’ll make a note of your concerns,” he said. “The next item on the agenda has to do with interpersonal relationships among co-workers. Perhaps I should start by asking if Maria has any questions.”
Her co-workers chuckled. Traitors.
“Actually, sir,” she said, “I think Josh is the one with questions about this policy.”
If a pin had been dropped on the table at the moment, it would have echoed like a gun shot.
The Falling Series Box Set Page 13
