Page 4 of Falling Backwards
“Hellyeah,” the former says.“That’s better already.”
It sure is.
“Today was so dumb,” Joy complains.
“I know,” Emma groans.
“You go first, Em.Tell us about the promotion.”
Emma closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose.“I can’t believe I didn’t get it.I really thought it was mine.Really thought I’d proved myself.”
I shake my head in displeasure as Joy lays a hand on her shoulder and says, “You should’ve gotten it.You earned it.You did everything right.”
I add, “Your boss was totally unfair to favor her daughter over you.Tatum didn’t do anything but reap the benefits of other people’s work.”
Joy nods.“Exactly!”
Emma drops her hand and frowns at us in sharp agreement.“Y’all are so right.When Belinda made the announcement, she was all,‘Tatum will be such an asset to our upper-level sales team!She has done nothing but impress!’But…how?What has she done to impress the clients we’ve been working with?”
I chortle, “Bring sparkling water to the meetings.”
Joy snorts.“And wear short skirts to pose in while she delivers pitches!”
“Seriously!”Emma exclaims.“Nothing wrong with sparkling water and short skirts, but—”
“None at all,” Joy says.
“Those things are great,” I confirm.
Emma nods.“Butthat can’t be all you have going for you when you’re up for a job promotion.How do those things stand up to the work I put into our pitches?”
Joy snaps her fingers in what would be a sassy way if she weren’t so cute.“Honey, they don’t.”
I copy her even though I’m less sassy still.“Honey, they don’t.”
Emma snaps her fingers and nails the attitude as smoothly as a fish swims in water.“Honey.They.Don’t.”
She tucks back her smooth brown hair as she picks up her margarita.
“But you know what?Even though I’m upset, it’s fine.Tatum can’t fake her way to success forever.Something somewhere is gonna trip her up, and the company is gonna wonder why they gave her so much responsibility.”
Joy and I are in wholehearted agreement with that, and when Emma holds her drink out toast-style, we follow suit.Our glasses clink together.
“Okay,” she says as we bring them back to ourselves, “it’s your turn, Joy.Tell us how dumb your day was.”
“Oh my gosh, I don’t know what it was today, but the boutique was crawling with people who were just crazy!So much attitude and drama.And we caught one group of teenage girls trying to steal jewelry, and their mamas got all upset when we contacted the police.”She gestures to her hair.“One of them accused me of lying about her daughter just because I have pink hair.She said I look like a hooligan she wouldn’t trust with the truth about anything!”
That gets a big laugh out of us.Joy Ritchens, a hooligan!
“I know,” she giggles with us.“And she wasn’t the only one to pass judgement on me ’cause of my hair.Later on, I was helping a girl pick out something cute to wear for her senior photos and she said she’d love to have colorful hair someday.Her mama butted in and was like,‘Yeah, no.You’re going to college to make something of yourself.You need to look professional.’”
Emma scoffs.“She said that right in front of you?Basically that you haven’t made anything of yourself ’cause of where you work?”
“Sounded like it.”
I tsk.“How rude.You work in a clothes store because you think it’s fun and you might wanna have a place of your own someday.Not because you can’t do anything else.”
Nodding slowly, Joy gets her straw to her lips.“Mmhmm.And besides her slightingme, she all but told her daughter what she is and isn’t allowed to do with her own appearance.”
