Page 68 of Written By a Woman

Perhaps I was overthinking the whole thing.

I didn’t know why I was so worried about disappointing Signe on this trip. She wasn’t the type of person to write off someone for being nervous about sitting strapped in a chair at fifty-thousand feet.

A new message came in.

Nikhil and Signe were included in the thread.

Brandon said that they both would be joining us in Tennessee, instead of asking. The email left a bad taste in my mouth. Brandon wasn’t always this bossy. I remember when we used to goof off back in college, but ever since this company started to take off, he suddenly became all business.

I wouldn’t even go as far as to call us friends at this point. Colleagues made more sense.

The way he demanded that all three of us drop everything to meet with this potential client implied as much.

Nikhil: Unfortunately, I have that week off. Mary has volunteered to go instead.

I smiled; glad Nikhil didn’t fawn over Brandon’s demands while also allowing Mary to step into her promotion a little bit more. If I remember correctly, Jacqueline should be emailing her the official offer letter this week as well. We were hiring more engineers, and an entire additional team needed a manager. Mary was perfect for the role. Nikhil’s time off had already been scheduled weeks ago.

Brandon: That will work.

No form of thanks, no acknowledgment of how this changes everybody’s schedules. Nothing. He just expected it to happen because he said so. Sure, he was the CEO of Sun Steer. But he wasn’t a god. His employees were still people that deserved to be conversed with properly, instead of people waiting for him to snap his fingers and say jump.

That was the problem with a hierarchy like upper management. It was too easy to forget about all the worker bees that made every success of this company possible.

I didn’t want to end up like Brandon.

I wanted to be part of all the work, not sitting alone in an office with everyone fawning over my next set of demands.

Though, to be fair, Signe never fawned. She treated everyone with kindness and respect. Minus that one time that I saw her flip off Brandon underneath her desk, though that was deserved. He’s changed a lot since college.

All business.

Cutthroat.

Bonding and establishing rapport with employees is not something he bothered himself with.

I opened a separate thread and sent a direct message to Brandon.

Me: We need to talk about alternatives for CTO soon.

It took less than a minute for his response to come in.

Brandon: You’re right, I’m getting ready to announce some changes in upper management, let’s talk after Tennessee.

Relief relaxed my shoulders, a light starting to shine at the end of this long tunnel.

I scrolled on my phone some more, even though I hated how much more time I was spending on social media in general, I wasn’t upset at all the information I was getting about Signe. How I was able to see the side of her that she kept hidden at work.

I wanted to know all sides of Signe, it seemed.

The thing about following Signe’s socials as closely as I did in order to learn her likes and dislikes, though, was how it affected my algorithm.

I discovered this not two videos after Signe’s, when a blonde middle-aged woman with a septum piercing, whom I had never seen on social media before came on the screen and started the video with, “Are you fingering your wife or girlfriend?”

I raised my eyebrows at that intro, thinking to myself,What ever happened to, hello? How are you?

The woman continued as if that wasn’t an insane thing to start with, “If you’re not, you should be. If you are, you’re probably doing it wrong.”

Well, damn.