Chapter 1: Put in the Middle

I was walking down the hallway and had just turned the corner heading to my office when I heard the arguing. All I could think was, here we go again. It was Monday morning and I was already anticipating the end of the work week. Things hadn't always been this way at the office. I used to like to come to work.

I'm the director of PR for a medium sized pharmaceutical company in Baltimore, Maryland. The argument that was going on had nothing to do with me, but it was in my department which meant there would probably be some spillover into my group eventually. I didn't even need to see the two people arguing to know who it was. Most of the yelling was coming from Beth Timmons. She was our Creative Director and she was directing her hostility toward a guy named Mike who was one of our senior designers.

Just before I got the door to Beth's office Mike came storming out. He was obviously unhappy and I heard him mutter "Bitch" under his breath. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud because I could have guessed that response to the argument without knowing it was Mike who Beth was yelling at. Beth was great at what she did and to tell you the truth she is one of the hottest looking women I have ever seen. The problem is that she really is a bitch. I'm not sure if it is because she knows she is a total hottie or because she is a man hater or what, but one thing is for sure: Everyone in the office thinks she is a total bitch. When people refer to her and she isn't there she is just known as the "the Bitch". She and I got along better than she did with most of the other people in the office and for that I was always thankful. We both work as directors in the marketing department of the company and it would be living hell if we didn't get along.

Beth almost ran me over as she came cruising out of her office. She bumped into me and I had to reach out an arm and grab her as we collided so that neither one of us would fall down.

"Watch where you're going!" she said without looking up to see who it was she bumped into.

"Yeah. I'll try not to walk down any hallways without stopping at every doorway and looking both ways just in case someone feels like running into me," I replied in a sarcastic tone.

She almost seemed shocked that someone would not just apologize automatically. "Sorry, David. I'm just having a bad morning."

"I can tell. It's only 8:45 and you are already seriously pissed off about something."

"I know. Look, I have to go talk to Ted. There's a problem with our creative that was supposed to go to print this morning. I'm going to be in deep crap thanks to these idiots."

"Good luck," I replied, but she was already moving down the hall to our boss Ted's office. Ted was our VP of Marketing and both Beth and I answered to him directly.

I turned into my office and threw my briefcase down on the desk next to my computer. I flipped the computer on and headed down to the break room to get some coffee. I could tell I'd need several cups this morning.

In the break room I ran into several members of my PR team as well as a few of the designers from Beth's staff.

"Good morning everyone," I said as I entered the room.

"Morning, Dave," I received in chorus as a response.

"Everyone have a good weekend?"

I got muttered "yeah" and "it was okay" responses from different people.

"Dave, you've got to talk to Elizabeth. She's even bitchier than usual today. She's only been in the office for ten minutes and she has already chewed out me and several other people."

"Look, Mike, I'm not her boss. She doesn't answer to me, and I'm not going to get in the middle of whatever she's got going on."

"Dave, you know she's a bitch and finds stuff to complain about no matter what we do. She's just unreasonable."

"I'd love to help you out, but why don't you take a different approach to this? Just fix whatever Beth is unhappy about and just move on. It also doesn't help morale around here if you just keep calling her a bitch every time she isn't around. I have to get back to my office, but try to relax a bit, okay? It's going to be a real long week if the whole week is like this morning."

"All right," Mike grumbled as I headed back out the door with my coffee. As I turned out the door and back down the hallway I almost collided with Beth, who was coming the other way again.

"Hi, Dave," was all she said, but she had a funny look on her face when she looked at me. I didn't give it any thought. I just wanted to get back to my office in one piece.

I headed back to my office to drink my coffee and surf the web a bit in relative peace and quiet. I never quite made it there, because just as I was about to go in, my boss, Ted, called out to me.

"Dave. Can I see you a minute?"

I headed down to Ted's office and poked my head in the door. "What's up, Ted?"

"Come in. Close the door would you?"

I closed the door and took a seat on the couch across from Ted's desk.

"I have a problem and I need your help with it. Elizabeth is being a real bitch again."

"Okay. What does that have to do with me?"

"Well she's becoming a real pain in the ass and frankly, I'm getting sick of dealing with it. She's great at what she does, but when you're in management you have to be good with people and good at what you do. You seem to get along with her better than most people and since you are both equals and you don't work for her, I thought you could talk with her a little."

"Wait a minute, Ted. I don't have that kind of relationship with her. If she doesn't chew me out as much as the others around here it is probably because I don't work for her and maybe -- just maybe -- because I don't call her a bitch like everyone else around here."

"That's why I need you to talk to her, Dave. She might actually listen to you for those very reasons. I'm her boss and I respect her work, but she knows I think she is a total bitch and she is on edge every time we have a meeting."

"What am I supposed to say, Ted? You shouldn't be such a bitch at the office? I'm not her supervisor or her shrink."

"Dave, you're going to have to wing it a bit, but just try to get into her head and see if you can figure out why she is so hard to deal with. See if you can soften her up. I've seen the girls in the office around you. They blush and giggle like schoolgirls trying to get asked out. Just use your charm on her a bit."

"This is very strange. I don't like it at all."

"I know you don't and I don't like having to ask you to do it, but I need you to do it or the productivity in the department is going to come to halt every two minutes for a new argument."

"Okay. I'll try to talk to her, but I'm not making any promises."

"That's all I'm asking for. Give it a shot for me."

"Okay."

"Good man."

I left Ted's office and went into my office to think about how I was going to handle this. I didn't know what I was going to do. I decided to get some work done and worry about it later.

Toward the end of the day I hadn't really come up with a good way to approach her so I decided to just go with the straightforward method.

I stopped by her office around 4:00 to see if I could talk to her. I looked in and saw that she was on the phone. She held up her hand signaling to hold on a minute and that she was almost done with her call.

I stood in her doorway trying to be as unobtrusive as possible while she finished up her call. I did take the opportunity to check her out as subtly as possible. She was wearing a v-neck blouse that showed a fair expanse of very sexy cleavage. She had a nice sized rack that I guessed to be about 36D. She was a medium sized woman at about 5 feet 5 inches. She had long, slim legs that were shown off nicely in the skirt she was wearing. Overall she really had a gorgeous body. Slim, yet curvy shape and she had a way of carrying herself, when she wasn't angry, that was very sexy. She had dark brown hair that was just below her shoulders and she kept it pulled back in different types of clips and buns on different days. She really had that intelligent, sexy, business woman look that I have always found appealing. Her eyes were what really drew your attention, though. They were a startling clear blue that was absolutely beautiful on a woman with her dark hair and pale skin. The thing that ruined this beauty for me and for most men, I think is her personality. The one downside is that it is hard to get interested in even the most beautiful woman if you get a headache every time she opens her mouth. She really had an attitude that made her much less attractive than she should have been.