What Pretty Girls Are Made Of by Lindsay Jill Roth Read Free Book Online

tempting snacks to all of her meetings with Patti, encouraging her to nosh away her Weight Watchers success.
    As I waited patiently for Ira and Patti to join me in the conference room, I overheard Keira on the phone in the next office and listened in, hoping for clues.
    “Exceeded her goal, actually,” Keira said proudly. “We had a nine-million-dollar weekend—she was on fire. This is fabulous, but you know what happens when you exceed your goals—QVC sets higher ones. Look, we are all very—” And then the door shut.
    You’re all very what? Oh, man. It sounded promising. But unscheduledmeetings with senior staff made me nervous. I continued to wait, thinking about what I’d be doing if I wasn’t at SSC. Ten thirty in the morning—hopefully prepping for an audition but most likely just starting that morning’s Sex and the City tour: almost at Carrie’s West Village apartment, and I’d probably have answered multiple questions about where to buy the real Dominique Ansel Cronuts. Soho. And they’re worth every calorie.
    “Sorry for the delay,” Ira said as he took the seat across from mine at the conference table. Patti came in shortly after.
    “We have an important matter to discuss with you, Alison,” Patti said.
    “Two, actually,” chimed in Ira, giving Patti a smirk. Patti’s bewildered look told me that she was in the dark about the other matter to which Ira was referring.
    Patti broke the ice.
    “Well, I’ll start then,” she said, visibly confused. “Alison, after only two months, we are extremely happy with your work here so far, and we think, or rather we know, that it’s time to give you more responsibility in the company.”
    I guess Sally had moved on after the face chart incident, though I hadn’t spoken with her much over the past few days.
    “You’re smart and savvy, creative and intuitive, and we would like you to use those qualities to take on digital media responsibilities: creating a page on the Facebook, a Tweeter profile, and a ViewTube Network thing, to name a few. You know how to do that, right?” Patti asked, without pausing for an answer.
    Oh boy, this woman is a dinosaur. But a complimentary one!
    “We really need your help to create platforms to grow that business. And we believe you should handle our entire in-house PR and be the point person for our outside PR company. This will take some work off your coworkers’ plates and can be part of your new digital media realm. You will also work with Zeke, the head of Hotbox, our web company, to grow our Internet business.”
    “Thanks,” I replied, not expecting to have heard what she’d just told me. Digital media realm? I thought.
    “Does this mean I’ll no longer be assisting Sally?” I asked, half hopefully.
    “Sorry, kid,” Ira said, overlapping with Patti, who was less apologetic. “This is in addition to being Sally’s assistant,” she said firmly.
    Just as I opened my mouth to ask title and salary questions, Patti added, “While we can’t give you a raise, since you’ve been working with us for only two months or so, we can aim for a title change at some point later in the year. Things are very iffy with the economy and our sales right now, and Sally has put a freeze on salary increases, promotions, and bonuses. So you’ll just have to be all right with that. But congratulations!”
    Congratulations for what? Increasing my responsibilities but not my title or pay?
    “Thanks, Patti. I’m flattered, especially since I’ve only been with the company for a short time. I look forward to the challenge, but I need to know that we can meet about a raise and title change in three months. This is a lot more for me to do and certainly warrants a greater salary than I’m receiving.”
    I saw Patti meet Ira’s eye, and there was a pause. Each was waiting for the other to answer.
    “I’ll speak with Sally,” Ira said. “But it’s fine for us to meet in three months to revisit this question.” It better