My Kind of Perfect

2nd ツ

2nd ツ

"Why are you late?" Bridget exclaimed, her eyes twitching in anger. I should probably tell her that she should change whatever eye cream brand she was using.

"My bad. I'll get on it," I replied, trying to sound a bit contrite.

"Go inside, they're waiting for the presentation." Bridget pushed me inside the conference room. Taking things with her own hands, eh?

I straightened my walk. As I got inside the conference room, I heard my audience's disapproving chatters. I ignored it and headed my way; I evidently knew that they would be shocked once they saw my perfect presentation.

I connected my laptop to the video cable and searched for the presentation that I made for today. Presentation 01. Open. I cleared my throat, looking up to face my audience. I was quite surprised that they all had friendly faces now. A moment ago, they had appeared like they wanted to eat me alive.

Then suddenly, one started laughing. It was a quiet chortle, but audible enough in a room wherein everyone was keeping their silence in place. And for some reason, one VIP's soft laugh was followed after by another. Soon, the rest of the attendees were all doing the same thing.

What were they laughing about? It couldn't possibly be me.

"Yes, um, good morning," I started off with my presentation, ignoring them. But instead of containing in whatever they were laughing about, everyone continued laughing and disregarded me altogether. Rude people. And here I was thinking that I was working with a bunch of professionals. I looked around for my partner, Margaret, at the far side of the room. She pointed to the white screen behind me.

Huh?

I turned back, and my eyes widened in shock when I saw a photo of myself from years ago. It was actually taken from my ballet recital. It was the one wherein I tripped and was about to hit the floor. Embarrassing moments in life. Instances when I still hadn't learned that I was born for perfection. And I had my mom to thank for that—for convincing me to do her a presentation covering how I grew up through the years, so she could show it to her support group. And she didn't fail to mention that I should include that specific photo.

But how did it end up here? Maybe it got mixed up with my work. I always named my photos 01, 02, 03 and so on, as well as my presentations. I must have included it in the wrong folder.

Shit.

I hurriedly pressed the exit button and started looking for the one I'd prepared for this meeting. After frantically searching through all the files—meaning, opening up some other embarrassing files along the way, before realizing that I should have unplugged the cable first—my presentation was nowhere to be found. That couldn't be. If not here, where else would my presentation go?

I gave it a thought. And slowly, as if speaking to me carefully, the fear that I had accidentally erased it crept inside my mind. I quickly, and anxiously, searched for it in the recycle bin. And that was when I remembered that I'd emptied it at the coffee shop this morning.

When did I make such a mistake? And why now? This was the turning point of my life. I had been working hard on making everything fall into their rightful place for years.

Without the presence of the stupid presentation in my empty recycle bin, I pulled the video cable from my laptop and walked out of the room in total shame. These people were VIPs. My VIPs.

"I'm sorry." It was all I could say before I got out of the room.

My boss was waiting for me. By now, she must have already heard of everything that had happened inside. And her face told me that she wasn't pleased at all. I didn't blame her, though. Why would she be? I wasn't pleased with myself, either.