HER | Chance Sutton

00:44

Melissa

"How's work going?" Vanessa Jefferson, the woman in charge of the interns, asked me from my office's door.

"Hey, Mrs. Jefferson. Ehm, it's going", I trailed, not wanting her to know that I has worked all morning in a different unit of measure than the one that I was supposed to use. In other words, I did almost four hours worth of work wrong.

"Are you okay? You look tired, stressed" she asked as she sat on one of the chairs in front of my desk.

"I'm okay, I didn't sleep well last night and I kind of made some mistakes with the blueprints", I said not finding a good reason to lie about it.

"You haven't been sleeping good these past few days, is everything okay outside of work?" She asked concerned, she was such a mom.

"Uh, yeah", I tried to say with confident but failed miserably.

"I get it, you don't want to tell a strange woman your personal problems. You can leave early today, go back home and rest. You really need it", she said before standing up.

"Really? I just got here an hour ago", I said but grabbed my things anyways.

"You look like you need something good right now, and you're too young to be this stressed. Go home and sleep, see you tomorrow at the same time", she said before she left.

It's been four days since the fight with Chance, he still hasn't reached out to me. No texts, no calls, nothing.

Walking to the building's parking lot, I got to my car and took my phone out to put on some music and saw a text from Karen, my manager.

Karen:
Call me when you can.

So I called her.

"Hello"

"Hey, Karen. It's Melissa, what's up?" I asked her starting the jeep.

"Oh hey, are you free right now? I need you to come down to the office" she mindlessly said.

"Uh sure, I'll be down there in a bit", I said and she ended the call with a quick bye.

***

"What do you mean by that?"

"Yeah, the agency said that they've seen you a little bloated?" She tried to find the words.

"You're saying that I'm fat?" I asked dumbfounded.

"Not fat, but they don't want you weighting what you weight. You've gained a couple of pounds since fashion week"

"Well maybe I have, but it's because I've been working at the internship and I don't have much time to work out"

"You have to make up time to lose those pounds by the end of the next month then"

"And what if I don't?" I asked afraid of what she'd say.

"Then we'll have to find another agency and trust me, you won't find another one that pays you this well", she laughed.

"Why won't I find another?"

"You're latin, no one wants a latin to work for them" she laughed.

"Then why are you my manager?" I asked with tears forming in my eyes.

"Well, someone had to represent you", she carelessly said. "TXM doesn't pay you the same they pay a white model if you didn't know"

"I wouldn't know, you're the one that manages everything", I said closing my eyes. This isn't what I needed today, I wished that once I opened my eyes I had none of these problems.

After ending the meeting, like the petty person I am I started tweeting anything that came to my mind.

"I haven't work this hard all of these years just to be told that I'm not thin or not white enough to be paid the same as my peers"

I didn't care if I came out as immature, people needed to know that TMX management discriminates anyone who isn't white.

In the middle of my drive home, I got a call.

"What's up?" I answered the call.

"Hey babe, I read your tweet. I'm already on my way to your place with movies and food so we can have a girls day. Is that okay?"

"Yes please", I said and ended the call.

It wasn't long before I got to my place and ran into Tessa's arms and broke in tears. I really needed someone who wasn't mad at me and appreciated me for who I was.

I'm really grateful for her.

_________
I kind of inspired this chapter in something I read about a Venezuelan(i don't remember actually) model in europe who was being paid 22% or something less than her friend just for being latin.

Also, I wanted more drama.

Word count: 793

I know I asked this before but: What made you smile today?

-M