A Spanking Basket

Busted!

Brittany Jonze glided smoothly through the large open bullpen that was the physical-as well as creative center-of Brilliant! Advertising. She had been with the firm for nine years and was on her way to partnership but eschewed a glassy office along the interior wall to keep her desk among the twenty other desks and tables carefully scattered about. Strategically positioned couches and comfortable chairs coupled with low partitions of curving walls of glass block directed the flow. Everything random was by design.

Whether measured by client list, billings or awards, B!A was the top agency in the City and certainly the one everyone wanted to work with. Or for. They were high-tech, tightly run and paid very well for the very best people.

Annie Lemon was a typical new hire. Bright, recruited right out of college, what she lacked in sophistication and experience she more than made up for made up for in enthusiasm and an uncanny ability to read a customer's wants-even when they weren't sure what they were. Brittany had decided to hire Annie as her assistant within fifteen minutes of meeting her.

Right now though, as Brittany approached her desk, Annie appeared to be in a dither about to graduate to a full-blown tizzy. Brittany gave her space knowing it best to let her work things out herself and if she couldn't, she'd come to her. It took no time at all.

"Hssst!" She whispered loud enough for everyone near to hear. "It's gone!"

"What's gone?"

"The Hanson proposal-the whole thing! The new deck, the talking points, the budget, everything!"

Brittany shrugged. "Pull the backup and touch it up."

Annie hissed the two words she didn't want to say aloud, "No backup."

"No backup?!"

The girl shook her head slightly while staring at the screen as if she had missed it on her pristine desktop. Or that it might just appear from the cosmic black hole it had slipped into. She felt hot, then cold then a prickling between her shoulder blades. She didn't have to turn around to know her boss was staring holes into the back of her head. Jesus, the lecture was coming-and she dreaded it.

"Didn't we just talk about backing up daily....hourly when you're working on something hot? Didn't we talk about that...when, Thursday?"

"Yes", she said in an impossibly small voice that she hated to hear coming out of her mouth.

"And you said, what was it?...Let's see...'You just couldn't think about running backups when you're 'in the zone' ", she made the big air quotes behind Annie's head but put enough inflection into the phrase to know that she could feel them. "Are you in the zone now?"

"This was no white paper, this was no blog post, this was no brainstorming session. This is a proposal that will mean thousands of dollars in billings that was entrusted to you when you're not even out of your probationary period. Entrusted to you. By me. By Carol" she waved her hand at the agency head's office at the corner of the room.

Inside the glass box Carol had her back to the room gazing at the skyline outside the window. She was on the phone, her sandaled feet propped on the credenza. Her feathered blonde tresses fell back over her collar as she leaned back a study in relaxed informality.

"Turn around and look at me..."

Annie spun her chair slowly but couldn't lift her eyes from Brittany's shoes. God, she was going to get fired. She was going to get fired right now and would have to clear out her desk and walk out of this big room that she had already felt a part of.

She wanted to cry but didn't dare. Everyone was so excited when she got the job here-most couldn't believe it and a couple counseled her against taking it. There would be too much pressure, was she ready to play at that level...Now, a scant three months later she would have to tell them all that they were right. Dammit! And it was so stupid.