Fashion Plate: Chapter Two
Nov. 1st, 2025 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanI have just finished the wine and will now be moving on to the gin & tonic
I am now at the point where I only vaguely know what's going to happen, but if I keep drinking I'll figure it out, right? Right. Onward.
“Looklooklooklooklook!” Sarah was practically vibrating the next time she showed up in my cubicle. I raised my eyes from my computer and sighed the deep suffering sigh of the terminally bothered-by-coworkers.
“What am I looking at, Sarah?”
“I got a beauty patch!” She bent forward and presented her face for inspection.
I blinked at her. “A... a beauty patch?”
“Yes!” She shot upright and gave a little hop of excitement, an actual honest-to-God hop in my cubicle. A no-hopping zone if one ever existed. “@JenXc!te is promoting them on her site and they gave her a thousand to give away for free and I got one! Isn’t that exciting!”
I gave her face another once-over. Try as I might I could only find one thing on her face that was in any way different.
“Is it... is it supposed to look like a pimple?”
Sarah’s hand flew to her face. She looked completely offended. “It’s not finished yet. It takes a couple of days to finish developing. It’s unique to every person, so my beauty mark will be different than every body else’s.”
“Ah. OK. Well... good luck with that.”
Sarah stomped out of my cubicle. I went back to work and by the end of the day I had mostly fogotten about her “beauty patch”.
<>
The next time I saw Sarah was about a week later in the lunch room. I retreived my food out of the microwave and when I turned around I nearly dropped my plate.
She was standing near the coffee machine and chatting with a couple of the interns. When she saw me staring she gave me an arch look and tossed her hair over her shoulder. I forced my eyes away and stumbled back towards my desk. Halfway there I veered off course and headed to my boss’s desk. When our eyes met I made the agree upon “are you free gesture” and he took off his headphones.
“I don’t know how to preface this conversation so I’m just going ot out with it, have you seen Sarah.”
His face developed a pinched look. “Freedom of expression is supported in this company,” he said. “As long as it is not illegal, obsene, or contravenes the dress code, we are not at liberty to criticize how others chose to express themselves.”
I stared at him. “So you’ve had this conversation with HR already.”
“Yes I have.”
“So an intervention would not be considered appropriate then.”
His eye twitched. “No. Regardless of my... personal feelings about the matter, this is a workplace and we must handle our differences in a professional manner.”
“Right. OK. Right.”
I returned to my seat. Upon some reflection, I decided I really didn’t want that lunch after all.
<>
By the end of the month every woman in the office under 30 was sporting one of @JenXc!ite’s beauty patches.
I am now at the point where I only vaguely know what's going to happen, but if I keep drinking I'll figure it out, right? Right. Onward.
“Looklooklooklooklook!” Sarah was practically vibrating the next time she showed up in my cubicle. I raised my eyes from my computer and sighed the deep suffering sigh of the terminally bothered-by-coworkers.
“What am I looking at, Sarah?”
“I got a beauty patch!” She bent forward and presented her face for inspection.
I blinked at her. “A... a beauty patch?”
“Yes!” She shot upright and gave a little hop of excitement, an actual honest-to-God hop in my cubicle. A no-hopping zone if one ever existed. “@JenXc!te is promoting them on her site and they gave her a thousand to give away for free and I got one! Isn’t that exciting!”
I gave her face another once-over. Try as I might I could only find one thing on her face that was in any way different.
“Is it... is it supposed to look like a pimple?”
Sarah’s hand flew to her face. She looked completely offended. “It’s not finished yet. It takes a couple of days to finish developing. It’s unique to every person, so my beauty mark will be different than every body else’s.”
“Ah. OK. Well... good luck with that.”
Sarah stomped out of my cubicle. I went back to work and by the end of the day I had mostly fogotten about her “beauty patch”.
<>
The next time I saw Sarah was about a week later in the lunch room. I retreived my food out of the microwave and when I turned around I nearly dropped my plate.
She was standing near the coffee machine and chatting with a couple of the interns. When she saw me staring she gave me an arch look and tossed her hair over her shoulder. I forced my eyes away and stumbled back towards my desk. Halfway there I veered off course and headed to my boss’s desk. When our eyes met I made the agree upon “are you free gesture” and he took off his headphones.
“I don’t know how to preface this conversation so I’m just going ot out with it, have you seen Sarah.”
His face developed a pinched look. “Freedom of expression is supported in this company,” he said. “As long as it is not illegal, obsene, or contravenes the dress code, we are not at liberty to criticize how others chose to express themselves.”
I stared at him. “So you’ve had this conversation with HR already.”
“Yes I have.”
“So an intervention would not be considered appropriate then.”
His eye twitched. “No. Regardless of my... personal feelings about the matter, this is a workplace and we must handle our differences in a professional manner.”
“Right. OK. Right.”
I returned to my seat. Upon some reflection, I decided I really didn’t want that lunch after all.
<>
By the end of the month every woman in the office under 30 was sporting one of @JenXc!ite’s beauty patches.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-11-02 02:56 pm (UTC)Sometimes you just have to wait until the characters tell you want is going to happen.