My Career Was Just Taking Off

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.-Oprah Winfrey

It was a gorgeous day in October 2006.  I had just been promoted as the director of my department.  I couldn’t have been happier.  I had proved to my boss that he had made a great investment when he recruited me from across the country.  I had been with this company for a little over a year.  I was the youngest and newly hired person on the team.  I took a tremendous pay cut just to prove myself and standing in my new corner office reaffirmed my belief that I made the right decision to accept their offer and move out west.  I strolled around my office softly caressing the new micro fiber chair in the corner next to the beautiful artwork hanging on the wall. The chair that my boss would eventually love to sit in while he was hiding from the world.  The chair he would casually slump in as we talked about travel, marketing and client referrals. I walked closer to my desk and smelt the flowers that were placed there by a co-worker who was proud of me.  Stargazers!  My favorite!  Oh how he knew me so well.  I took a seat in the new “executive” chair behind my desk and twirled around in pure joy.  I wanted to share this moment with someone.  Someone who would understand the feelings of career success.  I decided to phone Mr. Money.

 

Mr. Money and I had been dating exclusively by this time.  3 months to be exact.  He had been supportive so far.  He listened as I spoke about how I could make positive changes in my department.  How I would place trust in my co-workers and give credit where credit was do.  He joked about how one day my boss wouldn’t be able to afford me like he could.  I never quite got that joke.  But in his mind my boss wasn’t taking me to Rome & Paris. That’s where we were when he said that “joke” the first time. He had taken me there in September for my birthday.  I quickly pushed that thought away, picked up the receiver and dialed his land lane.  After 3 rings he picks up with the usual cheery “Hey hey hey”.  An instant smile was brought to my face.  I explained to him that I was in my new office and feeling indisputably happy.  He congratulated me with sincerity, said a few more nice words and told me had to run.  Something important had just come up but we would talk later.  We said a rushed goodbye and I went on about my day.

 

Later that night he called me when I got home.  We conversed more about my new role and how I would be traveling around the country representing my company.  First stop was Honolulu in 2 weeks.  I had invited him along for the ride.  Partly because I wanted to share this trip with him and because I wanted to somehow prove to him that I was different.  Different from the women he had dated before.  Who all at the time of their break-ups told him they only wanted him for his money anyway.  Or so he said.   I wanted to confirm that I could and would hold my financial weight in our relationship.  So I extended the invitation and he accepted. 

 

Fast forward two weeks and we land in Hawaii.  The first stop for me was checking into the Ala Moana Hotel, changing into my professional clothes and hauling ass to the Hawaii Convention Center across the street.  I spend the next 6 hours there convincing potential clients that our company has all the cutting edge resources to get the job done.  I’m nervous but thrilled.  I never knew I was such a people person and persuasive saleswoman.  By the end of that days convention I phoned my boss, told him the total numbers of sales I made and cringed while I waited for his response.  He was amazingly impressed at my numbers.  No one in my department had ever made that many sales in one shot.  Needless to say I could not stop grinning. 

 

So, I slip on my flats and make my way back to the hotel where Mr. Money is waiting.  We decide to take a tour of the city and grab dinner.  I tell him that I’d like to see a Luau since I’ve never been here before.  To my astonishment he abruptly shouts “No! Those things are stupid, big fucking waste of time”.  Now, this was the first of the many times he would scream at me for saying the most innocent of things.  I didn’t even know what to say, so I said nothing.  I spent the rest of that evening wondering what the hell I did to set him off.  Was I acting too happy about my great day?  Over dinner he sensed that I was a little too silent for his liking.  I assured him that I was cool but that I definitely didn’t appreciate him yelling at me earlier.  Guess that didn’t sit too well with him either as he gave me the silent treatment for the rest of the night. 

 

That was the first sign. I should have ended it then.