Free Nerd Girl by Sue Lee

though, he and Catherine had worked with one another at some point in the past. All I needed to do was ask Catherine who was in the picture, and if it was Ryan, I would have his last name. Bingo!
    Something held me back. I started clamming up at the thought of actually seeing him again. What if he didn’t want to see me again? What if his attraction to me had all been in my mind? What if I was better off not knowing for sure? I was starting to feel flustered and distracted. As all these thoughts whirled around in my head, Catherine noticed my confusion and frowned.
    “Don’t worry,” she said reassuringly.
    Crap. She had mistaken my distraction over Ryan as concern over my new job responsibilities.
    “I have faith in you. You’ll be fine. I wouldn’t have hired you if I didn’t think you were capable of all of this.”
    I smiled back at her tentatively, not admitting the real reason for my distraction. Before I could sort out my thoughts, she stood.
    “Let’s have you meet the rest of the team. We can walk down the halls and I can do some introductions.”
    I tried to push Ryan out of my thoughts. Focus, Julia. You don’t have to ask Catherine about him now. The picture wasn’t going anywhere. I could ask her later or in our next 1:1 meeting. I knew Anna was going to think I chickened out and I guess I did, but oh well. I liked to think it wasn’t so much that I was afraid to know who he was, but that I was merely postponing the fact until I was ready to better handle the knowledge of who he might be. Besides, I had to concentrate on my new job. By the sound of it, I would have plenty to keep me busy for the next several weeks.
    For the next twenty minutes, I was introduced to various folks in the organization, including a re-introduction to the rest of Catherine’s immediate team. Catherine had four direct reports, including myself. Two of them I had already met during the interviews and I’d met Vivek this morning. As we continued our way down the Los Angeles hallway, a tall, blond woman headed towards us, smiling when she saw Catherine. Stopping the woman, Catherine took the opportunity to introduce us.
    “Stephanie, I’d like to introduce to you a new member of my team. This is Julia Hayes. She’ll be working with our digital marketing assets for the Portals 8 campaign cookbook.”
    Stephanie shook my hand firmly and smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Julia. I know Catherine’s been searching for a while to fill this position. From what she’s told me about you, I think you’ll be great. Welcome to the team.”
    “Thanks. I’m excited for the opportunity.” I was surprised to hear that Catherine had already spoken to Stephanie about me. I knew from the MS GAL that Stephanie was two levels above Catherine, with only two levels between her and the CEO. Executive seniority here was stacked based on how many levels they were from the CEO. Stephanie Wheeler was the Corporate Vice President of Digital Marketing and Advertising at Megasoft. I had obviously heard of her, but had never met her. Frankly, she had a reputation for being a total bitch. She looked like she couldn’t be more than forty or forty-five at the most. That was impressive.
    I was always surprised to see so many young executives at this company. Many of our GMs (General Managers) and Corporate VPs were barely over forty. However, to see a woman in this position was a powerful statement to the twenty-five percent of this company that was female. Even at MS, where women equal that of their male counterparts in intelligence and ambition, there was still a glass ceiling. My own observation was that the women who did make it to the top were probably better than their male counterparts. I thought women had to prove themselves that much harder to be able to compete in a sea of alpha males. Right or wrong, though, higher up women always had the reputation of being bitchy, intense, and fierce competitors; it was a total double standard.