The Quiet Type

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Lily was quite excited on her first day at work. Why not? She was so exceptional in school that she didn't have to search for jobs. Jay Nova, a top-tier marketing agency specializing in making brand campaigns for high-end businesses, was just one of the many options she had for an easy-get job.
On her arrival we'll, it wasn't what she expected; nobody cared who she was or how bright she was.

“This will be your partner, he will show you the ropes around here and everything you need to know," the manager introduced Lily to Brian. Brian was quite good at his job and brought Lily up to speed quickly, and in no time, they got their first project. “You work solo on it, and get me your work for review tomorrow at 2pm on the dot," Brian told Lily.

Lily was so happy she got to work immediately and stayed up all night making sure her work was perfect.

The next day, she brought her work to Brian; he opened it and started going through it; he didn't even finish before closing and dumping it to the side. “Lily, this is decent, but we would go with this,” he said as he gave Lily a copy of his work.

Lily's first thought wasn't anger that the hard work she built over the night was tossed away, instead, she thought “Wow he must be outstanding because that was one of my best works and he couldn't go through it completely," she was even excited to see his masterpiece and learn something better than she did. She started going through the copy; the first page was horrible; she couldn't even compare it to her bad work.

“Sorry, but I think it would be better to go with mine; there are some mistakes and loopholes here, like…” She was about to show him errors in his work when she noticed he was giving her a killer stare and stopped in her tracks.

Then he gave her an evil smile and said “Who is teaching who here? Let’s get one thing straight. I’m the expert here. You’re here to observe. Got it?”

Lily decided to stay quiet because she promised herself she wouldn't show off and come off as proud, especially to her superior.

They did the presentation, and it went well; more like he was lucky no one spotted his plenty of loopholes.

The boss turned to Lily. “Well, do you have anything to add?" Just like everyone the boss understood what was going on,

“She is the smart quiet type," Brian said before Lily could even open her mouth to reply. She now understood him; he wanted to keep her quiet; maybe he saw how bright she was and was scared she could outshine him.

The next two projects were the same, he would ask her to do some work even though he knew he would dispose of it, she would do a better job, he would dismiss her work and opinions and make sure she was quiet during the presentation.

They got their fourth project from Dune & co, a huge cosmetics company that wanted to rebrand and move to a younger market.

It went the normal way, and the presentation was going well till an exec from Dune & co asked, “This was really good and bold. The whole thing just looks nice, but I haven't heard how you plan on really hooking the audience emotionally. I don't see any emotional hook,”

That was a loophole in his work that he failed to cover, and as usual Lily got it covered in her own work. Everyone looked to Brian expecting a smart response, even Lily who knew there wasn't any.

Brian froze, he looked at Lily but she looked back like she didn't understand a thing. He needed saving but Lily wanted him to plead for it. He tugged at his collar while Lily fiddled with her pen undisturbed.

“Please,” he said as he gestured for her to take the light.

She smiled "Oh, me?... I thought I was on mute”

Everyone gave a light laugh to her response.

She flipped her pen as she slid into the presentation and dominated it. Everyone was impressed with the way she killed it. When she was done everyone applauded, even Brian applauded with heavy hands.

After the presentation, the boss told them to wait behind for a quick chat; he knew everything that was going on.

“Good work, Lily; maybe you can walk your partner through and teach him some tricks while taking the lead on the dune campaign,” the boss said before leaving.

There was a shift of power, and Brian was ashamed; Lily couldn't care less as she flipped her pen and walked away smiling, victorious.