Read Online The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen - Free Book Online

marshaling my strength until I was ready.
    “Hey!” Matt was standing just outside the door. He motioned us over. Mason was up in the DJ’s booth, speaking into a microphone while everyone crowded together on the floor beneath him. Cheryl was near the front of the pack, a broad smile stretched across her face. Matt was standing a few feet to the side of everyone, so he had a view of both Mason and the crowd.
    “What did I miss?” I whispered.
    “Nothing yet,” Matt said.
    Mason continued talking. “. . . really a tough decision for us, one of the toughest we’ve ever had to make . . .”
    God, just get to it, I silently begged him.
    “. . . exceptional work this year and every year since she joined our agency . . .”
    “Did Mason say why he was looking for me?” I asked Matt.
    He shook his head.
    “How did he look?” I whispered.
    Matt inhaled slowly and met my eyes. “I’m not sure,” he said. “Something seems . . . off.”
    I shut my eyes and prayed a simple, fervent prayer:
Please
. The tension was unbearable. My stomach started to roil again.
    “. . . she put the cherry on top today. Not only did Cheryl win the Gloss account, but she so impressed Stuart Fenstermaker that he phoned a little while ago and announced he is entrusting all of his advertising to Richards, Dunne, and Krantz. Not just for Gloss but for all seven of his companies. Cheryl brought in a fifty-million-dollar account this morning while everyone else was getting a latte. Not bad for a day’s work.”
    No
.
    “. . . pleased to announce Cheryl Davis is our new vice president. Cheryl, will you come up here . . .”
    Matt was standing beside me. His hand was back on myshoulder: “Deep breath,” he whispered into my ear. “Inhale slowly.”
    I followed his directions like a robot. This was a bad dream. In a minute I’d wake up and I’d lift my head from my desk and see Donna’s note.
    Heads were swiveling around. Were they looking for me, to see how I’d react? I instinctively took a step back, behind Matt.
    Cheryl accepted the microphone from Mason and stood there beaming while applause rained down like confetti all around her. The disco lights shot tiny rainbows of color on her bare, golden shoulders and upturned face. She’d never looked more beautiful.
    “Mason’s heading this way,” Matt said. He spoke slowly and gently, like you do to someone who’s been in a car accident:
Do you know your name? Do you know who you are?
    “Do you want me to get you a drink?” Matt asked.
    “Thank you so much,” Cheryl began.
    “Don’t leave me,” I begged Matt.
    “I’m right here,” he said.
    “Cheryl’s the vice president?” Pammy said, wrinkling her nose. Her voice was too loud, and it reverberated inside my head. “Are you both vice presidents?”
    My mind slowed down like a mechanical toy whose battery was running out. I could barely understand what everyone was saying. Their mouths were moving, but their words made no sense.
    “Lindsey.”
    It was Mason. He stood in front of me, still running his hand over his head.
    “God, I’m so sorry. Can we just move over here and talk for a second?” he said. I nodded mutely. It took every ounce of my concentration to lift up my feet one at a time and follow him to a corner. It was the same corner where he’d toldme I’d won the vice presidency. The same beanbag chairs. The same Lava lamps. How could it all be the same, as if the world hadn’t folded in on itself and flipped everything upside down?
    “Fenstermaker called fifteen minutes ago,” Mason said. He was looking at my left shoulder instead of into my eyes. “He offered us all his business. Cheryl must’ve really done a number on him. Then Cheryl threatened to jump to another agency and take his accounts with her if she didn’t get the vice presidency. She forced our hand, so we had to have an emergency vote. She beat you out by one vote.”
    I nodded again, like it all made