She clutched her fists as she entered the room. A soothing background music was playing inside. She could hear her heart beat over the music, remixing it in her mind. She didn’t dare to look up. She was just too scared. Instead, she fixed her gaze at the grey square tiles on the floor, making sure she stepped into the centre of each one as she walked along. “Mira, MIRA wait!” A faint voice emerged from a distance. “This was the worst time to make conversation. She decided to ignore the voice, drowning it by listening to her heart beat closely.

The thought of a red chilly dunked in a salt-rimmed glass of an ice-cold martini. Her mouth watered. The only think that could distract her mind was a glass of that well-mixed cocktail.

Her ears turned brick red as the voice returned, closer this time, she could hear the person huffing and puffing, clearly they had put in effort to get her attention. “Oh, hi!” She said, so softly that she couldn’t hear herself. Clearing her throat, she said again with a slight squeak, “OH! Hi!”

She was looking into the eyes of her boss, “Don’t take it to heart if you don’t get the promotion.”

His one sentence made her heart beat faster. “Thank you, Sir,” she said, trying hard not to go red in the face while saying so.

She entered the board room, watching her super boss size her up and down as she walked in.

“You know, you’re just a pretty face. And we need some good lookers in this company. So let’s make this fast. You will get a 5% appraisal and no promotion for this year. I have tried really hard but the company thinks you’re newly married and will get pregnant soon. So we can’t really invest so much in you.”

She stared at him unbelievingly. 

He smiled.

She smiled back.

“I didn’t come in here for my appraisal. I came to give you my resignation, Sir. Thank you for all the lessons you’ve taught me.”

She slammed a crisp sheet of paper on the desk and walked right out of the room.

That evening she sat by her favourite bar sipping on the spicy salt-rimmed martini and thinking about her fears.

Today, she had faced one of them. She had stood up for herself, her work and her ambitions.

And nothing felt better than that.