4.22 Glass Ceiling

“I have had it!” Fabian announced to nobody in particular. “I’ve been busting my butt for this job my whole life, and what’s it done for me? Promotions came up again today, and was my name on the list? Of course not!”

 

“You’re a good Crime Scene Modeler,” Zahra pointed out. “The office wouldn’t know what to do without you.”

“Says this year’s Sunset Valley nominee for the Simbel Prize in Creative Genetics,” Fabian growled.

“Hey now. It’s not my fault that I’m more successful than you are.” Zahra tried to be sensitive. She really did. It just took so much work.

Fabian just looked at his wife and sighed. “My boss is my best friend,” he said. “I ought to at least know what’s going on.”

 

Fabian invited Hank Goddard over for drinks and gnubb. “I thought you’d never ask!” Hank crowed on the phone. He was there in a New York minute.

Fabian poured out his frustration to his former partner and old friend. Hank listened sympathetically.

“Thing is,” he said what Fabian’s sob story was over. “I’m not your boss anymore. Didn’t you get the memo? I’m retiring.”

 

“You’re leaving?” Fabian asked, stunned.

“Yeah. The party is on Friday. I think you even gave money to the gift pool.”

“I… Um, that was you?”

 

“Yeah, so I’d love to help. Really I would. But I think you’re going to have to take this up with your new boss.”

“Who’s that?”

“Would you believe Malcolm Landgraab?”

“You’re kidding. He’s almost young enough to be my kid!”

Hank chuckled. “Yeah, but then again, so’s my girlfriend. Have you met her? She has the most amazing… tracts of land.”

 

Time was passing Fabian by. Almost all his peers had were on their way out. And here he was, stuck within shouting distance of the pinnacle of his career. He had built his entire life around this career, and he wasn’t going to give up without one heck of a fight.

And so he found himself buzzing the bell at the Landgraab estate, hat in hand.

 

“Hey there!” Malcolm said. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to you one on one since I took over Hank’s job. Nice of you to drop by! And don’t mind Darwin. He just likes to play in traffic, you know?”

Fabian looked at the grubby toddler playing in the driveway in his diaper. “Yeah,” he said. “Kids will be kids.”

 

Malcolm was an unassuming sort of fellow, but the money and the house he’d inherited from his business tycoon parents certainly weren’t. “Let me show you around,” he said as he led Fabian into the cavernous entry hall. “Don’t mind the dust. Beatriz is remodeling the place now that we’re engaged. You did hear that we’re engaged, didn’t you?”

“Sure!” Fabian said. “Congratulations!” He knew more than he would ever let on. Malcolm’s dramatic relationship with his live-in baby mama was the best gossip at the police station.

 

“So, I was wondering about how the promotions are being handed out now that Hank is gone,” Fabian asked.

Malcolm’s smile became a little forced. “Oh, that? Everything comes across my desk. I know your name is up. It’s just that you don’t really fit the image I’m trying to build for Sunset Valley’s Finest.”

Fabian was stunned. “Image? How am I bad for our image?”

Malcolm’s eyes dropped toward Fabian’s stomach, which was all the larger in the comfortable knit cardigan he wore on his days off. “You don’t inspire a lot of confidence is all. You don’t do field work. You don’t fight bad guys.”

“I’m a forensic analyst!” Fabian cried. “We don’t fight bad guys!”

“Is that my problem?” Malcolm demanded.

 

More following Malcolm around the mansion and pleading produced no better results.

“I”m sorry you feel that way,” Fabian said despondently. “I brought you a bottle of wine as an engagement gift. Please take it anyway.”

Malcolm’s eyes flashed. “It’s against the rules to bribe your superior,” he said coldly. “You know that, don’t you?”

“No offense intended!” Fabian said quickly. What WAS up with Malcolm, anyway? What had Fabian ever done to him?

“Now would you please get out of here so I can use the bathroom?”

Malcolm held the door open as Fabian said his goodbyes. “By the way,” Malcolm said offhandedly, “I’m going out for drinks with Adjo tomorrow night. I’ll give him your regards. Oh, didn’t you cheat on his sister?”

Oh.

“Yeah,” Fabian said. “Give him my love.” And he got out as fast as he could.

 

Zahra was quiet when he told her the story, which was a lot better than she could have been.

“It’s not fair!” he cried. And it wasn’t fair, right?

———-

This bug/glitch/something that has made Fabian almost unable to write reports has really kicked his career in the butt. I thought that once he got this far in his career, he wouldn’t need to deal with them anymore, but no — reports are a job criterion all the way to the end, and it’s a great big red unhappy face while everything else is great. He’s not getting any younger, and I’ve been starting to get nervous that he might not live long enough to get his LTW.

I’ve never used the “Ask for Promotion” option when talking to your boss, but Fabian is a social wizard. He’s at a charism and reward level where he starts relationships with people as friends. So no problem, right? Well, I hadn’t noticed that Hank wasn’t his boss anymore, and then Malcolm just DID NOT LIKE him, no matter what I did.

Poor Fabian. The one place where he should have been able to cash in on his social skills, and nada.

Oh, and by the way, Darwin Landgraab apparently spent his entire toddlerhood in the driveway. Fabian came by a second time to try to sweet-talk Malcolm and watched him age up while he was waiting for Malcolm to let him in. Great parenting.

Now, I KNOW I took a picture of Darwin aging up on the driveway, and I don’t have it. I just started to put together an Ada post, and I’m missing pictures from that too. I’m not missing any numbers in the Screenshot file names, but pictures I know I took are not there. Stuff from more recent sessions seems to be fine…. I guess there may be a bit more descriptive text than usual in a few upcoming posts :-p.

0 thoughts on “4.22 Glass Ceiling

  1. Ugh, I hate it when Sim bloggers use their whole story on descriptive text…shame on you for not having enough pictures! :-p How in the world is Hank Goddard even still alive?? Must be all the…vitamins…he takes. I'm pretty sure Malcom Landgraab is the nefarious bodiless preggo man in the Infectious Legacy. Nice job explaining why he doesn't like Fabian. 🙂

  2. Yeah, I'd never read a simblog that wasn't filled with pictures. It's horrifying :). Unfortunately, I have a hard time stringing this fiction together without all the guiding screen shots.

    Malcolm was such a jerk in this scene, and I've always thought he was so sweet. The reason he would have it in for Fabian came to me as I was writing the post. 🙂

  3. I go off-grid for a few days and you update?! And I missed it?! At least it's a nice treat to come back to.

    Poor Fabian. I had trouble getting Zeke's promotions a while back so I know how frustrating it can be. I do love that last picture of him throwing a tantrum.

    Darwin spending his toddler years in the driveway is just too funny! At least he seems fairly happy about it.

  4. Ha! What took you off the grid? I admit that this is the first post I've made in a long time where I didn't hear from either you or Amhranai in 24 hours. I was surprised how lonely that made me feel! 🙂 🙂

    I remember your trouble with Zeke. He just barely got to his LTW in time too, didn't he?

  5. We were over in Okanogan (eastern Washington, a 6 hour drive!) for a family reunion thing for my Hubby's family. There was no cell service and spotty internet at the hotel! It was weird being so out of touch. It was really interesting, though. They were one of the original pioneer families so we visited the homestead where his great-great-grandparents settled and learned all kinds of family history.

    I know I always wait for you to comment on my posts! Where is Amhranai, anyway? I miss her… I hope she's just busy with summer stuff.

    Yep, Zeke finally made his LTW and he's been an elder for ages. The glitches killed me this generation!

    How goes the unpacking?

  6. Commenting way back here — yeah, I really miss Amhranai. I hope she's OK. We're all net-friends, so there's no way to check up on her. I hope she just has a broken computer or something and will come back.

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