The CEO was clearly livid. Jane realized it the second she stepped into his corner office.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" she asked anxiously, taking a seat in the leather chair across from his mahogany desk.
"Yes!" the CEO snapped, straining to keep his voice from reaching a shout. He grabbed a stack of printed photos and shoved them under her nose. "Take a look at this garbage I found online, Jane. Do you happen to recognize the woman in these pictures?"
Jane, of course, instantly recognized the photos from twenty years ago. They were shots of her on a beach, wearing a string bikini.
"Yes, I recognize them..." she nodded, offering a self-conscious smile. "That's me. But that was a lifetime ago."
"Oh, so it is you?" The CEO practically ground his teeth. "You, the Vice President of a government contracting firm, posing like this and splashing it all over the internet? In your opinion, is this appropriate professional conduct?"
"I wasn't the one who posted them," Jane said meekly. "My daughter did. And like I said, those photos were taken nearly twenty years ago. Everyone takes pictures like that when they're young."
"What does it matter when they were taken?!" The CEO fixed his deputy with a heavy, judgmental stare. "Do you have any idea what the Board will think when they find out my VP is involved in this kind of nonsense?"
"But I'm telling you, it wasn't me, it was my daughter!" Jane tried to justify herself again.
"Whose daughter?"
"Mine."
"Exactly. Your daughter, not mine. People are going to say that instead of doing your job, you're indulging in narcissism! I did some reading online—female narcissism is a personality disorder where women can't evaluate themselves objectively and display excessive vanity and arrogance. And you, meanwhile, are the Vice President. My Vice President! Do you realize the mess we're in? You're admiring your own body, which implies I'm condoning it—or worse, maybe secretly admiring it too? It's a scandal! It's..."
"I had no idea you'd look into it so deeply," Jane said, looking flustered. "My daughter just posted them on her page so people could compare our figures."
"Whose figures?"
"Hers and mine. Look, that's her in this photo." Jane pointed a finger at one of the prints.
"Wait, that's your daughter?" the CEO said, sounding surprised. "That's... strange."
"What's strange?"
"I thought that was you, too."
"No, that's my girl."
"Are you really that similar?"
"Identical," Jane said proudly. "So, whose photos did you like better—mine or my daughter's?"
"Yours... Wait!" The CEO caught himself. "Stop trying to confuse me! What do you mean, whose photo do I like? My Vice President has no right to be flaunting her body all over the place!"
"So, you didn't like them..."
"Stop talking nonsense."
"Well, your wife liked them. She gave those photos a thumbs-up. She has a great figure herself, by the way. And so do you, for that matter."
"What?" The CEO stared at Jane, completely lost.
"I'm saying I liked that photo of you shirtless, too."
"Silence!" It looked like the CEO was about to implode. "Jane! What on earth are you playing at? How dare you? What are you even talking about?"
"The photo of you when you were young, in the speedo. I gave you a like, too."
"Where? When?"
"A while ago. Look, don't get so worked up. I'll show you. Don't you ever check your daughter's social media?"
"What does my daughter have to do with this?"
"Everything. You know our daughters follow each other. They've been showing off photos of what their parents looked like back in the day. It's a trend; they think it's funny. It's just how they entertain themselves."
Jane pulled out her phone, and within a minute, the CEO was staring at a photo of his younger, tanned self in trendy, tight swim trunks, standing on a beach with his wife.
"Who?! Who put this on the internet?!" the CEO finally wailed.
"I told you, your daughter," Jane shrugged. "When I saw your photo, I figured it was okay for mine to be seen, too. By the way, have you seen the Secretary of Defense's photos?"
"The Secretary?" the CEO asked, suddenly wary. "Which Secretary?"
"Ours, of course. You can find anything online these days! If you go to his daughter's page, you'll stop being surprised pretty quickly. I can text you the link if you want."
"Uh-huh..." the CEO nodded, looking completely bewildered. "Yeah... do that."
Jane spent a few seconds tapping on her phone and then said, "Done. You should have it. May I go?"
"Go... Get back to work..."
Jane stood up calmly and walked out of the office.
The CEO immediately reached for his phone.
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