Work Text:
Maddie thinks they were flats once.
There’s a distinct memory in her head of the job interview. For most of it, Valentina was sitting down so her height was impossible to tell. But once she got up, Maddie could tell that she was taller than Valentina, if only by a little bit.
And that singular inch was infuriating for her soon-to-be boss. All because Madeline had the audacity to be one inch taller- couldn’t just know her place and be, at the very least, the same height as Valentina.
It’s not even like these things usually frustrated her. She was a businesswoman that knew how to operate well and usually considered herself to be above petty envies. There was tons of employees taller than her (admittedly, men were hard to beat in that department) and she seldom cared about the other female employees being taller. No- but she cared about Madeline- or just “Maddie”- with her perpetually lost glasses and never-neat ponytail. Valentina had told herself time and time again that she’d taken in Madeline out of pity, that no-one else would’ve tolerated her absent mindedness, and time and time again Valentina was proven wrong. It’s the one thing she hates the most.
Madeline’s quite smart, actually. Valentina can’t deny that. So there had to be other reasons for her irrational hatred.
Obviously, she only gets mad when Madeline talks to other coworkers because she’s wasting valuable time at work. It is definitely not because they call her Maddie, share interests and laughter, and engage in a certain type of workplace banter that Valentina’s never going to be familiar with.
So Valentina mistakes it for jealousy. Yes, that’s right, it may be hard to accept but in the end she’s only jealous of Madeline. She can be tall too. She can wear two-inch heels and one-up Madeline. She can talk to her employees as well and schedule some more parties on the workplace calendar to establish a friendlier reputation.
That theory on her obsession collapses when she realises that she doesn’t want anybody calling her “Val” or “Vali”. That’s plain insulting, and far too casual for what she wants her relationship to be with her subordinates.
And in the end, Valentina is forced to acknowledge the possibility of attraction.
It’s like uncovering something old and dusty. Suppressed for years, and only dug deeper by the constant babbling of her family telling Val that she’d never be truly happy without a husband. Val’s always been studious, social and ambitious but it’s never been enough to stop her parents from asking when the grandchildren are coming. She’s never disappointed her family before. Up until recently, all she worked for was to get them into a better position. Husband or no husband, it’s a top priority to keep them happy and give them the lives that they deserve. Now that things have settled down considerably, though- now that Valentina can confidently call herself a success story- it feels like every one of them is watching with curious eyes, waiting for a man to magically enter her life. As a teenager, she’d begrudgingly accepted that it would have to happen someday. As a young adult, she repressed that idea entirely. Now she’s becoming more and more sure that she doesn’t want to marry a man at all, even if it pleases her family.
Because marrying a woman certainly won’t.
Yet, after weeks of watching from the sidelines, Valentina abandons her past suspicions and faces the fact that dating Madeline is an endeavour worth pursuing. It takes a long time to think about what to say, how to be blunt but not forceful and reassure her that she won’t lose her (admittedly well deserved) position if things go astray.
Finally, Valentina finds herself in those two-inch heels and click-clacks down the corridor with intention. As she pauses before the door of Madeline’s office, thoughts of what her family would say fly through her head.
For once in her life, Valentina realises that she’s determined to disappoint them.