Mona Lisa Smile
By IridescentGentleman
Chapter 2 — Monday Afternoon
Lisa rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. The young businesswoman was not having the day she had hoped for. Lisa had never bought into “the Mondays”—Monday was a day she could put the previous week behind her and start fresh. But she had found it unusually difficult to focus today. And she had tried everything she could think of to counteract her struggles managing the work plan for the week. She switched from her regular coffee to decaf. She’d turned on relaxing music. She’d put her office IM status to “Busy.” But no matter what Lisa did, she always found her eyes migrating back to the small mirror on her desk. Back to the silver necklace she had put on. Something was off about it. Something she couldn’t quite place. She tried to avoid it, but by the late morning Lisa was frustrated. She was annoyed at her lack of progress. She finally put an away message up and looked into the mirror. Maybe she would find what was bothering her if she just gave in for a bit.
That was when she saw it. Lisa didn’t know how she didn’t notice it sooner. She was always such a perfectionist. But there it was—a blemish on her right cheek. Something her basic layer of makeup hadn’t covered. That was no good. She reached into her purse for her makeup kit. She looked over the shades of blush and settled on the darkest—a dark, rich tan shade. She applied it to the blemish, confident that it wouldn’t be visible under her foundation. But another look into the mirror revealed a new problem. The blemish she had covered was no longer visible, but the orange-ish brown makeup stood out on her otherwise conservative styling. She looked at her face in the mirror again, scowling. Lisa didn’t care about looking “attractive”, but she looked unprofessional with a dark spot on it. She quickly weighed her options. Something screamed to Lisa that she couldn’t leave her face like this. She locked her workstation and grabbed her purse, making her way to the ladies’ room.
Lisa found her way to the restroom and locked the door behind her. She had picked one of the single units, giving her access to the sink and the mirror. With a few alcohol pads, Lisa removed all the makeup from her face. As she did so she saw more blemishes. More imperfections. More things that weren’t perfect about her. That clashed with the beautiful silver chain and brilliant pink pendant hanging around her neck. With her face now bare, Lisa began to liberally apply the foundation that she had initially covered her unsightly blemish with. The young businesswoman hadn’t caked on makeup like this since her early days in middle school when she didn’t know better. But for whatever reason she found herself compelled to layer it on.
The occasional knock at the door did nothing to stop her. With the foundation applied, she noticed a new problem—her face was almost monochrome. It needed more color. Lisa pulled out her eyeliner. She drew dark rims around her eyes, matching it with mascara on her lashes. But it wasn’t enough contrast. Lisa dug in her purse and found nothing else to add to herself, though. She stomped her foot, frustrated at herself for not preparing. As she sifted, though, she felt her phone buzz with a text message—only the latest of several.
Lisa opened the text messages and uttered a curse. “Fuck,” she swore. It was 12:17. Clark had been asking where she was for the work lunch. How had she let herself get distracted from preparing for her presentation? Or worse, how had she let herself spend an hour in the bathroom applying makeup when there was work to do? And how much ruder could it get than leaving her best friend waiting for her at a lunch table? Lisa quickly put her makeup away and emerged from the bathroom, dashing towards the breakroom. She arrived panting, gasping an apology at Clark. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I got distracted and…” she shook her head. “I didn’t realize the time.”
Clark, for his part, stared at his friend with some bewilderment. It wasn’t unlike Lisa to get caught up in her work, but he hadn’t even recognized her when she approached him. Clark saw Lisa’s face caked in dark foundation, dark enough that it formed a line just beneath her jaw. The only break in it was the thick eyeliner and mascara that caked her hazel eyes. “Lisa,” he said. “It’s not a problem but…” Clark weighed saying something. It was so unlike her to wear this kind of makeup that it concerned him. But it wasn’t professional to say anything. Before he could, Lisa waved her hand.
“Don’t ask,” she said, offering a weak smile. “It’s been a weird morning. I’m so sorry that I left you hanging. I’ve just been flustered is all.” Clark wasn’t sure what to say, so he said nothing. He took his seat and Lisa took hers.
“Well?” Clark asked. Lisa blinked. It took a moment to connect the dots, but her smile faded into another look of embarrassment.
“Jesus!” Lisa half-shouted. “I didn’t even grab our work materials! Hold on, I’ll be right back.” Lisa stood, wincing apologetically as she headed back from the breakroom to her office. She muttered to herself on the way, trying to clear her mind of all the intrusive, nagging thoughts that had been plaguing her. She quickly slipped into her office and went behind her desk to grab her forgotten files. But she caught a look of herself in the mirror—of her face layered in heavy foundation and thick eyeliner. She looked at herself in disgust. What had she been thinking?
She needed some eyeshadow to make this look work.
And some pink lipstick.
Lisa shook her head. “What the fuck is going through my mind?” she asked nobody. And yet, she had to admit that those thoughts weren’t far off. If she was going to look like this—and she wasn’t!—she would need contrast with some brighter colors to give her face some depth. And probably at least a little more of a tan. And her hair. Lisa looked at her flat hair falling down her back. It was the dullest of her dull features. What if she tried something different with it? She reached back, pulling her chestnut-brown locks into a tight ponytail that showed off her makeup even more. She wasn’t entirely satisfied, but she preferred it to the non-style she had worn in. She needed to get back to Clark anyways.
Lisa left the office, this time with her binder in her arms as she went back to the breakroom to salvage their lunch session. As she turned the corner to the breakroom, she saw Brad passing. Brad’s eyes went wide at seeing her. Lisa pretended not to notice him, not even giving him a nod as she passed. But she had given Brad everything he needed. There was no way Lisa Ricci would do her makeup like that for any reason. There was only one explanation, and it was that the necklace was doing its job. With a new spring in his step, Brad passed on back to his office. He would have to come in early tomorrow.
“Alright,” Lisa said upon returning to the table with Clark. She didn’t address that she’d been gone for almost five minutes to make a quick walk to the office, or how she had pulled her hair up. “You ready to knock this thing out?” She gave Clark a big, warm smile—hiding her nerves behind it. Lisa didn’t know what was wrong with her, or how much she’d actually accomplish today. And as the remainder of the lunch break went on, she found it wasn’t very much. As hard as she tried to focus, her thoughts kept wandering back to makeup, haircare, and her appearance—things she never cared about. And no amount of encouragement from Clark was bringing her back to reality.
“Hey, it is Monday,” Clark said as the clock neared 1 PM. “I know how you feel about Mondays, but everyone has a bad day, Lisa. Maybe you’ll feel better this afternoon when we meet up.”
Lisa shook her head, though. “I think I may need to just go home early today and sleep whatever funk I’m in off,” she said. Clark looked disappointed but nodded in agreement. “We’ll just have make up for it tomorrow when I’m at 110%!” Lisa didn’t feel like she needed to mention the stop she’d be making at the mall on the way home to pick up some new makeup. Clark would just take it the wrong way.
“Tomorrow morning, then?” Clark asked. Lisa nodded and the two parted ways. Clark returned to the 5th floor and Lisa to her office.
But lunch and working on her presentation hadn’t cleared her mind at all. Lisa spent the rest of the day struggling with even the most basic work and keeping one eye shifting between the clock and the mirror in her office. Noting all the imperfections. Trying to bat off more invasive thoughts about her hair and makeup. She thought about the colors of eyeshadow she needed to try. She mused about how good her hair would look done up or in curls. She opened a second browser to look at shades of lipstick. She got so caught up with shades of pink that she didn’t notice it was quitting time until she heard a rap at the door at 5:13. She opened it and glared at Brad, standing in the doorway.
“Staying late, Lisa?” Brad asked with a cocksure grin. Most days Lisa would say something snarky, but she didn’t feel in the mood for it.
“I had a rough day, Brad,” she said. “Can we not do this today?” She walked back to her desk to begin packing her things. “Unless you have business to discuss, I’d like to just go home.”
“That’s a shame,” Brad said. “Anything I can do to help?” Lisa cast a skeptical look at him. Brad wasn’t one to help her with much of anything, unless he wanted to show her up. He just shrugged. “What? A guy can’t ask his coworker if he can help?”
“A guy can,” Lisa replied, picking up her things and walking past him. “But you can’t.” Lisa wasn’t sure why she was willing to be so aggressive. Even in a bad mood she usually maintained professional courtesy around Brad. But today she felt different—like she was spoiling for a fight. “Just buzz off, Brad.”
Brad chuckled, annoying the irate Lisa even more. “Alright, Jesus,” he said. “Try to have a nice evening, I guess.” He walked off in the opposite direction, smirking to himself. He knew what Lisa didn’t. Why she felt so strange. And that it was only going to get worse. He left Lisa to head to her red sedan and program directions into her phone for the makeup store at the mall. She swore it would be a quick trip in and out. But the glittering silver necklace draped across her chest guaranteed it would be more than that.