My husband and I took our 4-year-old daughter to a corporate party celebrating his promotion at work. The party was going great. Many people came up to my husband to congratulate and shake his hand. Suddenly, our daughter shouted, “MOMMY, LOOK! THAT’S THE LADY WITH THE WORMS!” A few people glanced in our direction. I tried to shush her and whispered, “What worms, sweetheart? Please speak softly.” She nodded and said, “DADDY SAID SHE HAS WORMS I SAW THEM WHEN WE…<\/p>\n
…went to Daddy’s office!”<\/p>\n
The ambient jazz music playing over the speakers suddenly felt completely inadequate to cover the deafening silence that rippled through our section of the room. The woman my daughter was pointing her tiny, accusatory finger at was none other than Margaret, the Senior Vice President of the division\u2014and the very woman who had just championed my husband\u2019s promotion.<\/p>\n
Margaret froze, her crystal champagne flute pausing inches from her lips. My husband, Mark, instantly lost all the color in his face. He looked like he was praying for the polished hardwood floor to open up and swallow him whole.<\/p>\n
“Worms, you say?” Margaret asked. She lowered her glass, one impeccably arched eyebrow raised, and slowly began closing the distance between us.<\/p>\n
I squeezed Mark’s arm. He was sweating through his suit jacket.<\/p>\n
“Yes!” my daughter chirped brightly, completely oblivious to the suffocating corporate panic descending upon her parents. “The squishy ones! Red and blue and green! Daddy told Mommy that you are the sneaky lady who always goes into his office and eats all his worms!”<\/p>\n
A collective gasp echoed from a group of junior analysts nearby. A beat of absolute, terrifying silence hung in the air.<\/p>\n
Margaret stared at Mark. Mark\u2019s mouth opened and closed without any sound coming out.<\/p>\n
Then, a sudden, undignified snort escaped Margaret’s lips. The snort quickly morphed into a chuckle, and that chuckle erupted into a full-bellied laugh that echoed across the banquet hall.<\/p>\n
“Guilty as charged!” Margaret announced, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye as she turned to the bewildered crowd of onlookers. “Mark here keeps the absolute best stash of sour gummy worms in the entire tri-state area hidden in his bottom desk drawer. I genuinely thought my afternoon raids were stealthy!”<\/p>\n
The tension in the room vanished in an instant, replaced by a roaring wave of laughter from the executives and staff. Mark let out a breath he looked like he\u2019d been holding since we walked through the front doors, his face flushing a deep, relieved crimson as he managed a sheepish grin.<\/p>\n
Margaret knelt down to my daughter\u2019s eye level, her intimidating corporate facade completely melted away. “You caught me, little one,” she whispered with a wink. “But you have to promise not to tell anyone else my secret, okay? If everyone knows, Daddy will run out of the blue ones, and those are my favorite.”<\/p>\n
My daughter giggled, solemnly mimed zipping her lips, and threw an imaginary key over her shoulder.<\/p>\n
The rest of the evening was an absolute breeze. Coworkers kept coming up to Mark for the rest of the night\u2014not just to congratulate him on the big promotion, but to playfully ask for the exact coordinates of his secret candy stash. As we drove home that night, my husband leaned his head back against the passenger seat, completely exhausted but smiling.<\/p>\n
“Hey, honey?” Mark muttered, staring out the window. “Remind me to switch my desk stash to chocolate on Monday.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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