A Story. ROMEO TAKES A FALL.

ROMEO TAKES A FALL.

I’m going to tell you a story that happened way, way before the #MeToo movement. It was my first understanding that men could and should be held accountable for the harm they do to women.

A long time ago, I worked in what was then known as a boutique advertising agency. It was small, elitist, writers ruled, and print was king - the days of partnership with art directors hadn’t yet arrived.

I was hired as a secretary to three men who were funny and clever and excellent writers (and oh how I wanted to be those things myself). Ron was a straight up Midwesterner, an organized man who made a list every morning, on a ruled yellow pad, of what needed to be accomplished that day. Rem was a funny, clever eccentric from the South, who often brought his pet white mice to work. And the third was a Scotsman named Oliver, charismatic as hell and with an accent that could charm the birds right out of the trees.

He was something, that one. He saw seduction as a sport and a pastime and he was an expert at carrying on several love affairs at the same time.

And then, as often happens in books and in life, Oliver made a terrible error in judgement. He began dating the pretty secretary of the head of the agency - who was a highly principled, brilliant man with an intimidating manner.

Now that situation had all the makings of a tragedy - - like knowing you are going to be hit by a car and stepping in front of it anyway, which is what Oliver did, without thinking there would be consequences.

The secretary, who was lovely and shy, (if memory serves me, which is doesn’t always, her name was Anne) apparently didn’t know about Oliver’s reputation, or perhaps she didn’t care. I think she didn’t know, because given who she worked for, she was removed from the rest of us.

And so she had no idea he was romancing other women at the same time he was romancing her. And when she did find out, it was beyond anything she could handle, and she attempted suicide. Maybe that sounds as if it’s out of some corny romance novel, but it was real. She believed he loved her (and I guess he told her so) while it sounds melodramatic, remember love can be. And it was so, so sad.

The man she worked for, in the time it takes an eye to blink, placed the blame squarely where it belonged - on Oliver. He never doubted Anne for a minute, gave her a leave of absence, with all the time and help she needed to recover, with full pay, and of course her job would be waiting for her when she was ready to come back to work.

And then he called Oliver into his office, and this is what he said:

“We hire gentlemen, and only gentlemen.

And you, sir, are not a gentleman.

You are to leave immediately.”

And Oliver did

This took place in the early 60s when it was a given that men got away with just about anything. It was a moment of awakening for me. Here was a powerful man saying — you hurt a young woman I care about and you’re not going to get away with it.

As for me, I did become a writer although I’m far too modest to describe myself as funny and clever. Actually, I’m not really sure that I am.