Feelings of Inadequacy: Minh Rose

Late evening on some early spring alone in her office sat Minh Rose. She sat in her much too big chair on the top floor of a high rise building on the east coast. After eighteen years she'd finally reached the pinnacle of her career. Now CEO, after years of sacrifice and dedication. One of said sacrifices being her relationship with her husband, Clark. They'd gotten married two years after meeting during their final year in uni. He was a fairly short guy at 5′ 6. He didn't then, but now he had a pretty decent beard which helped alleviate his status as the "manlet" in his circle of friends. He also happened to be Minh's first ever boyfriend.

Whilst Minh worked on her marketing degree he spent his time studying towards becoming a video game developer. His easy going attitude was what initially drew her in. He sort of reminded her of her father, in a good way. The early stages of their relationship and marriage had been wonderful. His witty humor really struck a cord with her, making her fall in love more and more for every day that went. As of late though, things weren't too good. Minh knew that the marriage was on the brink of collapse. Being the dedicated career woman that se was had meant certain sacrifices had to be made. She never took time off work to spend time with Clark. She often opted to work late to propel her career even further. Clark had voiced his opinion on her decisions on numerous occasions and even went as far as demanding to sleep in the guestroom. That was over a year ago and things kept going downhill.

She blamed her career oriented mindset on her mother. Minh was half American half Vietnamese, of which her mother contributed to the latter. Her dad was the easy going guy, the voice of joy and playfulness, he was a carpenter and the sole provider for his family. Given the day and age it wasn't unheard of that the mother was a stay at home wife. Though it did make it all the more hypocritical that she prohibited Minh from ever having a boyfriend growing up. Minh also owed her self discipline and work ethics to her mother. Whether the tradeoff had actually been worth it or not was up for debate, given her marriage's current status one might be tempted to claim it wasn't. If it was up to her mother Minh would've had to spend all her spare time studying at home. Thankfully her father had some strong ideals himself, believing that the road to success also included socializing and getting along with people. This belief led to Minh being allowed to join the girls basketball team in middle school. Basketball wasn't the only thing she had to thank her father for. Despite looking like the spitting image of her mother, Minh had the curves of a true American woman. She had ample C cup breasts and wide hips with a fairly sizable butt to boot. In fact, hadn't she been such a shut in growing up she probably would've been very popular amongst the boys.

In the early days of her career Minh was less than popular. In fact, the women of the office hated her, they'd call her names like cutthroat bitch and undermine all her efforts by saying her recognition came from her good looks alone. Yes, she was a suck up. She knew how to get what she wanted, and playing along usually led to that. She did have some very strong principles herself though. She never used her body or good looks for personal gain. EVER. That's the way she was raised, and she wholeheartedly believed in this mantra. That's part of the reason why women she considered her "rivals" hated her. They often had no problem using their body to climb the ranks. It really did grind their gears how despite giving up such an advantage Minh still managed to outperform them career wise. Little did they know that her social life and hobbies were non existent. She had exactly 0 friends apart from her husband. When she told anyone that she'd be spending the weekend with friends it was either her husband and his friends, or code for working overtime..again.

It was getting quite late at this point. Minh had finished the remainders of her work little under an hour ago. At this point she just sat and enjoyed the view from her office. She really didn't want to go home and see the disappointed look in Clark's eyes as she came home late for the umpteenth time in a row.

No, instead of going home to her husband she'd rather sit here in her office, sipping some fancy whiskey that her secretary bought to celebrate her promotion.

The burning feeling the liquid left in her throat did little to ease her mind.

Her self pity was abruptly interrupted by the all too familiar ding indicating she had a new mail in her inbox.

"Adequately Inadequate™"

Must've slipped passed the spam filter she thought to herself. The cursor moved towards the mail and clicked on the delete button. Instantly upon deleting she received another one just like it. Thinking she might've missed the delete button Minh tried again. And again. And again. After her sixth attempt she conceded.

She could at least humor it the time to look at it's content. What she found wasn't very eye opening. In fact, she was underwhelmed. It only contained a single link to some website she'd never heard of.

She sat a while and just stared at the mail. Adequately Inadequate.. That kind of sounded like..her. She was very adequate when it came to her job. But she was also very inadequate to her husband. Minh was well aware of Clark's needs, yet she ignored them day in and out for years. She spiraled down a very negative state of mind and recalled all the times she'd let Clark down. Usually it was the man's job to forget anniversaries and birthdays, but in this relationship it was all on her. She'd forgotten their anniversary three years in a row now, working late as usual and not taking time off for ONE SINGLE DAY A YEAR. She wasn't even expected to take a day off, she just had to leave work on time. Like any healthy employee would. While she was lost in deep thought, her hand seemed to move on it's own. Slowly drifting towards the link attached to the email and..it clicked. The monitor shifted colors, from the slight blue hue of the email tab to a beige. This brought Minh back from her trance and immediately brought her focus to the site now present on her screen.

She was presented with what a simple introduction and three options. None of which really made any sense to her.

Maybe it was one of her jealous previous coworkers who thought it'd be funny to pull a prank on her now that she'd become their boss. There were plenty of those, and it wasn't rare for her to find "Love letters" and such in her inbox from anonymous people. "Add it to the list" she thought.

Maybe I'll play along this once.. Minh found herself being in a playful mood which was very rare these days.

Welcome to:

Adequately Inadequate™

This is a service provided to those who truly need it. You've received this chance to improve your marriage.

Following there are three options. Each option has it's own unique way of changing and interacting your life.

1. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

2. Public opinion

3. Compulsive gambler