I was bored, “watching” Sex and the City at my desk, when I got the email from my boss.

What’s the next BIG IDEA in Marketing?—The subject line called me to attention, percolating my brain and straightening my spine.

“I couldn’t help but wonder: Inside every confident, driven, single woman, is there a delicate, fragile princess just waiting to be saved?”—Carrie Bradshaw was still yapping in my ear.

Without caring to pause the bootlegged video playing from the browser window hidden behind my Microsoft Office email, I pulled my wired buds out from my ears and left them to dangle from my monitor’s audio jack.—I already know what happens. How else do you think I can watch a show without watching it? Listening to the episodes, I imagine the syndicated scenes that I’ve seen a hundred times and I’m a little less bored as the eight hours tick by.

Dropping the audio, I returned to Rich’s email and read on, “What’s the next BIG IDEA in Marketing? The person who responds to this email with the winning idea will get credit BY NAME when I present it to Martha at the Executive meeting next week.”

Challenge accepted, I thought to myself one millisecond before I had the idea. A minute later, I clicked send.

From outside his office, I heard the ting notification of a new email landing in Rich’s inbox. Before I could look away, I saw Rich navigate his mouse and click.

He leaned in to read, and I held my breath for thirty seconds. He leaned back to think, and I darted my eyes for thirty more. Then he stood up and walked toward me.

Resting his forearms on the privacy wall of my desk, Rich looked down at me and smiled.

“Hi Charlotte,” he said.

“Hi Rich. Thank you for including me on your email. I love thinking of things like that.”

“Haha, you’re welcome. Now, can you show me this Facebook thing?”

“Uhhh, sure,” I said. I clicked to open a new window and typed facebook.com. Then I swiveled my screen so Rich could have a better look.

“This is Facebook,” I said. “You can create a profile page as like just a regular person, but for Martha Stewart, she can create a company page! People can like follow and share pages with their Facebook friends.” I rambled as I clicked and scrolled around the social media site.

“Oh,” I added, “and for like Consumer Marketing specifically, we can advertise subscriptions online! At least I think we can. I think it like just happened that there’s ads on Facebook now.”

“Hmmm. Thanks, Charlotte,” Rich said. He smiled and walked back into his office, closing the door behind him.

**

A few weeks later, I arrived at work to find the new issue, Martha Stewart Living May 2008, placed on my desk.

“Ah, you’re here!” Rich said, walking out of his office to greet me.

“Sorry I’m late,” I said.—I’m always late so it was weird to apologize as if this sort of thing never happens. But then again, Rich never greeted me like this so I figured maybe I finally missed something that an assistant shouldn’t.

“No. It’s fine,” Rich said, dismissing the issue.

“So what’s up?” I said, settling into my swivel chair.

Rich was smiling again. He loves to give good news. “I wanted to let you know that I pitched your Facebook idea to Martha at the Executive meeting and it was a huge success.”

“Wow! That’s so cool. Thanks, Rich,” I said, feeling like a winner.

“No, thank you, Charlotte. It was a great idea. …So, I went ahead and pulled a few strings. Why don’t you open up your May issue there to page 28,” Rich said, pointing to the freshly minted magazine on my desk.

Passing my boss a quick, suspicious smile, I turned to the pages and started to flip. Rich kept talking. He was proud to have me on his team. He wanted to show his appreciation. He remembered something I’d asked about on our first day working together.

By now, my index finger was surfing the three-columns of page 28. Printed mid-center, I found what he wanted me to see.

“That’s me!” I said, spotting my name on the masthead of Martha Stewart Living Magazine. My name. PRINTED in Martha Stewart Living MAGAZINE. “Thank you!” I said, feeling like a professional.

“You deserve it,” Rich was saying when the phone started to ring. “Who is it?” Rich asked. I checked the caller ID and told him. “Ok. Thanks, Charlotte.” He said, as he hurried back into his office to catch the caller in time.

***

Martha Stewart joined Facebook on May 29, 2008.