Even with the knowledge that the project was on track to meet the deadline, I wondered if Rafael would still pick on someone at the team meeting today. He hadn’t been in a good mood for a while.
As for me, I’d been in a fantastic mood all weekend long. Jonah and I were texting each other often, and I got to see him at least once during the day. It was sometimes just five minutes, but seeing Jonah brightened up my day in a way I hadn’t thought was possible.
As a consequence, I couldn’t stop smiling.
Preparing to go to the meeting room, I looked around for Stacey, but Brian noticed.
“She hasn’t come in to work in the past few days,” he explained. “We don’t know what’s going on with her.”
Concerned, I grabbed my laptop and we walked up the stairs to the meeting room on the fifth floor.
From the fifth floor balcony overlook, I could see straight down to reception, where Cade was slumped in his chair. I recalled him showing me pics of his newborn baby weeks before, and I smiled.
It reminded me of the early days when Evie was in my life. Before I could reminisce further about Evie, I heard footsteps behind us as Rafael walked in, frowning and looking upset.
There was silence as Rafael went over the progress we’d made on our project so far. His sharp eyes scanned the pending task list, his dark eyebrows knitting together in concentration.
“Most things are looking good. Except for the design document. Why isn’t it ready?” Rafael asked, turning to me. His gaze was sharp, almost challenging.
Usually, Rafael assigned writing documents and otherless coding intensework to either me or Stacey. This one was Stacey’s responsibility.
“Wasn’t that something you had signed up to do?” Rafael bit out, looking at me.
I hadn’t. It was Stacey’s job.
Before I could open my mouth, Rafael snapped, “I know you’re an intern, Lexi, but if you want to stand a chance at a full-time job, you’d better get your act together.”
“My act is together,” I insisted.
I couldn’t have him thinking poorly of me. Not in front of my team. Especially when they’d given me a chance and hired me without a degree.
“This task wasn’t assigned to me. But I can do it. I can prove that I have my act completely together,” I said, taking a few deep breaths to steady myself.
Rafael stared at me for a full minute before reaching for his laptop and shutting it with a snap. “I expect it to be done by tomorrow,” he said curtly, walking away in a swift motion that made it clear the meeting was over.
Brian and I walked out of the meeting room, our footsteps echoing off the walls.
I had no idea what the hell was going through Rafael’s mind, but he was being a miserable asshole.
Outside, I noticed a group of upper management folks arriving at our floor, and Rafael moved towards them, his expression smiling and clapping them on the back. He seemed like a totally different person around them.
Brian shook his head, his expression softening slightly. “You’ve got to be more assertive, Lexi, if you want to stay here. It’s a workplace full of men who don’t wait for someone to give them a chance to speak. If you want to thrive, you can’t wait for permission to speak up.”
His eyes drifted to my open laptop, with the design document pulled up on it. “That’s Stacey’s task,” he said, leaning in for a closer look. His face darkened. “She hasn’t done a single thing on it, has she?”
I shook my head.
“If she keeps up with these unexplained absences, she’s going to get fired. But that’s lucky for you,” Brian added, his tone matter-of-fact.
“What do you mean?” I asked, frowning.
“We don’t have any full-time openings on our team. Your internship is at a dead end, Lexi, unless a spot opens up soon, which would only happen if Stacey got fired.”
Judging by her unexplained absence and how she was already in Rafael’s bad books, I knew Brian was probably right. Still, I bit my lip, torn between my ambition and my loyalty to a colleague.
32
JONAH
