I follow him out into the hallway by the elevators where our coworkers won’t overhear us.
“What the hell was that?”
“Thatwas me doing my job.” His voice is just an angry as mine. You would think I was the one who stole something from him instead of the other way around.
“Your job is to steal ideas?”
“Oh grow up! Your idea didn’t have a name on it.”
My head snaps backwards in surprise at the viciousness behind his tone.
“My idea didn’t have a name on it, yet just weeks ago you were telling me how ridiculous and stupid it was. Now you’re presenting it as your own. You’re a backstabbing, s—”
“Don’t be a sore loser.”
“Loser? I had no idea we were in competition with one another. We were supposed to be working on this together.”
“You really are this fucking naïve. We’re all in competition in this place. For the next promotion, the next raise, the next big campaign that could take us out of here to a bigger firm. I told you, you weren’t meant for this job.” He gives me another up and down look of disgust before turning, holding his head up high and heading back through the doors of the main office.
Defeated doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel in this moment. I try to force myself to go back into the office but I can’t. Instead, I make a beeline for the only place where I know I can get some privacy.
The bathroom.
I push through the door angrily and kick the first wall I see. It’s not the smartest move but the only one I can think of at the time. I’m so pissed off and have no idea what to do. Thankfully, no one else is in here and I pace back and forth, my anger building as I continue to stew over how Zeke just undercut me. I grow so enraged that I feel the first hot tear of anger escape my eye, falling to my cheek. I’ve heard over and over again to never cry at work but right now I feel too unsettled to do anything else.
I can’t go to Danny and tell him what Zeke has done. That would make me look like an immature child. I used to tell my first graders how constantly tattle-tailing wasn’t a good thing. Now, here I am, an adult, wanting to run and tell on a co-worker.But he freaking stole my idea!And like so many other times in my life—with my mother, my ex, former job—I felt like my voice had been stripped from me yet again.
Chapter Eighteen
Emanuel
“Allende!” a loud yell comes from the garage right after I hear the doors of the fire truck slamming shut.
I begin laughing before I ever see their faces.
Seconds later, Carter and Sean burst through the kitchen doors, their faces looking pissed as they’re covered in sparkly, colorful glitter.
“What? Did a fucking unicorn take a dump on you two?” Roger, one of our part-time guys, questions.
This only forces me to laugh even harder.
“Fuck off!” Carter growls as he lunges in my direction.
I side step him and lead behind the table, but Sean begins approaching me from the other side.
“I, for one, think the glitter glam look is great on you two.”
“I’m going to kill you!” Sean blurts out.
I howl even louder because the combination of glitter all over his face and shirt, along with the outraged expression, makes for comedy. I pull out my phone and snap a picture just as he lunges.
“This is definitely going on the Wall of Fame!” I shout.
“I’ll break that fucking phone!” Carter yells as he tries to reach me, but I pull out a chair from the table, causing him to stumble.
“The ol’ glitter in the AC trick works every time, gentlemen,” I manage to get out between laughs. Both of these guys are trying hard to get to me and I know once they do I’ll have to fight for my life.
Earlier in the day—once assignments were given out and I knew I wouldn’t be driving the truck today—I decided it was time to implement one of the tricks I’ve been thinking up for some time. I purchased a huge bag of glitter a week ago and stashed it in my locker. Earlier, when no one had been paying attention in the garage, I eased my way into the truck and poured the glitter in the vents of the AC. As soon as the AC was turned on, Carter, who was driving, and Sean, who was in the passenger seat, were punched in the face by a whole bundle’s worth of glitter.
