Carmen: are you still going into the office? I’ll buy you lunch afterwards!
Inhaling the rich scent of expensive aftershave that fills the small space I’m standing in, I thumb out a reply. I love my friends, truly I do, but I can’t help but feel a pinch – or more than a pinch if I’m being honest – when I think about how happy and loved up, they all are.
I was too.
Before everything came crashing down.
I can’t even bring myself to paint a faux smile onto my face as I pass the receptionist desk, treading the familiar path through the sea of cubicles to get to my office block. Ignoring the bland greetings of my colleagues, and the outright stare of others, probably because of my baggy tracksuit, unwashed hair and puffy, tear-stricken face, I tuck myself into my seat and tug on my top drawer in hopes of finding a stick of gum or a mint, to banish the sour taste on my tongue.
Except, it’s empty.
I try my second drawer and then my third, finding each and every one of them devoid of the personal belongings I’vebeen hoarding in my office cubicle for the past three years I’ve been working here.
What the fu—
“Calla. Just the woman I’ve been looking for.” Resting his gold ring encrusted hands upon the top of my office block, Thomas peers down at me.
“Where is all my stuff?” I grit out, done with fake pleasantries.
“Gone.”
“Gone? Gone where? I—”
“They’re waiting for you, in a box, at the front desk.”
“The front desk? Why—”
“You’re fired, Miss Becker.”
I blink up at him in disbelief, hating how shaky my voice is when I reply. “Fired?”
“Here at McAvoy and Fraser we have very high standards for who we employ. Unfortunately for you, Miss Becker, you don’t fit the bill.”
For the first time in almost two weeks, I feel something other than the numbness, confusion and sadness, I’ve been circling through.
Now, poker hot anger bubbles at the surface of my being, exploding before I can stop it.
I stand, the high of adrenaline overriding my brain. “You can’t just fire somebody because they ‘don’t fit the bill’.” I place bunny ears around Thomas’ words. “That’s against—”
“You’ve also broken your contract a number of times. If I hadn’t been so lenient and taken such a shine to you, Miss Becker, you would have been gone a long time ago.”
We’re gathering a crowd, their eyes burrowing into my skin, but I don’t take my gaze away from Thomas.
“Taken a shine to me?” I all but spit, my hands balling into fists. “You’ve done nothing but practically harass me formonths now, making lewd comments, touching me inappropriately, making me uncomfortable and my life at work a living hell!”
“Do you have any proof of those things, Miss Becker?”
God, the little C U Next Tuesday. I wish I could wipe that smug smirk from off his lips. Maybe rearrange his nose while I’m at it, too.
Thomas takes my silence and runs with it, turning our argument into a performance. “Is that a no?” He pops his shoulders. “I thought as much. I wish you all the best in the future, Miss Becker. Please hand in you ID card at the desk and—”
“Did you say something to Blake?”
Thomas smiles. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“Stop playing dumb. You’ve fired me already, so just tell me the truth. Did you say something to him?”
Thomas licks his lips before he answers. “It’s not proper to keep secrets in your relationship, Calla.”
