Oran
“Do you have any questions?” May didn’t look nearly as nervous as she must’ve felt, or maybe she just wasn’t nervousat all. I leaned back in my chair to cup my cheek thoughtfully. The way she thought up the design was a way I hadn’t heard of, and I tapped my temple as I stared at her expectantly. Drumming my fingers on the table, I rolled my jaw as my mind churned, then I turned to the supervisor, Mark.
“What do you think? Honest opinion, please.” This middle-aged guy, older than me by at least ten years, pursed his lips, but I could see the stars in his eyes.
“I think it’s pretty damn obvious why David would steal from her, for sure.” Nodding curtly, I let my mind bowl over all that technical jargon I didn’t understand. With May on this project, it could certainly be done. “That’s so simple. To use vinyl is a very out-there idea, and using smaller engines disproportionate to the actual ship to sail with the tides . . . ”
“My thoughts exactly. What do you think consumer-wise? Do you think it’d catch on?” Mark rubbed his head thoughtfully, but the answer honestly didn’t matter to me. I was going to do it regardless. I’d fund it personally if I had to. Not breaking even wasn’t something I considered.
This was just a really cool idea and I had someone who could bring it to life.
“Without consideration of operating costs, and assuming you have proper market targeting . . . yeah, without a doubt, you’d at least break even on production within . . . two years, I’d guess. It’d be a niche, but people who go to Ren Fairs also spend eight months out of the year designing and creating their costumes. Not to mention weddings, parties, other events. If this were a team project, it’d be ready to go into design phase, just about. You did all this by yourself in just the last five weeks, May?” She nodded, her face lighting up as her cheeks puffed in a huge grin. My chest warmed as affection tilted my lips.
“Jerry didn’t give me any work, so this is what I’ve been doing. Since it’s a project directly assigned to me by Oran, I didn’t think it was a big deal. Also, this is way more fun than trying to redesign a freighter.” Ah, now we were at an impasse, I knew— May wanted to give her new team a chance to get used to her, but what she didn’t realize was she was a threat. She was the girl other co-workers hated because she was just inherently innovative and adaptable and resourceful. “I totally understand if you want me to do it on my own time, but it is technically work-related. All I do is organize everyone else’s documents, and my team is one unnecessary person larger than it should be. All the other teams are full, and I really don’t think I’d be welcome, anyway.”
“Okay. Is that what the yelling was about?” Her smile dulled, and May sat in the chair at the head of the table to twiddle her thumbs in her lap. I sat back and watched, rubbing my jaw as my gaze darted around the spread covering almost every inch of three-quarters of the table. “What happened?”
“Jerry is just mad. He and David were buddies, so when David got fired for stealing my stuff, I was the cause, so I got the blame. Which is dumb, because David was the one actively trying to get me fired in the first place. Jerry only lets me be so involved that I can’t claim bias negligence, and he made a jab at me the other day about my being paid almost four dollars more per hour than anyone else, which just made them dislike me more.” Lifting her hands onto the table to clasp her fingers, May frowned fully. I crossed my knees and leaned a little farther back in my chair. “I get why it looks the way it does, but those records aren’t a secret. It was proven irrefutably that David stole my work and passed it on as his own the entire time I’ve been here. That was a possible promotion for me. That was eight projects I can’t put in my portfolio because of the investigation. I could be consolidated by now if it wasn’t for him, but I’m being treated like garbage for something he did to himself.”
“May, I can’t force anyone to be nice to you. It’s not that I don’t sympathize, but you said it yourself— you’re involved just enough that you can’t claim personal bias in the workplace. As for the pay, your pay isn’t public knowledge, so I’ll find out how he found out, and if it was somehow dubious or intended to create a toxic work environment, then I can do something about it.”
“Mark, okay, I don’t think you get what I’m trying to say.” Straightening, May practically skewed her supervisor as her voice deepened slightly, and I held my breath in anticipation. “I’m going to quit if you don’t do something about the hostility being directed at me. I don’t care if they’re nice. There are plenty of other firms that’ll give me the professional opportunities I deserve. David may not be able to find a job, but I sure as hell can, and Iwill. I don’t care how it sounds— I know how good I am at this, and if I’m working in a dead-end position, I’ll go somewhere else in a heartbeat.”
“I’ll have a conversation with your team and Jerry, but I can’t promise they’ll treat you better. A talk might even make it worse, May.” Like any good negotiation, May knew she had all the cards. She nodded at Mark’s cautionary tone. “Was there anything else?”
“Yes.” Speaking up quickly, I sat straight to stretch out my legs under the table, and Mark arched his brows at me in surprise. Frowning darkly, I could still taste that shit on the roof of my mouth, and he visibly shuffled in his seat. “What the fuck is with the perfume, Mark? That shit is a safety hazard and it’s against regulations to wear perfume in any office space. There’s a reason for that, you know that. Someone almost died due to an asthmatic reaction. Do you not take that seriously?”
“I can tell them to wash it off. I can send them home for the day. But those women will wear that stuff regardless. We had a safety seminar where it was stressed, and the reason why, just two weeks ago, Mr. Santino, but, obviously, some people weren’t listening.”
“Do you have a list of who’s repeatedly ignored the rules and gotten complaints lodged against them? This is why I show up without warning, Mark.” He nodded, hoisting himself out of his seat to trudge out of the conference room and back to his office in expectant silence. Glancing over at May, I only shrugged at the humored look on her face. “I like to meddle.”
“Obviously. So, is that true? It’s against regulations in your offices to wear any perfume at all?”
“Yes. Years ago, long before I took over, a man almost died from an asthma attack, as I said. Any perfume, anything you can smell like lotions or whatever, are not allowed in the workplace. Even scented hand sanitizer isn’t allowed— it all has to be unscented. The guy’s family sued on his behalf and we settled because it wasn’t malicious and they were fully entitled to whatever amount they received. The changes we implemented as a result, so it never happened again.” Surprise rose her slender brows, and my lips twitched in a smirk. “The perks of having a family business— I know about shit that happened before I was handed the reins.”
She gave a soft ‘ah’ before the glass door swung open, and I stood up to take the page Mark had printed out. The top half of the page listed the times and dates of related seminars, and the bottom half were names and dates of complaints. Scanning the list, I frowned at how the complaints seemed to spike following a seminar.
The same four names popped up with the most complaints, too.
“Mark, I hate to do your job for you, but . . . ” Rounding the large, circular table, I didn’t give Mark a chance to speak up as I left the conference room. Mark wasn’t a bad guy, he just didn’t go the extra mile to enforce rules, which was why he was still a mid-level supervisor. Grabbing the floor’s attention, I called off the names I’d singled out and all four women stood up from beneath their dense clouds of noxiousness. They weren’t on the same team, but they all sat relatively close to each other.
Piling into the conference room, I ignored May packing up her folder out of the corner of my eye. Even now, I had to hold my breath, but the stench of different kinds of perfume mixed together still made my eyes water under my glasses.
“I’m going to say this once, andonly once. Wash off that horrible perfume and read the safety regulation book. If anyone wears perfume again, you’ll be fired on the spot. Mark, here, isn’t going to take a complaint— he’s going to fire you right then and there.” The girls were shocked—shocked!— at my declaration, and I arched a brow in silent inquiry. “Do I make myself clear?”
“I’m sorry, I read the handbook and nowhere in it does it say that perfume is against safety regulations. Lotions have to be unscented, but—" Holding a hand up to stop her, I narrowed my eyes on a slightly older, slightly chunky woman, her face tinged pink. “Excuse you! I’ve worked here for almost fifteen years and perfume has always been allowed!”
“I can always fire you for cause if that’s what you prefer.” Her rounded face became even redder at my flippant tone, and I leaned on the table between chairs to cross my arms. “You’ve been working here for so long, so you know the regulation handbooks were updated every year, and you should’ve received a copy. You also are required to attend workplace etiquette seminars where this subject is specifically discussed. So, either you purposefully ignored safety regulations, which in itself is cause for termination, or . . . well, what other reason could there be?”
“Exactly who are you again?”This whole subsidiary is starting to get on my nerves.Did no one do their research on their parent companies? Was I just some douchebag with a particularly itchy fire finger?
Yes.
Yes, I was.
