“It’ll be fine,” he interrupts, waving me off. “She’ll understand how important her account is once we bring in the big guns.” He actually makes finger guns at himself.
I just stare at him, while the other managers exchange uneasy looks. We’re already carrying Hughes and Knore, and now we have to carry this clown too.
Fuck it. “Sure,” I say flatly.
Duck beams, proud of himself.
When the meeting adjourns, I grab my notes to leave, but Duck calls after me. “Hey, no hard feelings, right? I just want everyone to realize I’m the head now.”
“Sure,” I mutter.
“Anyway,” he goes on, “now that I’m taking your meeting, I had my assistant put the Dallas paperwork in your desk. I’ll need it by the end of the day.”
My jaw slackens. “That’s impossible.”
He pats my shoulder like we’re pals. “You got it, buddy.” Then he strolls off.
By the time I reach my office, my hands are clenched tight enough to ache. A stack of paperwork waits on my desk like a punishment.
Trudy appears behind me, shaking her head. “It was here when I came back from the bathroom. Probably waited until I left.”
I strip off my coat, toss it over the chair, and glare at the mountain of files. “Figures.”
She lingers in the doorway. “How can I help?”
I glance at her, then slide a stack across the desk. “Sort these by month.”
She nods immediately. “Of course. I’ll get it to you before the end of the day.”
I hold up the file in my hand. “He needs it by today.”
Trudy leans over to look, scanning the sheer volume of pages. Her eyes widen. “How the fuck is that possible, pardon my language.”
I shrug, the weight of it pressing on my shoulders.
She drops into the chair across from me with a groan. “Asshole.”
We work in silence, the scratch of papers the only sound, until Trudy breaks it. “How’s Penny doing?”
The thought of her little face pulls a smile out of me before I can stop it. “Great. She’s… so perfect.”
Trudy chuckles. “Enjoy that. Once the newborn haze wears off, she’s gonna turn into the opposite of the angel she is now.”
I glance down at the stack of files, the smile fading.Not like I’ll have time to deal with that either.
“You know,” Trudy says, lowering her voice, “you could make a fuss. They can’t just cancel paternity leave.”
“That’s true in theory,” I mutter. “But they didn’t cancel it. They just hired my replacement without firing me.”
“Still,” Trudy says, shuffling papers, “it’s not right. You do all the work and he gets the office.”
I shrug. Normally I’d call my union rep so fast their head would spin. But that shit takes forever, and I can’t afford to be without a pay check. Not now.
My chest tightens.Not after the stupid mistake I made.
We’re deep in the red.
Brooke has no idea just how bad it is. I know I should tell her, God knows I should, but when it happened, she was about to go into labour. And now?
