Marina sings loudly under her breath. “My name is Addie-May, and if it pleases you, kind sir, may I…”
“Marina,” Xander groans. “What on earth?”
“I’m practicing for my audition.” She giggles, and I am grateful she couldn’t care less about Cora’s gossip. “Like I was trying to say earlier, it’s a new musical that’s going to be put on Broadway, and I’m hoping to get a role. I mean, could you see me as a young girl from Kentucky?”
“No,” Cora says bluntly, folding her arms. “Did no one hear what I just said? Katherine knows Jack Heathcliff, our big boss? Guys, pay attention to me. I am in charge down here, and I think we need to talk about this.” I want to ask her why it makes any difference, but Cora already seems annoyed by the lack of excitement she’s garnered.
“Technically, we’re all on the same level,” Xander says, shrugging. “Just because you’ve been here longer doesn’t mean that you’re the boss of us. In fact, I think it means—” He presses his lips together and sighs and looks over at me. “So is this true, or is one of the bosses really Peter from accounting who thinks he’s some sort of golf pro because he met Tiger Woods once in Florida?”
“Oh, she knows the boss,” Cora says in hushed tones. “The real boss. Like I just said.”
“What do you mean, the boss? Like someone from HR?” He stares at me. “Like, is this a setup or is this real? Did you really do Zac Heathcliff, brother to the man who owns this company?”
“She knows the CEO,” Cora says, clapping her hands. Her voice drops, and she looks around. “She could be a spy.” I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes because who on earth would waste their money to hire a spy to spy on them?”
“Like no lie.” Xander finally looks gobsmacked, and even Marina gasps and stops humming. They both turn to look at me with incredulous expressions on their faces. Even if I wasn’t annoyed, I’d actually be quite amused.
“You know Jack Heathcliff himself?” There’s awe in his voice. “Mr. Executive blue eyes himself?”
“I don’t know him. Not really. Many moons ago, I dated his younger brother, Zac.” I shrug.
“No way,” Xander says, finally believing. “Did he have a big bing-dong?” He grins at me and winks, and I just roll my eyes.
“I have no idea. I was literally in high school, and we didn’t even date very long.” I give Cora a look. “I barely know him, and he barely knows me.”
“How long did you even ban?—”
“Xander, be careful with your words,” Cora hisses. “We have young’uns among us.”
“I’m not that young, Cora,” Marina says, giving her a crazy look. “In fact, I most probably know more positions than you’ve even experienced with that old man of yours.” She pauses. “Well, anyway, you don’t need to know all about my lifestyle.” She then turns to me eagerly. “So do you know him well enough to get us all raises?” Marina asks excitedly.
“Guys, I don’t know him well at all. If I knew him well and if I had any sort of pull with him, would I really be here with you all in the junior marketing department working on a PowerPoint presentation?” My voice drips with boredom. “No offense, but we’re not exactly running the company here,” I say quickly. “Let’s be real, if he and I were friends, don’t you think I would’ve gotten a more elevated position?”
“Unless you really are spying on us,” Xander says, looking around suspiciously. “Did you plant microphones and cameras?” He walks over to a stack of files and starts looking through them, and I wonder if everyone in the office actually is hoping to get into acting.
“Why on earth would I do that?” I say, shaking my head. “Is there some reason why they would have me spying on you?”
“That’s a trick question.” He glares at me. “You know that I’m really hardworking,” he says, crossing his arms.
“Yeah, that’s why you were just napping,” Marina giggles. “You were literally snoring.”
He shrugs. “I had a late night last night that went til the early morning hours.” He glares at me. “Anyway, I’m not going to say anything else, just in case I may incriminate myself.” He glares at me. “I have a right to remain silent in case…”
“I’m not a police officer.” I groan. “Come on, you guys. Look, I do not know Jack Heathcliff like that. Trust me. I think I’ve met him fewer than a handful of times. Yes, I dated his brother for a couple of weeks, but we didn’t even end on good terms. Also, this was back in high school. And he dumped me.” I decide not to go into all the subsequent details of how I got the job because I don’t really want them to second-guess everything I’ve just said to them. Nor do I want their heads to be filled with more salacious gossip if I tell them that Jack was actually the one I’d initially liked.
“So how did you get this job, anyway?” Xander asks, and I want to tell him to shut up. Why is he pushing it when I so obviously do not want to talk about it?
“Because I was looking for a marketing position, and this one just happened to be open. And I guess I got lucky or maybe unlucky, because it’s not like we’re really doing any heavy lifting here,” I say under my breath.
“I believe her,” Marina nods. “I mean, if she were really tight with Jack, she wouldn’t be here in the dungeon with us. She’d be in exec row up on the 50th floor.”
Cora grunts, “I suppose that rings true. I mean, we know that we don’t deserve to be here but imagine him putting you in the dungeons with us if he really was your friend.”
“I mean, it’s not the dungeons in here,” I say graciously. “But I suppose other people do have nicer offices.”
“That’s the problem with Heathcliff Enterprises,” Cora says, now getting loud. “They just don’t value good employees like me.” She looks at Xander and Marina for sympathy. “Can you believe that Jack Heathcliff asked me if I just started working here? I have been practically running this company for years.” I press my lips together to stop from laughing.
“Have you though?” Xander asks, and I’m glad he voiced what I was thinking, because I think it’s a bit of a leap for Cora to say she’s been running the company when she barely knows how to work Excel. As far as I can see, she’s lucky she hasn’t been let go a long time ago—but there was no way on God’s green earth that I was going to say that. “I mean, how have you been running the company?” He asks again.
