Victoria gestured for me to take a seat. The sharpness in her gaze made my stomach knot. “Do you know why I called you in here?”
I frowned, a bad sense of foreboding igniting already. It slithered down my spine, cold and unwelcome. I tried to toss it aside, considering I couldn’t place a single reason. “No, I don’t.”
She turned her monitor around, displaying my Instagram profile. Odd, considering she wasn’t the type of boss to mix work with play.
“I did some digging, and there are things I can’t ignore.”
With a click, she opened a new tab that displayedMacey’s Miles, my blog.
Well, fuck. A sharp pulse pounded at the base of my skull. I thought I had more time. The blog hadn’t been live that long. I had intended to work at least a few more months as I expanded it, then find a way to take it full time.
How the hell did she find this? There was no way Victoria had stumbled upon it herself.
Calculator Cal. It had to be Calculator Cal. Had he shown her? The thought made my stomach churn.
Victoria’s gaze stayed level, unreadable. “Did you attend the press sneak peek of Sushi Nirvana?”
“Yes,” I answered, hesitant but truthful. “As Noah’s plus-one.”
“That might be true, but you attended a press event on your own, unaffiliated withRoamer’s Digest, despite the fact thatRoamer’s Digestwas covering it.”
My pulse roared in my ears. “I’m not following.” That wasn’t entirely true—Iwasfollowing. I just didn’t like where this was going. For good measure, I added, “I haven’t gotten paid for anything.” That had to count for something, right?
Victoria rubbed her temples. “Payment doesn’t always comein the form of a check. There’s a conflict of interest here. I can’t have a writer on staff creating competing content.”
I thought about how I explained my contract to Daphne and Noah all those months ago.If I’m not writing about it, I usually turn down free gifts because it could turn into a conflict of interest.
I fought for calm, but a tremble zipped through me. There was no real defense for my blog here. I knew the risk when I made it. When Noah encouraged me to start it.
“I’m sorry, but I have no option other than to terminate your employment withRoamer’s Digest.”
My hands went numb. My fingers were so tight around my cup that they trembled. The words split me open, punching my insides until they fell out.Terminate your employment.
What the fuck was happening?
“You’re…firing me?”
“Effective immediately,” said Victoria casually as if she hadn’t turned my world upside down.
“But I’ve given so much toRoamer’s Digest,” I sputtered. “Thousands of hours. I gave up my nights and weekends to cover events for you. My articles have been doing so well, and you’re going to throw it all away? There must be some way we can meet in the middle.”
“You’re young,” Victoria said simply. “You’ll bounce back from this.”
It didn’t feel like that was true.
When she said, “You can pack your things before the rest of the office comes in,” I thought I was going to cry.
Instead, I swallowed the tears and stood on my own two feet.
Palm pressed to the door of Victoria’s office, I remembered something Noah said.I look at you and see a girl with incredible potential, yet she’s terrified of standing up for herself.
Not any longer.
“I’ll go,” I said, meeting Victoria’s eyes. “But wherever I gonext, I won’t allow myself to be treated like a second thought again. You may have been forced to give me opportunities, but you also took many away. You never posted my photos. You edited my articles so much they barely had my voice anymore. Why, Victoria?”
I didn’t need her to reply. “Is it because you knew that if you allowed my creativity to shine, that something like this would have happened? Because maybe that’s true. I considered myself lucky to be working here, under you, and look where it got me. Maybe if I had listened to myself, I would have outshone you a long time ago.”
I still could.
