Margo walked behind her with the energy of someone who was used to taking charge, her heels a fraction too loud. Tom followed, clutching his folder like a lifeline.
"We're a small team," Rune explained as they walked. "Dorian prefers it that way."
"Easier to pinpoint the f-f-fuckups," Tom offered, with a nervous half-smile.
Rune gave him a warm look. "Exactly. But it also means we help each other out. You'll be fine."
Margo laughed softly. "So long as you're not slow, darling. Dorian hates inefficiency."
She gave Tom a sideways glance that flickered from flirtation to boredom in one breath.
When they reached the end of the corridor, Rune knocked twice and opened a frosted-glass door. "This is Finn. He is our contracts and accounts lead. He's been here longer than I have."
Finn looked up from behind a stark white desk, salt-and-pepper hair, weathered features, and a stare that made most people sit straighter.
"Rune," he greeted with a quick smile for Rune. "Deliverin' fresh meat, aye?"
"Unfortunately," she replied with a small smile. "Try not to chew them out."
Tom gave a nervous chuckle. Margo didn't laugh.
Rune turned to leave and glanced down at her watch. Time was ticking. A few more days, and she'd finally be free of all of it.
Tom was easy to get along with. Blushes aside, he caught on easily and was eager to learn. Margo, however, was a different story. By midmorning, she had already asked Rune to double-check the single client file she'd been handed. It was the one she had misplaced twice, and Rune had to spend twenty minutes frantically hunting it down. Then she suggested loudly that Rune must've forgotten to forward the correct version. She flounced in and out of Dorian's office with increasing frequency, always carrying a notepad and always finding reasons to linger. Rune walked past once and heard the end of a sentence-
"...well, you did say exclusive, didn't you?" A pause. Then Margo's low laugh. "I always honour my agreements."
Rune kept walking, ignoring the sudden despair that caught her unawares. She was not quick enough to disguise it from Margo, who passed her with a shoulder check and a sly grin
.
When she returned to her desk, she found Margo leaning far too close to Tom, giggling at something he'd said, one perfectly manicured hand resting lightly on his arm. A second later, she handed him a stack of documents and sashayed away, tossing over her shoulder.
"You're quicker with formatting anyway, darling."
Tom blinked and took the papers, visibly unsure if he'd just been complimented or played.
Rune sipped her coffee and said nothing. This was what Dorian had chosen. She had been replaced by someone louder, flashier, and more decorative.
Chapter six
Chapter 6
Over the next few days, Margo would leave bread crumbs for both Rune and Tom – small mistakes to correct, minor fires to put out while she worked hard to strut her stuff on her way into Dorian's office and back. Wrong time zones, inconsistent headers, confusing clients with vendors, but she corrected them all with charm and flourish. And when all else failed, she simply delegated the blame.
It was the fifth morning. Rune had arrived at the usual time. Margo had taken over Dorian's breakfast run –"Because Dorian likes to see my pretty face first thing.”
Tom, meanwhile, was picking up the slack, moving into Rune's role. Rune was beginning to feel a little redundant. Every day made it clearer that she no longer belonged here and was easily replaceable.
She was at her desk, replying to emails, when she heard the soft click of Dorian's office door open behind her.
Out stepped Margo, her expression carefully composed. Her blouse, a sheer ivory chiffon, was slightly misaligned. She paused just outside the doorway, lifted both hands, and deliberately began fastening the top two pearl buttons with precise, unhurried movements. Her lipstick, slightly smudged, was quickly checked in the chrome base of the nearby kettle. She tilted her head to side-eye Rune. Then she adjusted her collar and smoothed her skirt as she straightened.
She met Rune's eyes with a sly, deliberate smirk- small, smug, and knowing. Then she walked back to her desk and got busy on her laptop. Probably playing solitaire.
Rune didn't follow her with her eyes. But inside, something knotted tight. It was a familiar sensation now.
She knew what was happening. She had known since the first day. It was the same pattern. The same routine. She was just watching the next version of herself slide into place. And no matter how many times she castigated herself for being a fool, it hurt. Not because it was Margo, but because it was so easy for Dorian to let it happen. Hadn't she known from the beginning that she was as dispensable as a paper cup to Dorian?
