He marched off, and I turned to Lexie. “Can you watch Josie for a minute?”
“What? No way. What if I break something?”
“You won’t break anything.” I leaned back under the desk. “I’ll be right back, Josie bean. Lexie is going to stay with you.”
“No Mimi. You stay,” she responded.
“You can have some of your apple. I’ll be back once you’ve finished eating.”
She held out her hands and I sprinted to Rhett’s office. I had a few minutes. Tops.
This was going to be ugly. But I could do this. I stood up straight, held my head up high and willed my eyes to stay open when the only thing I wanted to do was close them and hope it would all blow over quickly.
“Why do you look like you’re about to have a stroke?” Rhett asked.
Right, maybe I should adjust the eyes. Blinking was allowed. I think. Or would that show weakness?
He motioned to the chair in front of his desk. “Take a seat.” He unbuttoned his jacket and adjusted his cuffs before he sat down in his own chair. I cautiously approached, not sure if sitting down was such a good idea. My escape would be a lot slower if I had to get up first.
“Emmi, sit.”
I should tell him that I wasn’t a dog. But that was probably not going to make him any less angry. I could see the pulse in his neck jumping. You never want to see that thing so much as move if you valued your life. So I sat down on the edge of the chair without saying a word.
“Do you enjoy seeing how far you can push me?”
I shook my head emphatically. “No. Definitely not. I’m not enjoying a minute of this. I wish you’d see that this is not working. Next thing you know, I’ll be forced to take a more drastic approach like strippers in the office. Why don’t we save both of us some time? You yell some, then fire me and get Claire out here to do some actual work.”
“I don’t want Claire. I want you.”
Well then, I didn’t expect that. And I would definitely not interpret this as anything other than him saying he wanted me in the office. Not that he wanted me as a person. Because we no longer had a relationship. Not as friends or otherwise. Thinking anything else was a path I wouldn’t go down.
It was time for honesty, my last ditch attempt at getting me out of this. “But I’m a terrible employee. You know it, I know it, Cassie knows it. There is no reason for you to want me here. And I have responsibilities. A life to live. One that’s in Butler, not Denver. I hate it here.”
“You are not a terrible employee. If you would try harder, you could be a great asset. You are smart, always have been. You just have no interest working in an office. And you’re terrible with computers. And you always wanted to move to Denver. I thought I was doing you a favor, that this was what you wanted.”
I preferred working with people. Not machines. So sue me. And why would he keep bringing up this stupid dream of mine to move to Denver? I was sixteen when he last saw me. I’d changed my mind on everything about twenty times since then.
“Well I don’t want to move to Denver anymore. And if I can’t keep Josie with me this week then I’ll have to go back.”
“Why is it so important that you keep her with you? Just to piss me off? It’s not like you don’t leave her with Oma every other time. Now she suddenly has to come with you? Give me a break.”
“This is different.”
“How.”
“It just is.”
“That’s not an explanation.” His voice was rising and I could tell he was getting frustrated with my non-answers.
“It’s none of your business.”
“It’s very much my business when you bring her to work with you,” he thundered and got up. The pulse in his neck was beating rapidly, and I pushed the chair back to put more distance between us.
“Is this the part where you fire me?”
“I’m not going to fire you,” he yelled and leaned forward. “Now start talking.”
“What the hell do you care? I promise she won’t be a bother. She’s a great kid. I’ve brought her to work with me before when Oma was sick.”
