“I’m tired, Becca,” I said, hoping that would be enough to make her stop.
There was silence around us. I hadn’t noticed it before, but everyone had stopped talking. Why had they…?
“Xavier Mendez.”
I looked up. It was Janice. Of course, it was Janice. She was standing by my cubicle with her hands on her hips and an unpleasant kind of smile on her face. The kind of smile that was really a grimace. How much had she just heard? Even if she had, it would be Becca in trouble, not me. I hadn’t said a thing about her.
“You’re needed in the office,” she said, gesturing to the manager’s rooms up at the front of the space. “We need to have a talk.”
My stomach dropped.
So, it looked like I was losing my job after all.
I walked after her feeling like a man on death row, walking to the execution chamber. Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic – but I was sure the eyes of every other prisoner in this joint swung to follow me as I passed through the middle of the office. I reached Janice’s door and paused for her to move her considerably large behind through it, then went and flopped down in the chair opposite her desk as soon as I had a chance.
She closed the door, giving me a meaningful look, and sat down herself. “Xavier Mendez,” she said, pronouncing my name letter by letter almost, saying it with such an air of precision that I almost shrank in my chair.
I wasn’t about to be cowed into begging for my job. Better to meet this at the head and show her that I was defiant until the end. I squared my shoulders and looked at her. “Yep. What’s this about?” I asked, putting on an air as if I had far better things to do than sit around here and listen to her ramblings.
“I know your little secret, Mr. Mendez,” she said, with a twinkle in her eye that was not at all pleasant. She leaned back in her chair. “And I’ve got a message from head office for you about the future of your time in this organization.”
Rowe
I looked up as Xavi walked back down the aisle between our cubicles, his eyes cast to the ground. The faint remnants of a red flush were on his cheeks, and when he looked up and accidentally caught my eye, the color deepened.
He sat down without a word. I turned in my chair to look at the back of his head. What had happened in there?
And how long was it going to be before I could look at the back of his head and not imagine grabbing it, sinking my fingers into his close-cropped hair, and kissing the life out of him?
With any luck, not long – because I didn’t like the selfish way that I was thinking right now. I should have been concerned about Xavi, about what had happened in the office, not about whether I could ever be with him. Especially since I knew I couldn’t.
Had he lost his job? Finally been told it was over? But… he’d sat back at his desk.
“Mr. Rowe.”
I looked up, startled. Janice was standing a few cubicles away, clearly preferring to shout down the aisle at me than walk all the way over. When I met her gaze, she lifted a finger and beckoned to me, then marched back towards the office.
I swallowed.
Was I getting fired, too?
I looked at Xavi, but he was facing steadfastly forward – the only time I had ever seen him not crane his neck and try to get into everyone else’s business. Figured. The one time I actually needed a hint from him, something to calm my nerves, he wasn’t giving up anything.
I reached for my cane and hefted it, taking a second to stabilize myself after pushing upright. Yesterday hadn’t done much to rest my aching body, especially after another late-night shift that ended up running over. I hadn’t had enough sleep to recover from the events of the weekend, and I was all too aware that I was walking slower than normal as I made my way after Janice. She was already long gone and seated in the office again, and I had to endure shuffling past all of my coworkers alone under her scrutiny as well as theirs.
When I finally reached her, a little out of breath and more than a little flustered, she gestured to the chair and also the door. “Close that before you sit,” she said.
I turned to face the door as I closed it, giving me one last moment to compose myself. I turned and sat as carefully as I could, resting my hands on my legs to avoid showing how much they shook. I kept the cane propped against myself, sensing I was going to need it to walk back out and pack up my things very soon.
“Mr. Rowe,” Janice said – and against all my expectations, her expression softened. Actuallysoftened. “Upper management wants me to make you an offer.”
I frowned. “What kind of an offer?” I hadn’t expected her to say anything like that, and now I had no idea what I was in for. There was something almost sinister about it. An offer? Like, an offer I couldn’t refuse? Or an offer to take on more work for no extra pay?
“There’s a position opening up in the chain of command above you,” Janice said and then hesitated. “Actually, my position.”
“Supervisor?” I asked. I blinked. Wait… “Are you getting promoted?”
“No,” Janice said, and she actually smiled. I’d never seen her smile in the whole time I’d worked here. Not a genuine smile, anyway – only sarcastic or cruel ones. “I’m retiring to spend more time with my grandchildren. I’ve been here long enough to qualify for a good company pension, so I’m taking it.”
