“She’s going to be spending most of her time in the Long Branch office, but—”
Long Branch office? That made no sense. The promotion was supposed to sendmeto the Long Branch office. Blood rushed in my ears, drowning out Isaac’s pontificating.
He hadn’t. Hecouldn’thave.
Finally, I blurted, “You gave her my promotion, didn’t you?”
He cleared his throat and made a few other sounds that weren’t quite grunts. “Well, technically, it wasn’t your job yet. She did have more experience, and…”
He shrugged. He had the audacity to shrug off all of my hopes, all of the hard work I’d put into staying at this godforsaken job in an attempt to prove to my parents and my brother and yes, God help me, Cole, that I could finish what I started.
“So she gets the coordinator position, and I’m supposed to keep working for you?”
He smiled with relief. “Yes! You get it. You just don’t have that much experience in liquor distribution. The big boss and I thought it would be better for you to stay in this position a little longer.”
“But you want me to show her the ropes.”
“Well, just the basics,” he said.
“Are you going to have her dress in a skimpy dress and pose with Santa?”
“Now, Aubrey, that was all fun and games. You have such good legs that it would be a crime to hide them.”
“Are you going to pinch her behind when she walks by and make jokes about your penis to her?”
“It’s all just a joke, Aubrey. Why can’t any of you women ever take a joke?”
A joke? My blood boiled, rage simmering so deeply inside me that I spoke before I thought. “It’s sexual harassment, that’s what it is, and I am through. Consider this my two weeks’ notice.”
And just like that his expression contorted into anger. “You can’t leave me in the lurch like this! You know we’ve got shipments going everywhere for Christmas and then New Year’s.”
“In two weeks, I’m out. And I’m off for Christmas Day.”
“You know what? Clear out your stuff. If you’re going to leave after everything I’ve done for you, after giving you a job when you didn’t have jackshit on your resume, then just get out. And don’t have anyone call me for a reference, either.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
I stalked to my desk and loaded what few personal effects I had into an old paper box.
After all that he’d done for me. He’d only hired me because he’d seen someone young and inexperienced, someone he thought he could talk into sleeping with him.
I took a few minutes to clear anything personal from the company laptop, though there wasn’t much. On a whim, I downloaded a copy of all of my emails—both sent and received—to my Dropbox file.
Just in case.
By the timeI got home, my anger and bravado had melted into something akin to sorrow. Now what was I going to do? I’d proven once again that I, Aubrey Longfellow, could not hold a job for longer than five months.
If Grandma hadn’t left this bungalow to Zach and me, then I would’ve never left my parents’ basement. Except for my last relationship, where I spent entirely too much time living in what I was pretty sure was a commune.
How was I ever supposed to get a decent job if I had no degree? And if I couldn’t trust myself to pick out a boss who wouldn’t harass me?
I’d said it once. I’d probably say it again: I was the hottest of messes.
The house.
The house was all I had, so it was the only thing I had to give Cole. I mean, not give. But I could finally agree to sell the house to him like my brother wanted me to do. Zach and I could split the difference, and I would move in with my parents while I decided what to do next.
It was the logical thing to do. The responsible thing. The sort of thing Cole would do if he were ever in my shoes, which I couldn’t even imagine.
