"I don't understand," Mace said, still standing in the doorway to his office.
Garrett blinked at his brother. "You asked her to reorganize the storage closet."
"I did?" Mace sounded like he was in a daze.
"Marie Kondo says you have to take everything out, ask each item if it brings you joy, then reorganize it. I had only gotten to the first step of taking everything out," I explained, "but then Garrett wanted me to help him on his presentation, and well"—I gestured with the hand that held the bag of cereal—"I'll finish organizing after I'm done."
I grabbed a handful of cereal and stuffed it in my mouth.
"Are you eating a bag of marshmallows?" Mace asked, disgusted.
"No," I said, swallowing. "There's wheat bits in here too."
"It looks like it's all marshmallows."
"Girl's gotta eat. It's energy. Plus marshmallows are great. You can put them in coffee. You can decorate with them. I bought a forty-pound bag online. It was only ten dollars. So you're going to be seeing a lot more of them."
Henry ran toward us, a roll of trace paper swirling out behind him. He ran into a stack of colored posters, sending them cascading to the floor.
"My work here is done," Garrett said, stepping around Henry.
Mace sighed and grabbed Henry. The little kid squirmed in his arms.
"I need you to babysit," Mace said to me.
"That is not in my job description," I countered, looking at Henry suspiciously.
"Neither is working for Garrett." Mace scowled. "Just, can you watch him, please? There are some snacks in my cabinet if he gets hungry." He handed Henry to me. The kid was heavy. He shrieked as Mace walked out of the office. I set Henry on the floor.
I liked kids in theory. Henry didn't seem like he liked me in theory or otherwise. The towheaded boy looked at me and scowled. I had to laugh because he looked just like a mini version of Mace in that moment.
"Don't laugh at me!" he yelled and crossed his arms.
"Sorry," I said. "Shhh people are working." Henry let out a high-pitched screech, and I winced at the noise. I always wanted a big family, but I sort of assumed that it would be far down the road and that I potentially may die under an avalanche of English toffee and empty wine boxes before it ever happened.
"Henry, do you want a snack?" I asked him. He stopped screaming and looked at me expectantly.
"I want pizza and ice cream," he announced.
"Me too, but I don't know if Mace has any of that." I rummage around in the CEO's cabinets and found a Ziploc bag filled with slices of some sort of crumbly bread. Opening it, I sniffed it.
"This smells—" I sniffed it again. "Oddly familiar. Is this from the vegan place?" Dry to begin with, I was sure the bread was almost inedibly stale by now.
"Pizza! Pizza!" Henry chanted.
"I don't have that," I said, "but I do have this amazing, delicious vegan nut bread." Henry didn't seem like he believed my hype. Breaking off a piece of the bread, I handed it to him.
He inspected it, took a tiny nibble, then spit it out on the floor.
"Yuck, it's gross."
"What is this racket? There are people trying to work," Tara said as she came into the office, a pinched look on her face.
Does that woman seriously not work? Why is she always hanging around Mace?
"Do you need something?" I asked Tara.
"I need to talk to Mace. You need to clean up this mess. I should have known a simple organizing job would be beneath you. You and your incompetence are harming Mace and hurting the company. If you had a shred of integrity, you would leave."
