LEXI
Anthym was waiting for me when I stumbled into the office the next morning. The soles of the solitary pair of high heels I owned that Anthym had deemed acceptable for wearing to Richmond Electric were starting to come loose, even though I had clamped them together with extra-strength glue.
“No one told you to fire the cleaners. I can’t believe you,” Anthym scolded, dragging me over to her desk. It wasn’t lost on me that we were now in full view of the CEO’s office where Grayson Richmond was pretending not to watch me get chewed out.
“You told me—”
“I never. I love Mrs. Consuela.”
“Mrs. Ortega,” I corrected, narrowing my eyes.
“Firing people is not part of your job description, and I don’t want to get another complaint from Mr. Richmond about you overstepping again. This is the third time this week. Another infraction, and we will have grounds to fire you,” Anthym reprimanded.
“You’re deliberately trying to slander Mr. Richmond’s good name. He adores Mrs. Or—” She stumbled on the name.
“Mrs. Ortega.”
“Mr. Richmond told me he has a scholarship fund set up for her daughter to attend med school and that he’s appalled anyone would imply he was thinking about firing the poor woman. Shame on you.”
I glared at him.
He shook his head at me through the glass wall.
“Stop looking at him. From now on,” Anthym warned, “I don’t want you in the same room as him.”
“With pleasure,” I said through clenched teeth. “And I did just want to say, your hair looks great today.”
“I know.” Anthym preened and sauntered off to go complain about me with Brittany Dawn.
McKenna met me in the women’s bathroom. It was the only place to get any privacy in this glass prison of an office.
She locked the door. “What the hell was that?”
“He’s gaslighting me,” I seethed, kicking off my heels so I could properly stomp around the tiled floor. “He literally wanted me to fire poor Mrs. Ortega yesterday for some stupid reason, and now he’s acting like he never asked me to do that.”
“At least you know your note worked,” McKenna said apprehensively.
“I hate him.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this angry.” McKenna wetted a paper towel to dab my face.
In the mirror, my pale face was flaming red. I looked like an angry spotted tomato.
“He’s such a villain. He’s a horrible person. I can’t believe I’m working for a man like that. He deliberately set me up just so he could scold me and make me feel small.”
I felt like crying. Unfortunately I didn’t weep like a beautiful Disney princess. I wailed and got snot everywhere.
“You just have to last a little longer,” McKenna said soothingly.
“I hate this job. I want to go home to Florida. I can’t believe Disney wouldn’t hire me.” Now the tears were falling. “That was my dream job. And they rejected me. Me! The world’s biggest Disney fan.”
McKenna wrapped me in a hug.
“Now I’m here stuck with the world’s worst boss. You couldn’t even make him the villain of a movie because no one would believe it.”
“I was saving this for an emergency.” My friend handed me a coupon on pink paper for a free cupcake from the Bippity Boppity Bakery.
“The bakery where we bought the pretzels yesterday emailed it to me as a thank-you. Said they had an influx of business from the Richmond Electric workers who missed out on the leftover pretzels after the meeting. They’re hoping they can cater more meetings.”
