I start to speak when I hear a scream from the outer office. I watch in horror as Katya strolls into my office wearing the fur coat. “Oh, Gabriel. It’s gorgeous. A little big for me but thank you so much. You’re so generous.”
What the hell? “Uh, Katya?”
“Gabriel?” asks Cammy. When I don’t answer, she tries again. “Gabriel?”
“I’ve gotta go.” I hang up the phone and watch as Katya struts around my office in the seven-thousand-dollar mink coat with sable trim.
“Katya?”
“I read your note. Finally! I had a feeling you felt the same. Why did you tease me by dating that lazy cow, Lexie? I heard you fired her,thank God.”
“Lazy cow?”
She plops her bottom down onto one of my side chairs. “Yes. She did nothing. I was always giving her work to do to keep her from just sitting on her fat ass all day.”
“Her fat ass all day?”
“Yes. She was a terrible employee, Gabriel. Ooh, and her taste. Disgusting. From her old clothes from the 70s to that hideous Christmas party she organized. What was with those twinkling lights and those stupid paper snowflakes?”
I liked her clothes.Wait? What?
“She made those all by hand,” says Cammy from my doorway.
“She did?”
“She did. She used her own money to buy the materials. She cut each piece out one by one, so they were unique, like real snowflakes. Then she attached them all together, so they were three-dimensional. She also created the signature cocktail at the party, she moved all of the furniture by herself and hung every light, streamer, and decoration from the ceiling on the morning of the party by herself.”
I turn to Katya. “I thought you did all that.”
“Gabriel, darling. Like I’d design something that childish. Winter Wonderland? Please.”
“I thought it was beautiful,” says Cammy as she approaches my desk.
“I did too.”
“Who ordered the sweaters?”
“Oh, I did that. They were perfect, right?”
“Except, she ordered Lexie’s without asking her the size or color she wanted.”
“So, you ordered her that tiny pink sweater?”
Katya scoffs. “She’s huge. They didn’t have her size, so I just went with it.”
“Katya, you’re fired. Leave the mink when you go.”
“Gabriel?” Katya squeaks. “You’re teasing, right, honey?”
“No. See human resources on your way out. They’ve got a nice severance package. If you leave now and don’t cause a fuss, I’ll let you have that.”
“But, you can’t. What cause?”
“Internet porn.”
I watch Katya’s face turn from beige to fuchsia in seconds. “How did you find out?”
“Oh, security informed me about your little indiscretion a few weeks ago.”
