“I’ll need to accompany you to clean out your desk, Violet,” Celine says with her kind, put-on smile.
“I don’t…” I shake my head. “I’m not in the headspace to do that right now,” I say, tasting sourness in my throat. I might be about to hurl my apple juice up. “Can you ask Cammy to do it? She’ll know what’s personal stuff and what’s… not.”
“Absolutely. I’ll walk you out.”
I want to throw up, but I also want air. And primal scream therapy because this is absolute bullshit.
As we emerge from the boardroom, I see Cammy coming out of the photocopier room just inside the mouth of the hallway beyond Tara’s reception desk. Cammy smiles brightly at me and then her smile drops as she watches Celine walk me toward the door. “Cammy? If you wouldn’t mind, could you grab Violet’s purse and coat, please and run them back?” she asks, over her shoulder.
Cammy’s eyes bulge and then she nods. “One sec,” she says.
I make eye contact with Tara. Tara’s face says it all. She already knows. The receptionist gets cc’d on termination notification emails that go to all the department heads, and she’s the one that revokes my building access. I hand her my security badge and her chin wobbles. She holds her pinky to her jaw, her thumb pointing at her ear with the call me gesture.
I tip my chin up at her and go to the door.
“Best of luck,” Celine says, extending her hand. “Call me when you’re ready to sign and we’ll set that up. We need to sign together so please don’t do that until we meet again.”
“Okay,” I manage, letting go of her hand.
Cammy hands me my purse and coat, then hugs me. “Phone me.”
I nod.
It takes until I get to my car before my emotions get the better of me. I’m angry.
So angry.
No tears come. Not this time. This time, it’s rage.
I pick up the phone and ignore the text message from Cammy with nothing but a line of question marks so that I can call Tennille, my contact at the peripheral vendor in question.
Her number is one I’ve dialed at least once a day for the past four years, so I know it by heart. I’ve met her every year I’ve worked at my job at least four times a year when she’s come to take me to our quarterly lunch meeting. And we usually do a Christmas lunch, too. Not just that, we shoot the breeze on the phone at least every few days. I’d hesitantly say we’re friends.
She answers and we have a conversation where she not only tells me that her company would waive the restocking fee for us if asked, but also that she’d have second-guessed the order if it landed on her desk for that dollar value. And she didn’t see it. She would’ve, since she gets paid commission on our orders. She promises to look into it and get back to me and then tells me her coworker is retiring in about a year and a half and that if I want to enjoy my pregnancy and some time with my baby before I come work for them then, she’ll be happy to recommend me.
“Aren’t you worried about losing our… their business if you offer me a job?”
“The company they’re acquiring? I’ve heard all about it in the grapevine and I know that douche who’s their buyer. That buyer is Shara’s ex-fiancé. We figured he’d get canned and you’d get promoted. Since that’s not on, no biggie. Because he won’t buy anything from me anyway. He takes kickbacks and our company has ethics.”
I’m shocked.
We talk for another minute, where she tells me some of the stuff she’s heard about Shara trying to advance herself in the company, how she and Frank supposedly just came off a torrid affair, how Frank won’t leave his wife because she’s filthy rich. How Shara is taking that out on everyone. I’m shocked she’s planning to keep her ex on, though, over me.
Our industry is close-knit, but it’s extra obvious just how much people talk by the stuff she knows.
After the enlightening conversation, I begin tapping out a text to Cammy but she calls me while I’m doing that.
I answer.
“Cammy, you shouldn’t talk to me until you’re outside that building.”
“I’m in the bathroom. Did they really fire you? What the heck for?”
“I was downsized due to the reorg. Don’t say anything to anyone. I might be suing them. I think Shara took me out for revenge reasons because my husband got a little snippy with her. Among a general power trip. I don’t know. It’s whacky.”
“Yeah. Your husband was here yesterday. Mr. Hotness himself. But he looked angry. And angry is even hotter on him. Shara was actin’ the rest of the day like she was a spoiled brat who got scolded for the first time in her life. That woman has a Goddess complex. She was poking around in your desk for at least half an hour after your husband left. That woman is a man-hater since her fiancé dumped her. And she’s been on the warpath about you since you took time off to go get married. You’re suing? You definitely should.”