Unwrapping Holly

“Patricia,” he said, “is no longer a part of my life. And she’s no longer welcome to my car. I mean… your car.”

I whirled on him without warning. My expression could best be described as a sneer of contempt.

“I’m no longer in your life!” I snarled.

“I know, but—”

“You think I want my car back?” I laughed. “After you took it the way you did? After you just gave it away to your latest girlfriend?”

“I— I was only—”

“What happened Malcolm? She smashed it up?”

“Twice,” he cried pleadingly. “Oh Holly, you have no idea what I’ve been through! It’s been a nightmare! Not to mention how much this is going to cost me, when I have to turn in the lease.”

I could see he was frazzled. Chewed up around the edges. Malcolm never did handle a crisis very well, and whatever was going on had been particularly rough on him.

“You’ve been taking the bus and the subway anyway, right?” he reasoned. “So just take the car. Finish out the lease. I’ll even split the damages with you, when we finally—”

I picked up the keychain and threw it as hard as I could. It sailed across the mostly empty office, landing a good eight or ten cubicles away.

“Holly!” he cried, wagging a finger. “That’s… that’s immature.”

“You’re lucky I can’t throw you across the office like that,” I growled. “Very lucky.”

But my boyfriends can…

Just the idea of it made me smile. I started to picture it in my mind’s eye…

With characteristic sternness, Malcolm shook his head. “I should’ve known,” he said sadly. “Actually, I did know. I knew you couldn’t handle the responsibility of being promoted upstairs. I knew you were too hotheaded to even—”

“WHAT did you say?”

I was up now, out of my chair. Standing toe to toe with him, my fists clenched so hard I could feel my fingernails digging into my palms.

All of a sudden my ex-boyfriend looked very nervous. “Nothing.”

“No, you said… you were going to…”

The full realization of what happened crashed over me in a giant wave. My mouth opened, my fists unclenched. All of a sudden I felt cataclysmically stupid.

“Ohhhhhh…” I swore. “I get it now…”

Malcolm swallowed and looked at me sideways. “G—Get what?”

“You talked your bosses out of promoting me,” I swore. “You didn’t want me up there on the eighteenth floor with you!”

“N—No,” he stammered. “That’s not true. Not entirely, anyway. I merely pointed out—”

“You put the word out with the higher-ups, didn’t you?” I was livid now. Beyond livid. Malcolm actually began walking backwards, only with each step he took, I took a step forward.

“You screwed me out of my promotion Malcolm! Didn’t you? Tell me, Mal

colm! Tell me that’s not the case.”

He stared back at me without saying a single word. He didn’t have to. His expression said everything.

“You wanted her,” I swore. “Oh wow, this was over a girl, wasn’t it? You wanted Patricia up there. You convinced your bosses to hire her instead of me, and then you swooped in.”