Rude Boss

The elevator doors open. Mrs. Musk gets on. I should’ve gotten on with her and gone back to my office, but Quintessa has once again gotten under my skin. I hate that she has this kind of power over me.

I walk to catch up to her and Ms. Valentine and say, “Ms. Bailey, I need to speak with you.”

She stops in her tracks, turns around, and looks at me in utter disbelief. Ms. Valentine whispers something in her ear and Quintessa whispers something back. She must’ve told her to go on to the cafeteria because Ms. Valentine hightails it inside like she’s running for her life. And Quintessa is left staring at me like we’re in a contest to see who blinks first.

I take a few steps closer to her and say, “Come with me.”

“Come with you where?”

“Shh. Come.”

There’s a conference room near the bathrooms in the lobby – a small one that’s usually never in use. I lead her there and pull the door open to find two guys sitting with laptops, looking like they’re knee-deep into an assignment. I say, “Did you reserve this conference room?”

“Uh, no, Mr. DePaul,” one of them says.

“Then, leave. I need this room.”

“Sorry, sir,” the other one says as they scramble to get their belongings. When they finally exit, I motion for Quintessa to enter ahead of me and close the door behind us.

Quintessa walks to the opposite side of the table, crosses her arms and says, “The nerve of you. What do you think you’re doing exactly?”

Brows raised, I ask, “What am I doing? Me? You walked right by me like you didn’t see me, and you’re asking me what I’m doing?”

“You act like I did it intentionally, which I did not. You’re the CEO of the company, and I just got hired. I can’t be seen talking to you at work like we’re besties. That’s why I walked by. You should know that. I thought that was a given. I’m sure I’ll have to explain to Zahara why you wanted to talk to me in private.” She grunts. “This is insane.”

“You’re telling me you walked past me because you didn’t want to be seen talking to me here.”

“Yes. Is that a difficult concept for you?”

“It is because I think your cold shoulder has more to do with our exchange this morning—not what you’re saying now.”

“What exchange! On messenger?”

“Yes, Quintessa. On messenger. Did we communicate any other way this morning besides the ice-cold glare you shot my way from across the lobby?”

“First of all, I don’t consider our messenger chat an exchange. You were rude to me, as usual, but me walking by you has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with who you are. You have a reputation to uphold. You don’t talk to the little people unless you’re tearing into us about something we did wrong. That’s the culture of this work environment. – scold people for what they didn’t do right, but say nothing when they accomplish something.”

She sighs and massages her temples.

“Listen, Essex. You can’t walk around with your chest poked out and convince yourself that ordering people around is an exchange. And, how can you have a legitimate exchange with anyone when you think you’re right about e-ve-ry-thing?”

“Because I usually am.”

She throws up her hands. “You’re beyond fixing. You’re way beyond anything I can do for you. You’re not the same man who was at my apartment this weekend. You’re just not. I would suggest you seek some professional help for your anger or etiquette issues. There’s no way a grown, intelligent man should have a level-six nuclear meltdown over some spilled coffee. Now, if you would excuse me, I’m on my lunch break,” she says, trying to step around me, but I step in front of her blocking her path instead.

“So this is about this morning. Tell the truth.”

“No, it’s not!” She steps around me again and succeeds this time only because I let her, then exits.

After taking into consideration all she’s said and realizing she’s right, I’m still irritated. Did I overreact this morning? Probably. I’m accustomed to having things the way I want them. And since I didn’t end this conversation, it didn’t end. I leave the conference room and head straight to the café to finish it. Talking to her in private was the plan, but her actions have made it public. She’ll have to live with that.