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“Anyway, Hannah,” Madison called. “You look good, and you seem to have been blessed with a good boss as usual. What’s working with a marketing agency like? I haven’t taken up a new position and I’m considering heading into that field?”
The last thing I wanted to do was talk about work, but I understood that these kinds of meetings were just as much for encouragement as they were for sharing gossip and establishing connections, so I replied, “It's good so far. He’s fair and we get a lot of clients, so I get to meet a lot of people. We just wrapped up a project now at Quiver.”
“Oh my God, that's such a high-end restaurant. He must be a big client.”
“Not really,” I replied as I filled up my glass once again. “My boss just wants to show off because he wants him retained and wants a referral to his contacts. Marketing details a lot of buttering up across the board.”
“Right,” she replied and nodded. “Maybe I should join that field,” she said. “I’ll consider it when going through open positions at the agency tomorrow.”
“So, all in all, everything's good?” Rosalie asked. “You have no issues whatsoever with your boss? He’s decent?”
I thought of this question and how to respond. If I was with Mandy, I would never have held back. I would have complained till the sun set and rose, but these were colleagues and, in a sense, competitors as well. Plus, I was extremely private and didn’t always need the details of my business shared to be the topic of conversation anywhere, so I simply nodded and smiled.
“He’s okay, I’m just overworked.”
“You fucking need to teach us your ways,” Sarah slurred, now quite tipsy. “I can’t believe I was fired today. I swear I was so careful and learned from the other two not to make any mistakes, but somehow one was made. And I am still furious because I don’t even understand how it happened. I know I couldn’t have been so careless, yet the evidence all points to the fact that I had been. It almost makes me feel as though someone is behind all this because the mistakes so far have been rookie mistakes. So basic that we didn’t even think we could make them, and yet we did, and all lost our jobs with that…”
She couldn’t find a suitable insult for him.
“Monster?” Faye supplied. “Cretin?”
I laughed louder than was needed, but it was genuine. The wine was starting to get to me and loosening me up just in the way that I needed.
“Wow,” Rosalie said. “I can't tell if that is happiness or pain,” Rosalie said, and I smiled.
“Both.”
Her eyes narrowed then, and I wondered why as I grabbed onto the menu and decided that I needed something even stronger but sweet as well.
“Let's make a wager,” Rosalie said, leaning forward in excitement. “Sarah, Faye, and Madison were all fired from the same boss. Why don’t you go to work with him as well and see if it will be the case? You’ve never been fired by a boss, right? So, this way, we could find out if whatever happened was actually their fault or if he’s the one being a tool. And if that’s the case, then maybe we can even file some unlawful termination lawsuit against them. It’s a law firm, right? So that’s even more wonderful. The four of you combined might even make a class-action lawsuit. He can’t escape then. What do you say?”
The other girls looked at her in shock as they tried to process all that she had just said, and then it was as though a light bulb went off in their heads.
“Holy shit, that’s a great idea,” they slurred. I gave them a look and then turned to the waiter who had come over. “Cosmopolitan,” I told him. “But a little less on the cranberry and orange and double the shots of the schnapps and vodka.”
“Got it,” he replied and went on his way, while I, on the other hand, was met with curious and expectant looks from the other girls. I looked between all of them and only had one answer in response.
“No,” I said, holding my arm. “Maybe you all have savings or are extremely wealthy, but I have a mom to take care of and a rusty apartment to move out of, so no. I need stability right now, not a class-action lawsuit or a prank.”
“Oh, come on, it’s not a prank,” Sarah said. “This is actually serious. I mean, why the hell would he fire all three of us in under three months? It makes no sense. We’re not newbie secretaries, and we’re all saying the same thing here, that we didn’t make the mistakes that caused us to get fired, or at least we were sure we didn’t make the mistakes and couldn’t understand how it happened. There’s obviously something going on here. And if we find out, it could help. Plus, his salary for secretaries is the highest in the city, you know. If you succeed, you’ll be earning, I’m sure, almost double whatever you’re earning now, and if you don’t, we have a class-action lawsuit to file for wrongful termination, which will be very difficult for him to beat. And even if we don’t file the lawsuit, you can always get another secretary job from the agency. I mean, there is no shortage of opportunities for us. Madison, how long did it take you to get a new job?”
“Six days.”
“Exactly,” Sarah said. “Six days. No matter what, I don't see how you could lose. Plus, you’ll be getting an additional thousand bucks if you find out that we were all the ones at fault, and you, on the other hand, are just better at your job and can keep that monster happy better than all of us could. I’m really struggling here to see the con in all of this.”
I listened to all that they were saying and had to admit to myself, with what was still sober of my mind, that I agreed with them, however, I didn't reply. Not until my drink came over.
I took a long sip of the enhanced cocktail and couldn’t help the smile that came to my face.
“So what do you say, Hannah?” Faye held my arm. “Deal?”
“Don’t say yes yet,” Rosalie said as she turned to retrieve her wallet from her purse. “Don’t agree until the money is on the table and you can see it. You know how these other girls can be.”
Actually, I had no clue how these other girls could be, since I wasn’t too close to any of them, but seeing the money piled up on the table was inspiring, to say the least. After it all, everyone turned to Faye, and she held out her hand.
“I only have twenty dollars on me. Why are we using cash, and why do you all have cash? Let’s pool it somewhere digitally to be sent over to Hannah if she wins?”
“I have no idea how to do this,” Rosalie said.
