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“Don’t worry about it, just focus on getting better. I’ll pass it along.”
I shuffled to the kitchen and prepared a coffee, hoping the caffeine might help clear my brain fog. Since falling ill, I hadn’t had the mental clarity to think about Neil’s rejection and what to do about his order to resign or change positions. Cradling the warm mug, I curled up on the couch and tried to think things through again. Did Neil seriously want to get rid of me, or did he say that in the heat of the moment? If I made it clear that I wanted to keep working with him, would he let me, or would he fire me? A job loss now meant I’d have to take up cleaning again to fill in the gap before going overseas.
I lay down, feeling another headache coming on. The leather cushions squeaked beneath me as I shifted, trying to get comfortable. At some point, I must have drifted asleep, because I stirred sometime later to the shrill tone of my phone ringing. I fumbled to grab it off the coffee table, but missed the last ring. My heart constricted at the sight of Neil’s name on the missed-call message. I wondered what he wanted to say to me, but I didn’t have the courage to call him back, so I just left it. This wasn’t the first time I had ignored a call from him either.
In the afternoon, I found the energy to clean the house, put on a load of laundry, and restock the barren pantry from a grocery delivery. Bit by bit, I started to feel like myself again.
I was in the middle of preparing an afternoon snack of crackers and cheese when my phone rang. I tensed, expecting it to be Neil again, but saw an unexpected name instead: Christine Liu.
That’s weird. Why would she call me?
I picked up. “Hello?”
“Hi, Milly. It’s Christine. How are you? Neil said you’ve been unwell.”
Hearing her voice lifted my spirits. “Oh, hi, Christine. I had a bad sinus thing going on, but I’m feeling a bit better now. I think I’ll be able to go back to work on Monday.”
“Neil will be relieved. He sounded so worried about you on the phone. He asked me to check in and see how you’re doing.”
I blinked, unable to fathom Neil fretting over my absence when he had been so cold the last time we spoke. “Did he?”
“He sounded quite distraught, actually.” A teasing lilt crept into her tone. “Did something happen between you two? He seemed to have the impression you’d be more likely to answer a call from me than from him.”
I hesitated, weighing how much to confide in her.
“You can vent to me,” Christine said. “I won’t tell on you.”
I supposed if anyone could help me decode Neil’s behaviour, it would be Christine. “Well, actually… Yes. Something did happen. I… made a mistake, and now Neil is upset and wants me to leave my job.”
“What?” She sounded genuinely shocked. “But I thought you two were getting along really well.”
“We were.”
“What happened?”
I shuffled my feet. “I don’t want to say. It’s kinda embarrassing.”
“Oh really? Well, I’m sure Neil has his reasons. He can be stubborn at the best of times. What did he say exactly?”
“He told me he’s not a good man, he’s done terrible things, we can’t be friends…”
Christine let out a soft sigh, as if Neil’s reasoning didn’t surprise her at all.
“Do you know what he meant by that?” I asked.
“I think he has a guilty conscience. Zelthia’s not exactly known for good working conditions across their companies. Not to mention all the blackmail and bribery and corruption. He’s tried to keep his hands clean throughout the years, but that hasn’t always been possible.”
I reeled, struggling to reconcile this darker version of Neil with the man I knew. Of course, I was aware he couldn’t have achieved his success through wholly ethical means. Cutthroat tactics were par for the course in the corporate world, especially at his level, but hearing the stark reality laid bare still came as a shock. “So when he said those awful things about himself, that’s what he meant?”
“Most likely.”
“That’s quite a lot to take in.”
“You deserve to know who you’re dealing with.”
“But he doesn’t seem to be a bad person. Not anymore, right?”
“I don’t know how much he’s told you, but he’s doing the best he can behind the scenes to reform the business.”
