AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She laughed. “Lighten up. It was a joke.” She took her sandwich and left the kitchen.
I went back to reading the pile of papers. I could never be sure what was a joke and what wasn’t when it came to Lara.
There was a lot of verbiage on conditional payments that I didn’t spend time trying to comprehend. I found a sticky note in Rosa’s handwriting attached to the first page of appendix two.
Sign the final page of this attachment
Maybe something about this wasn’t finalized without my signature after all. The appendix was labeledRetention Agreement.
Flipping to the back, I could see where the final page had been signed by Lloyd Benson, and there was indeed a blank line for me to sign.
I leafed back and started at the beginning. My blood got hotter as I read what Ernst had meant to sign me up for: this said I had to work for these Benson assholes for six months. I stopped before reaching the end of the first page and picked up my phone.
“I can’t talk now, Nicole,” Ernst said when he answered. “I’m about to tee off—”
I interrupted him. “I need to tap into my trust a little.”
“No. Your parents were quite adamant about that.” He used that line every time I brought it up. His claim that Daddy hadn’t wanted me to grow up a spoiled child and had insisted I work for a living without any access to my trust had been a common refrain, and sounded exactly like Daddy.
“But this is different,” I complained.
“Not at all. The answer is still no.”
With Aunt Rossella in Italy, it wouldn’t do any good to revisit this until she returned.
I moved on to my real reason for calling. “I need to know what the retention agreement in the back of this paperwork is all about.”
“They need somebody for a while who knows what’s going on, and we both know that’s not me.”
I held back a laugh and didn’t bother agreeing with him. It was true.
“It’s quite a good deal for you, I think.”
Somebody called his name in the background. “Hey, let’s make it a thousand a hole.”
“I have to go,” Ernst said. “We’ll talk tonight.” He hung up before I could get another word in.
I was changing into sweats when my phone rang.
It was Rosa from HR at work. “Nicole, I’m sad to hear you’re leaving us.”
I didn’t have much to say to that. “Me too.”
“I’m calling to arrange your exit interview.”
“Let’s just skip it,” I suggested.
“I’m not allowed to do that, and there are a few things to go over with you.”
Paperwork was not high on my priority list. “Like what?”
“Well, there’s the matter of your non-compete agreement.”
Fuck me. I tried bluster. “I don’t think I’m covered by that.”
“Oh, you are. All the managers are.”
The non-compete agreements had been another of Ernst’s bright ideas two years ago.
