AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, shove it up your ass! What are you gonna do? Fire me?”
My eyes pop wide in surprise. Because she’s going all in,‘burn this motherfucker down’.
“I was professional! I stayed longer than I needed to, and I’ve provided a highly trained replacement. Hell,Boss, you can probably call her Fifi, if you want. She wants this job so fricken much, you could call her Shaquille O’Neal and I’m certain she’d be okay with it.”
“I don’t want a fucking lapdog busting my ass eighty times a day. I need a lady warrior, barring the way and keeping me moving in the right direction. I needyou. Haven’t you heard what they say about me?”
“That you’re a bitch?” She pops off without fear, pursing her lips and holding my stare. “Yeah. I heard.”
“I mean… I wouldn’t usethatword.” I need to calm this conversation or risk losing my friend, too. If she leaves the George Stanley, she leaves. Professionally, that sucks. But she doesn’t get to walk out of my life on a personal level and pretend this past year never happened. “I know people say I’m mean, Sera.”Sera? Is that cool?“I know they say I’m unkind. They call me a bitch because I’m a woman. But they’d call me firm if I was a man.”
“What they call you is no longer my concern. I no longer work for you.”
“You do. Until Friday. So if we have to stay in this office every minute from now until then, then that’s what we’re gonna do.”
“I’m off at five.” She tilts her head—I swear, she works hard not to smile. “I’m unavailable for overtime this week.”
“I needyourkind of fierceness sitting at that desk,” I plead. “You know the world tries to encroach every minute of every day. You know people demand my time and attention. It’s cruel of you to plop Cora in your office and expect her not to cry by lunchtime.”
“Her name is Callen. And she’s been here for three weeks already. She’s fine.”
“Three weeks with you holding her hand the whole time! The second you’re gone, she’s gonna flop.”
“Your faith in her abilities, I’m certain, will warm her heart.”
“Sera!”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” she throws her hand out to the side. “Call me Fifi!Serais for Charlie, and he screwed that up way worse than you’ve screwed anything up.” Finally, she loses her fierce composure and stares at me through shimmering eyes. “I’m leaving, Minka. But there was no need for you to treat me the way you have these past few weeks. I’ve taken a new position in someone else’s office. I’m not moving to Oklahoma.”
“You’re not?” Softening, I push away from my glass wall and move closer to my friend. My comrade. “You’re staying in Copeland?”
“Of course.” She sniffs—the action is fast and violent. The weakness, annoying to her. “Our jobs will still overlap, I promise.”
I study her eyes, searching for the answers to questions I’ve asked for weeks. “Where is your new office?”
She snickers, shaking her head side-to-side. “I’m not telling you.”
“But—”
“It’s for everyone’s health and wellbeing. You’ll hurt the person who head hunted me, and none of us can afford that kind of heat right now.”
“Do I know this person?” I angle my head and force her to meet my eyes. “Have we had dealings?”
“No comment.”
“Is this person already afraid of me?” Because if they are, a well-placed threat could get me my media relationspersonback. “I just want to talk to them.”
“No.”
“I could discuss with them, boss to boss, about their newest acquisition.”
“I said no.”
“Please Fifi! They don’t need you as much as I do! Do you even care that I’m flying to New York tomorrow?”
Unimpressed, she purses her lips and barely stops short of rolling her eyes. “You’re gonna be fine.”
“I made my eighteen-year-old brother-in-law book my hotel! Because Mirium was useless and you weren’t doing your job.”
