“I get a lot of emails,” was his immediate response.
“No worries, this one was sent on Monday at nine AM.” I offered. He curled his lips inward. Obviously, he had ignored it. “It outlined how I would no longer be handling supporting tasks due to my own project initiatives.”
His face went flat as he looked at me. “Yeah, I heard about that. I thought it was a prank.”
This time my eye twitched. “No, I don’t usually prank on work emails, Jack.”
“No, but apparently you lie.” The voice that particular remark belonged to had my chest coiling up and my veins freezing over. Grace, who had taken it upon herself to pay routine visits to my office ever since the whole campaign pitching debacle, had just arrived for her daily torture. “Ms. Fernandez, is this becoming a habit of yours?”
“What?” I asked, voice smaller than it had been with Jack.
“Blatantly disregarding your responsibilities.”
Frowning, I looked at her. Bun, stilettos, gray power suit today. The sight intimidated me, causing me along with my voice, to wither. “I’m not disregarding anything. I put up a notice far in advance that I could no longer perform support tasks as often as before.”
“And why is that?” she asked, hands going to her hips. “And please don’t tell me it’s because of that silly little art project you have with those mom-and-pop shops. I thought we discussed this already.”
“I—”
“You have a responsibility here, or have you forgotten that already since the last time we spoke?”
“No, but I?—”
“You need to get back to work and stop messing around with everyone’s time.” Grace gave me one of those looks that cut me to the bone. Why was she always so mean? Why wouldn’t she just let me talk? Let me explain? I fought to keep my tears from spilling, but Grace noticed them even as they were unshed. A ghost of a smile so small I thought maybe I’d imagined it crossed her face. “We are not here to play, Alta. This is a real business and some of us have real jobs to do. We would appreciate it if you did yours.”
My face stung as I raised it to the ceiling to keep from spilling my feelings all over the place.
“I’m not playing around, Grace,” I said through my teeth.
“Then what are you doing? Because it’s certainly not your job,” she crossed her arms.
“I’m working on a project.”
“Who’sproject? I haven’t heard a thing about this conveniently secretive campaign.”
I opened my mouth and nothing came out. What was I going to say? My project? My second attempt at going out on my own after the first failed miserably? My own little “science project” or whatever else people had mockingly called it over the last few days?
My own little failure. That’s what it truly was.
I closed my mouth. My breath shook as my swallow went down slow and rocky. I was going to cry. My face burned, my nose burned, my ears and my eyes and my scalp all burned. I was red hot with shame and defeat and humiliation, and I had to think of something to say. I had to, or else it would all burst free. But when I opened my mouth again, a sound I wasn’t expecting filled my ears.
“Can I ask what’s going on here?” The deep, familiar tone of my brother’s voice rang around the room. I cursed internally.
Everyone else recognized it and instantly reacted accordingly. Jack scampered off to wherever he was actually supposed to be, and Grace whirled around to face her boss.
Me, I stayed facing my desk. I was about to cry. If he saw it, everyone in here would get his wrath and then I would just be that girl who had her big brother take up for her. I was not about to be a snitch on top of apparently being the office punching bag. So I stayed turned away from my brother.
Quick as a whip, he zeroed in on me. “Al?”
It was still early. Too early for my appointment with the tattoo shop, but I had to make a strategic decision. Stay here and become a crybaby on top of all the other things I was at the office, or simply leave?
Reaching out, I blindly scooped up whatever was in front of meand turned the opposite direction so no one could see my face. Then I began to hustle my way out.
“Sorry, Ox! I have to run. I won’t be back today, so much to do, so little time! Bye!” I said.
“Okay. See you tomorrow,” he said. I heard the hesitance in his voice, but by the time he spoke his next words, it was gone. Replaced by clipped confidence as he directed his inquiry toward his actual employee. “Grace. Fill me in.”
I dashed away, not even sticking around to hear how I was leaving Grace to clean up the mess I made.
