Sure, I'd been working here for only a fraction of that time, but I'd learned the hard way that it was against company culture to nag someone before the actual due date.
I reminded my boss, "You only assigned it two days ago."
"Right. And it was due today." He gave my costume another long, scornful look. "But instead, you decided to play dress-up."
My eyes narrowed as I coldly informed him, "I wasn't playing dress-up. I was working, just like I said."
Looking more annoyed than curious, he asked, "On what?"
As if he didn't know."The event." I didn’t dare call it a party, not now, when he was giving me that look.
With a low scoff, he replied, "Notmyevent."
"Yeah, but it's a tradition." My voice rose ever so slightly. "And it's been on the calendar for months."
And then there was the thing I didn't say.You've only been here for two weeks.
From the look on his face, he knew exactly what I was thinking.
Before he could object, I continued. "So I'm just saying, if you didn't want the event to happen, you could've canceled it."
"Who says I didn't?"
I shook my head. "But you couldn’t have. If you had, I would've known." Cripes,everyonewould have known. It's not like it was a surprise party.
Sure, it hadendedwith a surprise, but only because the master of ceremonies had been tossed to the curb like a dried-up Christmas tree.
My boss asked, "You sure about that?"
"Of course I'm sure. I see you every day, and you never mentioned it."
Once again, his gaze flicked over my costume. "Yeah, well maybe I didn't know you were so involved."
"How could you not know? I sit right outside your office."
He gave his door a pointed look. "Notnow, you're not."
Right.Because I was standing inhere, uninvited.
But I couldn't give up now. Lloyd Grampkin had hired me fresh out of college. Sure, the pay wasn't terrific, and I had no decent health insurance, but I loved my job. I loved chocolate. I loved my coworkers. And I had loved working for Lloyd.
He was soft and jolly, unlike the guy sitting at Lloyd's former desk. Thisnewboss was so hard, he made rock candy look squishy in comparison.
But it wasn't this contrast that made me dig in my heels like a reindeer skidding on a rooftop. It was the principle of the thing. I was loyal to a fault, and if no one else was going to plead Lloyd's case, it was up to me and me alone.
It was in that moment that I made a decision.
I was going to fight this thing to the death – not physical death, but the death of my job, because jobs were replaceable, but loyalty wasn't.
To this new guy, Ihadno loyalty. I didn't even like him.No one did.
I squared my shoulders and gave him a chilly look of my own. "But you didn't have to fire him – or at least not like that."
His fingers visibly flexed. "That's one opinion, not mine."
"And you never even told him why."
By now, Cole Henster's jaw looked so tight, it was a wonder he could speak at all. "Trust me, he knows."
