by Lara Hunter
“Are you in such a hurry you can’t say hello to your boss?” Mike barked. “I’d ever settle for a nod.”
Emily looked up from her desk and watched as her boss neared her cubicle. The air about him wasn’t consistent with his usual playful banter or outrageously flirtatious manner. She heaved a secret breath of annoyance and then offered a polite smile. “Sorry Mike, didn’t see you there.”
“You’re late,” came his stern accusation as he approached her desk.
“No I’m not,” Emily said quickly, looking at the clock on her desk and then back to Mike, who was now leaning against the fragile wall of her cubicle.
“Two minutes,” he said, tapping his watch. “You know how I feel about punctuality. I said ten minutes on the phone.”
“And I called you unreasonable,” she said with a nervous laugh. “Plus, traffic here has been insane since they closed the right lane on Seventh Street.” Seeing that Mike was in no mood for pleasantries, Emily furrowed her brows and tried not to look too annoyed as she stared down at her skirt like a punished child. “I made it right on time, Mike. Check my clock-in.”
Mike set his jaw and tapped his fingers on her office wall. “I’ll do that,” he snapped. “And for the record, I have no patience for your tongue today, Emily.”
Emily’s eyes widened as she moved her gaze from her skirt to her computer monitor. “Noted,” she said slowly and wondered if she should start doing busywork. The awkward silence dragged on painfully and finally Emily looked up as if to tell Mike he should leave. Instead, he just stared at her, his eyes coated in hurt and annoyance. “I should get started,” she finally said.
“Yes, you should, I’ve sent you a list of tasks for today. Check your inbox.”
“I thought I was working on the Bulgaris account today?”
“No, no, I’ve given that responsibility to Karen.” Mike pursed his lips and tapped his finger against his mouth. “I felt like it was time to give her a meatier assignment. Really want to test her in the field, you know?”
“Uh-huh.”
Ridiculous. Karen had only been working for the company for a month. Emily had been on this account since the beginning. Mike was just being petty about losing his shot at a date with her last night.
“You’ll be running some errands for me today, Emily.”
“Okay,” she said with a breathy sigh. “I’ll do whatever you need me to do, but I should get started. Thanks, Mike.”
Mike gave a triumphant glare; his brows shooting up with defiance. And then he finally left, making his way back to his office, or off to torture some other lowly employee. She could never tell.
Emily set her jaw in frustration and watched from the corner of her eyes as Mike walked into his office, slamming the door loud enough to incite whispers from the secretary desks nearby.
Once Mike was out of sight, Lindsey quickly emerged and took a spot on the corner of Emily’s L-shaped desk.
“That looked intense,” Lindsey said with a nudge. Her eyes were unusually tired this morning; up late closing up the event, Emily assumed.
“Late night?” she commented.
Lindsey shrugged and grabbed Emily’s coffee mug, taking an eager sip before setting it back down. “Number one, start taking more sugar in your coffee and number two, yes, I was there until two in the morning figuring out how much we raised.”
“Number one, try getting your own coffee and number two, guess how my date went?!”
Lindsey looked around the cubicles before leaning into Emily; excitement washed all over her face. “Good, huh? He was so attractive, it was insane. What’s he like? You guys seal the good times with a kiss, or what? Please fill me with details and distract me from my faux-office-romance disaster.”
“Tom still honeymooning with—”
“We don’t talk about he-who-shall-not-be-named. Not anymore,” Lindsey said through gritted teeth. “I’m serious, spare no details!”
“Okay, okay… We kissed,” Emily gushed, feeling as foolish as a 16-year-old. “Oh Lindsey, it was amazing. He actually owns The Lambeth! Have you been there?”
“Amazing food, exclusive club life, way overpriced,” Lindsey said quickly, gesturing for Emily to continue with a twirl of her fingers. “Get to the goods.”
“He flew us to the top in his helicopter, we had a couple drinks, exchanged numbers, and then we kissed! Like, a movie kiss. Tingles, butterflies, romance, the whole package.”
Lindsey raised a suggestive brow and offered her co-worker a naughty wink as she asked, “Anything more than a kiss?”
“No!” Emily batted her friend away. “Of course not, I barely know him.”
“But you want to get to know him,” Lindsey sang out and did a triumphant dance. “When you guys get married I want a VIP invitation to the wedding, I’m serious!”
The girls laughed for a moment longer before Mike stormed out of his office, making his way to the lobby in a huff. They watched him carefully before turning back to one another. Lindsey’s forehead creased and she pointed a thumb Mike’s way, asking, “What’s that all about?”
“I don’t know,” Emily murmured. “I think he’s just mad he didn’t win a date at the auction.”
“Subtle,” Lindsey chuckled. “He giving you a hard time?”
“Yeah, actually,” Emily sighed. She opened her mail tab on her computer and started scrolling down her list of tasks for the day. “He took me off one of my only sales accounts this morning and wants me to do his bidding for the day.”
“That’s mature of him,” her co-worker scoffed.
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this,” Emily gasped under her breath and directed Lindsey’s attention to the spreadsheet of menial tasks that only seemed to grow the longer they stared at it. “This is ridiculous. He’s having me go through files that are at least two years old and check them for accuracy.”
“Don’t we have accountants that are way below your paygrade who do this stuff?”
“Yes,” she huffed.
“Well, the idiot has been not-so-subtly pursuing you for like, months now. This was bound to happen.”
Emily frowned. “Thanks for your support.”
“What can I say, the guy’s a creep. I’m not surprised in the least.”
“That’s your advice?” Emily groaned, now resting her chin in her hand.
“Didn’t know you were asking for any.” Lindsey’s expression dulled as she leaned in and read the rest of Emily’s to-do list for the day. “At least you got a great date out of the ordeal?”
“Silver linings,” Emily mumbled. “Thanks.”
Lindsey set an empathetic hand on Emily’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze before heading back to her office.
Emily decided to be settled about the matter, but as more and more e-mails piled in over the course of the day, she could feel the anger rising in her stomach. She wanted to be furious, to run into Mike’s office and kick up a fuss; tell him he was being immature, irresponsible, inappropriate, and degrading to her skillset. But then she thought about the embezzlement investigation and an eerie calm set over her once more.
***
Hours had gone by with Emily performing menial accounting tasks, double-checks, and running Mike’s personal errands for him. It was demeaning, and he was purposely overloading her with tasks. When she had been late with just one of the inconsequential additions, Mike quickly inboxed her, telling her there would be consequences if she couldn’t keep up the pace.
Bringing in her boss’ coffee—something she hadn’t done at a job since she was a temp just out of college—Emily finally worked up the nerve to say something.
“Is there any particular reason why I’m doing busywork instead of working on some of our biggest clients?” she began sternly as she set the coffee in front of Mike.
Mike didn’t look up from his desk. Instead, his mouth curled with a familiar ego that suggested he felt he was winning their little game of back-and-forth. “Emily, I told you I di
dn’t have time for your tone. You’re doing what you refer to as ‘busywork’ because I want some of the new girls to cover the big accounts today.”
“Admit it, you’re trying to replace me!” she griped. “Or because you’re mad about last night and you’re making it your mission to torture me as punishment.”
With that, Mike wheeled back in his office chair and stared at Emily incredulously. “Emily,” he said in the firmest voice he could muster. “What did or did not happen between the two of us last night has no bearing on how I run my office. You are doing tasks I assign you because I’m your boss. That’s how it works. The girls are covering your accounts today because someone has been stealing from us, and I believe it could be one of them. They’re new and I need to know if they’ve truly been stealing, or if they’re just incompetent with numbers.”
“Oh…” Emily gulped. Maybe she’d been reading this whole day wrong from the start. Her stomach turned.
“Those girls are currently being supervised by investigators who will report their findings back to me. I didn’t include you because frankly, you’re not under my suspicion.”
“Oh,” she said, defeated. “I understand. My apologies.”
Emily tried to make her way out of Mike’s office but was stopped short as he called her name. She spun on her heel and gave the man a pained face; he looked furious.
“The next time you want to mouth off to me, Emily Michaels, you can do so while packing up your desk. No reference, no two-weeks. Is that clear?”
“Crystal. I’m sorry, Mike.”
With that, Emily huffed out of the room and back to her desk.
The next two hours dragged by. Every time she thought about the events from earlier she felt sick to her stomach. She didn’t care what Mike said, he was just being jealous. Now she would have to spend the next few weeks paying for one stupid date that she had no control over.
If she still had a job, that is.
***
The drive home felt longer than usual in the traffic jam that seemed to hit Seventh Street every day around six. Emily’s stomach was growling from hunger and her mind was racing, replaying the events of the day over and over. She tapped her steering wheel along to the beat of the song on the radio before turning the music off in frustration.
Her phone began to ring, lighting up her car’s front panel screen. Seeing that it was Tariq calling, Emily hastily hit the speakerphone option.
“Hey, Emily speaking.”
“Emily!” Tariq said cheerily. She could practically hear his smile from over the intercom. “Is it forward to say I’ve been thinking about you all day?”
She felt her chest go hot, and was thankful that this was only a phone call. If he could see what a mess she turned into just hearing his voice, their little game of hard-to-get would be over in an instant.
“No, you can say that.”
“Good, because I’ve been thinking about you all day,” he affirmed. “It’s not often I set out to impress a woman and end up being the one who gets starstruck.”
“Starstruck?” she teased. “Let’s not get crazy. I couldn’t possibly have dazzled you that much in a couple hours, could I?”
“Never, ever doubt your powers to dazzle, my dear.”
“All right,” Emily’s voice was rife with flirtation. “I’m fairly certain I’ve taken enough orders for the day, but at least this is a nice one.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” the Sheikh responded. “Bad day?”
“You could say that,” she sighed. “Remember I was telling you about my boss—kind of pervy, tried to outbid you for an evening of my fantastic company? Well I think he was a little peeved that he didn’t end up getting the date with me and I definitely felt that anger this morning.”
“Oh no. Did he yell at you?”
“No, no, not really. I was just demoted for the day, basically. Instead of being the accounts assistant, I was the coffee runner.”
Emily had to remind herself to pay attention to the road as she detailed her story to the man she had only met once. To her surprise, Tariq was equally as attentive and supportive over the phone as he was in person. He seemed to listen eagerly to every word she said.
“What can I do to make you feel better? I want to help,” he said, his smooth voice coming through clear over the Bluetooth. Emily had been parked in her driveway for five minutes now, not wanting to end the call by telling him she was going inside. “I know!” he said, and Emily heard the sound of his fingers snapping in the background. “Let me take you to dinner tomorrow. I promise: if I don’t take your mind off it, you’ll never have to endure my company again.”
“Yes please!” she laughed. “That sounds like an offer I can’t refuse.”
FIVE
All throughout college Emily had worked her hardest to try and minimize her student loans. She always worked, and even in her teenage years never bought into the fad of hating her job or not showing up to work in the morning after a late night. After graduating from college, she had finally worked herself into accounting positions, her dream job. And now here she was, dreading going to work in the morning.
She’d worked cashier jobs at fast-food restaurants and never felt such disdain about heading into work. This whole Mike situation had her sick. She hated the thought of working so hard for so long just to be treated like dirt—and all over a rejected date night.
Emily sighed into her bathroom mirror as she finished buttoning up her blouse. Time for work.
Walking into the office was even more unsettling than she’d thought it would be. There was no chatter at the cubicles, no one in the break room grabbing coffee and no Lindsey to be found. Emily’s heart raced, wondering if the first set of investigative interviews were taking place.
Emily sat at her desk and swallowed hard. She opened up her inbox to see what non-tasks Mike had assigned for her today and saw only one assignment on the list: accounting for the Bulgaris’ bookings.
She blinked in surprise and reread the e-mail before closing the program. She thought to go ask Mike why the change of heart, but then thought better of it. Better to do good work on her assignments than complain about them.
Before Emily had a chance to get started for the morning, however, she spotted Mike walking up to her desk.
“Beautiful morning, isn’t it?” he said cheerfully, leaning against her cubicle.
She nodded slowly, confused. “Sure is.”
“Ah, I love when mornings are like this. Sunny, but not too hot. I can drive with my sunroof open, you know what I mean?”
She blinked, looking back and forth from her computer desktop to Mike. Finally, she exhaled and said, “So, I saw that my tasks from yesterday have been removed from my in-tray.”
“Right, right, that old thing. You were right, way below your pay grade,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hands. “I just wanted to test those girls, you know what I’m saying? Anyhow, I got rid of some of your workload and assigned the more menial tasks to a different department. This will give you more time to focus on your bigger accounts, some sales duties too. I know how you’re always going on about working your way out of accounting.”
“Oh.” She was flabbergasted. “All right. Um, yeah. Thanks!”
“Hey, just taking care of one of our best,” he said, giving a cheesy salute before heading into the break room. He returned a few moments later with Emily’s favorite mug and set it on her desk. “Two cream, one sugar, am I right?”
“Wow, thanks!” she said, not sure if she sounded genuine or just plain shocked. The truth was she felt a little of both and a lot of suspicions. She was internally warning herself she was about to be double-crossed somehow. Surely a camera crew would emerge any minute and tell her that Mike had something even worse planned for her at the end of the day.
But then, it never happened. In fact, work went by smoothly with only pleasantries from Mike all day long. Not only was he being sweet as pie, he wasn’t even hitting on her. Both
Lindsey and Emily’s coworker David came to her cubicle to comment on the boss’ unusually good mood.
Emily spent her entire lunchbreak trying to figure out where the change of heart came from and eventually decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe her speech to Mike had hit a nerve the previous day, or maybe he was just feeling especially generous. Either way, she would take his good mood and run with it. She had bigger things to worry about than Mike; after all, she had a date tonight.