Page 11 of All Out of Love

“That’s my job,” Toya blurted out.

Everybody looked at her. Especially Grayson. “Excuse me?” said Dena.

Miss Javits was enraged, but she managed to contain herself. “It’s nothing,” said Lois. “It’s nothing at all.”

But Grayson wasn’t about to sweep it under a rug. “What did you mean?” he asked Toya.

At first it was as if the room stood still. One of the two men seated in front of Grayson’s desk even turned to see her too. Toya was so nervous she could hardly bear it, but she held her ground. “I was hired to answer the phones, but Miss Javits took my job and gave it to the white girl and put me, instead, in housekeeping where that white girl is supposed to work.”

Grayson was confused. “Miss Javits, what is this?”

“It’s nothing sir,” Miss Javits replied.

But Toya refused to be silent. “The temp agency that sent me over here said I was coming to be the receptionist. She,” Toya added as she motioned toward the girl who benefited from the theft, “was hired to work in housekeeping. But Miss Javits switched it around and gave my assignment to her, and her assignment to me.”

“And you don’t know why?” asked Grayson. “Is that it?”

Oh, I know why alright, Toya wanted to say, and the blacks and the Hispanics wanted her to say it, but she read the room. The man behind that desk didn’t strike her as the kind of man who would care what the reason was. He just wanted them gone. He had bigger fish to fry than her. Like two million dollars’ worth of fish. “Yes sir, that’s it,” she answered his question.

Grayson then looked at his house manager. “What’s this all about, Lois?”

“What Lois is saying,” Dena decided to say for the house manager, “is that a temp agency can assign all they want, but she has the final word. It’s her job to select the best fit for what we’re doing here.”

“What makes that young lady,” Grayson asked as he motioned toward the theft-benefiter, “a better fit than this young lady?” Grayson motioned toward Toya.

Miss Javits didn’t know what to say. So he took the question directly to the theft-benefiter. “Were you hired to work in housekeeping or to answer the phones?”

Toya looked at the young lady. She was hesitant to give up the theft, but she answered honestly. “Housekeeping, sir.”

“Have you ever held a job where you had the responsibility of answering phones?”

Again, she hesitated. “No sir,” she said honestly. She seemed even more nervous than Toya was.

Then Grayson looked at Toya, which was the one person in that room he couldn’t keep his eyes off of. “What about you Miss Morgan?”

Everybody was surprised that he knew her name. Everybody except for Toya.

But he continued his question. “Have you ever held a job where it was your duty to answer the phones?”

Toya nodded. “Yes sir, I have. I was the lead clerk in an accounting firm for thirteen years where we rotated answering the phones.”

Javits frowned. “There was no mention of any thirteen-year clerk position on your résumé.”

Toya realized she had overspoke. She knew she could never mention that job ever. She was fortunate to have been working parttime at night for many years as a security guard to help make ends meet, and that was the job she used on her résumé. She simply stared, instead, at Grayson.

And Grayson was staring at her as if he was taking the measure of the woman. And then he made a decision. “Miss Morgan answers the phones,” he said.

“But sir,” said Miss Javits, “I was going to train the other young lady to be able to--”

“Do I have time to be bothered by this nonsense?” he angrily asked Miss Javits. “Get the hell out of my office! I have work to do!”

Although Toya was stunned by his outburst, Miss Javits nor Dena nor the two executives appeared to be stunned at all. Miss Javits began to hurry the ladies out.

Then he looked at the two men in front of him. “We’ll continue this meeting tomorrow gentlemen,” he said. “I’m too beat.”

They began leaving too.

But then Grayson noticed something. “Where are you going?” he said.