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“Lauren?” she called into the phone, this time with syrupy sweetness. “Are you still there?”
“Yeah I’m still here.”
She chuckled. “And that’s the problem, isn’t it? That you’re still there? Bumming around Las Vegas, all by yourself?”
“Bumming around?” I was getting mad now. I squeezed one hand into a fist, before calming myself down. “I still have 3 days of vacation left.”
“Two and a half days,” Lilith corrected me unnecessarily. “But technically, yes. Realistically though, couldn’t you cut it short? I mean, with all of your friends abandoning you, and nothing much to…”
I was so pissed I couldn’t even make out the rest of her sentence. So furious that she was calling to guilt-trip me on my vacation like this, on the one day I was in such a good mood.
“Soo… think you could come back early?” she was saying. “We could really use you on the Upton project, and the venue fell through on the—”
“Lilith?”
“Yes?”
“This is the first of vacation I’ve taken in four years,” I said.
She paused again. “Is it?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
“And I have to tell you,” I went on, “I really needed it.”
I could see her look of disappointment in my mind’s eye. The lines on her forehead. The frown-lines deepening on either side of her mouth, as she let out a resigned sigh.
“You really can’t come back now?” she asked again. “The company will of course reimburse you the cost of changing your airline ticket.”
“Lilith I need this time,” I said again. “I work so much at the firm. I come in early, I leave late… I put in more hours than anyone else.”
Another pause, this one longer than the others. Then: “Have you ever thought maybe you have to work twice as long, just to keep up with everyone else?”
My hand curled into a fist, the nails digging painfully into my palm. I clenched my jaw so hard, it felt like I might shatter my teeth.
“I’m hanging up now,” I growled, totally seething.
“Alright,” she said nonchalantly. “If that’s what you have to do.”
“It is.”
“Fine, just remember… when you’re behind next week, it’s all because you just had to take extra time for—”
“This is NOT extra time,” I said tersely.
My boss sighed in frustration. “Fine then, Lauren,” she practically spat. “I really hope you enjoy yourself. Goodbye.”
The arm I’d been using to hold the phone trembled visibly as I slid it back into my pocket. I wanted to scream at the sky. No, I wanted to quit!
The whole thing was just unfuckingbelievable.
It would’ve been one thing if she asked nicely. Hell, in the mood I was in earlier I might’ve just took her up on the offer. There was nothing for me here now anyway. My friends were gone. I’d had my fun…
And oh wow, did you ever have your fun!
Getting on a plane would’ve been easy. I’d pack up, grab some lunch, jump in a cab for the ten-minute ride to McCarran airport… then spend the six-hour flight home reliving the glory of last night in my head.
