AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Helen? Did you just wake up? It’s eleven.”
“Oh.” I pulled my phone from my ear and looked at the time. “Shit. Yeah, I guess so.”
“Okay.” Lisa’s tone was short and irate. “Helen, I don’t know how to say this, but you’re going to get fired today. Expect a call from Sharon any minute.”
“What?!”
She had to be joking with me. This had to be a prank. I tried to think of a way to talk myself out of this, but then I remembered.
“Shit, the draft. Lisa, tell Sharon I’ll have it for her in an hour. I promi—”
“I’m sorry, Helen, but it’s too late. I had to work up the draft late last night, and we still might lose the client. Sharon has been doing damage control all morning.”
Lisa sounded glum, but there was a large undercurrent of annoyance too. I had put my friend in a terrible position. She had vouched for me time and time again and I had let her down.
“No,I’msorry, Lisa. I’ve just been so distracted.”
“I know.”
I didn’t know what else to say, so I just apologized one more time before hanging up. Sure enough, several moments later I got the call from Sharon. I held back tears while she furiously explained to me how disappointed she was, and how pissed she was that she had to cancel her Saturday plans to deal with my mess. She told me how much promise I held, but that I was throwing it all away. I wanted to tell her that if she really had believed that, then I would have been given a promotion years ago. Instead, I just listened in guilty silence.
“Please send your laptop and any other company property back through the mail before Monday,” were her last words to me before hanging up.
I put my phone down and sobbed for hours. I cried about losing the job I had never even wanted. I cried about losing the inheritance I never even had. I cried about Brenton lying to me. I cried about the novel that I would probably never finish now. I cried and cried until I was out of tears.
