AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I agree with that.” Those words would be her damning words, she knew it as soon as she said them. “I think we all need to sit down and have a come-to-Jesus moment.”
Diane’s lips pulled tight. “Violet and I did that yesterday.”
“Oh.” Lando bit her tongue. That wasn’t exactly how Violet told it, but she supposed Violet could have gotten a few points across that Diane was now taking to heart. “I’m glad. Hopefully it kills some of the tension.”
Diane frowned. “We discussed it, and we don’t think you’re working out on our team.”
“What?” Shock rang through Lando’s entire body. Violet had said nothing of the sort, but she had been acting odd since yesterday, far more open and less withdrawn. Perhaps it was because Lando was leaving and they wouldn’t have to deal with each other any longer.
“We’re terminating our contract with you.”
“I don’t understand.” Lando shook her head. “I have an internship. I can’t just transfer that to another team mid-season.”
“I understand.” Diane’s tone lowered. “I really am sorry about this, but we have to do what is best for the team and the data.”
“And you think you can run as a two-person team?”
“I know we can. It’s nothing Violet and I haven’t done before.”
Lando clenched her fingers tightly into her palm, her nails biting the soft flesh to center herself. She’d been fired before. This wasn’t anything new, but she’d never been fired when sober and for seemingly no reason at all. “So what am I supposed to do?”
“Go home, stay here, go somewhere else. That’s all up to you, Lando. Here’s your paycheck for the last two weeks. After that we no longer have a working relationship, and you cannot stay in this room any longer.”
Lando stared down at the check in her hand. It was minuscule, certainly not what she had earned in two weeks working with them. It wasn’t even three hundred dollars. “This…this isn’t my whole check, is it?”
“It is, after expenses.”
“After expenses?” Lando frowned, unable to move her gaze from the piece of paper in her hands. “What expenses?”
“Here. This is a detailed inventory of everything it has cost us to have you here, and your portion.”
“My…portion?” Lando couldn’t believe what she was hearing. A second piece of paper landed in her hands, and just as Diane had said, there was a list of everything on it. Half of the room in Oklahoma, Colorado, andIndigo, which was expensive. She’d never have stayed here if she’d known how much it was costing them. There were food items on there, Twizzlers that Diane had bought her that first day.
She wanted to cry. She wanted to rage and scream, but all she could do was stare at the information Diane was giving her and say nothing. She just sat there and took it.
Diane patted her shoulder, but it was cold and aloof, not comforting at all. Diane stood up, mumbling something, but Lando didn’t even process the words. Her two weeks with them had been worth two hundred fifty-nine dollars. That was it. Her internship had paid everything, the money Diane had taken from it to fill her own pockets.
Her stomach churned with bile. She wanted to puke. She wanted to scream and yell.God, she wanted a fucking drink.Tears stung her eyes as she sat in silence, all alone, trying to figure out her next step. After a few minutes, Lando angrily grabbed her computer and pulled up the Internet. She purchased a flight home from the nearest airport, and then hoped she could beg Eli to drive her down there.
She needed to get away, get home, anything that would put some distance between her and Diane, where she could center herself again, not fall into bad old habits. Lando immediately left the bedroom and headed downstairs. She went through the front door instead of the back and took the long way down to the barn. Luckily, Eli’s truck was still there, so she hadn’t gone out into the fields yet.
Lando stepped inside the open barn and wrapped her arms around herself as she looked around to try and find Eli. Luckily, Eli was right up front, so she didn’t have to go too far inside. Eli looked surprised to see her standing there.
“Lando! What’s up?”
Lando shook her head, not sure where to begin or what to even say. “Um…do you think you could drive me to the airport?”
“Sure. When?”
“In an hour.”
Eli looked confused. “In an hour?”
Lando nodded, her arms still crossed tightly over her chest as if she was trying to protect herself from the world, which she supposed she was. “Yeah.”
“Are you not going to that storm today that Violet was talking about?”
Her eyes watered, and her nose scrunched up as she tried to stop the waterworks. “No.”
