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“Why’d you fire Catherine? She’s only a month from giving birth. I mean, just how cruel are you to fire a pregnant woman like that? And her boyfriend too? Who the hell do you think you are?”
He points to the chair opposite his. “Sit down and shut up.” His voice is cold as ice, sending a shiver down my spine. He looks like he might slap me if I don’t do as I’m told. I sit. At once, the smile returns to his face. “You talk too much,” he says. “Should learn to listen once in a while.”
“Why’d you fire Catherine?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but she was stealing from the firm.”
“Come on. You’re not serious.”
“I don’t joke about money. Last night, I had my people audit as much as they could in preparation for me hitting the ground running here. I don’t intend to sit in this office long, but I do intend to maximize my time here. I am getting rid of the criminal, the unprofitable, the dead wood.”
“Catherine isn’t any of those things.”
“I can show you the proof if you like. She’s been creaming off the pension fund because someone in accounts has been giving her access to do it. The man who got her pregnant. I fired him as well.”
“Shit. You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“You want the proof, or will you take my word for it?”
“Catherine’s a thief?”
“Took fifty thousand in the last three months.”
“What about Melanie?”
“I told her not to fire you. She was about to do it for losing her dress. I told her I would not let it happen. She asked who the hell I was to tell her what to do. I told her. She’s out.”
“You fired her for wanting to get rid of me?”
“Precisely.”
“No wonder she wants to sue. You can’t fire her for that.”
“I can dismiss her for any reason I like, and she won’t sue. She’s all talk, no action. Now is there anything else? I have a lot of people to fire this morning.” He sounds like he’s bored with talking to me.
“You’re an asshole, you know that?”
“Hey, I just saved your job. You should be more grateful.”
“Don’t fire anyone else.”
“I’ll fire who I like.”
“They don’t deserve it. Not like this. It’s so cruel, so heartless.”
“Business is cruel. Life is cruel. The sooner people realize that, the better.”
“You coldhearted bastard.”
“Which is why I make money, and you scurry off to Rome when your boss tells you. Toughen up, Bex. It’ll do you some good.”
“So there’s nothing I can say to make you change your mind?”
“I wouldn’t say that.” He examines me for a moment, folding his arms across his chest. “I could do you a deal.”
“What kind of deal?”
“I’ll hold off firing anyone else for a while. Give them all time to turn a profit. Maybe run an issue or two and prove there’s no money being made here.”
