AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not good news,” she muttered, her focus switching between them. “What’s going on?”
Had someone died? Was there anyone in her department who’d been sick or absent for a while? Why wouldn’t someone—
“We have to let you go,” Stacey said.
“Let me go where?” And the moment the words were out of her mouth, she got it. “Shit,” she whispered and dropped against the back of the chair. “You’re firing me.”
“I’m sorry,” Stacey said, screwing up her face. “I know it’s a shock.”
“Yeah, because the Northberg debt was settled.”
Donal frowned. “How do you know that?”
“It doesn’t matter how I know that. I thought if they paid their account that we’d be okay, that Viva would be back in the black.”
“It’s a difficult time for all companies at the moment. You are excellent at your job, but Customer Relations is not a required department.”
“You’re letting everyone go?” she asked. “The entire department?”
“We can redistribute the workload and—”
“Fuck the rest of us,” she said, surging to her feet.
Stacey leaped up too. “There’s no need to be like that,” she said. “This is a very difficult thing to do.”
“Uh huh, sure, I feel so bad for you. Let me ask you this, are you going to make rent this month? Will you have money to feed yourself?”
“We’ll give you a reference,” Donal said, rising beside them. “And your last paycheck—”
“Yeah, because I’ve busted my ass for this company.” Now the last-minute extra assignments took on a whole new meaning. “And you better pay me for my overtime, don’t make me come back and cause a scene.”
“Don’t threaten us.”
“Shit,” she said, running a hand over her hair. “I can’t believe this.”
“We thank you for your service and—”
“Oh, whatever,” she said, turning on her heels to throw the door out of the way. “Fuck.” Storming down the hallway, she jabbed the elevator button, fighting to restrain the moisture threatening her eyes. “Shit.”
What the hell was she going to do?
God knew how she got back to her apartment. The walk was nothing but a blur. She didn’t even remember walking out Viva’s doors for the last time. This was, it was… fired?
Unlocking her door, she walked in and immediately stopped.
Something was different.
What was it?
Was she just paranoid?
Maybe it was—Gwen came striding out of her room and paused, sniffing hard. A small duffel hung in her roommate’s hand.
“Gwendolyn,” she said slowly, careful with her words. “What’s going on?”
Her roommate’s eyes were red. They weren’t puffy and horrible or anything, but something wasn’t right.
“You look sad,” Gwen said.
