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“Jammies?” she asked, and I sighed as I pushed to my feet.
“Go on.” I waved my hand toward the hallway, and she took off in a full sprint, her hurt hand totally forgotten.
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I stared down at it. I really didn’t want to call my fucking boss. I really, really didn’t want to.
But I didn’t have anyone to watch Emma and I couldn’t take her to the office with me…again.
I pressed the phone to my ear, resting my other hand on my hip as I paced.
“Hello,” Tim greeted me tightly. He didn’t sound like he was in a good mood.
Wonderful.
“Hey, Tim.” I rubbed the back of my neck, internally screaming at myself that I just needed to put my damn foot down and make my child go to school.
Millions of parents did it every day. Why couldn’t I?
“Let me guess,” he said. “You can’t come in.”
“I can work from home,” I said quickly.
“You know, I don’t remember the last time you actually came in and worked.”
“I was there yesterday,” I muttered. He let out a humorless laugh, and I clenched my jaw at the mocking, grating sound.
“You spent most of the day on the phone—”
“Emma was having a bad day. Her teacher called me to see if I could calm her down.”
I didn’t want to defend myself to this asshole, but he was my boss, and I didn’t really have a choice.
“It’s been six months,” he said. “She needs to get over it.” My phone shook my hand. “I’m sure she doesn’t even remember her.”
“She was her mother,” I ground out. “She remembers her.”
I remember her.
“She should be over it by now. And if she’s not, it’s your fault.”
I tried breathing through it. Ireallytried to. But his words hit deep.
“I lost my wife. Emma lost her mother. The least you could do is cut me some fucking slack.” The words shook as I said them, my body trembling from the force to stay calm and not chuck my phone at the nearest wall.
He was silent for a moment.
“You’ve been milking her death, Elliot.”
“Milking her—” I cut myself off as I took another deep breath, pinching between my eyes. “Milking her fucking death, Tim?”
“If you curse at me again, you’re fired.” I bit my tongue until I tasted blood. “Don’t make me do it, Eli. We’ve all tried to give you space, but you’re never at work anymore. And when you are here, you’re mentally somewhere else.”
“I still bring in customers and make you a shit-ton of money,” I snapped. “I’m the best you have in the department.”
“Not anymore,” he said. “That might’ve been true a year ago, but not anymore.” I stared blankly at the window.
He was right.
Iknewhe was.
