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I decide to speak first. “Hello, Viola. I like your suit.”
“Don’t flatter me, Bailey. I always hated it.”
Did she?
“You got fired. What are you doing here?” Her face is flushed, from anger or the heat, I don’t know.
“I came anyway. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I hear a margarita calling my name.”
She holds out a hand to stop me. “You can’t do that. You’re not an employee. You’re not supposed to be here!”
“And yet, here I am.” Honestly, this is getting tiring. “Just chill about it, Viola. I snuck onto the boat and nobody can do anything about it.”
“They can arrest you when you get off the boat!”
I push past her. “I’m going to risk it.”
She lets out a huff. Just past her, Kenna stands in a full-on scuba diving suit. She’s pressing her lips together like she can barely hold back her laugh.
I like her. I am always willing to admit when I’ve misjudged someone, and Kenna is awesome.
The food hut is crowded with people from the second boat. I hang back near the outside corner in the shade and take a moment to figure out where my danger zones are.
Gina is on the dock, talking to a dripping Marney and Jerry. The captain is wringing out his shirt, a puddle forming at his feet. The towel woman walks toward them.
Viola stands where I left her, glaring at me. She turns to Kenna and waves for her to follow, but Kenna shakes her head and points to her suit. Then Kenna takes off toward the kayaks.
This annoys Viola even more. Her hands tighten into fists. I want to laugh. She’s a toddler, not getting her way.
But then Gloria, the head of HR, exits the food hut, a plate of food in hand. She’s not surprised to see me at all.
“Bailey, sit with me a moment,” she says, and her tone is so serious, I follow her without argument.
She settles on a lounger and perches her plate on the belly of her red one-piece. “I apologize for Gina’s outburst. She wanted to talk to you first, and I should have known better. This is a situation for me to handle.”
I don’t want to take the empty chair she’s probably saving for her husband, so I kneel in the sand, setting my bag next to me. There’s nothing for me to say, so I simply wait.
“I admit I don’t like how your termination was handled, and I agree with you that it was incredibly unfair that you were cut out of this company vacation when people like Carl, who has worked here less than a month, got a spot.”
Okay, this is going differently than I expected.
She catches a wood fork before it slides off her plate. “I know you were a wonderful assistant to Rhett. I’ve been doing your job since you left, while we try to find a replacement. You were organized, and I had no trouble picking up your tasks.”
A compliment. Also unexpected. “Thank you.”
“You won’t be thanking me in a minute.” She contemplates her plate, as if wishing she could eat it now. “I have to let Rhett know you are here. You understand that, right?”
“I do.”
“I’m not sure how he will react.”
“He won’t arrest me.”
She fiddles with the edge of a taco. Salsa is leaking out of it. “This is a company issue, not one for law enforcement. But there will be consequences.”
“I don’t know what he can do to me that he hasn’t already done. I lost my job. I have no references since this was my first position out of college. I’m screwed.”
“You can always have us validate your length of employment and your salary with your next company. We aren’t allowed to say anything else.”
