AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
My Tesla rolled silently to a stop at the red light, and I wished the moments in my life stopped with as much grace.
The screen on the display flashed with an incoming call; my boss, Tory. Hitting the answer button, I allowed his voice to boom through the in-car speakers.
“Hey, Tory.”
“Listen, Cara, I don’t have long. Are you out and about?” He never hadlongfor anything. Not for meetings, tolerance, or phone calls.
“Yeah. I’m just running around. Getting ideas for the Mitchelson files.”
A mother pushing a carriage meandered across the street, despite the ‘don’t walk’ sign blinking rapidly. This town drove me crazy with the incessant number of lights; no wonder it took forever to get from one side to the other.
“About that.” There was a slight hesitation, or at least I thought there was. “Cara, I hate to do this while you’re driving. Are you driving?”
A flurry of wicked butterflies took flight in my gut. Whatever he was about to say, it was sending out a flood of nervousness. “I’m parked at a light but yes, I’m driving.”
“Doggone it.” Muffled sounds in the background floated through the speakers.
A horn honked behind me, and I glared into the rear-view mirror as my foot pressed down on the accelerator.
“I hate to do this to you, but Cara, you’re fired.” There were no inflections, no pauses, no sighs – nothing indicated he had trouble voicing any of it.
The words came straight out of left field and sucker-punched me in the gut.
“I’m what?” Breathless, my foot came off the gas pedal to a flood of honking horns. My heart thundered against my ribs, threatening to escape as panic surged through me.
“Your office has been rekeyed. Your passwords will no longer work and as we speak, your personal items are being boxed up by Annabelle.” My trusted personal assistant.
“Why?”
More horns blared, and I cranked the wheel to the right and took the first available turn. It happened to be a shopping mall parking lot devoid of many vehicles.
“You want to know?”
“I think I deserve to know.”
Finally, a sigh ebbed out of him. “Fair enough. Frankly, you weren’t our first pick for the Derry files, but with Michelle’s abrupt medical leave, our hands were tied, and we had no one else who could cover. You make impulsive decisions, you’re not listening to the client’s needs, and you keep acting like a PR manager instead of the marketing rep they hired. You’re just not a team player, Cara, and by this point in your career with Baker-Bloom, we expected more from you.”
I slipped the car into the parking stall and put the vehicle into park, huffing out words that sounded like desperate gasps of air.
“Cara, are you still there?”
“Um, yeah, Tory, amazingly enough, I am still here.” Physically maybe, but my head was swimming in an ocean of confusion.
“Annabelle will have your personal effects shipped out to you before the end of the day, and your final paycheck will be forthcoming.”
“That’s it? No warnings?”
“You’ve had several, and they’ve all been documented.”
“Yeah, but those were minor.” Absolutely nothing worth being fired over.
“You just refuse to make the changes. I’m sorry to do this to you in the middle of the day and wish it had happened in person, but you weren’t here when I came into the office.”
“Because I’m out looking for what Grant Mitchelson wanted and needed. I’m gathering ideas.”Like you suggested I do.But I wasn’t going to throw it back at him. When Tory made up his mind, that was the end of it.
“Jacob will take over for him effective immediately.”
