Chapter 35
Raine
Iwake up groggy and in a bad mood, but that’s to be expected.
I shower and dress, forgoing a suit for jeans and long sleeve shirt. I don’t feel like dressing up. Texting Derek, I head downstairs to meet him. He must have sensed something was wrong, other than the news stories, because he has a large coffee waiting for me and a bacon breakfast sandwich.
“Rough night?” he asks as I slip into the seat.
“Something like that,” I mutter, and he takes off down the street, leaving me to the thoughts I don’t want.
As he pulls up front to the office, “he will cool off.” Is he a mind reader?
With a jerk of my head, I head inside. Everyone stops whatever their doing when I walk in like I’m going to explode or something.
Brad speaks first, “we don’t care.”
I’m grateful for their support, “thank you. Is Poppy here?”
Everyone shakes their heads.
“When she does, tell her I want to see her. Call Rachel as I’m going to need HR on this.
” Rachel is my makeshift HR since we are a small company.
I do call my lawyer to ensure my firing her is legal and have documents drawn up to make it official.
He will give them to me in about an hour.
Good. It gives me time to get ready for a blowout as I’m sure Poppy will scream and cry about losing her job.
Well fuck her.
Rachel shows up twenty minutes later, holding the documents from the lawyer, “that was quick.”
She sets her purse down on the table by the window and pours a cup of coffee that Brad started brewing before I got here.
“Want to talk about it?” she asks but I shake my head.
She knows I’ll talk when I’m ready. For now, I just want Poppy gone.
We drink our coffee in silence for about ten minutes when Poppy knocks on the door. She looks different, smaller. That might be from Dasher yesterday, but don’t care.
“Have a seat, Poppy. I’m sure you know why you’re here.”
“I didn’t mean to do that to you. I just wanted to hurt Dasher.”
I tap my chin, “I’m sure you did hurt him, so congratulations on that.” She flinches.
I continue, “in your contract was an NDA about speaking my name to the media unless it was for the show. Leaking lies to the media to hurt your ex-boyfriend and using my name is against that NDA. You no longer work here.”
She starts to cry, “I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Rachel takes over, “it won’t because you are no longer employed here. And if you so much as mention the company or Raine again, there will be legal consequences.”
Poppy stands and leaves the office. Once the door closes, I sink back into my chair, “that went better than I thought, but have someone monitor her social media presence.”
Rachel goes to appoint someone, leaving me to my thoughts again.
Is Dasher okay? Did he sleep? Did he eat? I know he has practice today, but I’m not going to just show up.
He also has another away game. Maybe I’ll go, just to show my loyalty. But then the media will see that and start harassing him again. I’ll stay home.
Brad checks in with details about the project and informs me one side of the strip mall had to be demolished, but it’s being rebuilt at this very moment.
“Good, keep on the contractors. Get the owners to take a few business classes at the college, just to rehone their skills.”
He nods and heads out, grabbing someone to go with him. My team is great, I picked the good ones, other than Poppy.
I text Derek that I’m ready to go home, even though I’ll be there alone, but I don’t want to be around people today.