Chapter Twenty-SevenMicahOctober 25 #2
Right as I move in to kiss him, the elevator dings. We both scramble to our feet before the entire group files into the office. Everyone passes without making eye contact with me, which immediately puts me on edge.
Lila and Grant take up the rear, both of them with hardly an expression on their faces.
“Taylor,” Lila says calmly. “In my office.”
I grab Fischer’s hand. I’ve never wanted to do anything less than follow my boss into a small space with her so carefully unemotional.
He squeezes my fingers right as Lila shouts, “Now!” Okay, maybe not so unemotional.
“Into battle,” I murmur and reluctantly let go of Fischer, heading to what I’m sure is about to be my doom.
When I step into Lila’s office, she glares at me, silently telling me to close the door. Closing that door cuts me off from the only ally I have right now, but I do it anyway. Appeasing Lila as much as I can will hopefully soften whatever blow is coming.
“Sit.”
I do, smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles on my teal pants. “How was the planning—”
“What is this?” She spins her monitor around, showing me the spreadsheet with all of the information on the Greenwood event.
I swallow. “It’s the plan for the reopening.”
“Indeed it is. You see this square here?” She points to a cell that says, ‘string quartet.’
Oh.
“The last time I checked, we booked a DJ for the night. Care to explain?”
I would rather run away, but I remain in my chair, gripping the front of the seat beneath me. I could lie and tell her the DJ was booked out, but that wouldn’t do me any good. Sun City has dozens of people who could do the job well. People we’ve used before.
Tears prick at my eyes because I know this is only the beginning. “I thought the Greenwood needed something more organic.”
“You thought,” Lila repeats. She points to another cell. “And the change in menu?”
“I thought—”
“ You . Thought .” She narrows her eyes, leaning toward me with a murderous expression.
“I don’t recall promoting you to a planning position, Miss Taylor.
In fact, I remember numerous conversations where I told you to keep your nose out of things and do the job I hired you for. Do you know why that is?”
Because you’re threatened by me. Because you won’t admit you’re wrong. Because you’re afraid that paying me what I’m worth is only going to make me realize that I can do this on my own.
My breath catches. What if I could do this on my own?
There must be something in my expression because Lila jumps to her feet so she can stare me down.
I drop my gaze to my lap, too miserable to look at her.
“When this event fails, and it will, you are going to take the blame for the Greenwood Lodge’s inevitable downfall.
You’ll be responsible for Bradley Properties going bankrupt and all of Grant’s employees losing their jobs.
No one will hire you to plan six-year-old birthday parties, let alone anything important, and whatever aspirations you might have had, you will kiss them goodbye.
I was going to promote you after the Greenwood opening, but with the way you’ve acted behind my back, it is clear to me that you cannot be trusted.
You are never going to be anything more than an assistant at Ember for the rest of your silly little life. ”
My head snaps up. “You’re not firing me?”
“I should. But someone has to clean up your mess, don’t they?” Lila points to the spreadsheet. “You are going to fix this and make everything happen the way we planned.”
With my stomach twisting in knots, I try to make sense of what she’s saying. “But the event is tomorrow. There won’t be time to—”
“You’re going to make it happen. I don’t care how late you have to stay or how many calls you have to make, but everything will be exactly how it should be or everything we paid for this event is coming out of your paycheck.”
She can’t do that. Can she? I have no idea. I’ll have to call Skyler and see if she has any answers for me since she used to work in corporate law. But am I going to have time to call Skyler? My mind is already racing, trying to figure out how I can change everything in the next twenty-four hours.
There’s no way.
“And Micah?” Lila narrows her eyes. “If the reopening doesn’t go off without a hitch, you’ll be losing more than just your job. Do you understand?”
I nod, unable to speak.
“Get out of my sight.”
She doesn’t have to tell me twice. Scrambling out of my chair, I scurry back to my desk with my phone already in hand.
I’m sure Debbie can make a quick pivot and change the food, and the decorations shouldn’t be all that different because I convinced the team to change their direction, but the rest?
I stumble to a halt when I find Fischer sitting on the floor of my cubicle again, staring at my chair with a dead expression on his face. Grant is nowhere to be found. Heart racing, I crouch down next to him and grab his limp hand. I’ve never seen him empty like this, and that scares me. “Fischer?”
“Grant fired me.” He doesn’t even look at me. “My own brother fired me for signing off on all of your ideas.”
Well, that’s just throwing gasoline on the dumpster fire that is my life. I drop to the floor, feeling sick. “Oh my gosh, Fischer, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. If I’d just—”
“No.” He growls, snapping to life and scowling at me. “You are not taking the blame for something that has nothing to do with you. Aren’t you sick of being treated like you’re worthless when you’re the only good thing Lila has going for her?”
“Of course I am! But it’s not like I can do anything about it.”
He growls again, clenching his hands and gritting his teeth so hard that his jaw muscles look ready to snap.
“You’re worth so much more than what they give you, Micah.
Lila is too wrapped up in her own self-importance and drama to know that she would sink without you, just like Grant is too focused on his problems to see that he’s had someone on his side when everyone else has left him. You… we …deserve better.”
He gets to his feet, all power and strength, and then lifts me up with him, wrapping our hands together with a determined glint in his eyes. “We don’t need them.”
He’s right. He’s so right. “But what are we supposed—” I stop when Lila’s door opens, bracing myself for another onslaught, but she heads straight for the bathrooms, almost waddling.
I would laugh if Ava wasn’t doing the exact same thing from the other direction with a hand pressed over her mouth. A sickening sound from deeper within the office makes my stomach clench as nausea washes over me.
“I’m a sympathetic puker,” I whisper, which leads to Fischer picking up my garbage can and holding it out to me just in case.
Over the next five minutes, we watch each and every one of the Ember employees either book it to the bathroom or head for their cars looking green and mumbling something about going home early.
When Lila returns to her office, she leans against the wall just outside with sweat soaking her face and a dead look in her eyes.
“Food poisoning,” she croaks. “We have to…”
Wrinkling his nose, Fischer silently holds the garbage can out to her, which she takes just in time to hurl into it.
My stomach lurches, but I thankfully keep my response down.
“We have to cancel everything,” Lila finishes. “All of it. There’s no way we…” Cradling my garbage, she wanders back into her office and closes the door.
When his phone lights up with Grant’s number, Fischer swears. Before he can answer, I grab his phone and deny the call, and then I head straight for my desk and wake up my computer.
“What are you doing?”
Opening up my email, I type up a quick message to all of our vendors, giving them the briefest explanation about our team falling sick.
Fischer watches me as I type, growing increasingly more agitated as he reads my words.
“We’re doomed,” he says, starting to pace behind me.
“We can’t postpone this. We need bookings so we can start getting income.
There are a dozen people counting on jobs starting this weekend.
With paychecks . Which we can’t pay if there are no people paying for rooms. This is going to kill Bradley Properties. ”
“I hate to remind you,” I mutter, “but you no longer work for Bradley Properties.”
He growls. “Thank you for that. Wait, what are you…” He leans in, wrapping an arm around my waist as he reads the rest of my email.
The reopening event at the Greenwood Lodge will carry on as normal, and we look forward to working with all of you to make the night a success!
“Micah,” Fischer says, his voice strained. “You don’t have a team. With how quickly this came on, I don’t think you can expect anyone to be able to make the drive tomorrow morning.”
I send the email anyway and then grab my purse. “Come on,” I say, taking his hand and heading for the elevator. “We have work to do.”
“What work? I don’t have a job. You’re lucky you still do.”
“Oh. Right.” I hit the elevator button and then hurry back to Lila’s office, poking my head inside the dark room. I can only see her feet poking out from behind her desk where she’s lying on the floor. “Hey, Lila?”
She moans.
“I quit.”
“What?” She scrambles to get up. “Micah, you can’t—” She heaves, and the sound of vomit hitting the plastic liner in the garbage triggers my own gag reflex.
Instead of holding it back, I lean forward and unceremoniously throw up onto her floor. Gross . “Good luck,” I say and then hurry out of there before I make myself sick again by thinking about what I just did.
I reach Fischer, who stares at me with utter bewilderment, right as the elevator opens, and I pull him inside before he can argue.
Not that he’s trying to argue. He can’t seem to catch on to what I’m doing, which for now makes this easier.
Grabbing my water bottle, I swish three different mouthfuls around my mouth before popping in a piece of gum, though I would still like to brush my teeth in the very near future.
It isn’t until we’re in his car and pulling out of the parking garage that Fischer finally speaks. “What are we doing, Micah?”
“We’re going to my apartment.”
He makes the appropriate turn, his hands tight around the steering wheel. “Why are we going to your apartment?”
“Because neither of us have jobs, silly.”
He growls. “Micah.”
“We’re going to make the reopening happen, just like we planned.”
“Who is we? You and me?” Based on the horrified expression on his face, he’s picturing the whole thing being a disaster. He confirms it when he mumbles, “This is going to blow up in my face, isn’t it?”
I grab his arm. Though a part of me expects him to flinch because he’s so tense, he relaxes at my touch and shifts his arm so he can take my hand. “If you think about it,” I say brightly, “your life can’t get much worse than it already is, right?”
We come to a red light then, which gives him the opportunity to turn and stare at me with utter incredulity on his face. “Does nothing rain on your parade?” he whispers, almost in awe.
I grin. “I happen to like rain. Just like I happen to like you.”
Fischer clenches his jaw, glances to make sure the light is still red, and then he pulls me in for a kiss that leaves me blushing.