Chapter 26 #2
“I’m not finished.” I smiled sweetly. “A full payout of my vacation time and sick leave, as detailed in the company handbook.” As shitty as the place was sometimes, the benefits were amazing, and I had enough vacation time saved up to live off for at least six months if my Plan B fell through.
“And in addition to that, I would like a severance package,” I said with a sweet smile.
“Including?” he asked with a blank stare.
“Dissolution of the non-compete agreement, and a settlement of two.”
“The dissolution is fine—I don’t know too many people who would be tripping over themselves to hire you at this point—but a settlement? Absolutely not.” I almost went in on his ass for the slick ass remark, but I went on.
“If you refuse the terms, we may be forced to handle this in court, which is fine with me, but I would think that you wouldn’t want this in the public eye.”
“Lawsuit? Under what grounds?”
“We can start with the multiple incidences of sexual harassment, and racial discrimination that I’ve suffered at the hands of this company.
I reported each one to HR and was told that you signed off on each one, but no changes have been implemented to protect me or any other employees from future occurrences.
I know I’m not the only one, so you might want to get that under control before it takes the whole company down—Actually, I think three is more appropriate,” I said with a raised brow and the most condescending smirk I had in me.
When his pale face turned the color of smoked salmon, the petty in me did a little victory dance.
“Three what? Because certainly you’re not asking for three million dollars from my company?”
“You can take it from your personal account for all I care, just as long as the check is run through HR and addressed to me,” I shrugged.
“Oh, you must be on drugs! The best you’re getting is your time back, and the non-compete, and you should be thanking me for that.
You’ve been nothing but a headache from the moment you stepped foot in this fucking place.
” Spit flew from his mouth as he flew into a rage.
I just stood there looking at him with a deranged smile on my face.
If I didn’t get my money, I planned on swinging on his ass, knocking all that shit over, then taking him to court.
He slammed his hand on his desk in anger before he continued.
“All your special accommodations and D.E.I. bullshit! You aren’t even worthy of being a mail clerk at my firm, let alone a partner and the only reason you’re here now is to look good on paper! ”
“Mr. Kyle,” Reagan said in shock as Solei stood there with her own angry expression.
Solei was Hispanic and Reagan was a proud lesbian, so I’m sure that D.E.I.
bullshit ruffled their feathers as well.
It would be wise of him to exercise his right to shut the fuck up, but the man in front of me had never been wise, only privileged.
I let him ramble on about how we were lucky to even have our jobs as I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
Then I hit the play button and the sounds of the accidental phone call that I overheard blared through the room.
His face went ghastly white once he realized what was happening, and judging by the disapproving looks on Solei and Reagan’s faces, a conversation was severely overdue for Daddy Kyle, who still had majority share in the company.
After the idiot butt-dialed me, he didn’t even have the common sense to disable the record feature on his phone.
Imagine my surprise when I opened my phone to see an audio recording and transcripts of the two of them demeaning everything from my weight, gender, race, and even how I chose to wear my hair.
My smile grew at the same pace as his frown as we played back the recording. He knew he was fried and it was the second most satisfying thing I had ever experienced.
“So, since you wanted to play hardball, I would like four for me… and two and a half for Jocelyn, or we can take this to court and I can make sure that the next five generations of Kyle’s don’t have enough in their savings to buy a five pack of noodles.
You said it yourself, Oliver—I don’t lose. So, what will it be?”
He looked at me with a hate so strong that I felt like if the other two people weren’t in the room, he would have tried to put his hands on me.
I cursed myself for leaving my knife in my office because if I would be elated at the opportunity to slice him up like a fresh pineapple, but these hands were always prepped and ready for takeoff.
He glared between me and the members of HR one more time before turning to them and icing me out completely.
“Draw up the paperwork and have it on my desk by the end of business today,” he croaked.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” I said with a sweet smile, extending my hand to shake his. He looked at me like I had just wiped my ass without washing before trying to touch him, silently rejecting my handshake.
“Okay, never mind,” I shrugged it off, but the little voice in my head said to be petty. As usual, I listened to her.
“Oops!” My hands flew to my mouth right after they “accidentally” knocked over his huge coffee mug, right into his lap.
“Oh shit! You mother—” he yelped as he grabbed his crotch in pain. I knew he kept that shit hot, because I had heard him publicly berating Brittany on more than one occasion for his coffee not being the same temperature of molten lava.
That was for you, Brittany!
“I look forward to those papers in my inbox, thank you. Y’all have a nice day.
” I shook Solei and Raegan’s hands before leaving them standing there like they wanted to laugh.
As I walked down the hallway, I could still hear his screams of agony echoing off the walls.
I hoped for the sake of his wife, that I burned that little motherfucker clean off, so she could continue enjoying that fine ass personal trainer that he paid for.
“So, what happened?” Jocelyn asked as soon as I got back to my office.
“Well,” I said nervously, only then realizing that I hadn’t had a chance to consult with her before I flipped both of our lives upside down. “I have good news, and bad news…”
“Bitch, if you don’t spit it out!”
“Do you want the good or bad first?”
I watched her face go through several different emotions before she just asked.
“Amaya, did you get fired?”
“No, but I did quit,” I said with a cringy smile.
“You did what?” she screeched.
“And I also… might have just quit for you too, but I did negotiate you a two and a half million dollar settlement first.”
“You WHAT?” Her eyes grew bigger than a pair of Double D’s, and I immediately went into recovery mode.
“Listen, I’m so sorry—I got ahead of myself! I should have asked first. I can go renegotiate—” She cut me off with the biggest hug as a tear slipped down her cheek. I guess I was forgiven.
“I can’t believe you thought of me. Thank you, Amaya!”
“Girl, you know I always got you.” I promised her.
“Um…” She sniffled and wiped her face before handing me a sheet of paper. “I was actually going to turn this in before everything happened.” I took it from her and did a quick skim over the letter.
“You were about to quit? Well, I’m glad you didn’t quit before I got you that money! But, what?”
“So…” Her eyes glazed over. “I’m moving to L.A.”
“To be with Jonathan?!” I asked.
“Yeah. I know it’s soon, but I love him. The season is about to start, and I want us to have a real chance at this.”
“You right,” I quipped back, still refusing to say that shit out loud. I mean, Chase had gotten really good at tricking me into saying it when he had his dick in me, but anything further than that was between me and my therapist. “I’m gonna miss you, though,” I whined through glassy eyes.
“Girl,” she groaned and pulled me in for a hug. “You’ll probably be right out there behind me. From what I hear, that nigga can’t even breathe when you’re too far away from him.”
The feeling is mutual.
“Girl, I am not moving to L.A.”
“What’s stopping you?” she challenged.
“All my people are here! I’m not leaving my niece!” By that point we were packing up everything that wasn’t property of Kyle, Roy & Associates—and a few things that were—so we could get the fuck on.
“I give you three months,” she said with a sly smile on her face.
“Bitch, I just got you a bag, and now you doubting me?”
A knock at the door served as a much needed end to that conversation as Solei and Reagan came in to do the quickest exit interview in history. They assured us that our contracts and details of our severance payouts would be sent to us as soon as possible and we got the fuck outta there.
Knowing that I only had a few more days until Chase left made me all too happy that I wouldn’t be working for the foreseeable future. My ass grinned like a damn fool the whole way home.
“Babe?” I called the minute I stepped foot in the door, frowning because he didn’t come to greet me like he usually did. I put my shoes on the shoe rack and hung my purse on the hook, all courtesy of Chase, because it drove him nuts for anything to be out of place, so we learned to compromise.
I quickly followed his voice to the living room where he was sitting on the couch in the middle of a phone call.
I tried to quickly leave the room to give him his privacy, but he held his hand out to me, gesturing me back, and pulling me down onto his lap once he could reach me.
He pulled me in for a quick kiss, but still resisted when I tried to get up.
I surrendered to his hold, relaxing against his body, then stealing a nasty kiss, full of tongue as he listened to someone ramble on the other end.
That caused his eyes to lower, and his hands to slide down to my ass.