Luca
“How many times do I have to repeat myself?” I thunder from the middle of the floor and I swear I see every person cower in their cubicle.
“It doesn’t matter how many people download the app or how many first dates people go on, or even how many people delete the app because they’re convinced they’ve found the one.
If people are still convinced that Kyle works in marketing only to find out he’s actually a bag boy at a supermarket, no one is going to believe that our filters work! ”
The room is silent, as it should be when I’m in the mood I’m in. But Dave from logistics doesn’t seem to get the memo and clears his throat from somewhere in the middle of the room.
“No offense, boss, but we don’t really have control over people lying about their jobs,” he says and my eyes slice over to him.
“Are you sure about that? Because I think that if we weren’t being lazy, we could come up with a way to verify employment.”
“That seems a little invasive…” some skeptical woman says. And I swear it’s always Dave from logistics or a skeptical woman tossing wrenches in the gears and stopping the whole damn machine.
At this point, I am seething. And just as I open my mouth to say something, Bernadette shows up at my side.
“You know, Mr. Laurent. I can’t help but wonder if everyone is a little burnt out,” she says. Nobody says a word. “We’ve been burning the candle at both ends, as you know. I mean, just the other day you said we needed a celebratory night.”
“Not gonna happen,” I say, but Bernadette just smiles.
“Well, that might be a little tricky. I’ve already made the arrangements…”
“So un-arrange it,” I say, and there’s a falter in her lipstick smile.
“I paid for reservations. Non-refundable. And I really do think that productivity is the product of incentives.”
My jaw tightens at that. “I believe being able to keep your job should be incentive enough for productivity. And as far as the wasted costs go, I trust you’ll see that it’s taken care of.”
I hear a small gasp and several whispers. And for the first time, possibly since I hired her, Bernadette’s smile is gone.
“Of course, Mr. Laurent. I’ll take care of it,” she says robotically. Then I turn back to the attention of the room.
“Now, does anyone else have anything they’d like to say?”
“I do,” Matt’s voice comes from behind me as he marches toward me. I’m not in the mood for him either, but he walks up, puts his hand on my shoulder, shoots me with a tight smile and hostile eye contact, and says, “Let’s take a walk, boss.”
At this point, it’s probably a good idea. I’m about to explode. We walk down the hallway into my office, and he closes the door behind him.
“What the hell was that?” I grit out as soon as it closes.
“I was about to ask you the same question,” he says.
“They’re incompetent,” I snap.
“Who?” he asks.
“All of them,” I say.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s true,” he says. “Because if it were, they wouldn’t work for you.”
“Well, they’re slacking,” I say.
“Not really,” he disagrees. “What’s really going on?”
“I said it out there,” I shout. “Do I always have to repeat myself?”
“You yelled at Bernadette,” he says, and I run a hand through my hair. “No one yells at Bernadette. So tell me, before people decide they can’t work for Jekyll and Hyde and start walking out.”
I plop down in my chair, my jaw still locked and my eyes still hot.
“It’s over,” I say after a long moment.
“What’s over?” he asks. I don’t look at him. I don’t blink. I don’t do anything except answer his ignorant question in as few words as possible.
“Olivia. The ruse. It’s over,” I answer.
“Okay…” he says, and the indifference to it is enough to break my gaze.
“Okay?” I snap.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t want you to say anything. I don’t want to talk about it,” I grit out.
“And yet your disposition, as you bottle it up, is saying a lot about it. You’re coming off as a psycho to your employees and yelling at Bernie. Again, boss, no disrespect, but no one yells at Bernie. So what happened?”
I drum my fingers on the table, staring forward before saying the words I don’t even want to think about.
“She was using me.”
“Let me guess. To hurt you because Sadie asked her to?” he asks.
“That. And for career advancement.”
Matt gives me an odd look. “What do you mean?”
“Her podcast,” I say, sucking my teeth and sitting up straight. “Have you listened to it?”
“A little,” Matt shrugs. “I mean, I know the gist of it. But it was boring as fuck if I’m being honest,” he chuckles.
“Did you listen to the recent series?” I snap, and his smile fades.
“No. I mean, I heard it’s about catfishing. But who isn’t talking about catfishing? You just went postal on the other side of that door over catfishing? It’s the biggest problem in the dating world to date. It’s a literal shitshow!”
“Yeah well, Olivia took the liberty of crowning a king of that shitshow,” I say, and his eyes widen.
“Okay, I’m going to need some background info here,” he says, and I bite the inside of my cheek before leaning forward.
While he waits for me to talk, I pull out my phone, pull up her podcast, go to the current series and click the episode with the phone call. I stare at Matt while he listens, and he stares back at me in disbelief. When it’s over, he wipes a hand over his mouth.
“So you had no idea that conversation was live on her podcast?”
“Nope,” I answer. “And it gets better…”
I skip ahead to a later episode, and Matt’s expression spirals even more.
“This is insane,” he says, shaking his head and leaning back in his chair as I put my phone down. “Is there more?”
“They recorded another episode yesterday, but I didn’t listen to it. I couldn’t stomach it. And if I had to guess, it only gets worse,” I say.
“Wild,” he shakes his head. “I mean…don’t take this the wrong way. But I feel like we could have seen it coming. A mile away, really. I mean, it can’t possibly be a surprise to you that she was using you.”
“In the beginning,” I tell him. “She was playing a game. Yes. And so was I. But things changed,”
“For you, maybe,” he says, and I resume my glare.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I bark.
“Oh, come on, Luca. I told you that things were going too far. That if you muddied the waters with feelings, things were going to get, well, muddy. And that’s exactly what happened, isn’t it?”
I don’t say anything. I just clench and unclench my jaw.
“I’m sorry, boss, but I don’t know what you expected. I told you to be careful.”
“I was careful,” I snap with far more emotion than I intended. I lean back again. “I went slow. I didn’t show too much too soon. I didn’t give too much too soon. Everything that happened between us happened organically.” I tell him, and as soon as I say the word, I hate myself for it.
Organic is a very Olivia Ramone word to use.
“Sounds to me like you got duped, boss,” he says. “Sorry.”
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” I say. “How she could be so good at faking…all of it.”
“Girls are savage,” Matt says indifferently.
“Not Olivia,” I argue. “She’s the most authentic woman I have ever met. I don’t see how she could fake something like that.”
“Easy,” Matt says. “She’s a catfish.”
And I think about that. Because he’s right. I said those exact words to her before she left. I made sure she heard it, saw it, and felt it. I wanted her to feel a sliver of the pain her deceit caused me.
“Have you tried talking to her?” he asks.
“What do you mean? We talked about everything. It was a blowout,” I reiterate.
“No I mean, have you let her explain herself?” He says.
“Explain herself?” I scoff. “How could she possibly explain herself?”
“Oh, I don’t know. But maybe there’s more to the story. If the two of you are really in love, I mean,” Matt says, and I shoot him a dagger of a look.
“I’m not in love with her,” I snap. “Not anymore.”
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s how that works…” he says. “If it was love, which you made it seem like it was, you can’t just turn it off.”
“I can when I find out it was all fake,” I argue.
But Matt clicks his tongue for what I think might be the third time, and I am about to rip it out of his mouth.
“But was it?” he asks.
“Can you make up your damn mind about which side you are on?” I demand. “One minute you’re in my corner and the next you’re saying it was all a ruse and I shouldn’t have expected differently. And then you’re back to telling me I should talk to her about it.”
“Yeah, well, welcome to my world. It’s a mindfuck.”
A knock comes to the door, and I can’t imagine who would think it’s appropriate to interrupt me right now. But when it cracks open and Bernadette pops in, I know I need to reel it in.
“Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Laurent, but if we are going to cancel the reservation for the party, we need to do it soon and–”
“We aren’t canceling,” Matt says, and my gaze jerks from her over to him.
But Matt just meets my eyes before looking back at Bernadette.
“We aren’t,” he says. “Because it would look bad on us. The podcast has already made you look bad enough. Canceling a nonrefundable party at one of Boston’s most wait-listed hot spots would be suicide considering the rumors buzzing around about you being the king of catfish. ”
He’s ballsy, that’s for sure, but he’s not wrong. It would look bad. Especially since the entire room out there is probably buzzing with my blow-up a second ago.
“Sir?” Bernadette asks, and I do appreciate her not letting Matt go entirely over my head.
“Yes. Keep the reservation,” I say, and she nods before stepping out.
Matt looks at me with a smirk, but I don’t smile. “I still expect people to pull their weight. Now more than ever. Because my reputation is very much on the line.”
“Understood,” he says, shoving up from his chair. “And I’ll make sure everyone knows that. But I want you to think about something.”
“What?” I ask, a headache brewing behind my eyes.
“Talk to her again. Let her talk this time. Love isn’t a light switch. And girls like that are hard to find. On the apps or in the wild.”