“I’m up all night trying to resolve the outages.” I hissed. “If Mike didn’t veto my proposed cloud solution, we wouldn’t have any outages. Instead, all I can do is paper over the cracks.” “And you just gave up trying?” He barks back at me.
“Yes.” I snap. “After six months of trying. Have you met Mike?” “That’s a defeatist attitude.” He retorts.
“Seems like I’m easily defeated by pompous asshole men in suits who don’t listen to me.” I fire back.
His eyes darken. “Careful, Charlie.”
I meet his unrelenting stare head-on, not backing down.
“Listen to me,” he says, emphasizing each word. “You can take my generous offer now, or you can try to justify keeping your job to my HR team.”
I breathe out heavily. “Do I have a choice?”
His lip curls in displeasure as he studies me like I’m a petulant child not eating my porridge.
“Right now, yes. I’ve put an informal agreement on the table to make sure you are ok. You have about 10 days to mull it over. But you can decline, and we’ll be going through the redundancy processes. From that point, it’s my team who decides who to keep. We’ll be cutting 50% of the workforce. I can’t offer you as good a package if you walk away from this offer now.”
“And you think I won’t make the cut on my own merits.” I stare at him furiously. “I’m not just Tristan’s silly little sister. I’ve done a lot for this company this past year. I’ve saved us 20% in support costs this quarter.”
His jaw clenches. “I’m not saying you won’t make the cut, however, be warned the calibre of the Nexus team is exceptional. I’m giving you a chance to walk away, so you don’t have to. Tristan knows that and understands.”
“What, wait?” I jump from my seat to face him head-on. Or at least chest on since he’s at least a foot taller than me. I’m going to have to buy higher heels for the office. “Tristan knows?” I shriek. “You told Tristan before me?”
I stare at him incredulously. This guy is an absolute snake.
He bits his lip and has the decency to look guilty for a fleeting second.
“I didn’t have to tell you personally, but I wanted to because of who you are.”
“How lovely of you,” I reply, deadpan. “Real fucking saint.”
“Less of the attitude, Charlie.” He moves his face closer, baring his teeth at me.
“It’s Charlotte to you,” I snap back, crossing my arms over my chest. I need to bury my fists, or I might punch his stupid gorgeous arrogant face.
“Just read the package. It’s already in your emails. You’ll be happy. Lots of people would love to be in your position. The new company has very -” “You don’t get to dictate where I work,” I interrupt.
I’m done here. I can’t listen to this guy any longer.
I storm out, slamming the door so hard anyone already on the floor stares.
Seconds later, the door flies open as I’m halfway down the aisle, and I hear angry footsteps advancing on me.
A strong arm yanks my arm backward, and I stop dead in my tracks, flipping around.
“That’s the last time you slam a door on me, Charlie,” he snarls, staring down at me.
He’s so close I can feel his breath on my cheek with every angry word.
I stare defiantly back at him and jerk away from his grasp. Everyone now in the office is watching the show-down.
I can’t think of a good comeback. I turn my head and stride down the aisle of desks, hoping he only saw the anger in my eyes and not the hurt.
***
“You ok, sis?”
I stare down at my phone. Great. Tristan knows already. That means Mum and Callie know. I’m 18 again, and they all know my business. Mum is probably telling it to Father Murphy in confessions. I don’t reply.
It sounds like a fantastic opportunity?
Danny is offering a brilliant package. You can take some time off if you want with your payout!
The dots indicate he is typing more.
I’m great x I respond, trying to close the line of questioning. I don’t want to talk to him about this
yet. It’s too fresh.
I sigh heavily, staring at the phone. I knew Tristan was right. I had read the package, and it was good, better than any redundancy package I’d ever heard of.
It didn’t make Danny Walker any less of an asshole.
I started the company straight out of university, and for five years I had worked my way up to a mediocre middle management position by working long hours and putting up with Mike’s shit.
The truth was, despite all my complaining, I liked working here. I had friends, I was in my comfort zone, I was respected. I’d just gotten promoted, and now I’d have to build myself up all over again somewhere else. Now all my long hours meant nothing? If I went to a larger company, they’d never give me the same responsibility with my level of experience; it would be an instant demotion.
Sure, it wasn’t the best company to work for, we didn’t have a restaurant or gym like Julie’s office, and the offices were more skanky than swanky, but it was my world.
Now in the space of one day of taking over the company, Danny Walker destroys all that by sauntering in, swinging his dick, and informing me to pack my bags.
He just assumes I’m rubbish at the job, that I’m not serious or intelligent enough to meet his standards. Not like Jen.
I knew that’s why he never offered me a job at Nexus. When I was looking for work all those years ago, he was willing to get me an interview set up at any other company, but never his, never Nexus. Even when I saw jobs advertised at Nexus.
I’m just an irrelevant and inferior pawn in his game of acquisitions that he needs to remove to save an argument with Tristan.
Then he makes out that I should be grateful for him setting me up with another job I haven’t even agreed to? I’m not a charity case.
Truth be told, I’m hurt more than angry. After ten years, he still sees me as a silly little girl.
He never even gave me a chance.
“You’re the talk of the office,” Stevie announces, sliding his chair up to me. “There are two camps, the people that think you are brave talking back to Danny Walker and the people that think you are an idiot.”
“Great,” I snort. “So everyone knows about our little tete a tete.”
“Look, if it’s killing you that much, just ask him outright, why?” he suggests. “Just keep calm, no flying off the handle.”
He’s right. I need to manoeuvre this calmly and rationally. Prove to Danny Walker that I’m not a silly little girl.