“What’s wrong?” Harry asked, folding his arms in the doorway.
“You signed Nell’s holiday form off?”
Harry blinked rapidly and then said, “I did. She never mentioned how long it’d been since the last time.”
“Why should I?” I snapped. “That ‘rule’ was never made clear to me.”
“Nell!” The Ogre bellowed. “Harry, that’s all.”
Oh bugger. Harry made a swift exit, happy that he’d covered his own arse even though I was the innocent party here.
“Yes, Reg?”
His fat face was red and dripping with sweat. “If you ever talk to a member of management like that again you’ll be out. Consider that your verbal warning.” Without another word or giving me a chance to defend myself, he walked out and slammed my door shut.
My heart raced in the worst way. His approach scared me and then what he had to say/shout plain pissed me off. How dare the bastard yell at me for sticking up for myself? What I’d said was right.
With shaking hands, I sat down. My ears rang and it took every ounce of self-control to stay. They wouldn’t push me out. As much as I wanted to, I wouldn’t leave without another job to go to. They could keep paying me.
I turned my computer on and waited for it to boot up. My phone rang just as the screen popped up. Thankful for the distraction, I rooted around until I felt it at the bottom of my bag
“Hi,” I said to Damon, trying to be cheerful when I was so close to tears.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“Nothing, why?”
“You sound…upset. Has something happened?”
All I’d said was ‘hi’ how could he know I was upset? “I’m fine, it’s just my boss.”
“Tell me.”
I explained the whole thing to Damon, careful not to talk too loudly in case anyone heard. It’d look great now if one of them came in and saw me chatting away on my phone. When I’d finished, Damon spent a full two minutes listing swearwords and telling me in three different ways how he was going to kill The Ogre.
I said, “Calm down!”
“Calm down? He had no right to talk to you like that even if you had done something wrong – which you hadn’t!”
“I know that and he knows that. It’s over now, really.”
“It’s not fucking over. He’s been a prick to you since you got there and he can’t get away with it.”
“Damon, I really don’t want to ever bring it up again. It’s finished and I want to move on. Things are pretty unbearable here as it is so I just want to keep my head down until I find something else.”
“You’ve got a job here,” he said.
“You know I haven’t. I’m going to go now and get something done before his coffee demands begin.”
“Lazy wanker,” he muttered.
“I’ll speak to you later, okay? Please let it go now, I don’t want to think about how he made me feel anymore.”
He practically growled down the phone. I bet he was pacing his office and rubbing his forehead. “Fine. I’ll pick you up at lunch,” he said and hung up.
We didn’t have any lunch plans but he was coming here. I made a mental note to leave a few minutes earlier so I could wait for him outside. There was no way I wanted him to come in when he was angry. Things here were shit and having Damon yelling at my boss would not make it better.
I put my mobile back in my handbag and opened Google. The very first thing I was going to do was search for another job. In The Ogre’s time. On his computer. Fuck him. Of course I knew I needed my job and should keep my head down like I’d just told Damon, but the anger simmering under the surface and the longing to be anywhere else told me it was a fabulous idea.
Twenty minutes later I had emailed five job possibilities to my personal email address to follow up with later.
By summer I would have a new job and finally be working my way to where I want to be. With the email sent I felt lighter. For too long I’d been standing still and getting on with it while I should have been making things happen for myself. Things were looking up and I was so positive that I didn’t even care when The Ogre started calling for coffee.
I was so engrossed in making Harry a spread sheet that I didn’t notice the time and Harry was knocking on my door. “Someone’s here for you,” he said.
“Oh,” I replied, grabbing my handbag in a fluster. I wasn’t prepared for Damon or his anger towards my boss and his shithead of a son. “I lost track of time.”
“Perhaps in future you could have your men meet you somewhere else,” he sneered.
Cheeky bastard. He made it sound like I met up with someone different every day.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Damon spat. I couldn’t see him yet but I sure as hell would soon. I leapt out of my seat and ran to the door just as he stopped in front of Harry.
Holding my arm to his chest, I tried to stop him getting closer to Harry. “Damon, it’s fine, let’s go.”
“It’s not fine, Nell.”
The Ogre came stomping over and I groaned inwardly. “What’s going on here?”