HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Bianca

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The cab dropped me off in front of the building and I stood on the sidewalk for a second, letting the afternoon air hit me before I went back inside.

Lunch had been exactly what I knew it was going to be before I even sat down. One of the directors with a whole lot of opinions about himself, and in a restaurant he had definitely picked to make a point.

I tried to smile through most of it, said the right things at the right moments, and made a private decision somewhere between the appetizer and the entree that this was the last time I’m doing such a thing.

I was done, no more lunches with these men, no more sitting across from a man who found himself genuinely fascinating and expected me to agree.

The only good thing that had happened was my sister calling. Her timing had been so perfect it almost felt divine, like she had some kind of sensor for when I needed an exit. I had stepped away from the table and stayed away longer than necessary, and when I came back I had a reason to leave.

I left him there with his unfinished wine and his unanswered questions and I walked out of that restaurant feeling lighter than I had felt going in.

I pushed through the building’s front doors, nodded at the security desk, and took the elevator up.

When I stepped out onto the floor and started walking toward my row, it took me a few seconds to register what I was seeing or more accurately, what I was not seeing.

My desk was gone, not moved slightly, not temporarily cleared for some reason, it was all gone. My chair, monitor, and even my files. I stopped walking and stared at the empty space.

I looked around the floor slowly, the way you look around when you are trying to hold onto the possibility that maybe you are just confused, maybe you walked to the wrong row, maybe your entire desk did not just disappear in the middle of a Tuesday.

But no, I wasn’t wrong, the spot was empty. There was not even a scuff mark on the floor from where the chair used to drag.

I put my bag down on someone else’s desk because I started doing the mental calculation. Was I sacked? Could they sack you and move your things in the same afternoon without even a text message? Surely there was some kind of process, some kind of HR form, some kind of legal things to at least tell a person before erasing them from the building entirely.

My brain went through it very quickly and arrived at a conclusion that was mostly paranoia dressed up as logic.

“Why are you looking confused?”

I turned around. Amanda was leaning against the small corridor a few feet away, looking at me like she was watching a

movie

“Why am I looking confused?” I repeated back at her.

“Amanda, my things are gone. My desk is gone, my chair is gone and my plant is gone.”

“Okay, I see that.”

“What do you mean okay? That is not a normal thing to come back to. Where are my things? Did someone move them or dad someone take them or is this how I find out I got fired? No email, no meeting, they just erase your workspace like a surprise” I paused

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Chapter 33

“If this is how they do it here, that is actually insane.”

I was not pacing yet but I could feel the pacing coming. “At least I should get notice,” I said.

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“Some kind of written thing, an email, something. You cannot just disappear someone’s desk and call it a resignation.” I spread my hands out at the empty space. “Is this it? Is this how my career ends? Oh my God! I can’t go back to that place?”

Amanda’s face was doing something I could not immediately understand but I kept looking at her.

“Bianca.”

“What?”

She pressed her lips together for one second, and then she burst out laughing. She grabbed the partition and even laughed harder.

I stared at her. “What,” I said flatly, “is funny.”

She was still laughing, she held up one hand like she needed a moment.

“Amanda. What is funny? You are not the one getting sacked. You are laughing but I am the one standing here without a desk. That is my life that is potentially over right now, where exactly is the humor?”

“No one,” she managed, trying to get herself together, “no one is getting sacked, Bianca.”

“How do you know that? Do you know that? Were you informed of something?”

“Were you not informed? Your things were moved to another office.”

The relief hit me so fast it was almost embarrassing. I took a breath. My shoulders came down about two inches. “Okay okay, that sounds better,” I said. “Which office?”

She was already stepping back toward her desk, still smiling, clearly storing this story for later. “Felix is right there, ask him.”

I turned, Felix was coming down the corridor and I stepped into his path.

“Hi Felix,” I said. “My things were moved and I can’t find them. Can you point me to where they went?”

He looked at me, then he pointed all the way down the corridor, past the glass-walled rooms, to the far end of the floor.

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