Diary of A. . . (17 page)

It felt so nice to feel her arms around me.
At least she wasn’t angry with me anymore. Since I really didn’t
want to cry, I tried to get a minute alone to collect myself. “I’ll
be in there in a moment, Momma. Give me a minute.”

“I’ll stay,” she said adamantly. “Right now,
I don’t think either of us needs to be alone.”

“No, Momma,” I said obdurately. “I really
do. Please. Just a second and if I’m not in there by the time the
water boils, you can come get me.”

She looked reluctant to let me go, but
didn’t want to press it. When she was gone, I closed my eyes tight
and bit my tongue.

He’s dead. So what. The money’s gone. So
what. Just let it go. At least you know the truth and this silly
thing my sister has going can just be forgotten.

I really intended to leave and go on to
work. Taking a deep breath, I slowly opened my eyes to the wall I
had been leaning against.

I noticed my mother had put up some new
pictures and awards. Most likely she had cleaned up and organized
her scrapbook, which was her life long project. She was always
adding things that were packed away in the attic. Things she had
not touched at all since we’d moved into this house.

I looked at each picture and award on her
wall. Then I noticed something that left me really, really cold -
an award from the Sunnybrook, Florida Morgue Department for a
successful internship completion.

My mother had worked in Sunnybrook, Florida
at one time. Which meant she most likely still had connections when
E. Heasley decided to plan his death.

Nina had a hand in the lie and that bitch
had been two seconds away from getting away with it.

Hearing her footsteps coming back to the
trophy room, I turned away from the wall.

When she smiled at me as if there was
nothing wrong, I knew right then my mother had more up her sleeve.
But I didn’t want to see her hurt face anymore, so I told myself
not to ask her about it until I had more proof.

I would prove that my father was alive
without her. Once I found proof of this, I was going to make her
say sorry until the day she died.

“You ready for your tea, Sheryl?” Nina
asked.

Forcing a smile on my lips, I said, “Sure
Momma. Sure.”

Entry Twenty-Eight

When I arrived at work, earlier than
expected, I found Cassandra in my office crying. She looked
startled to see me and quickly wiped her face.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Don’t be,” I told her. “What’s wrong?”

She looked reluctant to tell me at first,
but then said, “My husband is cheating on me.”

“Are you sure?”

“No. But I’ve known the whole time we’ve
been married that his heart was never really into us. Yet he does
love me and I do love him.”

“Do you know with whom?”

“Someone I can’t compete with.” Cassandra
began to cry again.

Feeling bad for her, I grabbed the Kleenex
and sat beside her. “Do you want to leave him?”

“I don’t know,” she said forlornly.

Passing her the box of tissue by the couch,
she wiped her face and thanked me.

“I’ll figure something out,” she promised.
“Don’t you worry about me, Ms. Banks.” She stood up, taking a deep
breath. “What did Peter want the other day?”

“To talk,” I lied easily, standing up.

“I thought he was going to ask you to do
another favor. I heard all of his accounts were taken away except
for the Mackeroy account.”

Going to my desk, I saw a note on my
computer. It was from Erin. She wanted to see me. Things on my desk
were again pushed around.

WTF?!

This has got to stop.

I found the post-it notes and went to her
office. Lisa looked really tired. More tired than normal.

“She’s waiting for you,” Lisa said. “But I
don’t think she expected you this early.”

I walked right in, ready to tell the bitch
to stay out my office, but the wind flew out of me because she
wasn’t at her desk. Her voice was coming from the private bathroom
and the door was partially cracked.

Instead of doing the polite thing and
walking out, I decided to sit on the loveseat in her office and
patiently wait.

“…can’t I see you, Lowe? Just for a few
minutes.” She huffed in frustration. “How many times do I have to
say sorry? … I still love you. You know this, right? … No! I won’t
give you a divorce. I don’t care if you want to see other
people.”

‘Was this heartbreak day?’ I wondered, but I
didn’t make a sound.

“I could care less if the business is in
both our names. You try to get a divorce from me and I’ll make sure
you never open the business. Ever!” Her voice became very harsh and
vicious. I felt terrible for the guy on the other line. “Lowe, I
have no intentions of ever granting you the divorce. So just get
used to it.”

She came out the bathroom hanging up her
cell phone.

‘Bitch.’ I wanted to say. I’d divorce her
ass, too.

“What the fuck are you doing in my
office?”

I had every right to curse this bitch back,
but I didn’t. She was upset. Her old man wasn’t dicking her anymore
and she had a right to miss the dick. She was still married to it.
LOL.

Standing up, I pulled out the post-it notes.
“Next time, I’ll just leave them with Lisa.”

“No!” She walked up to me and took them out
my hands. Instead of putting them on her desk, she stuck them in
her jacket pocket.

I thought to myself, ‘Business my ass. That
move looked personal.’

“Could you stop roaming around my desk,
please?” I said.

Erin smirked evilly. “There you go with that
my stuff. Last time I checked this was Earl’s company.”

With no smart ass comeback, I just decided
to make an empty threat. “Then maybe I should let Earl know you
keep snooping around my office. If there’s something you want, just
ask my assistant or myself. I’m not hiding anything.” Not wanting
to be in her company any longer than necessary, I started to leave
out until she called my name.

“That isn’t the only reason I wanted to
speak to you. Have a seat, Sheryl.” She moved behind her desk.

“Never mind, I’ll stand.”

“I insist.” There was this cold look in her
eyes as if she wanted to jump over the desk and yank my hair
out.

Reluctantly, I took the seat in front of her
desk. Inside I was screaming, Bitch, Bitch, Bitch!

“How did your New York trip go?”

“It went fine actually. The PowerPoint
presentation for the first client went wonderfully and Colonel
Debner’s given me leeway to make it up-”

She cut me off, “We didn’t do anything to be
sorry for.”

“In my opinion that doesn’t matter. We still
have to make the customer happy.”

Erin shrugged. “You’re the customer service
manager. I listened to your meeting with your managers. And I
should let you know that you shouldn’t discuss gossip at business
meetings.”

Was she smoking crack?

“I didn’t discuss personal items at the
meeting,” I refuted.

“Didn’t Ms. Newsome say something to the
point of you being in charge?”

“She made an observation that it would seem
that way, but in no way am I trying to usurp your authority, Mrs.
Nabors.”

She leaned over her desk. “Well, then Ms.
Newsome will be the only one fired.”

“What?!” I stood up, angry as hell. “You
can’t do that. She’s a part of my team.” And a damn good PowerPoint
layout person!

“Last time I checked, I was your boss. And
since I’m over you, I’m over this whole damn office. So I can make
decisions of firing people.”

Forgetting my manners and my mother teaching
me about respecting my elders, I said, “Listen, Erin, I don’t know
what’s got your damn panties in a bunch, but you can’t fire someone
for speaking their thoughts.”

“I can fire someone if she’s been
consistently late.” Erin pulled out an employee file on Ms.
Newsome.

I knew Ms. Newsome had been late a lot,
especially during the school year when she had to get her kids back
and forth to school. But she did a damn good job.

“If you weren’t so concerned about clients
and more about what your team is doing, then you’d know she’s
consistently late.” Erin opened the employee file and lifted up
about fifty late slips and a computer printout detailing when Ms.
Newsome started working on her PC each day.

“That’s no good reason to fire her.”

“I wasn’t going to fire her. You were.” She
handed me Ms. Newsome’s pink slip.

I knew I couldn’t fight this one. Ms.
Newsome would have to fight it on her own. I felt like shit. Damn
Bitch!

Taking the slip, I started to walk out the
office again until Erin called my name once more in a sing-song
voice.

“And don’t think I don’t know you’re
sleeping with clients. But I guess a girl’s gotta do something to
get to the top.”

“What are you talking about?” I sneered.

“Aren’t you seeing Mackeroy Jackson?”

“I see Mackeroy Jackson on my personal time,
which is none of your business.”

“Keep this up and I’ll see why Earl favors
you. He does like them young.”

Gritting my teeth, I slammed out the office!
Fucking bitch!

Entry Twenty-Nine

My day was pretty much ruined after I left
Ms. Newsome’s office. The distraught look on her face as I passed
her the pink slip was devastating. It took everything I had not to
sympathize with her. I’ve fired people before, but for good reason.
This time I felt horrible and I really couldn’t function correctly
at work because of it.

At times like this, I feel unsure of my job
and wonder if I am really qualified to do this. Not because of the
job itself, but because of the stress the job entails. Hell, I feel
qualified to run the damn country, but there aren’t enough
qualifications in the world to prepare you for the stress that
comes with a job like that.

Can you feel me?

I spent the rest of the morning
concentrating on making sure no one else from my team was fired.
Cassandra let me know Lisa had forwarded three pink slips to other
office clerks. Erin had also fired two more managers and a sales
rep – not Peter.

Every fiber of my being wanted to pick up
the phone, dial Earl and ask him why the fuck did he have this
crazy bitch in charge.

I had made plans to have lunch with
Mackeroy, but I was so consumed with getting my work done that I
forgot.

At noon, Mack strode in my office carrying a
dozen pink roses. I felt even crappier and I looked pitiful.

“Please don’t tell me no,” he said before I
even said a word.

Obviously the look on my face said it all,
but he looked as if he didn’t want to hear that.

“You need to eat,” he said.

I still had not said anything. Instead I
looked at Cassandra, who had been all too happy to help me pull out
every open service request, find out why they were open, and start
closing procedures. The majority of the reports were open because
the managers just never went back to close them, even though they
were already completed. This was an effort to make sure no one else
from my team was fired for incompetent work habits, whom I just had
a feeling were next on Erin’s firing list.

I think the more people she could fire, the
better she would feel. How the hell did that woman sleep being so
damn evil?

We were almost done, but I really didn’t
want to stop.

“I know I should, but this is much too
important,” I told Mack.

“How important?” he asked skeptically, as if
I wanted to avoid going with him.

“I need to make sure all of my managers have
been doing their jobs before they get pink slipped, Mackeroy.”

“But you’re doing yours, so why should you
care?” he asked.

That was evil to say. I was shocked that it
had even come out his damn mouth.I guess the look on my face said
that, too, because he immediately apologized.

“I’m sorry, baby,” Mack said and put out his
hand for me to stand.

I had been sitting beside Cassandra on the
couch. She also stood with me and took the flowers from Mackeroy
before leaving to give us a moment of privacy.

“I just don’t want work to mess up this good
thing we have.”

Cupping his clean shaven cheek, I said, “I
know, but this is so important to me. I promise when I take you up
on that rain check, which will be soon; I will make sure you never
want for another thing from me. Things are just a little tight here
and I want to make sure I keep the best team possible. Can you
understand that?”

He had no choice. He nodded and kissed my
cheek. “All right.”

I was glad he hadn’t kissed my lips. It was
a shallow thing, but I hate for my lips to be messed up while I’m
at work. Even when I eat lunch, I wear lipstick that won’t come
off. Plus, kissing made my lips all puffy and I didn’t want my
employees to know about my personal life.

It was none of their business who the hell I
was kissing, though I’m sure all of them saw Mackeroy enter my
office and Cassandra leave out.

“Thanks for understanding, honey,” I said,
still a little turned off by his evil remark.

Maybe because I had too much evil coming at
me in one day that I took that snide comment to heart. Or maybe
Mackeroy could give a rat’s ass about anyone else, except whom he
chose to care about.

I wasn’t asking him to put the world’s
problems on his shoulder, but damn! That was cold as hell.

When he was gone, Cassandra returned and
helped me get to work. Her silence perturbed me.

“When we’re done,” she asked, after another
hour of going through everything. “Do you think you could take a
meeting with a friend?”

I frowned. “Who?”

“My old employer. He was helping me look up
all your stuff and called me this morning and said he wanted to
meet you.”