"Is Beverly here?" I ask.
"I need to do some work." She hurries off.
"Wait." I race up to her. "Why is Beverly here? What's going on?"
"Sophie," Beverly says, coming out of her office. "Just the woman I wanted to talk to." She's wearing a navy pantsuit, her arms crossed over her chest. "Come. Let's talk."
I look over at Bianca. She stares back at me, not giving me any clue as to what this is about.
I go into Beverly's office and she shuts the door.
My stomach's in knots, wondering why she wants to talk. She's never had me in her office. She's barely spoken to me since I started working here. Is this because I wasn't at the event last night? When Bianca said Beverly wanted to talk to me I thought I'd just get a brief scolding, not a sit-down talk in her office.
Beverly sits behind her desk, looking at me through her stylish black-framed glasses.
"It has come to my attention that you lied to one of our clients regarding a recent event."
"What client?" I move to the edge of my seat. "What are you talking about?"
"Celine Trystal."
"I didn't lie to her. Why does she think I lied?"
"She recently discovered that you didn't purchase the chocolates that were served at the client dinner you were in charge of. And yet you let her believe they were from the vendor you agreed to use for the event."
"It was a tiny chocolate shop in Brooklyn and they called me the day before the event saying they had a water leak and couldn't make the chocolates."
"Did you find a new vendor?"
"I couldn't. I didn't have time. I had to make them myself. I stayed up all night."
"You made them yourself," she says in a disapproving tone.
"I didn't know what else to do. We were running out of time."
"And you didn't think Celine would want to know that you'd made them yourself?"
"I didn't think I needed to tell her. I didn't think she'd care. It was the same chocolate the shop was going to use. They sold it to me along with the molds."
"Ms. Trystal paid for professionally made chocolates, not ones made in your kitchen."
"I didn't charge her for the chocolates."
"But you let her believe they were from the store in Brooklyn, the one she had approved. You admit that you lied to her."
"I didn't lie. I didn't even think to tell her. I was so busy that day trying to get the room set up and making sure everything was perfect that I didn't think to tell her. How did she even know?"
"She visited that little shop last week to get more of the chocolates for one of her father's work functions and the woman apologized for not being able to make them for the client dinner."
I sit there, angry and frustrated and just wanting to get this over with so I can get out of here. I worked so incredibly hard on that dinner and this is the thanks I get? Sitting in the boss' office and getting reprimanded for staying up all night to fix a problem that popped up at the last minute? Most other bosses would praise me for what I did, not reprimand me.
"I'm sorry, Beverly. I won't do it again."
"No. You won't. You're fired, effective today. Clean out your office and leave any notes or files for the events you're working on with Bianca. She'll take over until we find someone else."
"Wait—you're firing me for making chocolates? Are you kidding me?"
"I'm firing you for lying to a client, and using your home kitchen to prepare food for an event. That's a health code violation. You don't have the proper permits. If this was leaked to the board of health, we could be fined, or even shut down."
I hadn't thought about that, but it's not like anyone would've ever known if it hadn't been for Celine tattling on me. The event is over. Nobody got sick. I didn't need to be fired for this.
"Go pack up your things," Beverly says, shooing me out the door.
I storm out of her office, furious at her and Celine and this whole stupid job. I never should've worked here. I knew I didn't fit in from the first day I started, and I knew Bianca was just using me to do all the stuff she didn't want to do. She never wanted me to get promoted. That's why she kept putting off giving me my own event.
"Here." I shove my laptop at her, along with a stack of files. "Good luck."
"Sophie, wait!" She follows me back to my office. "What happened?"
I whip around to face her. "You're really going to pretend you don't know?"
She bites her lip, not able to hide the guilt on her face.
"Did you even try to get her to change her mind?"
"She's my boss. What was I going to say?"
"You stick up for me! You tell her how hard I've worked the past year. How much I've done to make sure every event we have goes off without a flaw. You tell her how I've brought in new business, including Celine's, which is apparently what got me fired. That's what a friend would do. But I guess we never were friends, were we?"
I go around to my desk and start gathering up the few personal items I brought, tossing them in a box. When I look up, I notice Bianca is no longer there. I take my box and leave. As I'm heading to the door, I pass by Bianca's office. She's sitting at her desk, working on her laptop. None of what I said matters to her. She used me and now she's done with me. She can be the star again. Her competition is gone.
Back at my apartment, I call up Tom.
"Maple Farm Inn, this is Tom. How can I help you?"
"Hey, Tom, it's Sophie. Do you have a minute? I need to ask you a
