It took her less then twenty minutes to get dressed and get to work.
“Macie, thank God you’re finally here.” Nancy ushered Macie to her office. The news team geared up for the noon broadcast, which lead to chaos. Macie loved the craziness of it all. Nancy pointed to a chair in front of her desk, and Macie sat on the edge. “Ian quit. No notice. Just said fuck this, and left. Couldn’t even finish out the damn day.” Nancy shook her head and lifted her fingers to her lips. She fake smoked a pen. “I know it’s your day off, but I need you to finish what he started.”
“Sure, no problem. But I have to leave at five.” Macie didn’t want to come right out and say she had a date. It wasn’t any of Nancy’s business anyway. But she should’ve known better.
“Hot date, huh?” Nancy snapped forward in her chair. “Just don’t let Mark know. He’s still got a thing for you.”
Macie grimaced. She regretted flirting with him like she had. It had disaster written all over it before it even happened, but once they started working together, it was worse. He’d hang out near her office just to say hi or make a point to talk to her about something they had broadcast or he’d seen somewhere. He was a nice guy, but they had nothing in common. Every interaction was awkward. Interoffice dating, never a good idea.
“I’ll get you out of here by five.” She handed over a file. “Ian’s notes and computer access. Everything he was working on is on his computer so that will be easier for you.”
“Great. And you’re giving me a tetanus shot first, right?”
Nancy smiled. “Buck up, kid, and deal with it.” Nancy pulled a can of Lysol from her desk drawer. “But this might help.”
Macie took the can with a groan. “At least I get overtime for this. Remind me to kick Ian in the balls if I see him again.”
“Beat me to it,” Nancy said, but she’d already shifted gears to another problem. “Tell Barb to get her ass in here, too.”
Macie didn’t even bother to respond. She stepped out of Nancy’s office and stopped at Barb’s desk. “What happened to Ian?”
Barb glanced around, searching for prying eyes. She pushed her square glasses up on her long nose. “You know that new guy? Alex?”
Macie nodded. It was more like she knew of him, but either way.
“Well, he wanted Ian to do a graphic a different way.” Barb glanced around again. It wasn’t like this wouldn’t be around the entire station before the six o’clock news. “Ian wasn’t happy about it, but he agreed. Then Alex came back after Ian sent the new graphic and called him every name in the book. Ian took it until Alex walked away, then he said fuck this and left.”
“What did Nancy say?” Macie wondered if her boss would have her back.
Barb shrugged and went back to whatever she was typing. Either Nancy wasn’t surprised by this development or she didn’t think twice about it and had already moved on. Barb knew everything that went on in the station. The older woman had worked there before they closed the news department. She was the first person they brought back, too. She was probably a better investigative reporter than most of the journalists on their team.
Macie shook her head. If Nancy didn’t say anything, she probably didn’t know the entire story. Then again, Nancy knew everything that went on inside these walls. Something else was going on. As long as it didn’t directly affect Macie, she really didn’t care. Ian was an alright guy, but he was a subpar designer. He half-assed everything and only did what he needed to get by. And he was a colossal slob.
“Oh, Nancy wants you asap,” Macie added as an afterthought. Bara rolled her eyes and shot out of her chair like a rabbit.
When Macie got to the graphics department’s closet-sized office, she immediately backed up all of Ian’s files. Even his keyboard was sticky. Macie shuddered. How could one person create so much trash and just leave like that? She didn’t even want to think about what his apartment looked like. Macie used a Clorox wipe on her fingers and sprayed Lysol around Ian’s cubicle. Housekeeping didn’t even bother cleaning his desk. Hopefully they would now that he was gone. They should get hazard pay for it, too.
Ian’s phone rang. Macie glanced around the office, but she was the only person there. With a shrug, she picked up the receiver. She didn’t even get a chance to say a word.
“Look you little rat fuck, I don’t know what your problem is and I don’t really care. Get that damn graphic done in the next two minutes or I’m going to come down there and beat your lazy, fat ass.”
Macie raised her eyebrows and pulled the receiver away from her face. She did the only thing any self-respecting woman would do. She hung up. The minute her butt hit her chair at her desk, Ian’s phone rang again. And again. She thought about unplugging it, but then she had a better idea. She grabbed her cell phone and rolled across the floor into his cubicle. Before picking up the phone, she pressed record on her voice recorder.
“You little fuck. I’m going to make sure you never work again, Ian. No employer will hire you after I tell everyone
