With a sigh, I stand up, knowing I just have to get this over with. I make my way to Brett’s office, pleased to see that his secretary isn’t here yet, because it would be hard for me to be nice to her, knowing she’s spreading rumours around the firm about Brett and Mr. Connell and inadvertently, me.
I knock on the office door and take a deep breath, wiping my sweaty palms down my skirt, something I haven’t had to do for weeks when approaching the office. I hear a grunt from inside and I take it to be a come in. I push the door open and step in, my head held high.
I do a double take when I see not Brett sitting behind the desk, but Mr. Connell.
“Good morning Opal,” he says curtly. “What can I do for you?”
Realizing I’m just standing there staring at him like an idiot, I force myself to smile at him. “Welcome back Mr. Connell,” I say.
He nods to me.
I want to ask him what’s going on. Why he’s back and where Brett is. I can’t do any of that though. He’s looking at me questioningly and I catch myself staring mutely at him again. “Brett has been waiting on this file for the Leeson account,” I say, handing Mr. Connell the file. “Do you need me to catch you up on it?”
“No thank you, I’m sure I can work it out,” Mr. Connell replies. “I’ll be mostly spending today catching up on everything, so please don’t disturb me unless it’s absolutely necessary. You can leave any reports or files with my secretary and I’ll get to them tomorrow.”
“Ok,” I open my mouth to say something I know I’ll regret, but he cuts me off.
“Thank you Opal, that will be all,” he says.
Nodding, I scurry out of the office. It’s not until I am back in my own office, leaning against the closed door that I dare to breathe properly again. So Mr. Connell fired Brett then. Surely, I’ll be next. But he didn’t give any indication of it in there. In fact, he was normal with me. A little cool perhaps, but normal. If he intended to fire me, surely he would have done it already.
I decide that the only thing to do is to work through my, to do list like I normally would until I’m told otherwise. I sit down behind my desk. I pause as I go back to my emails. I pick my purse up and pull my cell phone out. Maybe there’s a message from Brett explaining what’s going on.
There’s nothing. I know I told him I wasn’t ready to talk to him, but a head’s up to the fact I was coming in to his father today instead of him would have been nice. I feel myself getting angry at Brett again. I put my phone away quickly and go back to my emails before I can let my temper distract me.
The rest of the day runs pretty smoothly. I keep my head down and get on with my work. When five o’clock approaches, I start to think that maybe everything will be all right. Maybe I’ll get to keep my job after all and Mr. Connell is just going to pretend like none of this ever happened.
The phone on my desk rings and I see the call is coming from Mr. Connell’s office. Maybe he does need me to go over that file I took him this morning after all. I pick up the phone. “Yes Mr. Connell,” I say.
“Opal, can you come in here for a moment please. There’s something important we need to discuss.”
“Of course,” I say.
He cuts the call off.
My stomach cramps and sweat breaks out on my palms again. I let my guard down too soon. Mr. Connell sounded kind of angry on the phone. Maybe he thought he could get past this whole thing but now, he sees that he can’t. It looks like I’m about to be fired after all. And the bastard held off, so he could get an extra day’s work out of me.
I make my way to Mr. Connell’s office. I’m anxious, but I’m also a little bit pissed off. It’s kind of a dirty trick to let me think everything was okay all day and then drop this on me now. Or maybe I’ve gotten it all wrong. Maybe it’s nothing to do with Brett and me.
Knocking on the office door, I wait then step in with my head held high when Mr. Connell calls for me to come in.
“Take a seat Opal,” he says.
I sit down, trying to gauge his mood. My heart sinks. He looks, not angry as such, but disappointed, and that is so much worse. I hate feeling like I’ve let him down.
“I think we need to have a little chat Opal, don’t you? To clear the air as such. Your disappointment this morning at seeing me here rather than Brett was palpable,” he says.
I fidget around in my seat, looking anywhere but at him. This is so much worse than being yelled at. I look down into my lap.
“I’m very disappointed in you, Opal. I trusted you and you let me down. It never even crossed my mind that you and Brett would be so unprofessional, making a laughing stock of me at my own company.” He pauses. “Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
23
I look up then, angry suddenly. He’s talking to me like I’m a child and quite frankly, I’m getting a bit sick of the men in his family treating me like I’m some sort of idiot. I’m probably going to get fired anyway, so I might as well at least say my piece. “With all
