BY THE TIME ALLISON GOT home Tuesday night, her mom was asleep, but the next morning during breakfast, her mom waggled an envelope in front of her and said, “This is good news.”
“What is it?”
“A check from Parker. Four thousand dollars.”
“I see.” Allison tried to smile as reality hit her. Yes, Cannon Beach was wonderful. And she had more hope than when she’d left. But even with her increased pay from work, they would still be short, and she couldn’t pay the loan sharks with hope.
“What’s the matter?” Her mom frowned.
“Four thousand from Parker? Splendid, Mom. That means there’s only ten thousand to go. Due in nineteen days. No problem.”
“Don’t get sarcastic, Allison.” Her mom patted her hand. “I’m going to get paid for the weeks I worked last month, and you’re going to get your check in a couple weeks, and—”
“And we’ll still be short. And we’ll still have to pay for my mortgage and utilities and food and other bills.”
“I thought you just said things had changed in your mind when you were down at the beach. And I thought you got a bump in pay at work. And I thought you said you and Derrek were going to talk when you got back from the beach.”
Allison stared at her mom. Yes. She needed that reminder. “You’re right, Mom. You are. I’m going to get the partnership finalized and we are going to get free.”
When Allison walked into the office an hour later, she wore a big smile and greeted Ellie, who sat at the front desk and munched on a granola bar. Things were going to be different. New day. New start. New life.
“Good morning, Ellie.”
“Hi, Allison.”
There was an odd look in Ellie’s eyes. Pensive. Which wasn’t like her. Allison started for her office, but Ellie’s voice stopped her.
“Allison? Wait.” Ellie set down the granola bar and raised her hand.
Allison turned and looked at Ellie. “Yes?”
“Your office isn’t down there anymore.”
Allison walked over and set her briefcase on the reception desk.
“What do you mean my office isn’t down there anymore?”
Ellie turned red and suddenly had a serious interest in the papers on her desk. “Derrek and Linda, they moved you on Monday afternoon after work apparently.”
“Moved me?”
Ellie glanced up, then right back down to her papers. “You’re in a new office now.”
“They moved all my stuff to a new office while I was on vacation? Without asking? Are you kidding?”
Ellie shrugged. “I wondered about that.”
“Wondered what?”
“Well, Linda said she would text you and let you know ahead of time they were going to do it, but I’m guessing that based on your reaction, the text didn’t go through. Or maybe you haven’t checked your texts for a while.”
“I check them all the time.”
Another shrug from Ellie. “Maybe Linda didn’t want to spoil your vacation.”
“So you didn’t know about it?”
“No.” Ellie shuffled papers. “I didn’t hear anything about it. Yesterday morning I went to set your mail on your desk and your desk wasn’t there, so I asked Linda and she showed me where your new office is.”
“Did they explain why they were doing it?”
“Apparently since we’re growing we need to hire more people and we need more spaces, so they’re going to put two people in your old office. At least that’s what I’ve heard.”
Calm down, Allison. She needed to relax. Yes, it was incredibly disrespectful to move her office without any kind of warning, and to do it while she was gone? Unbelievable. Still, she wasn’t going to let this surprise ruin her new mind-set. Besides, there was probably a reasonable explanation. She’d left Friday at noon. Maybe they’d hired someone on Friday afternoon and had to make space immediately. But why move her?
“Where did they move me to?”
The look on Ellie’s face wasn’t encouraging. She pointed to the office to Allison’s left, three doors down. The smallest one. The only office in the company without windows.
Her stomach lurched and a soft cry sputtered out of her mouth. “What?”
Allison turned to Ellie, whose sad smile said she didn’t agree with what happened, but what could be done about it?
As she shuffled over the threshold into her new office, she found Dianne at a small desk inside, clacking away at her keyboard. Allison’s shoulders slumped as she stared at the back of Dianne’s head. This wasn’t happening.
Dianne slowly spun around and said, “Hi, Allison.” Her mouth turned down. “Welcome back.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Makes two of us.”
“There’s barely room to turn around in here. It’s not a two-person office.”
“Nope. Not even close.”
“Did they give you a reason why they did this?”
“No, but do they have to?” Dianne’s eyes watered. “This is the perfect spot to put people that Linda doesn’t like.”
“When did they do it?”
“When I walked in yesterday morning, Linda was waiting for me. Gave me her phony smile and said in a phony cheerful voice that the company was bringing on new team members, so I was going to share an office with you for a while. Since we work on the same accounts, Linda said it would be a great move for everybody.”
“I don’t believe this.” Allison set her briefcase and purse down on a desk that was half the size of her old one. Her drafting table was considerably smaller as well. What were they thinking? She couldn’t work like this.
“Is Derrek in yet?”
“Not when I came in, but I’ve been here for a while.”
Allison picked up her phone and buzzed Ellie. “Is Derrek in yet?”
“No, not yet, Allison. Would you like me to let you know when he does come in?”
“Yes. Immediately. Thank you.”
Allison accomplished nothing for the next twenty minutes except to delete a few junk mails and try to put a lid on her simmering frustration.
Her phone buzzed. “Yes?”
“He just got here,” Ellie said.
“Thanks.”
Allison smoothed her suit, marched out of her new office, and covered the distance to Derrek’s office at a pace that would make speed walkers smile. He sat in his high-backed leather chair, laptop open, eyes narrowed. She knocked on his door three times hard, didn’t wait for an invitation to come in, and marched up to his desk. Derrek looked up and sat back.
“Good morning, Allison, welcome back. How was your time at the beach?”
“You moved my office.”
“Yes.” Derrek stood. “We did.”
“Without telling me. Without talking to me about it. That’s not acceptable.”
“I trust we didn’t break anything in the move. I told them to take a photo of how things were laid out on your desk so all your things were in the exact same place you had them, so when you returned you’d have no downtime. We did have to give you another desk, only a sliver smaller, but that’s due to having you and Dianne together.”
“A sliver?”
Derrek chuckled. “Maybe two slivers.”
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“No one explained this to you?”
“Would I be asking if they did?”
“Linda was going to text you to give you a heads-up. But she mentioned that her cell service has been intermittently cutting in and out. My guess is she did indeed send it, but unfortunately it didn’t reach you due to an error on the technical side of things.”
Allison stared at him. Did he really believe the propaganda that flowed out of his mouth?
“Has anyone filled you in since you got here?” Derrek waited for an answer and didn’t get one, so he continued. “We hired some new folks on Friday, and we needed spots to put them. Consequently, we had to do a bit of consolidation.”
“Fine. But why not move someone into my existing office? Why stick me—”
“This isn’t a punishment, Allison.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s a compliment.” Derrek chuckled. “To you.”
“What?”
“Yes.”
“You’re trying to tell me that putting me in the smallest office we have, with another person, and doing it without talking to me, while I’m on vacation, is a compliment?”
“Yes.” The chuckle Allison had grown to hate bubbled out of Derrek’s mouth again.
“I’d really like to get an explanation of how that’s possible.”
Derrek leaned back on the credenza his bookshelves sat on, folded his arms, and gave her the smile that used to inspire her.
“Most of the people around here don’t have the strength of character you have. You’re strong. You have vision. You can see the big picture. You won’t take your office being moved personally, which others might do.”
“I’m your partner. Why would you do this to your partner? I can’t work in that small a space. My design table is too small.”
Derrek rubbed his forehead just above one eyebrow and chuckled. “It’s not readily apparent how this slipped my mind.”
Allison stared at him, arms tight across her chest.
“I haven’t chatted with you at all about the office expansion, have I?”
Again, Allison remained silent.
Derrek marched out of his office and beckoned Allison to follow. “Come with me, Allison. You need to see something.”
He strode through the lobby, through the front door of the office, and down the hallway, his long legs chewing up the carpet far faster than Allison could. He didn’t bother to look back to see if she was following. Derrek ducked through the first door he came to on the left.
It was closed by the time she reached it. She pushed it open to find Derrek standing forty feet away, gazing out of floor-to-ceiling windows. The space was gutted, only flecks of carpet on the floor, the walls torn out in places, paint cans along the wall to her right, electrical supplies along the wall to her left.
“See this, Allison?” Derrek grinned. “This is ours. And we’re going to spend the money to make it spectacular.”
“When—”
“Come here, come here. This is what I wanted to show you.” He waved her over to a set of offices to the right. “See this one? It’s going to be yours. Bigger than your old office, and a view to wake up nights thinking about.”
Allison stared at the space. It was bigger than her old office by at least fifty percent. And the view of the Olympic Mountains was stunning.
“I had no idea . . .”
“No, I realize that now.” Derrek grinned. “What do you think?”
“It’s really nice.”
“Good, good. I knew you’d like it. Glad you could take the time to see it. Don’t worry, Allison, we’ll get you in here soon. Construction should be finished in a couple of months. Three or four, tops.”
“This is great, Derrek. Really is. And as long as we’re talking about the future, I want to recall our conversation before I went to the beach. How we were both going to think about our partnership and get that finalized. I’m ready, so I’d like to set up a time to make that happen.”
“Yes,” Derrek said. “I would too. However, these next couple of weeks are going to be quite busy, so let’s plan on touching base in ten days. Don’t worry, we will get that handled.”
With that, Derrek strode from the room, leaving Allison to consider the fact that with a small portion of the money Derrek was spending on the renovation, he could have started paying her what he’d promised her two months ago.
On the way home Allison stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few items and found herself staring at the woman two people ahead of her in the checkout line. From the back and slight profile view, it was hard to tell for sure, but it looked like Derrek’s wife. Allison had only met her once briefly at the office.
As the woman picked up her bags, she turned and noticed Allison peering at her.
“Hey, Allison! Hi, I don’t know if you recognize me, but I’m Sunnie Wright, Derrek’s wife.”
“Yes, it’s great to see you.”
“You too.” She motioned toward Allison’s items. “I’ll wait for you and we can walk to our cars together.”
A few moments later, when they stepped outside, Sunnie said, “So you’ve been working for Derrek for two or three months now, right? How are things going?”
Sunnie’s name was ideal. Derrek’s wife shone with kindness, and her green eyes were inviting.
“Ups and downs, you know, but overall it’s been good. Just wanting to get the partnership finalized, but Derrek and I talked about that today, and we’re going to take care of it soon.”
Sunnie frowned. “What partnership?”
“Derrek’s and mine.”
“My Derrek?” Sunnie laughed and patted Allison’s arm gently. “That will be the day when he lets someone partner with him again.”
Allison’s body grew hot as she stared at Sunnie. “What do you mean? He told me he talked to you about it. Made sure you were okay with a woman becoming his partner. I even asked if I could sit down with you and discuss it, and he said you were fine with it.”
“Not that I can recall. But we don’t talk that much about the business.” Sunnie’s face grew serious. “Are you sure?”
“There’s no doubt in my mind.”
An understanding look came over Sunnie’s countenance. “Allison, I don’t know what to say.”
Allison stood stunned, her body shifting from hot to numb.
“I’m so sorry, Allison.” Sunnie patted her arm once more, then turned and walked away.
Wednesday, July 3rd
Freedom Day tomorrow. Maybe for our country. Not for me. I’m furious and frustrated and stressed all at the same time. Ran into Derrek’s wife at the grocery store this afternoon, and she claims Derrek never told her about our partnership. Is she lying? If not, it was an Oscar-worthy performance. Does not matter! He said we’d get the partnership handled, and I’m going to hold him to it. And with the whole moving-my-office thing, once again Derrek has spun the top. Yes, if the construction he told me about today happens, wonderful. But it feels too much like smoke and mirrors. Tomorrow and Friday and Saturday and Sunday I will not think about work. At all. But on Monday I’m going in with both guns blazing. I’ll get the partnership finished once and for all. We cannot keep living like this. We are out of money and I have to fix this. You want to change something about this entry, mighty angel? Fine. But I’m not looking at it. The only change that I’m going to think about is the one where my name goes from Worker to Partner.