Oh Stupid Heart (14 page)

“Are you serious?”
What shit was she pulling now? Dan Marshal hadn’t charged a cent up front.

“Trent, I’ve retained
a top quality resource firm. You keep saying you want the best. $200,000 is
chump change. What’s the problem?”

His pulsed raced at
such an excellent opening. “The problem is you’re at strike five. I intended to
fire you at three, only you’re racking mistakes up at such speed, I can’t keep track.
However, the game stops here.”

“What are you talking
about?”

“You’re fired, Coco.
You are to have nothing further to do with my business or me. I want you
permanently out of my life.”

Her mouth dropped
open and closed as she took a long moment to respond. “Why? We were getting
along so well.”

“No, I’ve been
enduring your unwanted, and may I say aggressive sexual harassment, because I
mistakenly thought you could help my business.”

Her eyes narrowed.
“What did Dan tell you?”

“Ah, so he did let you
go.”

“Not at all. All the
people he sent declined the job offers so I pushed him to do better and we had
unpleasant words. In the end, I told him we no longer wished his services.”

“First of all, you
have no authority to fire or hire anyone. You are a temp, not an employee.”

She massaged her
temple with her long, red, manicured claws. “I have no wish to be in your
employ. I’m your friend and I’m trying to help you keep your company afloat!”

“You don’t give a
damn about Lancaster Chairs. In fact, you’d be thrilled if it went bankrupt so
we could travel the world together.”

A faint smile crossed
her lips. “That does sound wonderful, but I do care, because it matters to you.”

He sighed. “Let me
run through the reasons why you are fired and explain why you are going to
leave without further bullshit or vindictive retaliation.”

She opened her mouth,
no doubt to protest, but he spoke first. “You purposely sent Dan requirements
for overqualified persons, ensuring no one would take the job offers. You’ve
been wasting my time with candidates wishing to hone up on their interview
skills.”

Before she could
respond, he yelled, “Strike one. Next, you placed in those requirements the
request for males only, which is a blatant violation of anti-discrimination
laws. Strike Two.”

A faint smile came to
Coco’s lips as she crossed her arms.

“Next, I discovered,
the EA you shoved down my throat didn’t even come from Dan’s shop. He’s here
working for you. Something which you failed to mention. Strike Three.”

She arched a brow at
him and leaned forward.

“Not finished yet. I reamed
Dan for choosing you as my HR advisor, and he countered saying
I
sent an
email personally requesting you for the job.”

She rolled her eyes.

“So I asked to see
the email, and guess who the IP address belonged to?”

Her only hint of
worry was a slight furrow of her brow. “I have no idea what you’re talking
about.”

“It belonged to you,
Coco. The email came from
you
.”

Her eyes rounded with
what looked to be genuine surprise, probably at getting caught.

“The email did not
come from me.”

“Evidence to the
contrary and strike four. You are past fired. You are doubly fired. And here’s
why you’re going to walk out the door without any further trouble. Turns out Grant’s
girlfriend, Angela is a reporter for
Gossep
, no doubt wanting to do a
story about me. However, her first story will be about all the crap you’ve pulled.
Despite your efforts to hide the truth, I’ve got proof, which I will gladly
share with her. And depending on how well she slaughters you with the facts, I
may give her enough to write one kick-ass story about a rich prince and his
Cinderella.”

Coco leaned back and
crossed her seductively long legs. “Your proof is crap. I swear on my mother’s
grave I did not send the email.”

“Then you had someone
send it and they framed you. I’ve irrefutable proof the email came from
your
computer.”

Her brow furrowed.

“And strike five, you
offered Ian Goodman twenty thousand dollars to seduce the woman I love. You
should leave now because recalling the bribe to Ian makes me want to give
Angela all the facts and let her run with it.”

Coco rose. “The only
reason I’m here is because I wanted to save you, Trent. You’re attachment to
the midget is disgusting. Worst yet, she’s changing you. I wish you could see
yourself right now. Your parents would be so disappointed.”

He smiled. “Yeah,
they would, which lets me know I’m on the right track.”

She shook her head.
“You’ll eventually realize you’ve made a mistake and regret how you treated me
today. But don’t show up on my doorstep, because I will claw your eyes out the
next time I see you.”

With a toss of her hair,
she briskly left the office, stopped, and then returned. “This is my space. I
found it. You need to vacate it immediately.”

While he’d paid the
lease, so the space was his, he wasn’t going to fight her over it. “I never
liked the crap furniture here anyway. But before you torch the place, leaving
me the bill, remember Angela and
Gossep
. Who knows what other
information she’s squeezed from Grant? It could be the breakout story of the
summer.”

Coco paled, not easy
to do with so much plaster on her face, but somehow she managed.

He gathered all files
related to his company into a box and carried them downstairs.

“Let me get that,
sir,” his favorite lobby guard insisted.

Trent handed over the
box, while he flagged down a taxi. He gave the man another hundred, along with
his card. “If you want to work for Lancaster Chairs as head of security, I’ll
double whatever they pay you here.”

“Really?”

“I am very serious. From
now on, I’m only hiring great employees. I don’t care about your background or
your level of education. All I care about is job performance and attitude.”

The man grimaced. “I
have a criminal record.”

“Do you still have
bouts of unlawful activity?”

“I never did. I was
falsely accused.”

“Then your record
means nothing to me. What are they paying you here?”

“Because of my past
they pay me under the table, $5 an hour.”

“That’s criminal.
Come to work for me and I’ll pay you $15 an hour to start, raises commensurate with
your continued good performance.”

“When can I start?”

“Now, if you want.”

“I can’t leave
without calling a replacement. Can I come in an hour?”

“The address is on
the card.”

He smiled. “I checked
it out already. It’s the place where the employees threw file cabinets out the
window and caused a bomb scare.”

Trent sighed. “Yes,
it is. But I’m getting new employees.”

“Well, starting an
hour from now, I won’t let nobody throw nothing out the windows anymore.”

“You getting in or
gabbing all day?” the cabby demanded.

Trent snapped at the
driver. “What do you care? The meter’s running. Just sit back and close your
eyes for a moment.”

Realizing a potential
problem he warned his new employee, “If you meet an ancient old man in the
lobby, let him think you work for him. I pensioned the fellow off, but he may
still show up. He’d be upset if he thought I replaced him.”

The guard smiled. “I
remember you telling me about the guy. I’ll be nice to him.”

Trent got into the
cab. He’d barely closed the door when the car took off.

Trent glared at the
driver. “You should consider another line of work.”

“You planning to
offer me a job too?”

“Hell, no. I’m trying
to get rid of workers like you.”

Carrie arrived at
work to discover an old man trying to pick the lock to Trent’s office. “Excuse
me, can I help you?”

The white haired man gave
her a card. McMichels & Son, Locksmiths. Great, but why was he here? “Who
requested the door to be opened?”

He grimaced. “I can’t
remember, but it was the name of a president.”

“Grant?” Her fist
clenched, and heat warmed her cheeks.

“Yes, that was it. He
told me it was critical to have the door open by six a.m., only the R train
stopped running for some reason, so I got here late. Didn’t matter since the
lobby was locked and no one showed up until eight, when some angry young fellow
let me in and told me I could rob the place blind for all he cared, as long as
I didn’t set foot in the basement.”

She chuckled at his
longwinded response. “You must have met Jack. He’s had a rather hard couple of
weeks. Normally, he’s a nice person.”

The old man grunted.
“Well, I better get back to unlocking the door, because the Grant fellow didn’t
seem to be a nice person at all.”

“He’s a complete—” Such
an old man might be shocked if she cursed. “Well, let us say he’s an unpleasant
person with no redeeming qualities. However you don’t need to jab the doorknob
with your pointy things. I have a key.”

The man stared at
her. “Then why was I called?”

“Because my boss
refuses to give Grant a key. In the future, you should make sure the person
calling you has the authority to do so. You may have been about to help Grant
commit a crime.”

“Well, of all the—”
The little man’s face reddened. “I’ve wasted three hours getting here, and for
what?”

Carrie unlocked
Trent’s office and ushered the grumpy man to a chair. She sat down at the desk
and pulled out the company checkbook. “How much were you to be paid?”

His eyes narrowed as
he studied her. “Five hundred.”

She closed the
checkbook without writing a damn thing and glared at the man. “It’s bad enough
you failed to verify the person calling had authority to engage your services,
but to take advantage of me when I wanted to do right by you is
unconscionable.”

“Two hundred and
fifty.”

“You may send us a
bill. However, my boss will have to approve it, and he has low tolerance for
people who fail to do their job well, so he may press charges against you for
attempting to break into his office.”

His eyes rounded with
concern. “One hundred.”

“Had you suggested a
hundred dollars first, you would have gotten it.”

Sam entered the
office with a heavy scowl. Carrie responded with a grin as she thought of a
plan to get rid of the less-than-ethical fellow. “But my boss has come, and
you’ll have to plead your case to him.” She hurried to Sam and escorted him to
Trent’s desk, explaining the situation along the way, hoping he’d play along.

She backed out of the
room. “I’ll leave you two to work the matter out.” Chuckling, she walked over
to the maroon chair and felt for her engraved name on the bottom of the seat.
Smiling when she found it, she readjusted it for her comfort and began to sort
through the desk to determine what else the weasel, Grant, had been up to.

Other than finding
the world’s largest box of condoms, so far nothing worried her. The only reason
the box concerned her was because it was half empty and Grant had occupied the
desk less than a month.

She had moved to the
bottom file drawer when Sam stormed out Trent’s office. “Call the police and
have this crook arrested.”

The man jumped from
the chair and rushed to the door, only Sam stood in between him and escape

Carrie pressed her
hand to her heart and feigned concern. “Do we have to? He’s an old man.”

“Yeah, and he’s
probably been robbing offices all his life. Call the cops and let them take his
fingerprints.”

At the word ‘fingerprints’,
the old man pushed past Sam and darted to the elevator, disappearing down the
stairs when the doors didn’t open at once.

She smiled at Sam.
“I’m sure if you go after him, you could still catch up. He’s probably having a
heart attack on the third floor stairwell as we speak.”

“Not my job,” Sam said.
“I’m supposed to watch over seventy pounds of constant trouble.”

Realizing he meant
her, she frowned. “Eighty.”

A snort of laughter
escaped him. “You are the only woman I’ve ever met who lies about her weight by
adding ten pounds.”

Not wishing to fight
with Sam over her weight, she grabbed her purse and soft leather briefcase.
“Could you lock Trent’s door? I need to go check on Jack, but I don’t dare
leave it open, or Grant and his girlfriend will move in.”

Sam muttered
something about it not being his job, but locked the door all the same from the
inside and yanked it closed after him.

Together they went to
visit grumpy Jack.

***

“Ah, it’s the Europa
lady,” Jack growled when he finally opened the door to her constant knocking.
He stormed back to his chair. “Got any more turtles? They would make my job
easier to endure.”

Carrie cringed at the
mention of the narcotics-laced chocolate and caramel covered nuts she’d unintentionally
fed him. “Be patient. Things will be better soon.” At least she hoped so. The
doctors promised her with time, Jack would fully recover.

He huffed and slammed
a rubber ball across the room, between two servers, where it hit the wall and
bounced back. He caught it on the rebound. “Says the girl on her way out.”

“I just went off to
training for two weeks. I’m not leaving the company.”

He stared at her
woefully, shook his head, and glared at Sam, who leaned against a post. “Don’t
tell me Trent hired a guy who looks just like him. Talk about vanity!”

Carrie gripped his
arm to silence him before he got ill-tempered Sam riled up. “Sam is Trent’s
driver, and you’re being rude, which isn’t like you. Is your anger a
side-effect of the drugs or has something happened to upset you?”

He rubbed his
temples. “Where to start? Day one without Carrie: New guy shows up and demands
a password. Don’t know new guy; don’t like new guy; don’t give new guy a password.”

“Good, he’s a jerk.”

“Day Two without
Carrie: Big boss shows up and reams my ass for not giving new guy a password
just because he didn’t give me a damn cookie.” Jack glared at her. “A cookie?
You told him I was selling passwords for a cookie? That is so emasculating.” He
stared at Sam. “Don’t you agree?”

Sam huffed softly.
“Very.”

Carrie was shocked
either of these two knew the definition of emasculating. However, she refocused
on Jack’s complaint. “I’m sorry I told him. He asked me how I got data when he
couldn’t.”

“You should have told
him you flashed your boobs at me. I’ve never felt so pathetic in my life. And
damn near fired, as well.”

“He won’t dismiss
you. I made him promise.”

His anger calmed.
“You cared enough to make him promise not to can me?”

“Before I went off to
training, yes, I did.”

“You are aware new
guy is telling everyone you’re one foot out the door, right?”

“He’s the one who’s headed
out.”

Jack pressed his
fists against his temples. “Fun times ahead.”

“What I’m here to
discover is where exactly is my Taiwan expense report being held up?”

“Good question. Ask
your boss.”

“He doesn’t know.”

“Then I don’t either.
Guess I’ll have to start kissing new guy’s ass.”

“Jack. He really
doesn’t know.”

Jack clicked some
keys then stood. “Excuse me, but I have to go to the bathroom. Do
not
read my emails while I’m gone. Understand?”

Carrie nodded.

The moment he left
the room, she sat down and opened the email he’d highlighted. It came from
Trent.

Systems:

Please hold up all
further checks for Carrie Hanson. Nothing is to be sent to her in the future.
All financials will be worked out during her exit interview. Under no
circumstances discuss her dismissal with anyone, or you will also be fired.

Trent Lancaster

“He’s a bigger dick
than I thought,” Sam muttered as he read the email over her shoulder.

Carrie stared at him
in shock. “Trent didn’t write the email.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Oh,
no. You’re one of those women.”

“What women?”

“The ones so besotted
they can’t see the truth right in front of their faces.”

She located the IP
address and performed a
Whoisit
query. The IP only came back as
Lancaster Chairs.

She hurried from the
room and located Jack leaning on the wall outside. His look of sympathy touched
her. Gripping his hand, she pulled him from the ‘ode de toilet’ hallway and
back into the server room and pointed to the screen. “Who does this IP belong
to?”

He shook his head. “Just
read the name on the email.”

“I think new guy knows
how to change the name.”

“No way! He’s a
stupid jerk.”

“Well, somebody does.
Trent didn’t write this email. For one thing he never uses the word ‘please’ to
begin his orders.”

“That’s true,” Jack
and Sam chorused.

“For another, he was
very proud he had finally managed to get me paid, and upset when I told him I
still didn’t have my check.”

“Maybe he’s just good
at lying.”

Sam grimaced. “Not
really. He’s better at telling the truth when you don’t want to hear it.”

Carrie flashed him a
grateful grin then thought of yet another proof. “And he knows your name. This
person didn’t.”

“Maybe he wanted to
piss me off by not using it.”

Sam shook his head. “Master
Trent likes to personalize his threats and orders. Your name would have been plastered
all over the email had he known it. The question is: does he remember who you
are.”

Carrie turned and
glared at Sam. “I just told you he did.”

Sam snorted. “You
have zero credibility with me.”

She refocused on
Jack. “He’s known your name for almost a month now.”

Jack pressed his hand
to his heart. “A month! Wow, I’m so honored… given I’ve worked here for eight
fucking years.” He threw his rubber ball between the servers again. “But
honestly, if he’s planning to threaten to fire me every time we communicate….” He
caught the ball with his right hand, “I’d prefer he forget my name entirely.”

She grabbed the ball
before he could throw it again. “Jack, he didn’t write the email. Please check
the IP address.”

“Okay, but when it comes
back as Trent, you will return my ball and leave me alone.”

“No, I plan to listen
to every problem you’ve endured since I left and try to solve any outstanding
annoyances. You are a valuable employee and I want you to enjoy your work.”

“Ha! You are clearly
on
your
Europa high, because Lancaster Chairs has been in self-destruct
since you ran off on your boondoggle.”

“Look up the IP so
you will see Trent didn’t write the email and finally I can get Grant fired.”

Jack’s fingers flew
across the keyboard. Seconds later, he leaned into the monitor. “Whoa!”

“It’s Grant, right?”

“No, it says you
wrote it.”

“What? No!”

“Calm down. It’s the
port for your office. The one new guy took over while you were having fun in San
Francisco. Any chance I can get on the next boondoggle, because I so need a
vacation, only my boss hasn’t let me have one for the five years he’s been
here. Amazing, with twenty-nine people on staff, not one of them can do my
work.”

“Print the proof the
port belongs to me.”

He groaned, but did
as she requested.

“Now write on it ‘this
IP is the port for the outer office formerly belonging to Carrie’.”

He shook his head. “You
expect Trent to have some basic understanding of computers? He won’t have a
clue what a port is.” Still he wrote what she requested and handed her the
printout.

She neatly folded it
and met his eyes. “I can either listen to your nightmare two weeks from now, or
we can have lunch today and do it then. Right now, I need to get ‘new guy’
fired.”

“You buying lunch?”

“Business expense, on
the company.”

Jack grinned. “Go on.
I’ve got some work I need to do.”

She hurried off with
Sam in tow. Finally, she had sufficient proof to get Grant fired. While Trent
had promised he’d remove the jerk, Carrie knew, from two years of working for
him, her boss had never fired a single employee. He’d need a strong incentive
to pull the trigger. And she had it. Trent would go ballistic when he found out
Grant had prevented her check from going out.