Like a Boss - Annabelle Costa Page 0,67

the rumors that the company was having trouble making ends meet.

“It’s absolutely true,” he says. “And the reason for that was there’s rampant waste in your company and people who are not doing their jobs… or doing their jobs incompetently. I want to save your company by fixing that.”

“That’s not true,” I say again, because I don’t know what else to say.

“For example,” he says. “Take your friend Jenna. You’re her boss. The code she’s written for your app has probably set back the release time at least six months to a year. Everything she’s done has to be redone.”

I have a sinking feeling in my chest. “Not all of it…”

“And George,” he goes on. “I’m not a software engineer, but I’d say everything he coded was worthless.”

Somehow I find myself thinking back to expository writing class in college. How Luke and I used to argue and somehow he’d always seem to get the better of me. But not this time. I won’t let him.

“You think I don’t know what people are saying about you on the internet?” I say. “Like that you fired some pregnant woman and she went into early labor…”

“I didn’t know about the rule that pregnant women can get paid for not doing their jobs,” Luke says. “That woman hadn’t contributed anything of substance in a year. I logged two-thousand games of solitaire on her computer. She had the nerve to complain when I blocked Facebook on the company computers. So yes, I fired her. And I know she’s complained all over the internet that I drove her into preterm labor when I had security throw her out of my office, but she didn’t leave me any choice when she burst in like a crazy woman, screaming threats at me.” He shakes his head. “She sued me too. Did she mention that? She sued me for wrongful termination and a bunch of other bullshit charges. And I won, because every reason I had for firing her was entirely justified.”

As usual, he has an excuse for everything. And of course, it sounds so logical and rational when he says it. “So it doesn’t bother you at all to see people with families lose their jobs?”

“I give them a chance to pull their weight.”

“By asking them to work late nights and weekends?”

He frowns. “If they’d do their goddamn jobs during the day, they wouldn’t need to put in nights and weekends.”

I don’t know what else to say. Everything he’s saying is logical, but something inside me still says it’s wrong.

“Ellie,” he sighs. “You have a fantastic work ethic. You must have realized a lot of your team wasn’t pulling their weight. I bet you were doing all their work and not thinking anything of it. But you have to understand that you can’t do the work of an entire department. It’s because of your friends that you’re so concerned about that you were going to be unemployed in a year when the company failed.”

Maybe if he had said all of this to me yesterday, I would have believed him. But ever since finding Jenna practically dead in her bedroom, I can’t justify any of it. “Well, congratulations,” I say, “you saved the company. And because of you, Jenna is in the hospital. When she found out she was fired, she… she tried to…”

I turn my head away from him, not wanting him to see the tears gathering in my eyes. I shouldn’t have told him that—it’s none of his business.

“Oh Christ,” Luke says. “Ellie, I’m so sorry…”

I just shake my head.

He sucks in a breath. “Is she… okay?”

“She’ll be fine.” I still can’t look at him. “No thanks to you.”

He looks down at his lap, at his curled fingers. “What do you want me to say, Ellie?” His eyebrows are furrowed over his bloodshot brown eyes. “Do you want me to hire everyone back?”

I narrow my eyes. “If I said yes, you would do it?”

He doesn’t even hesitate. “Yes.”

“Yes? Just like that?”

He shrugs. “I’ll bankroll the company. I’ll lose a few million dollars. It’s okay. It’s worth it.”

I’ve never heard anyone talk like that before. A few million dollars either way, no big deal.

“Are we okay then?” he asks.

He desperately wants me to say yes. And I want to say yes. I’ve been so happy with Luke for the last few months. But I can’t get Jenna out of my head. Lying in the bed, not waking up even when I shook her. The call to 911.

And that