company time for personal responsibilities?”
“Well, I wouldn’t consider it a responsibility, but yes. Semantics aside, I worked on something other than work for this company.”
Jeff sighed deeply and rubbed his forehead before turning toward Carole. “We can’t allow this type of thing to happen under our watch, especially without our knowledge. This is a fucking nightmare. You do realize that, right?”
Carole pressed her red lips together and nodded. “It is that,” she said. “I wish this hadn’t come out like it did, but I’m happy it came out nonetheless.”
“I don’t know if ‘happy’ is the word I’d use to describe the emotion I’m feeling right now.”
“Yeah, well, in the twenty years I’ve known you, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve ever seen you actually happy.”
His nose let out a harsh laugh, but I thought I saw a corner of his mouth twitch. Though he quickly steadied it.
“Yeah, well, one of those was when you signed the divorce papers.”
The skin around Carole’s eyes creased when she chuckled. These two were about as easy to read as German IKEA directions.
“Um, I guess I’ll see myself out,” I said. “Is there anything I need to do before I go? Maybe just to make sure I get internship credit for the time I was here or something? You know what, I’ll just send you an email if that’s okay.”
“We’re not done,” Carole said sternly. “Jeff and I have some things we’d like to discuss with you.”
You do?
Here it came. The moment when they told me there was no way in hell I’d be getting any internship credit after my behavior.
“I don’t think I need to tell you what an embarrassment all of this was,” Carole began.
Nope.
“We’re running a business, a business we’ve worked very hard to make successful. We won’t tolerate this type of behavior in our office. I’m not sure why you millennials think the world revolves around you, but I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t tell you otherwise.”
I knew better than to correct her by explaining that I wasn’t actually a millennial, especially since I’d already kind of proved her point by thinking about it in the first place.
“We’ve been in this business a long time, and we’ve seen countless people come through our doors, employees and interns alike, and only a few have shown both natural talent and a passion for the profession.”
I knew better than to get my hopes up and think that I’d be allowed to stay. Carole had already shown a softness toward me, and because they probably both liked me better than Jake, they didn’t just want to send me packing without a professional goodbye.
“Thank you” was all I said.
“You know,” Jeff said, looking toward Carole and then back at me, “we’ve both talked about you quite a bit during your short time here. We thought you’d be a good fit here one day, so it’s a shame this had to play out like this.”
“I understand,” I said quietly. “You really don’t need to say anything else.”
“No. I do, Sophia. I need to tell you that you’re creative in a way that most people aren’t, and you’re a hard worker. Christ, you’re such a hard worker, you were doing other people’s work here in your free time. I mean, it was wrong,” he clarified. “If you’d been an employee and you’d done that, that could’ve been considered theft of time.”
I’d never heard that phrase before, and it sounded…imposing. Like a bear I didn’t ever want to poke again.
“That being said, I’d rather have you steal time than steal an idea. Because not only does that compromise the integrity of the business, it compromises your integrity as well. And honestly, letting someone else take credit for an idea you had sacrifices your integrity as well. So while it kills me to agree with Carole, I have to this time. I’m glad you took credit for your idea.”
Inhaling deeply, he rolled his eyes widely as if his mind were replaying what had happened in the conference room earlier. “I seriously wish you’d had the forethought and the professionalism to disclose this to us another time. Any other time, actually.”
“But learning to stand up for yourself,” Carole interjected, “will come with experience, and so will knowing the right time and place to discuss certain matters.”
“Look,” Jeff said. “Carole and I can be assholes. We know that. But we’re smart assholes. We know talent when we see it, Sophia. You’ve got talent and