Broken Down: A Novel, page 22
24
“Do you have an appointment?”
The young woman working behind the front desk of the Pernid Group Denver offices was weaning a smart pantsuit and a snarky expression. She was pursing her lips at me, already aware of what the answer to her question was, since she’d asked me once already.
“No,” I repeated myself. “I don’t have an appointment, but—”
“I cannot let you in without an appointment.” She looked me up and down, glancing at my bags which were stacked in a pile next to me. “Sorry.”
She wasn’t. I could tell.
“Please, if you could just call Theo Jennings’ phone and tell him Raina is here to see him, I’m sure he’ll come right out.”
“Theo is in a meeting right now,” she said. “There’s nothing I can do.”
“How long is the meeting going to go?”
She smiled. “There is no way for me to know. Sometimes the meetings are 15 minutes, sometimes they are four hours.”
“I don’t have four hours. I need to talk to Theo now.”
“Is it an emergency?” She used such a casual tone when she asked this that I knew she knew it wasn’t. If it had been a true emergency, I would’ve said so from the beginning, and I probably would’ve had a much more disheveled, stressed-out demeanor. So there was no lying. Not to this woman.
“I wouldn’t say an emergency, per se, but I just really need to talk to him. And it is time-sensitive. I have a bus that’s leaving soon, but I need to see him before I go.”
She shrugged. “I appreciate the predicament you’re in, but there’s nothing I can do.” Her expression softened. “This is my job. I am deliberately instructed to not let people into the offices who I don’t know or who do not have an appointment. If I let you through, I could get in trouble.”
“Okay,” I said. “I get that. Totally fair, you go on doing your job. But what if you let me go through anyway, and when your boss asks, you tell him I lied to you? I told you that I was the owner of a very prestigious winery in—Napa Valley, that’s where they have all the vineyards, right?” She nodded. “Tell him I’m from Napa, and that I demanded to speak with whoever is in charge because I’m very mad about something.”
“He’ll never believe that I believed that you were from Napa,” she countered, looking at my outfit.
I was slightly offended, but I tried not to show it.
“Then tell him I held you at gunpoint, I don’t care. Say whatever you need to say to cover your own ass, and just let me through the door.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I’m failing to see what I have to gain in this little scheme. Best case scenario, I make up a convincing lie and don’t get fired, I just get scolded and yelled at in front of everyone. Worst case scenario, my boss doesn’t buy it, and I’m fired.”
“He would yell at you in front of everyone?” I frowned, then muttered to myself, “I really have to get Theo out of here.”
“Wait,” she said. “What do you mean by that? You’re not trying to convince Theo to quit, are you?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Why? Does that change things?”
“It does, actually,” she said. She leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “You can’t convince Theo to quit. I’ll go crazy here without him.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you two like…?” I didn’t know what phrase I was looking for exactly, but thankfully the woman didn’t require me to finish asking the question before she understood.
“Bleh,” she said. “No way. Theo is like an older brother to me. Not to mention, he’s at least ten years older than me. No thank you. But he’s the only person in this whole office who treats me like a human being. When I was hired, he’s the only one who would show me where things are, help me out when I got confused about aspects of the job. I wouldn’t have made it a week without him.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear about this toxic work environment, but that’s exactly why I’m trying to get Theo to leave. He is deeply unhappy here.” When I said this, I saw a sadness wash over the woman’s face. “And there are other things in his life that he enjoys doing more. I sympathize with you, I really do, but what it sounds like to me is that you want Theo to stay at this job so that the two of you can be miserable together.”
She moved her head side to side. “More or less.”
“Which begs the question, why don’t you both quit, and then neither of you have to be miserable anymore?”
She stared at me with a dubious expression. “Interesting proposal.”
“Or better yet, don’t quit. Tell your boss you let me through without an appointment, take one last public scolding, and then be fired and be eligible for a severance package.”
She snapped and pointed an excited finger at me. “That’s not a bad idea. The package could give me enough financial wiggle room to find a new job. Any job, as long as it isn’t here.”
“It’s a win-win situation.”
“I suppose it is.” She smiled. “Okay. I’ll do this. But on one condition. If I let you through those doors, you have to convince Theo to leave. Because I’m going to get fired, for sure, and if I get fired but he decides to stay, I’m going to feel terrible. It’ll be like I left him behind while I crawled my own way out of hell.”
I let out a breathy laugh. “You really do hate it here, don’t you?”
“You have no idea.”
“I promise,” I said. “I will convince him.”
“What are you going to say?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet.”
“Then how can you be so sure you’ll be able to convince him?”
The corners of my mouth curled upward with mischievous excitement. “Let’s just say I have a ‘way about me.’” I shrugged. “What can I say? Theo just listens to me.”
The woman was kind enough to let me stash my luggage behind her desk while I went into the back to look for Theo. I was dressed to spend the afternoon on a bus, which was to say, I was wearing sweatpants, a T-shirt, and my hair was tied back in a messy braid. A few people walking down the halls openly stared at me as they passed, but no one said anything.
“Down the hall, last door on the left.” I repeated the directions the front desk receptionist had given me after pressing the button that unlocked the doors for me. I came up to the door, last on the left, which was labeled “Conference Room 1” and paused. I took a deep breath and acknowledged just how insane this entire thing was. I was about to walk into this meeting, disrupt Theo at work, potentially getting him fired, or even worse, ruining his entire career, all because I was sure I knew what was best for him.
Was I being selfish?
Yes. Perhaps a little. Which is why I needed to have a back-up plan. I thought on my feet, and came up with a sort of ripcord, in case things went south and I needed to save Theo’s skin. I had told the woman behind the desk that I was positive he would listen to me, but that was only about 75 percent true.
I’ll act crazy.
That was the plan. It wouldn’t even really be that much of a stretch, since this whole thing was absolutely nuts. But if I saw something in Theo’s face that told me he was horrified by my presence there, and which begged me to get the hell out of the conference room, I would throw out a few nonsensical statements, pretend I didn’t even know him personally and give him a plausible way to shrug the whole thing off as being the rantings of a mad woman.
Sure, that’ll work. Probably.
And with my plan B mapped out, I reached for the door handle and went inside.
At the sound of the door opening, everyone sitting around the large, dark-wood table turned to look at me. Theo was near the end, sitting next to the man who was at the head of the table, and who was the only person standing up. He must be the head honcho, I thought, so it was him who I made direct eye contact with first. I wasn’t going to be intimidated by this man, or anyone else in the room for that matter.
“Uh, can I help you?” the man asked. “We are in the middle of a meeting—”
“Rai—” Theo started to say my name, but I knew that would mean giving up all his anonymity in that moment, so I cut him off.
“I’m here to talk to you.” I looked at Theo for a second, then looked away, glancing at the frightened woman sitting across the table from him. “All of you.”
“What the hell is going on?” the man standing said.
“Are you the boss here?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he said. “I’m one of them. My name is Mr. Nichols.”
“Great, well, Mr. Nichols, it has recently come to my attention that you and all the other higher-ups at this company are, well, frankly, you’re bullies.” Theo’s eyes went wide, but I kept going. “You’re rude, cruel even, unforgiving, uncaring, and many of the people who work under you are utterly miserable here, all day, every day.”
He drew back. “And who, exactly, have you been talking to?” He walked over toward me, obviously trying to look physically domineering. “Are you a reporter? Don’t tell me you guys are trying to do another one of those sting pieces. We got it shut down the first time, and we’ll do it again.”
“I’m not a reporter,” I said. “I’m nobody.”
He smiled. “On that, I’m sure, we would agree.”
“But,” I said, “I am somebody who knows what it feels like to become numb to a situation once
you’re stuck inside it for long enough. I won’t get into the messy details of my own personal life.” I stepped away from the man and addressed the entire group. “But trust me when I say, I know what it’s like to turn off your emotions, your desires, your hopes and dreams, and pretend that everything is okay. That this is the life you want for yourself, that it’ll all be worth it in the end.”
I laughed. “Here’s a little secret though: It’s not. Nothing is worth being miserable, day in and day out.” Then I looked right at Theo. “I know this is crazy, and I shouldn’t be here, and I assume that security is going to bust in any second now and haul me away, but I came here to let you”—I did a quick scan of the room, to act as if I was using the collective ‘you’—“to let you know that your reasons for doing this, for staying in this horrific workplace, dealing with jerks like this all day”—I motioned to Mr. Nichols, who simply smirked in response to my insult—“are no longer valid. If you think you’re doing this for your family, for your loved ones, ask yourself, what’s better—to make more money, never see your family, and when you do see them, take out your work-induced unhappiness out on them? Or would it maybe benefit your family more to walk away from the perceived promise of wealth and security, and actually be there for those who need you to be?”
I could tell Theo was listening to what I was saying, absorbing the words, but I had no way of knowing what his reaction to them was going to be. His expression was giving me nothing, besides a combination of shock and intrigue.
“So, yeah,” I said. I clapped my hands together and took a step towards the door. “I just wanted to make that little speech. Again, for all of you. Because that’s just the kind of good Samaritan that I am. I will be on my way now. Think carefully about what you’ve heard, and please don’t try to put me in jail for trespassing. I literally have no money for bail.”
I smiled, and to my surprise, two people at the table, neither of which were Theo, chuckled at my joke. This caused Mr. Nichols to round on them, fury in his eyes. “You think this is funny?” he yelled.
“Uh,” the woman sitting across from Theo, one of those who laughed, stuttered, “I, well, not ha-ha funny, more like—”
“You’re an idiot,” Mr. Nichols said. “You’re all idiots. Honestly, it’s a miracle that any work actually gets done in this office, considering I am dealing with a bunch of small-brained losers who don’t even have enough common sense to know how to wipe their own—”
“That’s enough!” Theo stood up and slammed his hands on the table. Everything was quiet for a moment, then he started laughing. He stared down at his feet for a second, seemingly very amused by all this, and then snapped his head up and stared right at his boss.
“You’re such a bad man. I’ve known it for a long time, probably ever since my first week on the job, but it wasn’t until my friend here—” He pointed at me. “That’s right, I know this woman. She’s not just a lunatic who came in off the streets.” He smiled at me. “Although I will admit she is a little odd. But she’s also my friend, and it wasn’t until she came in here and called all of us out like this that I realized just by working for you—just by being in your presence for 60 hours a week, you are turning me into a bad man.”
Theo picked up the file that was on the table in front of his chair, grabbed his briefcase, and walked over next to me.
“I don’t want to be the guy with a short temper, I was never that guy. You made me him, and I let you. I justified all my bad behavior, all my rude comments and misplaced anger, by telling myself that it was all worth it because I was providing. But providing what? I wonder now. Money? Sure, that’s important. But there are many different ways to provide money. But was I providing emotional support, care, love for my family? No.” He shrugged causally. “Nope. I didn’t have the time. I didn’t have the energy. Because you sucked it all out of me.”
“Me too!” The woman who had stuttered evidently found her voice. She stood up and gathered her things. “I haven’t been home to tuck my child into bed in over two weeks. He thinks his dad and I are getting a divorce because we spend so much time arguing over how many hours I am here, working in this, this—” She apparently couldn’t find the expression, so the man next to her helped her out.
“Hell hole?”
“Yes!” She said resolutely. “That.”
Mr. Nichols crossed his arms. “So what? We have a mutiny on our hands? You’re going to try to throw me off this ship? Because—”
“No one’s throwing you off the ship,” Theo said, interrupting him for the second time. “We’re jumping ship ourselves. You can try to keep steering without us, you may sink or swim, it doesn’t matter to us. Don’t you see, that’s what’s going on here. We’re done caring about our jobs, we’re going back to caring about what’s really worth caring about.”
The two other people who had spoken up walked over and joined us in our little group. I felt a little like a superhero who had just been flanked by her most powerful friends in the face of the villain. Mr. Nichols sneered at us and raised his voice, but we all walked out of the room without giving him the satisfaction of a real response.
Theo and his two co-workers grabbed whatever they could from their cubicles while Mr. Nichols screamed, laughed, pretended like he didn’t care, and then screamed some more, completely undermining his own nonchalance. We walked out of the front doors, and he followed, turning his attention on the receptionist.
“Did you let her in here?”
“Yes,” she stated plainly. I saw that she was holding her phone up like she was trying to slyly take a picture of someone. “Yes, I did.”
“You’re fired,” Mr. Nichols said. “Effective immediately.”
She smiled at him. “That is exactly what I wanted to hear, thank you. And I have video proof, so don’t even try to stiff me on the severance.” She reached down next to her chair and picked up a box. Apparently, she’d already packed her things and was now ready to join the other dissenters. I snatched my luggage from behind the desk and headed toward the exit. Mr. Nichols was raging as we all piled into the elevator, and I felt a twinge of pain when I realized that those who chose to stay behind would be the ones who’d have to deal with all his anger.
When the doors closed, I let out a loud exhale.
“I can’t believe I just did that,” Theo said.
“Me neither,” said the woman from the conference room.
The man who’d been sitting next to her sighed and then laughed. “I can’t believe how good that felt. I mean, I’ve never done drugs or anything, but I have to assume this is the kind of high those people are chasing when they do.”
The receptionist smiled. “This will be the first time I’ll be able to go to Sunday dinner with my family in probably six months.”
“So you guys aren’t like… mad at me?” I said. “Because I know sometimes people can get swept up in the moment and then regret their decision later. I didn’t mean for all of you to quit, I just came here for Theo.”
“Right now,” the man said. “The only person I’m mad at is myself for putting up with this place for so long.”
“I second that,” said the woman. “I’ve been here for almost eight years, and I’ve never gotten a promotion, never even been told I was doing a good job. At my performance review last year, I was told I needed to be answering emails and work calls all the time. When I told them that I did answer emails and calls all the time, they brought up the one instance when I didn’t answer a call, and guess what? That was from when my son was in the hospital after breaking his arm!” She scoffed and looked at me. “I have you to thank for reminding me what’s important.”
Theo beamed. “Yeah, Raina’s pretty good at that.”
I felt my face getting hot. The elevator doors opened into the underground parking garage, and we all filed out. Theo said goodbye to his coworkers, told them he’d love to get drinks sometime to catch up, and they all went in separate directions, looking for their cars. Theo and I stood for an awkward, silent moment, near the elevators, just looking at each other.
“So,” he said. “That was unexpected, to say the least.”
“I didn’t plan that,” I said. “Er, well, I did. But like, just half an hour ago. I was at the bus station, waiting for my ride back to Aria, and your mom mentioned that you were stuck at work, that you were going to miss the election. I don’t know. Something just snapped. I couldn’t stand the thought of you sitting in those offices, hating your life, while the rest of us were gathered together in Aria, wishing you were there.” I rearranged my bag so that it was hanging better on my shoulder. It was starting to get a little heavy. “I thought maybe I could do one of those things people do in the movies. The gesture, the big speech. And shockingly, it totally worked.”
