~Earlier that day~
Fiona peeked over Daphne’s cubicle wall. Her bright red eyebrows looked perfectly manicured as usual. Her green-blue eyes met Daphne’s brown ones. “Daphne,” she said in her nasally, snotty voice. “Trevor is looking for you.”
Daphne put her purse down and groaned. “I’ve barely just gotten here,” she muttered softly to herself.
“The rest of us have already been here for forty-five minutes,” Fiona shot back as she sat back down on the other side of their shared cubicle wall.
Daphne rolled her eyes in the new privacy of her cubicle. As if she, or anyone in this office, works as hard as I do, Daphne thought.
She sighed and took off her outerwear, trying to move as quickly as possible. He’s probably going to rip my head off for being late, she thought. As if I don’t work sixty hours most weeks.
She stood up and took a deep breath. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fiona smirking haughtily. Is she up to no good again? Daphne wondered. Her chest felt as though a lead weight was crushing it. Daphne did her best to shake off her emotions. Let’s just get this over with, she thought. I will feel better once I get started on my work for the day.
She pumped her fist at herself, doing everything she could to ignore the lead from her chest sinking into her stomach. She walked over to Trevor’s office and paused before she knocked on the door.
She could hardly breathe. She clutched the neckline of the sweater she was wearing and then knocked softly on the door.
She squeezed her eyes shut and then heard her boss’s voice saying, “Come in!” If she didn’t know better, she would assume that Trevor was a pleasant man based on his voice alone.
Daphne tried to swallow as she opened the door to his office. It got stuck in her throat because it was dry and patchy.
“Ah, Ms. Woods,” Trevor said. “Please shut the door behind you.”
“Understood,” she croaked, thankful that she was able to make any noise at all.
“I saw that you were late today,” Trevor began as soon as the latch clicked into place.
Daphne squeezed her eyes shut. Why did my alarm have to fail today of all days?
She turned around, opening her eyes to look at her moldy boss. “I’m very sorry about that,” she said. “My alarm malfunctioned, and I came as quickly as I could.”
“I think that someone of your experience level ought to know by this point how essential it is for you to be on time,” Trevor replied, crossing his stick arms.
“You’re right, I do,” she replied, the words tumbling out of her mouth without much thought. “It won’t happen again.”
Please, please, please, just take my apology and leave me alone today, she thought. I do not want to deal with this. I have work to get done!
“Fiona also informed me that you were supposed to have the business plan for the new printers for our office drafted up by this morning as well.”
Daphne’s stomach fluttered, and she felt herself blinking rapidly. “The um…what?” she asked.
“The business plan for the new printers for our office?” Trevor said patronizingly.
Does this dumb ass even know what he’s saying? Daphne wondered. A business plan for new printers? Surely, he’s joking.
“I’m sorry,” Daphne said, looking down at the carpet. “It must have slipped my mind this week. I’ve been in meetings pretty much all week for all of the other projects I’m working on, so…”
Trevor slammed his palm onto his desk. “So instead of coming in early to finish it, you chose to come in late?” he asked.
“I don’t know that ‘chose’ is the correct word…” Daphne began.
Trevor dramatically got up out of his chair, swinging his arms wide open. “Regardless, I don’t have a business plan to send right now, do I?” he asked. “Are you going to stay late and get it done tonight?”
Is this some kind of joke? Daphne wondered. As if I don’t already have a mountain of work to do today?The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“But sir,” she protested. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.”
“All of the more reason to do everything in your power to get it done today,” Trevor pointed out.
Daphne pressed her fingers to her temple, holding back a heavy sigh. I’m certain Fiona never told me anything about this, she thought. Which just means she probably dumped it on me this morning to get out of it. She chewed on her lips. Fucking typical Fiona.
She looked up at Trevor who was scowling at her. “Well?” he prompted.
Is there any way I can get out of this? She thought. Am I seriously going to have to postpone my plans with Gary even more because of Fiona?
Trevor’s face was turning beet red. Daphne knew that if she waited much longer to respond, she was going to end up getting screamed at.
“I’ll…” she choaked out, tightening her grip around the wrist of her other hand. “I’ll do it,” she swallowed hard.
It’ll be fine, she thought. Gary and I are going to spend Christmas together. He’ll forgive me for having to push back our plans tonight.
“Excellent,” Trevor replied. “I’m sure you have a lot to get done, so go on ahead,” he added, clapping his hands together.
Daphne closed her eyes, feeling her stomach sink from the weight of her decision. “Thank you for understanding sir,” she said. She opened her eyes and turned to leave.
She left his office, gently closing the door behind her and then grit her teeth. What the fuck? She finally allowed herself to think. Why is Fiona throwing me under the bus for something I didn’t do that she didn’t even ask me to do?
Daphne let out a short sigh and strode over to Fiona’s cubicle. “Can we talk?” she asked Fiona. Daphne’s jaw was working hard, and she was doing everything she could in her power to keep her voice steady.
“Sure,” Fiona replied with a little smile and turning in her chair. “What’s up?” she asked.
“I don’t remember you asking me to put together a business plan at all,” Daphne said, crossing her arms tightly. “Why did you tell Trevor that I was supposed to have it done by today?”
Fiona looked at Daphne innocently. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Is that why he called you to his office?”
It took everything in Daphne to hold back a growl. “Why yes, it is,” she replied.
“What is it a business case for?” Fiona asked, tapping a single finger on her lips as if she was searching through her memories. Daphne wasn’t sure if she was imagining it or not, but it looked like Fiona was having to hold back a smile.
“A business plan…for new printers?” Daphne asked, again, realizing how stupid the words sounded.
“Ah!” Fiona exclaimed. “That business plan.” She swung her pointer finger up into the air next to her head.
“Yes, that…business plan,” Daphne answered, furrowing her brows and shaking her head slightly.
“Don’t you remember me telling you about it on Monday?” Fiona asked, her face turning serious as she leaned forward towards Daphne.
Daphne frowned. “When would you have had a chance to tell me about it on Monday?” she asked. “I was in meetings from seven am to six pm.”
“It was over lunch, don’t you remember?” Fiona scoffed, leaning back in her chair.
“I haven’t gotten a lunch break in a long time…” Daphne replied, crossing her arms and giving Fiona a sideways glance. “There’s no way you would have told me about it over lunch.”
Fiona narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure you’re just not remembering?” she asked, pursing her lips.
“Are you sure you didn’t ask someone else?” Daphne asked.
“It was definitely you,” Fiona replied with a patronizing smile.
Daphne’s jaw tightened. She’s so full of shit, she thought. But there’s not a whole lot I can do since I already told Trevor I’d take care of it.
“Fine,” Daphne replied, trying to keep her voice level. “Is there anything you can share with me about what is needed for the business plan? I don’t know anything about it.”
Fiona’s demeanor switched back to her usual fake, happy-go-lucky self. “I can send you the printers we are supposed to write about in the plan,” she said, spinning around in her chair and pulling open her web browser up on one of the monitors in front of her.
“Do you know how many we might need?” Daphne asked. “And will you send me the link to that web page?”
“Sending it right now,” Fiona replied, opening up the company’s instant messaging platform on a second monitor and sending the link to Daphne. “And I believe there is supposed to be information in the plan about what it would take to get three printers and compare that to what it would be like if we were able to get seven.”
Daphne gritted her teeth. There was no way Fiona had ever told her about this. It was going to take a significant period of time to compare three versus seven printers. The business proposal alone could take most of her day up.
It’s not even my job as a project manager to deal with these kinds of tasks, Daphne thought, one of her fists clenching. This is far out of my scope of work.
She swallowed her emotions. “And where might these printers be placed?” she asked.
“Our department,” Fiona replied, turning back around, “And in the continuous improvement department’s area as well.”
“So just this floor then?” Daphne asked, some of the pressure in her chest loosening.
“That’s right!” Fiona replied with a bright smile.
Daphne nodded sharply. “I’ll let you know if I have any other questions then,” she replied.
“Okay,” Fiona chirped back.
Daphne took a deep breath, to steady herself and sat back down in her chair in the cubicle right next to Fiona. She couldn’t hold back a sigh as she massaged her temples, letting out another heavy breath. Daphne picked up her phone and saw it was already nine thirty. She suppressed the urge to exhale again at the time.
She opened up her text messages to Gary and typed to him.
Hey. Something has come up at work. Any chance we could meet at 7:30 instead? So sorry. Miss you.
Much to her surprise, he saw her message right away and responded.
Seriously? Why does this always happen? Why are you always putting me off?
A lump formed in Daphne’s throat. I should have known better than to think he would be okay with this, she thought.
I’m sorry, she replied. It’s urgent.
Fine, he answered.
Daphne took a big gulp of water out of her plain, silver water bottle, but the lump in her throat did not disappear.