Chapter Twenty-Six - Ellie
“Oh, shit,” I say.
Ming is running up to me waving her arms around. “Don’t go in there! Don’t go—”
“I already know,” I say, putting up a hand. “We know.”
“Shit! What the hell happened?”
“Ellen Abraham,” I say.
“That fucking cunt.” Mac laughs, but Ming shoots him a warning look and he stops. “Why would she do that?”
“She saw us that day I went down the slide.”
“Well,” Ming says, hands on hips as she stares up at Mac, “I hope you’re happy. My girl’s reputation is now tainted because of you! What are you going to do about this?”
“Ellen has been fired,” Mac says. “We’re pressing charges.”
“You better be, mister. That’s all I have to say. She needs to go to jail for this!”
“Ellie,” Mac says, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t want to rush you, but we really have to go.”
“Mr. Stonewall is waiting to talk to us over at the Atrium,” I tell Ming.
“Shit,” Ming says. “He better not blame you or I will have to have a talk with that man. I’ll sic Adeline on him!” I let out a small laugh but then Ming gets serious as she pulls me into a hug. “I’m sorry, Ells. Really. This sucks.”
“Thanks,” I say. “I’ll be OK. I’m quitting anyway. It could be worse, right?”
Ming nods, pouting her bottom lip in sympathy. “Right. Call me later and let me know how it goes.”
There’s a car waiting for us, so Mac and I get in, silent all the way over to the Atrium building. As soon as we walk through the doors the place goes quiet. I look at my feet as we walk over the elevators and when we get in, all the talking starts up again. “Well, that was fun,” I say.
Mac says nothing. Great.
We exit the elevator and I can already hear Stonewall Senior yelling inside Mac’s office even with the door closed. Stephanie isn’t here, so there’s no one hanging out by our offices, thank God. But my heart starts thumping wildly as soon as Mac opens the door and waves me forward.
I want to hide under Senior’s stare, but I don’t. He’s sitting behind Mac’s desk, talking on the phone. So I take a seat in front of the desk and Mac follows suit, unwilling to tell his father to get out of his chair.
Stonewall Senior hangs up and steeples his fingers under his chin and he stares down at the desk. “Well, you’re fired.”
“What?” I say.
“Not you, Miss Hatcher. My… son.”
“Um,” Mac says. “Yeah. It’s probably for the best. OK.”
“OK?” I stare at Mac with an incredulous look. “You’re just going to give up? What the hell? We didn’t do this, Mr. Stonewall. Ellen Abraham did.”
“And I fired her too,” Senior says, staring hard at Mac. “But look, McAllister, you and I fought over this position in the first place. I wanted you here, you promised you’d do the job, and then you go and sabotage it with an office romance with one of my best employees.” He redirects his attention over to me. “I’ve been informed that you gave two weeks’ notice, Miss Hatcher? The day my… son arrived?”
“Um—” Shit. That really does look bad for Mac. “It wasn’t because of him. It was really Brutus who pushed me over the edge that day. And the whole… well…” Dammit. What am I supposed to say? I was having a delusional textual relationship with Heath? And then started a sexual one with your other son the same day? What the hell is wrong with me? I really do need professional help, Mac was right.
“Which we also need to talk about,” Mac says. “Brutus sexually harassed Ellie during our meeting. We won’t be doing interviews with him. Ever.” Mac stares back at his father. “If you want me to back away from the job I’m happy to do that, but I’m not backing away from that.”
Stonewall Senior leans back in his chair, making it creak. I just want to get the hell out of here. But then he looks at Mac with a stern face. “Do you like her?” He motions to me with his head. “Miss Hatcher?”
“I do,” Mac says, shrugging his shoulders. “I like her.”
“He did buy me this dress,” I offer up as proof. “It’s a Victoria Beckham.”
Mac shakes his head, but I catch a smile. “I like her, OK? More than I like this job. So I’m perfectly fine with stepping back. Heath can take over again.” Mr. Stonewall lets out a huff of air. “Hell, Camille is perfect for this position. Give it to Camille if you don’t want Heath. My point is, I’ve never been the guy you need, Alexander.”
Alexander. He calls his father Alexander?
“You were just…” Mac stops and sighs. “Just trying to get me involved again. And it’s not worth the bullshit, you know? Why bother?”
“Why bother?” Senior asks. “Why bother? Do you have no feelings for the twenty-five thousand people who depend on Stonewall Entertainment for a paycheck? Do you really think you can just hide from your past? You can’t, Mac. And you, Miss Hatcher,” Senior says, redirecting to me. “I knew your father as well.”
As well as what? I feel like I’m missing half of this conversation.
“I liked him. He was a good man. And so when you came looking for an internship I gave it you. Not because of our relationship, but because the minute you sat down with me for the interview I saw him in you. So much. And I was right. You’re one of the best employees this company has. I don’t want you to leave, but if you’ve got bigger plans I certainly understand.”
“Thank you, sir,” I say. “I do have plans. But I do like it here as well. I don’t really want to leave. I just don’t want to miss out on an opportunity.”
“So you have another offer? Who is it with?”
“No, sir,” I say. “Not another offer. I wrote a book. About the celebrities I help here at Stonewall. I’ve kind of started a small life-coaching business on the side. Like… a motivational speaker. I want to do that, I think. At least give it a try, you know? Take a risk and see what happens.”
“You wrote a book?” Senior asks.
“I checked with legal,” Mac says. “She didn’t violate her contract.”
“When is your book being published?” Senior asks, ignoring Mac.
“Well, I don’t know yet. I’m still trying to find a publisher to take it. No one seems very interested in some nobody celebrity coordinator. Maybe I’ll self-publish?” I shrug. “I don’t know.”
“Hmm,” Senior says. “Well, I like risk-takers, Miss Hatcher.” He looks at Mac for this though, not me. “Life is all about managing risk. Knowing when to take it and when to back away. Some people,” he stresses the word, still looking at Mac, “have an aversion to risk. Some people,” he goes on, “lose big once and then back off. Isn’t that right, McAllister?”
“Look,” Mac says, “we can have that conversation if you like. But not here. Not now. Not in front of Ellie.”
“Hmmm,” Senior says again. And then he looks at me. “Miss Hatcher, your resignation is not accepted. Stay here with us. We need you. Go part time if you like. We’ll get you an assistant. Make you the president of celebrity relations. Delegate things if you need to. But stay.”
He gets up from the desk, both Mac and I rising with him, and then comes over and extends his hand to me. “It was good talking to you again. I hope you and Mac work out whatever it is the two of you have started and I hope you stay with Stonewall.” He turns to Mac. “We’ll talk about your plans later.”
We watch him walk out and close the door behind him.
“Holy shit,” I say. “That just stressed me out so bad. Are you really going to leave the company, Mac?”
“Are you?” he asks back.
“Well, I don’t know.”
“He made a good offer.”
“He did,” I admit.
“Think about it at least.”
“I will.”
“OK,” Mac says with a sigh. “Well, we got through that minefield. Wanna get the hell out of here?”
“Together?”
“Of course together,” Mac says. “He’s wrong, you know. He’s wrong about me. I’m not against risk. I risked this job for you. That’s worth something.”
“True. And yes. I really want to get the hell out of here. Like bad.”
“Let’s go then. It’s Friday. Let’s have a nice weekend and forget about work until next week. We have time to make decisions. Plenty of time.”
He takes my hand and leads me out of the office. No one is really around when we come out. Maybe Senior threatened everyone when he left? But Jennifer is, because she’s been holding my phone for safekeeping since Mac texted her. We don’t stay for small talk, just tell her thanks and I make our way down to the parking lot and I get in my car to follow him over to a local restaurant for lunch.
But I can’t help wondering about his last statement up in the office. About risk. Did he really risk his job for me? Or did he never want the job to begin with? It kind of nullifies the risk if you don’t really want one of the two things you’re taking a chance on, right?
Who am I to question his risk? I mean, look at me and my book. I’m already hedging my bets thinking about Senior’s new offer. I’d probably get a fat raise too. I’d get everything I thought I wanted. But I don’t really want the job, do I? I want to publish this book and be a life coach. So is staying at Stonewall while I take a half-hearted shot at a new career really risk?
I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it anymore, so I drop it and just get out when Mac is there at the restaurant opening my door.
And after the morning I’ve had, I just have to agree with his last statement. No more thoughts about work until Monday.