“Oh, come on. Are you kidding me with this? Didn’t I like, just get a call?”

Elsie, who was in her customary position of being curled up on her couch and plugging away on her laptop, wasn’t anything but pleased to hear the sound of her phone ringing again. It felt to her like it had just finished ringing, like she had just gotten off of the phone with her mother, which was more than enough for her. She was sure that was who was calling her now, just sure of it, so much so that she was surprised to see that it was actually her boss. She was also mildly surprised to see that it was far from close to when she’d spoken to her mother, but instead a full three days later, but that shock wasn’t really all that big. Elsie had no shortage of examples of times in which she had fallen into the rabbit hole of her computer only to resurface several days later with very little idea of how so much time had passed and her having almost no memory of it happening. She thought that computers for her must go in a very similar way as a bender did for an alcoholic. She would delve inside, only to reemerge days later. Fortunately for her, Elsie’s drug of choice didn’t give her a hangover, and it actually allowed her to make money rather than burn through it haphazardly. Sure, it kept her from having much of a social life, but seeing as she didn’t want a social life, she didn’t consider that to be much of a problem. Truth be told, she wouldn’t have even noticed for probably another several days or more if it hadn’t been for the ringing of her phone. She glanced longingly at her computer screen before closing the top of the laptop and picking up the phone.

Elsie had absolutely zero desire to talk to anyone, but when the bossman called, she answered. The thing about it was, she had more autonomy in her job than almost anyone on the planet, or at least that was what she believed. She knew that most people, at least most people with jobs that paid them a good amount, had to get up every morning and put on clothes they didn’t feel like wearing at times when they had no desire to be awake. They had to get into their cars or hail cabs or hop on the subway in order to go to places they didn’t want to go, where they would be forced to spend their days with people they, for the most part, had no desire to be around at all. They would spend most of their waking moments at these places and come home so tired there was little time for anything other than vegging out on the sofa while watching bad tv and drinking one too many glasses of wine. In the morning, the alarm would go off, and they would do the whole thing over again. The only times when that wasn’t the case were the weekends, and even these would be difficult to enjoy because—no matter what you were doing, no matter how much you wanted to be doing it—the threat of the rapidly approaching work week would always be hovering over your head. It would make enjoying anything, really enjoying anything, close to impossible and that same old cycle would play on repeat over and over again until it was finally time to retire and you were too tired to do anything at all. As far as Elsie was concerned, that was what a job was all about.

Except that for Elsie, that wasn’t the case. She had found a job that was nothing like any of that, and she had never looked back. She honestly loved her job, which was part of the reason she got so bristly when her mother talked about it like it was some kind of a heathen’s job. For her, the job felt like a miracle and the amount of loyalty she felt to her boss, Travis, and the rest of the crew was higher than she would have admitted to anyone other than herself. She may not have loved getting a phone call, but she did love the fact that she was allowed to work at home more often than not and that made the times when someone from the office did call her a whole hell of a lot more bearable. Reminding herself of these things, Elsie picked up her phone, cleared in her throat while simultaneously reminding herself to try and sound pleasant for once, and answered.

“Elsie.”

“Hey there, Elsie. You know I always know it’s you, right?”

“No. How should I? How could you just always know? It’s not like you can see me or anything.”

“That’s true…”

“Then you couldn’t know, could you?”

“No,” Travis answered with a chuckle Elsie could easily identify as good natured instead of cruel, “I don’t suppose I could, at least not one hundred percent. It’s just that I’ve never called and had it be anyone but you. That and I think I know your voice when I hear it by this time.”

“You think you do, but that doesn’t mean you really do. And I might have someone else around one of these days. I might have someone around and that someone might answer my phone.”

“Point taken. But it is you this time, isn’t it? So…no harm no foul, I guess you could say.”

“Sure, I guess you could. Now, what’s up? I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you didn’t just call for social reasons. Not just fancying a chat or anything like that?”

“No, I’m afraid not. Not just fancying a chat, or at least not today.”

“Crap. That’s what I was afraid of. What’s going on? What do you need?”

“Here’s the thing, and you’re not going to like it, I don’t think.”

“Just tell me, will you? Like ripping off a Band-Aid, painful but as fast as possible.”

“I’m going to need you to come in.”

“No! Aw man, really? Are you like, totally sure?”

“I’m totally sure.”

“But are you? Are you really?”

“Come on now, Elsie,” Travis answered with a voice that sounded pained. “You know I wouldn’t have even called you if I didn’t really have to. You think I enjoy this?”

“Oh gee, thanks. You really know how to make a girl feel special, don’t you?”

“Naw, but you know what I mean, right? I know you don’t like people calling, so I try and respect it. I only call you when I don’t have any other options, and it always makes me feel shitty. Because I know you don’t want it.”

“No need to feel that way,” Elsie answered briskly, feeling absurdly touched by Travis’s thoughtfulness and overcompensating by making her voice sound a little bit gruffer than it really needed to. “I’m cool. Just tell me what’s going on.”

“I’m gonna need you to come in.”

“Oh crap on a cracker, Travis, really?”

“Really.”

“But like, really, really? Or just sort of really?”

“No, Elsie, really, really. Like I said, I know you don’t like this kind of thing. I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t absolutely need you to do it.”

Elsie listened to what Travis Sparks, her long-suffering boss, had to say and heard the uncomfortable waver in his voice. It was more than uncomfortable, it almost sounded fearful, and that was something Elsie could use. She wasn’t proud of herself for thinking like that, not exactly, but that didn’t mean she could help it. It was just sort of where her mind went, not just with Travis but with everything. She thought it might have something to do with her mother and the way she was brought up by the woman. (Wasn’t it always, with everything? Elsie knew it was and hated how predictable she was being, as much as the fact that she couldn’t help it.) Yet, it was the way she was always looking at a situation and seeing how she could work it. From the moment of her father’s death, Elsie had been on the defensive. She had to be that way, there simply wasn’t any other way. She had been on the defensive, and it had made her secretive of how she went about getting what she wanted—despite the fact that her mother was forever trying to keep it from her…and these were things that had traveled with her from Texas to New York. It was a driving force for her, this need to search out an angle that would work for her best—and then to play it, and it was something she didn’t hesitate to use on Travis. She was only even dimly aware of the fact that she was doing it, truth be told. That was how second nature it was for her now. She heard the waver in Travis Sparks’ voice and knew that it meant there was a weakness, and so she prepared to use it to her advantage.

“Look man, I get it. I’m sure there’s a whole lot going on there, but it’s really not a good time for me, okay?”

“What? No, that’s not really ok—”

“It’s just that I’ve got a whole lot I’m working on—which you know, seeing as you’re the boss man—and I don’t think it’s a good time for me to leave my post, you get me? I just don’t think it’s the right time. And you’ve got the others, right? Get Finnley to do it, her or Clara. Either one of them is just as good as me.”

“No, actually, in this case that’s—”

“Sure, it is. I know you’ll need me to come in, and I will. I totally will. Let’s just put it off for a coup—”

“Cut the shit, okay?”

“Um, what?”

“You heard me, Elsie. Cut the shit. I’m tired of it, and I’ve put up with it for too long already.”

Elsie was so surprised she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it. If anyone had been there to see the expression on her face, that someone would probably have started laughing. She looked shocked, beyond shocked even, like she wouldn’t have been more surprised if Travis had somehow shoved his head through her phone and bit her on the earlobe. To make matters worse, Travis seemed to be able to feel her hesitance, and then he made it his business to use it to his advantage. While she’d done that kind of things plenty of times in her life, she had pretty much never been on the other side of the deal, and it was nothing she was a fan of.

“There you go. That’s what it takes to get through to you, is it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“But you do, Elsie. Is that what you’ve been waiting for? For me to take you down a peg or two? Fine, you got it. Here it is. You’re really fucking talented, and you know it. You’re one of the best at what you do. You’re totally beautiful, too, and I guess that’s something you know as well. But none of that gives you a free pass through life, and it’s about time you realize that.”

“Woah, okay now. I think you’re going a little bit too far now, Travis. I never said I had a free pass, nor did I say I thought I deserved one. I think you’re kind of out of line here.”

“Me?” Travis scoffed, his voice painting a picture for her so that she could see his pale Irish face growing redder and redder by the moment. “Are you seriously telling me that I’m out of line right now?”

“Well, yeah. I guess I am.”

“Let me explain to you why that’s a bunch of bullshit. Here’s the thing, Elsie, and it’s simple, something you can’t forget. I’m your boss.”

“I know that.”

“Do you? I don’t think so. See, most people do what their boss tells them. In fact, most people don’t have the option to stay at home instead of coming into work every day. You’re sitting at home while I trust that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”

“That’s because I am. You know that, Travis. I always get you the work required of me by my deadlines, do I not?”

“You do, but that’s not all this is about. When your boss tells you to come into the office, you do it. No argument, no questions, you just do it. Get me?”

“I wasn’t trying to argue, I—”

“Goddamnit, Elsie! That’s exactly what you were doing, and it’s what you’re doing right now! You don’t seem to be listening so let me lay it out in a way you can’t try to squirm out of. Either you’re here tomorrow morning at nine, that’s nine in the morning, or you’re done. Done means fired, just so we’re clear.”

“Are you for real threatening me right now?”

“I guess I am. I don’t want to, not one fucking bit, but if that’s the only thing that’s going to work with you, then it’s what I’m going to do. You be in the office, or you’re done. Like I said, you’re good—and we both know it—but that doesn’t give you carte blanche. I know everything you’re working on, at least the parts you’re doing for me, and none of those projects are as important as the one I’m going to hand you tomorrow. If there’s anything else you’ve got going on, I don’t care. I don’t want to know about it, and it doesn’t have anything to do with me. What does have something to do with me is that I require something from you and I expect to get it. Are we clear?”

“Shit. Fine, Travis.”

“No, Elsie. No, not this time. Not just fine. I need to hear you say it.”

“What the hell are you talking about? I just did say it!”

“No, you didn’t. I don’t want to hear fine. I want to hear you say, ‘I understand, and I’ll be there.’ Say it, Elsie. I want you to act like you actually consider me your boss, just this one time.”

“Jesus, Travis. Whatever. I understand, and I’ll be there. Good enough?”

“Good enough. Now go on, will you? Get back to whatever the hell it is you do all holed up in your apartment the way you do.”

“Sure. Talk later.”

“See you later.”

“Right, I know. Bye.”

Elsie hung up the phone and tossed it on the couch cushion beside her. For a moment that elongated until it was a full minute, she just looked at the phone, looked at it like she thought it was going to get up and do a little jig or something. When it didn’t, instead choosing to keep on lying there like the inanimate object it had the gall to continue to be, she felt herself on a rope of sorts. She was caught right in the middle of two feelings that were so diametrically opposed they hardly existed on the same planet. On the one hand, she felt the urge to be completely pissed off. She was an Aries, and although she didn’t believe in any of the horoscope nonsense, not really, in some undeniable ways, she fit the profile perfectly. For instance, she was beyond stubborn and just a little bit of a hothead. Her first instinct was to blow Travis off, simply because he had demanded she do something. She knew that was stupid, that sabotaging herself just to prove a juvenile “you can’t make me” point was the last thing on the earth she should be doing, but the urge was there. On the other hand, she wanted to crack up. She could feel the laughter bubbling up inside of her, dueling with the anger in direct opposition. The moment pulled her back and forth until finally one of her halves won out.

“Oh man,” she laughed loudly and to nobody. “Oh man, I wish I had gotten that on tape or recorded or something.”

The thing was, as mad as Elsie was tempted to be, she also felt sort of proud of Travis. Travis was a great boss, but he tended to let people push him around, something Elsie had done more than enough. She still didn’t want to go into work, but she found that she’d gotten a kick out of Travis’s big stand. It looked like he had finally grown a pair, and consequently Elsie couldn’t help but wonder what kind of project had him riled up enough to do a thing like that. She was wondering alright, and curiosity was one thing Elsie Morrow had never been able to resist.