“Alright. Alright, alright, alright. Enough of this shit, Finnley. This has gone on long enough. You know it, too.”

Another day, another pep talk in the bathroom mirror of Cubed. When all of this was over, if it was ever really over, she might need to go see somebody just to help her get her feet back on the ground. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure she would ever feel like her feet were exactly back where they belonged. Ever since stupid Garrett Wallace had come onto the scene, everything had felt like it had been turned upside down, turned on its head. In turn, she had gone through a series of emotions so confusing she couldn’t even begin to make sense of them. One minute she would have one set of feelings for a person in her life, and the next she would feel like everything she’d felt was totally wrong. With Garrett, it was something she couldn’t even begin to think about. When it came to him, the last twenty-four hours had been the worst roller coaster of them all. She had gone from thinking he was a total dick to tentatively admitting she had feelings for him. From there she had fallen into bed with him, arguably the best night she’d ever spent with any man, only to be greeted by an angry woman basically claiming to be his girlfriend.

Finnley had taken the day off yesterday, exhausted and too pissed off to do anything useful for anyone, and although it had been her intention to get rested up, she was pretty sure she had hardly slept at all. That left her crankier than ever and unwilling to call into work for a second day in a row. She felt useless, helpless, and the only thing she could think of to do was to take matters into her own hands. There were plenty of matters that needed taking, but for starters, she was going to tackle the Travis issue.

“Okay. You’re okay,” she spoke to her strange alien-looking reflection. “Now get this over with.”

She threw the bathroom door open with not a small amount of force, still engaged in an internal conversation to keep her pumped up and to refrain her from losing her nerve. What she failed to account for was the chance that there would be somebody walking down the hallway at that precise moment, which of course there was. She heard the crack of door-meeting-face first, which was quickly followed by Brad’s pained, disgruntled cry. The sound was muffled, which made Finnley think that he was probably holding his hands over his nose. Typically, people did that because their noses were bleeding, and although Finnley was really hoping that wasn’t going to be the case when she got a look at Brad’s face, she wasn’t so lucky. Of course, she wasn’t. Luck wasn’t exactly on her side these days.

“Shit, Finnley! What the hell?!”

“Shit, I’m so, so sorry! Oh my God, Brad, I’m such an idiot!”

“Jesus, Finnley, if you’re looking for me to tell you that you’re not, this probably isn’t the time.”

“No, no, I’m not looking for anything like that. I’m not joking, I am an idiot! I don’t know what I was thinking, just swinging the door wide that way. Here, come with me.”

“Wait, in there?” Brad balked, looking at the bathroom door with an appalled expression on his face. “I’m not going into the girl’s bathroom!”

“Would you rather stand out here and bleed?”

“Yes, actually, I would. I’m going to the kitchen. There’s gotta be something to shove up my nose there, right?”

“I’m sure there’s something, but just so you know, tampons work the best.”

“Up my nose? Come on, Finnley, now you’re just yanking my chain.”

“Nope, not even a little bit. But if you want to stick to paper towels that’s totally up to you.”

“Oh, gee, thanks. And you’re going to help me get myself cleaned up, right? Seeing as you’re the one who did this to my face and all.”

“I’m going to help you. Just let’s go, okay? The blood is starting to make me feel queasy.”

Brad rolled his eyes, as if that was the last thing he wanted to hear from her, which she supposed it was. She trailed after him to the little kitchenette, feeling guiltier with every wide-eyed look and raised eyebrow the two of them got from each co-worker they passed. So far, her plan to confront Travis over what had come over him to make him act the way he had been as of late was not going very well. It was going so not well, that all it took was one look from Brad, once he had a paper towel shoved far enough up his nose to keep the bleeding at bay, to see that something was up.

“So what was going on inside of your head that made you so careless to begin with?”

“Come on, Brad, I said I was sorry, didn’t I? Are you going to make me beg for forgiveness or something?”

“No, I’m not asking for another apology. I know you didn’t mean to do it. It’s a serious question. What’s going on with you?”

“A lot, actually,” Finnley answered in a low voice, her body and mind starting to register how truly tired she was, “but at the moment, it’s mostly Travis.”

“What about him?”

“I’m going to talk to him. I want to know what his deal is, and I want to know if he’s going to keep being this ‘new and improved’ version of himself, or if things are going to get any better.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, Finnley,” Brad said doubtfully, his worried eyes vaguely ridiculous over the wad of paper stuffed into his face. “We all see that he’s been different lately, and I don’t think a little one-on-one conversation is going to change it back.”

“You don’t know that. It might.”

“Right. And you might wind up getting you fired. In fact, I think it’s very likely that you’ll do just that very thing.”

“Fine, if he wants to fire me, let him. I’d rather work somewhere else than work for somebody who's turned into some kind of freaking brainwashed zombie.”

“But I don’t want you to get fired. Then I’ll have to work here without you.”

“And if it comes to that you’ll have to decide what you want to do. But you aren’t going to stop me. In fact, if anything, having this conversation only made me surer of what I need to do. I’m talking to him. I’m doing it right now.”

Finnley could hear Brad’s objection in the way he cleared his throat, but she didn’t stick around to listen to any other objections her friend might have had. She had done more than her fair share of tiptoeing around things, especially when it came to Garrett, but there was no way she was going to keep it up. Not with Travis. She had known Travis for years, and if he couldn’t handle her telling him like it was, then so be it. At least she wouldn’t be keeping up the same bullshit charade she’d been engaged in since the whole Wallace takeover. She strode as purposefully as possible towards his door and knocked, trying to ignore her steadily increasing heartbeat as she did so.

“Yeah? I’m busy in here, okay? Preparing for a conference thing. Come back later, will ya?”

“It’s Finnley, Travis. And no, I’m not coming back later. I need to talk to you. I need to talk to you right now.”

Without waiting for a response, which she was sure would have been to tell her to shove off, she opened the door, let herself into Travis’s office, and shut the door behind her. It was an action that still pained her, even though the transition to Wallace time had happened weeks ago. She could still remember the time, not so very long ago, when Travis had his open-door policy. It was amazing how much a person could change in such a short amount of time. It was terrifying, too. Even the look on his face was foreign. He could have aged fifteen years in the last month. He looked sad, confused. He looked like a man who had lost a part of himself, and seeing that took some of the fight right out of Finnley. Instead of coming in with fire and fury, she flopped down in one of his chairs, leaning forward and resting her elbows on his desk and her chin in his hands.

“Travis.”

“Yeah? What is it, Finnley? I wasn’t joking. I’ve got a hell of a lot to do at the moment.”

“Sure, I know that. But the way I see it there’s never going to be a good time to talk to you. You’re always busy, Travis. Like, all of the time. If I wait for you to say you’re taking meetings with us I’m going to be waiting forever. And this isn’t the kind of thing that can wait forever. You may wish it was, but it just isn’t. Now if that’s not okay with you, fine, but if I walk out that door without getting this stuff off of my chest, I’m out the door for good.”

“Are you actually threatening me right now?”

“Nope. At least that’s not how I see it. I don’t really think it’s a threat if you mean what you’re saying, and I mean it. I one hundred percent mean it.”

“Yes,” Travis said quizzically, studying her face in a way that made it almost unbearable not to break eye contact and look down at the floor. “I can see that. Alright, Finnley, start talking. What has you so up in arms?”

“For starters, the fact that you don’t seem to mind one bit that everything here has gone all Twilight Zone.”

“What exactly does that mean? If I’m not mistaken, all of you got pay increases. Like, pretty substantial pay increases.”

“Right, so what? That doesn’t explain anything. It actually makes things make less sense.”

“What, you don’t want more money? That doesn’t make any sense, Finnley. Everyone wants more money, right?”

“Wow, if that’s really what you think about the people working here, about me, then you’re further gone than I thought. Maybe there really wasn’t any point in me trying to talk to you. That was kind of the feedback I got, that it wouldn’t do any good, but I didn’t believe it. I thought there was still some of the real you in there somewhere.”

For a minute, she was sure he was going to kick her out of the office, just fire her and have done with it. There was no scenario in which talking to your boss the way she had just done was in the lines of propriety. She was pretty sure Garrett wouldn’t like it if she got fired, but that wasn’t a card she was willing to play. She didn’t even want to think about Garrett Wallace. She didn’t want him to be anywhere on her radar, especially not when she needed to keep her head in the game while she finished her admittedly unpleasant conversation with Travis.

“You’re right.”

“I’m sorry?” she said quickly, her head truly turned by his surprising response. “It sounded like you just said that I’m right.”

“Don’t push it, okay? That is what I said.”

“So then tell me what’s going on. We’ve been under this ‘new leadership’ for what, like two months now?”

“I’m not sure, but that sounds about right.”

“Right, and all we’ve gotten is a few bullshit jobs here and there. We’re getting nothing here, and you’re acting like a total zombie.”

“It’s just part of a new company starting up, you know? This kind of thing takes time. You know we’ll get up and running again soon.”

“Is that so? Then tell me why you can’t look me in the eye when you tell me that.”

“Finnley, come on. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Right. Fine. If that’s how you want to play it, that’s cool. Just go ahead and consider this my two-week’s notice.”

“Wait, what?! Are you kidding me with this shit?”

“No, actually, not at all. And it’s not shit, it’s a resignation.”

“But what the hell for? We just went over the fact that you’re making more money for less work. Why would you want to leave a job like that?”

“Because, I don’t like being lied to. And I don’t like whatever it is you’ve turned into. This weird, generic thing you’ve got going on now doesn’t work for me.”

She stood to go and was halfway to the door before Travis had the chance to get up and say anything at all. It was far enough for her to realize once and for all that she wasn’t bluffing, not even a little bit. She was more than willing to walk out of the front door of Cubed and never look back if that’s what it took. There was a whole lot of strange going on around here, and she wasn’t willing to be in the dark any longer.

“Finnley! No, hold on, will you? Don’t open the door.”

“Why not?” she said, half turning and looking at him dead in the face. “Do you have something to say to me? Something that isn’t a lie?”

“I do,” Travis answered slowly, moving so close to her that for a strange moment she was sure he was going to kiss her, “and it’s something I seriously doubt you’re going to believe, but if you want me to hear it, I’m willing to tell you.”

“Go ahead. I’ll try and keep an open mind.”

“I’m pretty sure this whole place is bugged.”

“Hold on a minute. Are you...are you kidding me?”

“No, not kidding. Mr. Wallace—”

“Garrett?”

“No,” Travis said with a strange look on his face, “not the son, the father. He always seems to know things. He knows what’s going on in here without me telling him anything. I think he’s keeping major tabs on everything that’s going on here.”

“But nothing ever goes on here. What would he have to keep tabs on?”

“I don’t know, but something tells me we’re about to find out.”

“What makes you say that?”

“We’re having an office-wide meeting today. In about ten minutes, in fact. Mr. Wallace says he wants to talk to everyone about the direction the company is going in. For my part, I don’t think I want to hear it.”

“But why? Wouldn’t it be a good thing? It’s kind of what we’ve all be waiting for, right? And I bet everyone’s going to be really glad to have an idea of what the company’s purpose is.”

“Right, you would think so. Except why would he need to have everything bugged? What kind of guy do we have running this place if he feels like he needs to do a thing like that?”

“I don’t know, Travis, but maybe we should just listen and see what he’s got to say. It might not be as bad as you think.”

Finnley could see that Travis absolutely didn’t agree with what she was saying, not a single word of it. For her part, she had no idea what to believe. On the one hand, she was glad to hear Travis acting somewhere close to himself instead of the weird puppet guy he’d been these last two months. On the other hand, he was sounding a whole lot like a crazy person. She’d never heard him spout off conspiracy theories like this before, but she’d also never seen him under this particular brand of stress. It was possible that he was cracking up, but then again, it was also possible that there was something to what he was saying. After all, Mr. Wallace was the same man who had lied to his own son about his grandparents being alive. When a guy was willing to do a thing like that, he was likely capable of just about everything.

“Finnley? You still there? Mentally, I mean.”

“Yeah, I’m here. I’m just...trying to process all of this. It’s kind of a lot to take in.”

“And you think I’m kind of crazy, right?”

“Come on, I never said that. I wouldn’t call you crazy.”

“That’s kind of you. Doesn’t mean you don’t think it, but it’s kind of you not to say it. We’ll just have to see, won’t we? Speaking of which, it’s about time for us to head out to the conference room, see what the boss has to say. You ready?”

“I don’t know, I guess. As ready as I’ll ever be. You?”

“Yes and no. Only do me a favor, will you?”

“Sure, Travis, anything.”

“Help me keep up this charade, this new persona I’ve got going. There’s a reason I want everyone to think I’ve gone all brainwashed corporate. It makes it more likely that I’ll be able to figure out what the hell is going on with that family.”

“You mean the elder, right?”

“Maybe. I’m not totally sure. As far as I know, it could be the whole fucking family that’s rotten.”

“No,” Finnley answered a little too quickly for her own good, “I don’t think so. I mean, I get that Mr. Wallace is creepy to the max, but I think his son is alright.”

“Okay,” Travis said with the air of a man who was trying to choose his words carefully, “maybe. But let’s not jump to any conclusions, okay? You and your gal pals—”

“Ha! Gal pals? You mean Elsie and Clara?”

“Exactly. The three of you are pretty wonderful at finding things. Why don’t you start looking into him?”

“Funny thing you mention that—”

“Oh! Already on it. I got it. Just don’t tell me anything about it. I don’t want to know the details. Just be careful. If this family has as many skeletons in his closet as I have a feeling it does, if they’re as potentially dangerous as I have a feeling they are, looking into them could be a very bad idea.”

“We’ll be careful. Thank you, though, Travis. It’s good to see that you didn’t turn into a zombie after all.”

He pulled her in for a hug, squeezing her tightly before letting her go. It was only the briefest of hugs, but it was almost enough to make Finnley lose it completely. She positively ached for everything to go back to normal. Between her and her two “gal pals” as Travis had so ridiculously put it, hadn't they had enough trouble to last them a lifetime? She didn’t want anymore. She didn’t want there to be anything else she needed to look into, nor her friends. And although she was really trying to believe Travis had gone a little bit off his rocker, she had a sneaking suspicion that he hadn’t, that the wacky things he was saying were at least partially right. What she really wanted was to go home and sleep like one of the Disney princesses, not waking up until somebody came along and told her it was safe to get out of bed. The only thing working in her favor was the fact that she was about to hear an actual explanation for what direction the company was going to take. It was a relief, but it was a relief that would be very short lived, as she was about to find out.

“Wonderful!” Mr. Wallace spoke out across the small crowd of Cubed employees. “I see we all have our bagels and coffee?”

“Does this feel like a little bit of deja vu to you?” Brad muttered under his breath, standing beside Finnley with the paper towels now removed from his nose. “Because I’m pretty sure we’ve already heard him make a speech that started just like this.”

“Shh, come on, Brad. We should watch what we say in here.” She didn’t look at him while she spoke, but she could feel his eyes on her all the same. She probably sounded insane to him, telling him to cool it after all of the bitching she had done, but she couldn’t help remembering the things Travis had just said. It was nuts to think that the place could really be bugged, but on the off chance that it was, she didn’t want him getting into any trouble. Besides, Mr. Wallace was still talking and Finnley desperately wanted to hear what he had to say. She wanted to hear something that made some kind of sense.

“As you all know, it has taken longer to get things sorted out here than anticipated. I’m sure everyone in this room has been wondering when our company’s new direction will be revealed. If any of you are halfway as impatient as I am, you must have been chomping at the bit.”

This comment was met by an uneasy smattering of laughter as the Cubed employees glanced at each other, their nervous energy making the place feel like a powder keg. People were so focused in on the elder Mr. Wallace and where he was going with this speech that none of them seemed to notice Garrett slipping into the room and taking his place a few feet away from where his father stood. The only one who noticed was Finnley, and it wasn’t something that made her happy. It was more than the memory of the last time she’d seen him, storming out of his hotel room while his crazy, maybe girlfriend gave her the evil eye. It was also the look on his face. He looked like a man who had been defeated. He looked like he was the only one who knew that there was something terrible coming and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

In the end, things were more terrible than she would have expected. Although the venerable Mr. Wallace did his best to dress things up in a fancy way that would make everyone okay with what he was saying (and she was ashamed to say that it seemed to work for most people), the basic gist of the information was that they were going to be a smut shop. They were going to be in the same league as those vile paparazzi guys she had always thought were so gross. Working for Cubed would mean she was like them, only worse. Because she would be better at it. She would be able to get the kind of information those assholes could only dream about. She was so appalled she felt she might be sick, and it was all she could do to keep from throwing up right then and there. It was only the awareness that she would be drawing unwanted attention to herself that kept her mostly together, and the moment the conference was adjourned she wheeled around, heading almost blindly for the door that would get her the hell out of there. She heard Brad calling her name, but she didn’t stop, couldn’t stop. This company was where she had put her heart and soul for the last several years of her life, only to find out that it was being turned into something she found utterly abhorrent.

“Finnley, wait!”

She wanted to just keep going. She wanted to run from that voice and never look back. There was something about his voice, though, something about it that stopped her dead in her tracks.

“What do you want, Garrett? What else is there left for you to make a complete mess of?”