Page 14 of Enemy Boss

“You fucked it up,” I say. She opens her mouth to speak but I don’t let her interrupt me and she closes her mouth again. I really could find better uses for that mouth than arguing with me. “How did you manage that?”

I turn the report towards her and point to the mistake. She shakes her head.

“No, I swear that’s correct,” she says. “I can go and get the old report I got the figures from and show you if you don’t believe me.”

“Not the old report figures,” I say. “The latest ones.”

“I just used what you gave me,” she says.

Temper surges through me. It’s bad enough that she is still making these little mistakes without lying about it as well. I can understand, perhaps, her making the odd mistake if it’s on software specific to the company that she’s never used before or something like that, but this was a simple case of copying information she had been given onto a new format.

“Are you trying to say that I fucked it up?” I say, raising an eyebrow along with my voice.

“I … No. I’m just saying that I didn’t,” she replies.

I jump out of my seat and start to pace the floor to try and calm down a bit but it’s hard as she peers at me, no sign of shame at her lies on her face.

“Two people had input on that section Max. Me and you. So, if you are so sure it wasn’t you who made a mistake, then you must think it is me,” I say.

She gives a half shrug of her shoulders, and the arrogance of the move sends me over the edge.

“Are you fucking with me woman?” I shout. “You don’t get to make simple mistakes like this and then sit there and lie about them and then try to blame me for them. Do you understand?”

As I say the last part, I turn towards her and take a few steps closer to her. She doesn’t say anything, she is just staring at me. I lift my hand to massage my temples where I can feel a headache starting. I haven’t quite got my hand to my face when Max jumps up and runs for the door. She is out of my office before I can say anything, but not before I see the tears in her eyes.

I rub my temples in a circle as I curse under my breath. I went too far. I know I did. I just wanted her to admit the mistake and we could have moved on, but I know I shouldn’t have yelled at her as much as I did. The poor woman probably thinks I’m going to fire her. I’m not – I just want her to be aware of these mistakes so she can be more careful and double check her work that’s all. I won’t always have the time to check everything behind her and if she’s working on something for a meeting or a client, I need to be confident it’s right the first time. If I have to double check everything she does, I might as well just do it myself in the first place. Surely, she can see that.

Still though, I know I was out of line the way I yelled at Max and with another sigh, I head for my office door so I can track her down and apologize to her. She’s not at her desk. I quickly duck behind it and look into the foot well. Her purse is still down there where it always is, so I know she likely hasn’t left the building and I figure the most likely place for her to have gone if not here is to the bathroom.

I head down the hallway to the ladies’ bathroom and knock on the door. No answer.

“Max? Are you in there?” I say. Again, there is no answer, but I hear water running so I know she’s in there. “Max, I’m coming in.”

I give her a warning because it feels like the right thing to do before going into the ladies’ bathroom, not that I think Max is going to be standing there naked or anything. I couldn’t be that lucky.

I open the door and see Max standing before the sinks and the mirrors. Her face is red and blotchy although she has dried away the tears. I feel like the biggest bastard in the world for making Max cry. I would have felt awful for making anyone cry like this, but especially Max. She already dislikes me. Now she probably outright hates me.

“I’m sorry Max,” I say.

She slowly turns her head from the mirror and looks at me.

“I appreciate that,” she says. “But really, you don’t need to apologize. I should be the one apologizing. I obviously made a mistake and then I got defensive about it. I’m sorry for that. And most importantly, I am sorry that I completely over-reacted.”

I feel even worse now Max seems to feel like she has to apologize for having emotions, but I have to admit, now she’s said it, I do think it was maybe a little bit of an over reaction. And despite Max’s faults, I have never imagined her to be someone who is emotionally vindictive and would turn on the water works to get sympathy, so she must have been genuinely upset by what I said.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. I was just frustrated that’s all,” I say, moving closer until I’m standing beside her. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She shakes her head and smiles at me, a sheepish smile that tells me that what she is about to say is embarrassing for her.

“You didn’t upset me. Not really. I … Just when you were yelling and then you came towards me like that. My ex would yell at me like that, and when he came towards me while mad like that, it was usually the start of him beating me. It just brought that back for a moment,” she says. “You kind of raised your hand.”

The bottom falls out of my world. I vaguely remember my mom saying something about her moving to get away from an abusive ex, but I didn’t know he had hurt her to the point where she carried that fear with her around other people too. And now I have hurt her, scared her. I make a silent vow in that moment that if I ever meet her ex, I will make him pay for what he has done to her, for the expression now on her face, the one where she wonders if I will decide she deserved it.

“Oh Max, I am so sorry,” I say. “I was raising my hand to massage my temples because I have a headache. I would never, ever hurt you like that, I swear.”

“I know,” she says. “Like on a rational level, I know that. But sometimes, in the moment, rational thought goes out of my head and it’s like I’m back there, just waiting for a fist to smash into my eye.”

She looks so fragile in that moment and another tear runs down her face. I don’t think about what I’m doing, I just act. I reach out and pull her into my arms. For a second, she stiffens, and I think I have made another horrible mistake, but then she relaxes and leans against me, her head on my chest. She puts her arms around me, and we just stand there like that for a moment as she gets herself back under control.

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