Page 2 of Love and Cherish

“I need to speak with her,” Precious hissed.

“It can wait until tomorrow when she has time in her schedule.” Cherish had no idea if Febe had time in her schedule, but she wasn’t about to let an angry therapist loose on Febe. That would end in someone being fired, but it wouldn’t be Cherish.

“No.”

Cherish stepped forward, straightening her shoulders. “I’ll schedule you in tomorrow when there’s time. Until then, go back to work. If you go in there now, you’ll be fired.”

Precious sneered, her nose scrunching up. She held the tension, glaring at Cherish before slowly stepping back and putting her hands up in exasperation. “Fine.”

“Perfect.” Cherish sucked in a sharp breath, holding it in her chest, as Precious flounced out of the office in much the same manner as she had come in.

Cherish had exactly twenty minutes of peace and quiet before Haylee came out and shut the door behind her. Her face was pinched. Cherish eyed her carefully, trying to determine which kind of pinch that was.

Desperation?

Anger?

Devastation?

“She wants to fire Precious.” Haylee dropped her notebook heavily on the desktop.

Oh boy.

Cherish kept her mouth shut. Haylee had a bad habit of dishing on whatever Febe told her as soon as she stepped out. Which meant Cherish would end up even further behind in her work for the day because she’d have to listen to Haylee. Multitasking only went so far.

“I can’t believe it,” Haylee scoffed and then groaned. “I’m sure I’m next.”

“What?” Cherish jerked her head up. Febe hadn’t said anything about terminating Haylee. Though Haylee wasn’t a favorite employee either, she hadn’t screwed up to the extent that Febe would just fire her without warning. Febe wasn’t that kind of boss. Then again, Haylee wouldn’t know that.

“If she can’t handle Precious being well…Precious…then she probably thinks the worst of me, too. I mean, I have no problem telling her my opinion, and pushing back.”

Sighing, Cherish bit her lip. How was she supposed to respond to this? Now she wasn’t just placating Haylee, but she was going to have to run interference for Precious who really didn’t want to have that meeting tomorrow now. And she still had to run interference between Allegra Ilic and Febe. Her head spun.

“I can tell when a boss doesn’t like me.” Haylee was close to a whine.

“Enough of that,” Cherish muttered. “Ms. Aarts isn’t going to fire you.”

“How would you know?” Haylee jerked her chin up, and Cherish swore she saw real fear in Haylee’s gaze. “All she does is complain. She never gives me a compliment. I’m not even sure she knew my name until last week. I’ve been working here for nine months already!”

“So are you thinking it’s time for you to move on, then?” Cherish remembered seeing Haylee’s résumé. She’d had plenty of jobs in her short thirty-three years. A new one almost every year. Only one had lasted longer than twelve months. Cherish had hesitated to suggest her for the permanent position because of that, but it did mean that she was a quick learner, and they had needed someone immediately.

“No.” Haylee’s response had a bite to it. “No, I wasn’t saying that.”

“Look, Precious and Ms. Aarts have had issues for months now if not longer, and they haven’t gotten better. In fact, while you were in your meeting with Ms. Aarts, Precious came storming in and demanded to speak with her.”

“And you didn’t let her in?” Haylee’s eyes widened.

“No.” Cherish typed furiously on her computer, trying to multitask as best as she could. “I didn’t.”

“Cherish!” Febe’s voice rang through the closed door.

Jerking with a start, Cherish gave Haylee a firm look. “We’ll get back to this, but you’re not getting fired.”

She grabbed her notebook and headed toward Febe’s office. Her shoulders were rock solid. But she wasn’t going to give up this job. She cared for Febe, for her future, and for the future of the company that she’d been with since inception. Cherish wasn’t going to step away from that if she could avoid it. She plastered on a plain look as she stepped through the door and shut it behind her.

Febe sat behind her desk, her heart-shaped face buried in her computer, tendrils of dark brown hair curled perfectly to frame her features as she worried her thin lower lip.

“What did you need?” Cherish bit the inside of her cheek as she slid into the chair across from Febe. The pounding in her skull reminded her that the medicine she had taken earlier wasn’t working yet, if it would work at all. It hadn’t been up to par lately.

---