Page 13 of Losing Control
“You deserve it.” Kim embraces me in a hug.
“What’s going on over here?” I hear Michael say as I break away from Kim and turn to face him with a great big grin plastered on my face.
“Lucy has just been offered a promotion,” Kim says excitedly before I can tell him.
“Kim,” I scold her gently.
“Sorry, I’m just so excited for you.”
I can’t be mad at her. She’s my closest friend and only wants the best for me.
“Seriously? A promotion?” Michael says, his eyebrows raised in surprise.
“Yeah. Mr Collinson said that he was pleased with my work and that he wanted me to become the marketing manager of this department.” My voice is high-pitched with excitement as I speak. “I get to run my own team and I get a pay increase.”
“Isn’t it great?” Kim says to Michael.
“Uh, yeah,” he says, no excitement to his tone whatsoever. Kim’s smile fades, as does mine.
“What’s wrong?” I ask him, wondering why he appears to be unhappy with this turn of events.
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m happy for you.”
“You don’t seem like it,” Kim says, and I whirl around to face her.
“Kim, that’s enough.”
“I’m sorry, Luce, but he should be ecstatic for you,” she replies, not bothering to keep her voice down at all. “This is an amazing opportunity and he has no right to make you feel shit about it.”
“He’s not making me feel shit,” I argue.
“Oh really? So why have you gone from elated to downcast since he came over here.”
“Kimberly––”
“I’m gonna leave you two to it,” Michael says interrupting us.
“Michael, please don’t listen to her,” I say, needing him to know that I don’t agree with what Kim is saying.
“I’ll speak to you later,” he says before turning his back and walking to his desk.
I feel a sense of dread fill me as I watch his retreating form. Instead of focussing on his reaction, I turn to Kim, my blood boiling at how she behaved.
“What the fuck was that?” I say, not bothering to hide the irritation in my voice.
“What? He was behaving like an ass,” she says as she rolls her eyes and folds her arms across her chest, becoming defensive.
“You didn’t even give him a chance to speak.” I keep my voice as low as I possibly can seeing as I don’t want the whole office to hear us.
“He didn’t seem like he wanted to say anything to congratulate you.”
“What the hell is the matter with you?” I ask her, outraged that she could have upset Michael for no good reason. “For all you know, he might have had a shitty day or maybe he didn’t want to cause a fuss in the office, or maybe, just maybe, he might have wanted me to be the one to tell him about my promotion but instead he heard it from you, because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut.”
I take a second, my breathing a little heavy as I pause my rant at Kim. She has the decency to look a little sheepish in response.
“I don’t know what your issue with Michael is,” I continue. “And to be quite honest, Kim, I don’t really care right now. You were fine about him until you spoke to fucking Nancy, and now all of a sudden my word isn’t good enough.” I’m mad. Fucking raging in fact.
“Luce, I didn’t mean to––”
