Page 14 of Rich and Bossy

He snickers right at me. “You can say the worddamn. It’s okay. You’re twenty-one, Hazel.” He slowly and methodically takes off his glasses and pockets them. Then he smirks right at me once more, and his eyes slowly drift down to the copies, then back up to me. “You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?” He might as well be talking about putting together a piece of IKEA furniture, he sounds so dismissive and patronizing.

“I’m doing just fine.” Meanwhile, my knees are trembling. For one, his voice changed. I don’t know how to describe it, but it went into this hotter, deeper tone, but also full of warning. How did he know to follow me in the first place? Did someone rat me out? I was careful and I meticulously selected the people I know are most fed up with Rapid. The people who would be most likely to keep their mouths shut.

Do they have the breakroom under surveillance? With audio too?

Jesus. Then they have someone who sits there listening? No, I guarantee you it’s some kind of algorithm that analyzes it and spits out anything troublesome. They’d never pay someone to monitor that.

“Clearly.” He leans in a little closer to me.

I should not like it. I should not like how nervous he’s making me, and I certainly shouldn’t like that evil little glint in his eyes. Like he’s enjoying this little game, enjoying putting me back on my heels.

“How exactly do you know what I’m doing? Do you record us at work? Our conversations?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

He does look slightly confused when he says it, like he’s not sure.

“Hmm.” I tip my head to the side, looking him up and down with a smile I can’t hide. “Maybe I’ll add that to my recruiting material. Recording employees. Please tell me you weren’t dumb enough to do it in the bathrooms too?”

“Why would I do that? Nobody has time to use them, remember?”

This jerk! I squeeze my fists so tight my nails dig into my palms, then I force myself to take another deep breath.Don’t let him win. Don’t let him win.

“That’s the first true thing you’ve said all day. So, did you look into anything I said? Because it’s very clear what your priorities are here, and it’s a little disturbing.”

“Well, it’s been all of about three days, Hazel. But I get the impatience of youth, when you’ve grown up in a culture of being handed everything you want the second you throw a fit about it.”

How does he get under my skin this bad? How?

I want to kick him right in the balls and see who throws a fit. Only one person here has been handed everything they want.

Before I can say anything back, he says, “And I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of security devices and how they’re monitored, though I’m guessing they exist around the warehouse. Apologies, they’re meant for your safety. But we can have them removed if Hazel doesn’t like them.”

I stand there, shaking my head right at him. “The breakroom is a pretty high-traffic area, so I could see the need for video and audio feeds. Maybe you could stick a few out on the floor where the accidents actually happen. Or maybe the walls just have ears in the breakroom.”

“Seems like a more plausible explanation.” He shrugs. “What are you going to do?”

I narrow my eyes right at him, then smile, the biggest smile that’s come across my face in a while. “You’re afraid of me.”

That draws a laugh out of him. A big, fake laugh.

“You’re overselling it, Briggs. You don’t come out here with the commoners unless you’re afraid of something.”

He holds up a hand while he finishes his fake laugh, while choking out, “Sorry, sorry. I can’t seem to stop.”

“It’s good to know you’re concerned.”

His smile vanishes a little. “It’s funny you think I’m concerned aboutthat.” He nods to the fliers. “Instead of…” He stares right at me. “Well, draw your own conclusions.”

“Oh, I have. And I find this company extremely troubling and creepy. The fact you followed me here.” I take a step toward him.

He actually looks a little worried now.

“Recorded our conversations. Monitored our discussions. Instead of fixing the problems, you just care about making sure everybody stays quiet while it takes months to resolve, if you’re even trying to resolve anything. Nobody tells us anything. Yeah, I have a sense of urgency. A mother can’t spend time withher sick child. People are cutting off fingers and told not to go to the doctor. Someone could die in that death trap of a warehouse. Those are my friends that work there. So yeah, it’s very important that it gets fixed, quickly. You think I came to you lightly? In that elevator? That I wasn’t afraid to do it? Stop following me around and worrying about what might happen here, and just go fix the place I love to work.”

He slow claps. “Man, you rehearsed that in the mirror, didn’t you?”

I turn back to the copy machine. “Get lost. I’ll be done when I’m done here.”

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