Page 232 of As The Shifter World Turns

“Demotion?” I said this one quieter, wanting to lessen the sting of the words.

“I got laid off, okay.” He stopped dead in his tracks. “I have until the end of the day but I’m not supposed to tell anyone. If I do I could forfeit my severance and it’s only two fucking weeks pay. I’ve been with this company twelve years and they are offering two fucking weeks. And you know the unlimited PTO bullshit they started six months ago? Spoiler alert, it was so they didn’t have to pay us all our earned time when they pulled this crap.” He was crying and I couldn’t blame him. That was the dick move of all dick moves.

Pay us all.His choice of words hung in the air like an anvil waiting to fall on my head thanks to the stupid cartoon coyote because that was how real this entire conversation was starting to feel.

“I won’t tell them I know,” I assured him. “And fuck them for screwing you over.”

“Us,” he said almost too softly for me to hear and honestly, if it weren’t for my inner beast, I might not have been able to.

“Us. I’m getting laid off too?” He gave a single nod.

“Our entire division. I’m not supposed to give you a heads up. They are bringing in security and giving everyone twenty minutes to gather their personal belongings and get out.” My stomach sank. I couldn’t lose my job. I had kids, a mate, we just moved. I needed this job.

“All of us?”

“All. But you’re good. You have skills that might be transferable. You can apply to Hanson’s division maybe?” I doubted that was a possibility. If they were going to treat us like criminals and get us out of there, they weren’t going to be amenable to us coming back to a different office. At least I didn’t think they would. I’d apply though because what choice did I have.

Who was going to hire someone my age, with my experience, when they could get a kid fresh out of college for peanuts?

“We better get our tacos now and pull it together. I can’t not have my insurance for those two weeks.” He wiped the tears from his eyes using the back of his hand. “I shouldn’t have told you. But it felt wrong not to.”

I just reached over and gave him a hug. He wasn’t really my boss any more and he needed it.

“I’m glad you did so I can figure out what’s coming with me and possibly make a plan.” And make sure I had all the contacts I needed in my phone. Crap. This was too much.

“I’m buying our tacos and we need to get ourselves not looking like dead men walking.” He stepped out of my embrace. “Good thing tacos make us smile.”

The rest of the day was a blur. Thankfully I was prepared enough not to lose it when they came, unlike so many of my colleagues. There were tears and things being thrown, a ton of cuss words, and even a death threat. Their plan todo it all at once was a piss poor one, if you asked me, but so was cutting an entire division to ship the work overseas.

I had been offered a job at a lower salary to train the new staff via video conferences and I accepted. It sucked being paid less to teach people who were taking your job, but the company knew they had me against a wall. I needed insurance and being a widowed father, that meant I was the one to provide it.

I didn’t have any intention of keeping my commitment. My goal was to get a job with insurance to start right away. It was manifesting that goal I still hadn’t fully figured out the how’s of.

Neil was working today. He had a bunch of videos to make and I didn’t want to pester him, especially knowing my news would make it hard for him to be in the head space he needed for work.

So instead, I went over to Ivor’s to see if he wanted to go take the baby for a walk or something. It was one of his days off, if I remembered correctly.

I knocked on the door and to my surprise Ryder answered it. “Hey, Ryder. I was stopping by to see if Ivor wanted to go for a walk.”

“He and the baby went to get some new shoes. Ivor’s feet grew with the pregnancy and he's sick of his toes not fitting properly.” He stepped out of the way, “Come on in, though. He’ll be home soon.”

“Thanks.” I stepped inside.

“Not for nothing, but you look like shit.” He wasn’t wrong.

“They let my entire division go.” It felt good to tell someone. I really needed to talk to Neil, but maybe it was better to break it to someone else first? Sort of get some practice before I let my mate know we were good and truly fucked,

That wasn’t exactly true. I did have a small nest egg we could tap into, but having just bought a lot of new furniture for the new place, most of my easily available money was gone.

“How long do you have?”

“My desk stuff is in my car. They gave us less than a half an hour, but I had a bit longer because someone who wasn’t supposed to say, told me.” I was leaving Liam’s name out of it. He’d asked for me to not say anything and there was no reason to break that promise. “And now I need to get a job with insurance with only two weeks’ severance and insurance left.”

Ryder pulled out his phone and tapped on it, before handing it to me. “What about something like this?” It was a job listing, one I had each and every requirement for. It was one I’d normally have skipped over. It was a temporary position and I needed something long term. But maybe it could be a stopover until I found a real job. “Is this in your wheelhouse?”

“Thanks. Do you know the company at all? Do they pay well? Hmmm. They offer competitive pay and benefits. Something isn’t adding up.”

“I do. They’re a great company. A start-up locally based and they pay well and they 85/15 on the insurance which is Cadillac and includes dental and vision. It’s only until this phase of the project is done, though. So it’s notperfect, but it’s something.” This job was sounding too good to be true. The only thing that would make it better would be full time permanent, but at this point I couldn’t be picky. “Partial remote is a possibility and the boss is almost as handsome as your mate.”

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