Page 92 of Empowered
Chapter 25
She stood in front of the three paps still camped out in the park across from her building.
They had been too shocked by her sudden presence to react. At first, anyway. Within two seconds, they had their cameras flashing and their mics in her face.
“You’re Sarah Clayborn, right?” the only one with real guts asked. “Can you give us a statement about what’s been going on?”
They asked her more specific questions, but Sarah’s mind was already moving forward on full-blast.
“What’s going on? Why, isn’t it obvious?” She lifted a cigarette to her lips and lit with a bright pink lighter, the black beads of her bracelet clacking in the mic. “The slut’s come out of her closet and is ready to cut loose.”
She blew her smoke into the camera lens before advancing down the sidewalk. Her wallet was tucked into the deep pocket of her coat. Her morals and common sense? Left behind in the apartment for the paps to squabble over.My face and words are going to be on the gossip sites tonight. Everyone will psychoanalyze me. My doctor is somewhere shaking her head.
Sarah finished her cigarette by the time she reached Monroe Tower a few blocks away. She didn’t smash it beneath her boot, however. That would be a waste of a perfectly good sole. Instead, Sarah would espousesomemorality and take her cigarette to the smoking section and deposit the butt there. One man in a suit on his smoke break glanced up at her with nothing but shock in his dark eyes.
“You work in accounting, right?” she asked. “I like your face. Cute.”
“Uh…”
Sarah twiddled her fingers on her way out of the smoking corner. Her next stop? The executive elevator, guarded by one of the dayshift security personnel.
She knew him. He definitely knew her, once he looked past the weird getup.
“Ms. Clayborn?”
“Don’t mind me, Jim. Got something to drop off.” She helped herself into the elevator reserved for the Monroes, their most important guests… and their #1 personnel, like Sarah.
Nobody in the office had expected her. From the moment Sarah stepped off the elevator, everyone within a hundred feet stopped what they were doing. Especially Alice Monroe, who had been walking across the room with a stack of folders in her hands.
“Ms.… Clayborn? Is that you?”
Sarah stopped in front of her. “What? Don’t recognize me from my acting debut?”
“I…” Mrs. Monroe put her folders down on the nearest desk and crossed her arms, elbows resting against her protruding stomach. “What are you doing here?”
“Stopped by to let you and Mr. Monroe know that as of today I’m giving my two weeks’ notice. It’s been a laugh and a half, Alice, but I’ve got shit to do.”
Was Alice more shocked by the casual address or the way Sarah was dressed?Both. Honestly. Look at me! I look like I’m about to stroll into a BDSM dungeon and grab some man’s balls. She wouldn’t know anything about that. She’s the one who gets spanked and feels the wrath of the nipple clamp.”Those had never appealed to Sarah. Or Angel, for that matter.
“I see. I’m sorry to hear that, but I understand.”
“Do you?”
Other executive personnel stopped what they were doing to listen in on the exchange between the company matriarch and her former employee – the employee she had gone to bat for so many times that it was almost embarrassing. Because what did Sarah love more than anything else? Pity, of course! She fucking thrived off it, didn’t she?
“If you have grievances, Ms. Clayborn, I’m sure they can be aired out in private. I don’t have any meetings right now if you would like to step into…”
“No need. All you have to know is that my two weeks’ notice starts today. I can help you select a replacement, but beyond that, I’m done here.” She turned. “Give my regards to your husband, the generous benefactor that he is.”
She said that with so much sarcasm dripping from her fangs that Alice remained frozen where she stood, mouth agape and blue eyes wide enough to swallow the nearest person.
Sarah stopped off in the bathroom on her way out. She ran into Alisha by the sinks.
Someone had altered her appearance.
“I see we both changed our hair.” Alisha tossed her long, straight hair behind her shoulder.What the hell?Sarah was so used to seeing the other assistant with her afro that this was… uncharacteristic. “What a week to decide to relax my hair for the first time in years. Thought I’d do something new, but… well! Been too busy to properly take care of it because someone else is on leave.”
Sarah turned on the sink. “Spare me your passive aggression.”
