Page 107 of Break My Heart
‘It’s yours. Well, the one at the brewery. Does Wade have access to it?’
‘Yeah, he uses it to do orders and track inventory.’
‘He was also using it to post about G’s, unless someone else there has access to your computer.’
‘No, it’s just him and me.’
‘Then it’s gotta be him.’
‘Okay, thanks for your help.’ I end the call and storm to my car, furious at Wade. It’s bad enough he did this, but it’s even worse that he did it using my laptop. Gina will never believe me now. Those posts came from my own damn computer and the guy that I hired. It looks like I set the whole thing up.
It’s noon when I get to the brewery, which is when I scheduled Wade to come in and take inventory and do the orders. I find him in the stockroom, music blaring from his cellphone.
‘Wade!’ I stalk up to him.
He smiles. ‘Hey boss! How was the competition?’
I point to his phone. ‘Turn off the fucking music!’
He turns it off. ‘What’s wrong? You lose the competition?’
‘I lost more than the fucking competition. I lost a friend, a competitor, the girl I fucking loved!’ I get in his face. ‘Why did you do it?’
‘Do what?’ He backs away.
‘Don’t pretend you don’t know. You made those posts online about Gina’s brewery. You’ve been doing it for weeks so nobody would go there. Why the fuck would you do that?’
‘To keep my damn job. I moved here and got an apartment all for this job. If I lose it, what am I supposed to do? I got eight months left on my lease and there’s not a lot of jobs in this town.’
‘Why would you lose your job? I’m not closing.’
‘You could’ve if she stayed in business. No offense, but she’s got better beer than you. Customers were talking about it the week she opened, how her beer was better than yours. She was taking all our business. I didn’t want us closing down so I did what I had to for us to stay open.’
‘That’s not your fucking job.’ I point to the door. ‘Get out! You’re fired!’
‘For what? Helping you? That’s bullshit!’
‘Get out or I call the cops. I mean it, Wade. Get out!’
‘This is fucking bullshit,’ he says, shaking his head as he leaves the stockroom. I follow him back to the office where he has his coat.
‘Give me your keys,’ I say.
He throwsthem at me, then grabs his coat and storms out of the office. I follow him to the back door and lock it behind him.
I can’t believe he did that to Gina. I was hoping it was some kind of mistake, but he admitted he did it. He acted like he was doing me a favor. I clearly didn’t know the guy as well as I thought I did.
Nick calls as I’m walking back to my office.
‘Hey, I just fired Wade.’
‘Why? What happened?’
‘He was the one posting all that shit about G’s.’
‘Seriously? I never would’ve guessed it was him.’
‘Me either. I still can’t believe it.’
