Page 52 of My Secret Snowflake
I think he mutters that maybe heshouldlook for another job, but I’m not sure. And it’s not like he’d do that, right?
Anyway, I don’t want to say anything more in front of our audience.
“I want you guys to meet Rowena, Rupert’s cousin, and one of my best friends,” Sebastian says, standing next to me.
Hello, hello, hello, says my body.
Chapter twelve
Iris
Iarrivedattheoffice early this morning, desperate to ask Raphael what the hackers exfiltrated, but he is nowhere to be found. His door is closed, and he hasn’t responded to my texts. His assistant hasn’t arrived yet. However, I already had a visit from the company ergonomic specialist to make sure my chair is at the right height for my desk and I have proper back and wrist support. She noted I was wearing my wrist brace. Who called them—was it Sebastian or Ernest?
Meanwhile Kevin also emailed that we shouldn’t worry about customizing the migration, just try to get everything moved over to our cloud server as soon as possible. Every week, it’s a different instruction. Last time, he insisted we take our time and demonstrate our expertise. Nonetheless, I’ve mapped out a new approach, and now I’m waiting for my New Mexico colleague to arrive at the office so I can run it by him. That unfortunately gives me plenty of time to think about Sebastian and Lily’s party last night and wander by Raphael’s door.
Lily assured me that Sebastian and Rowena have more of a brother/sister relationship. I was afraid Lily would tease me for asking. After all my talk about not being interested in Sebastian, I was suddenly very keen to hear any details about Rowena. But Lily also took pity on me and pretended it was a totally normal question on my part—one that anyone would ask about a work colleague. Right.
Because I definitely need Sebastian to tell me again that he’s not interested.
I should be the one sayingI’mnot interested.
A collective gasp shudders through the open desk security operations center. Jin Ae has her hand over her mouth as she says, “Raphael left.”
I click over to my email.
To: Raphael Singh
From: Raphael Singh
Date: December 9
It’s been a pleasure working with all of you. I have left Dream Company as of today.
What? Raphael just left?I re-read the email as if I’m missing something in those two sentences. The other faces around the room mirror my stunned reaction. Why?
But Raphael was going to tell me what had been exfiltrated.
Was Raphael fired? He can’t leave.
“Should we go ask Raphael?” I ask Jin Ae. Raphael’s office is next door. And I’d like to say good-bye.
Jin Ae nods, and we walk out of the room. I open the door into the office next door. Nobody is there. It’s completely cleaned out. How is that even possible? No trace. I walk in and check the cabinet behind his desk. No books.
Raphael is gone.
This is strange.
This is very bad. I bite my nail. A pit of unease grows in my stomach. One of the reasons I love this job so much is that Raphael is a great boss.
Jin Ae and I look at each other.
“We have a team meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning,” Jin Ae says. “Wouldn’t he have said something if he was planning to quit?”
“Maybe he received a great job offer somewhere else and didn’t want to disappoint us by telling us he was leaving?” I ask. I don’t believe that. He did say maybe we should start looking for jobs. But he would have toldme. I’m his second-in-command.
As we shut the door, Kevin is walking down the hallway.
“Iris, just the person I’m looking for,” he says. “Let’s meet in my office.”
