Page 26 of A Fae in Finance
No one said anything.
“Can you all hear me?” he asked, at the same time that Levi started to say, “Hi, Jeff.”
Both of them fell quiet.
“Corey, you have the agenda?” Levi said after a second. Doctor Kitten jumped onto the desk next to me and tried to write a sentence on my keyboard.
“Is Miri on?” Jeff asked, like he couldn’t see my name. I lifted Doctor Kitten off the desk and put him on the floor.
“I’m here, Jeff,” I said.
“Miri will be working remotely for a bit.”
I muted myself in order to say a series of very rude words. Doctor Kitten hopped onto the desk again, looking at me with what I thought was sympathy.
I unmuted myself.
“I’m stuck in Faerie,” I said. “Jeff, I’m stuck in Faerie. I am not working remotely because I want to. I amtrapped. InFaerie.” Doctor Kitten climbed onto the windowsill and I grabbed for him, unsure if the magic barrier would work for him, too. I caught him under the arms and hauled him back.
“Yes, well, I didn’t know if you wanted me to share details of your personal life.”
I went on mute again and devised a new set of creative sentiments, involving Jeff, a waffle maker, and various bodily excretions.
I unmuted myself.
“This isn’t my personal life, Jeff. I got stuck in Faerie on a work trip.”
No one said anything.
I took one of Doctor Kitten’s paws and tried to put it out the window. It came up against the magic barrier, so I put him down on the desk again. He probably wouldn’t fall out the window.
“Miri, we don’t have a ton of time, I have a hard stop at nine thirty,” Jeff said. “And the rest of you, since this is a work issue, I expect it to remain in the office. Don’t share with CBS, okay? I don’t want us on the news. Now, Corey, do we have any new pitch meetings coming up?”
“You absolute towel rack made of dog shit,” I muttered.
I had not muted myself.
“Excuse me?” Jeff said.
“Sorry, talking to my cat.”
Doctor Kitten hopped back onto the windowsill and leaned against the magic barrier, staring at me.
“That poor cat,” Matt said.
“We don’t have any pitches coming up, Jeff,” Corey said.
“We have the dairy company with the new yogurt for werewolves,” Matt chimed in.
I cringed.
“That’s supernatural,” Matt added, when no one spoke.
“Matt, there’s a reason they are spinning off the ‘dog food for your human’ brand three months after they launched it,” Jeff said, displaying sense and making me hate him more.
“Fine, then we don’t have any new pitches,” Matt said, petulant. I pictured him crossing his arms at his desk. Were all of them at their desks except me?
“Okay, does everyone know what they’re working on?” Jeff asked.
