Page 70 of The C*ck Down the Block

“But I’ve always received excellent performance reviews.” I was getting screwed here and not in the fun way. And I didn’t even know why. “And don’t we have a policy of warning before termination? What’s changed?”

Karter sighed like this was all so beneath him. “The decision is non-negotiable. There is nothing else to say.”

“Is this because Chris thought you were being an ass the other night?” I pushed, heat creeping into my voice. “Or maybe someone else heard one of the inappropriate comments you’ve made about me? So you’re just getting rid of me before I can escalate it to HR?”

His face reddened, and I knew I was damn close to hitting the truth. But he maintained his icy demeanor. “Your personal assumptions are irrelevant. Hand over your access pass.”

I looked at the hand he was holding out to me like it was going to bite me or give me long Covid. “I have a right to know why I’m being fired.”

“Colorado is an at-will state, Ms. Moore. At-will regulations stipulate that employers are not required to provide prior notice to workers being terminated, nor are they obligated to provide a reason for any firings in absence of relevant laws or contractual obligations.” This sounded wrote memorized especially so he could pull it out for exactly this situation. “Your employment is not guaranteed here, and we can release you for whatever reason we see fit. Your lewd acts are reason enough.”

Lewd acts?

Feeling powerless but knowing I’d been wronged, I unclipped the pass from my belt loop and tossed it onto his desk.

“Security will escort you to collect your personal belongings. You need to be off the premises in the next ten minutes.” He typed something on his computer, seemingly already dismissing me from his presence.

Before I could process what was happening, Mike, the library’s fit, young security guard, appeared at the door. “Let’s go, Ms. Moore.”

Shame and confusion swelled within me as I was led to my desk. Staff and volunteers alike watched in stunned silence as I hastily gathered my personal items into a ready and waiting box.

“Is everything okay, Trixie?” Cherie, one of the teen volunteers, asked, her eyes full of concern.

“I don’t know, sweetie,” I answered, fighting back tears. “I really don’t know.”

Mike led me out the back door of the library to where the staff parked our cars. “Sorry about this, Ms. Moore. I don’t like how any of this went down.”

Even with the regret I could hear from him, he still left me in the parking lot and went back inside. The big metal door clanged shut behind me with a deafening finality. It wasn’t until I reached my car that I realized I’d left my phone on my desk.

My heart sank further. No way to call Chris or Lulu, no way to call anyone. And a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach told me that whatever was happening was far from over. I was just going to have to go home.

When I got into the neighborhood, it was mass chaos. Why were there so many people here? They didn’t live here. As I got closer to my house, I saw trucks with antennas on the sidewalk, and people with cameras on the lawn. What the hell was going on?

I slowly pulled into my driveway and was instantly inundated with people shouting at me through the windows of the car, pointing tv cameras at me, and some even got in the way, trying to make it so I couldn’t get into my garage.

Barely holding it together, I navigated through the frenzy of reporters and their intrusive cameras, my pulse beating an erratic rhythm. The atmosphere was chaotic, buzzing like an angry beehive. I hurried into my garage. As the door shuttered down behind me, I took several long, shaky breaths. I’d always seen this house, my childhood home become my adult space, as a place where I could be myself, away from judgment. Now, it felt like a fragile bubble, and the world was full of sharp edges.

I fumbled with my keys and stepped into the house, locking the door behind me. I reached for my tablet, since I had no phone, and I wasn’t going out again in that mess to try and replace it. With shaky hands, I Facetimed Lulu, hoping she could pick up even though she was still at work.

“What the hell is going on?” I blurted out as soon as she answered.

“Oh, Trix, I’ve been trying to reach you. You’re all over social media. Some video with you and Chris doing the deed in the locker room at St. Ambrose.”

My head started spinning. “Video? What?”

Someone had taken a video of me and Chris? Those bastards.

“I haven’t seen it because the original has already been taken down, but it’s apparently scandalous enough to set the internet on fire. It was on Anthony’s stupid Am I the Asshole page.”

“I got fired, Lulu.” My voice was doing that cracking thing again. “Karter gave me the boot, effective immediately. For ‘conduct unbecoming a city employee.’ What does that even mean? He had me escorted out of the building by security.”

“What? What the fuck?” I heard her tapping away on her computer. “I’ll dig around and find out what’s happening on the work front. Just hold tight.”

She hung up, leaving me in my living room, alone and unnerved, staring at the screen that seemed to scream that everything had changed.

As if to echo the way everything else was falling apart around me I heard a horrible, distressed crowing coming from the side of the house. Oh no. Luke. If I was freaked out by the media circus, I couldn’t even imagine how he felt. This was his territory just as much as it was mine.

Taking a deep breath, I unlocked the back door and stepped into my yard, trying my best to sneak around to the side. I could barely make out Luke’s silhouette among the flashes of cameras and reporters who had the audacity to scale the fence to my back yard. They were scaring him and me. It was like they were everywhere, trampling on everything in my life.

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