Page 8 of Hearts of Stone

“Well, if people are out, then you won’t mind if we finish our shifts now,” I said.

I was burning some serious bridges. I’d worked for the same supermarket chain since leaving high school. It was the entirety of my work history on my resume. But I didn’t even think about the potential consequences of my actions as I turned on my heel and walked toward her office door.

“Jade!” My name echoed down the hallway as I strode away from Jackie’s office. “Jade!”

But I didn’t stop. The list of names flapped back and forth in my clenched hand as I stalked back out to the main part of the store, a pennant heralding the battle that was to come. Jackie didn’t manage to overtake me out to the floor, and I marchedstraight up to Daniel, still standing where I’d left him, waiting for me.

“What’s going on?” he asked, then looked past my shoulder. “Ol’ Vinegar Tits looks like she’s fit to blow a gasket.”

“We’re getting the sack.”

“What?” His keen brown eyes searched mine and his brow creased, then smoothed over again. “What? We can’t…” He turned around and gestured to all the people lined up behind the checkouts, customers he should’ve been serving. “They can’t.”

“Automation,” I said, shoving the piece of paper in his face. “Everyone on this list is losing their job.”

He snatched it from my hands and I watched him scan it in disbelief, just like I had. And, like me, his response was to spring into action.

“Izzy!” Isabel turned away from the customer she was chatting to and faced us. “We’re getting sacked.”

“What?”

But Daniel didn’t wait for her response.

“Nelly! George!” He kept going and each person he named turned around as he ran down the front of the shop. “You’ve lost your jobs.”

“Jesus Christ, Jade!” Jackie marched over to me, her face crimson with anger. “You’re an assistant manager. It’s your job to manage this situation.” As she fronted me, the others who’d just found out they’d been fired moved up behind me.

“Except I’m not any more, am I?” I stared her down, no more scared of her than I had been of the spooky gargoyles. “I’m not anything anymore.” I grabbed my name badge and tore it off my shirt, then tossed it onto the ground.

“You won’t be after this, that’s for sure,” she said, with narrowed eyes. “You call the company for a reference, and I’ll tell them exactly what you’re like.”

“If you’re still here, that is, Jackie.” Daniel was panting lightly as he came back to stand beside me, more and more of the staff joining us. Other name badges were thrown away, hair was pulled free and piercings were reinstated. “If they’re going to sack all of us and automate everything, how long before they automate whatyoudo?”

I put my hands on my hips and leaned forward, past caring about her petty vindictiveness.

“I was about to give my two week’s notice anyway.”

“You’re quitting?” Jackie looked furious. “After everything the company has done for you?”

I let out an ironic laugh, shaking my head.

“So you’re allowed to fire me with no notice, but I’m not allowed to quit?”

I turned on my heel and strode away, wanting, needing, to put some space between me and her, because as soon as the words had come out of my mouth, I regretted them. Jobs were much easier to get than housing, weirdly enough, although that was part of the problem. People were pouring into the cities, ready to work, and while there were jobs to be had, there weren’t enough places for people to live in order to do them, which drove up wages. Housing. Wages. The two words seemed to reverberate over and over in my head as I realised that now I had neither. I was going to have to go home to the apartment and…ugh, go back to Trevor’s. I closed my eyes as I shook my head, still thrown by the fact that the place I automatically thought of as home wasn’t that any more. I needed to pack up my shit and ring my parents. I needed—

“Oh my god…” Daniel breathed out. “That was fucking amazing. You went postal on her fucking arse. I knew you had it in you all this time. And that…” he paused for effect, “was glorious.”

“I need to pack all my stuff up,” I told him. I’d opened my eyes to look at him when he started praising my verbal takedown of Jackie, but I needed to focus on moving forward.

“You’re moving into my place?” Daniel instantly flipped from worshipful adoration to ready-to-roll.

“I can’t. You have a one bedroom studio and a very active sex life.”

He smiled happily as he tilted his head to the side and twirled his finger in his hair. “I do, don’t I?”

“I’m moving back home,” I told him, watching as his smile faded.

“Like…home, home?” He stepped forward. “Jade—”

---