“And now?”
“I…I…”
“Eric, I was done with you the minute you let me walk out that door. Good bye.”
“Kyla—”
“What?” The sound of that one word question felt like an icicle piercing his eardrum.
“So that’s it?”
“Yes.” Click. She stood silently with her arms folded.
“Are you okay?” Sean asked. Her mouth was trembling and she was fighting the tears sitting on the edge of her eyes. Sean stood up and wrapped his arms around her and the tears came streaming down her face. “Shhh…”
“What’s wrong with me? It’s not like I loved him.” She cried harder. He rubbed her back trying to calm her.
Sean knew better. She may not have been in love with Eric, but part of her loved him. “Shhh…” He hated seeing her like this.
Moments like this were making it even more difficult to just be Kyla’s friend. He wanted to hurt Eric. Now he had a name, the only thing missing was a face and an address. If he had those, he’d go over and knock him into the next millennium. Kyla may not have been perfect, but no one deserved to be treated like this.
They stood still, with Sean rubbing her back until she calmed down. “Where’s your phone?”
“Why,” she pulled back and wiped her eyes. “I don’t want you…”
“I’m not going to call him.” She handed him the phone. “I’m going to send Antonio a message to give everyone the day off.”
“I can’t do that.”
“I thought you decided to take the day off?”
“I did.”
“So why not give everyone the day off? Call it Employee Appreciation Day.”
She looked at him smiling. “I don’t believe I’m doing this. Give me that.” She snatched the phone out of his hand. “Employee Appreciation Day.” She pressed the programmed number. “Good morning, Antonio.”
“Good morning.”
“I want you to send an email, text, or whatever to everyone giving them the day off.”
“What?” Antonio sounded shocked. Kyla very rarely gave her staff time off other than national holidays. “Who’s this?”
“It’s me and watch it or you’ll be the only one working.”
“Yeah it’s you. What about your schedule?”
“I think I only had a couple of meetings, right?”
“Yeah, and there was a new woman coming in,” he reminded her.
“Who?”
“Olivia King.”
“Who scheduled that?”
“I think she’s a referral.”