Making Your Friends Feel Better About Their Own Deception? Sure, Why Not?
Day 122 of The Andie Chronicles
“I brought you a muffin.”
GG didn’t bother knocking on my office door, nor did she last night when she came barging into my house when I was standing over the kitchen bench eating raw cookie dough.
Without any pants on.
She had a casserole for me, which GG immediately thought was a brilliant idea, considering I wasn’t eating well when she caught me.
The same thought crossed her mind as she walked into my office and watched me finish my fourth coffee before eleven.
I hadn’t slept much; all I could do was replay the example Douglas made of me. Treating me like one of his menial peasant employees, someone who expected some pushback from a boss when they were running late.
I still had no idea what Douglas was to me; was he my boss? Do I report to him? How does this whole deal work?
James said to me, last night, they were still finalising those details and we would discover how the dynamics will work during Monday’s meeting. I asked James why I was being told my position and not asked as a founder should be.
The contract, he kept repeating. It’s all in the contract.
Despite the waiting, this still didn’t explain why Douglas felt like he could push me around on my second day.
And to make matters worse, it would seem my friends were still talking about me when I wasn’t there. James had obviously filled in GG what had happened in the office yesterday.
“What are you doing here?” Sure, GG had an office at the building. But she didn’t need it; she was still working for the bank. Ever since we came up with the unisex clothing line, she was always more silent than active.
“Thought I would stop by. Make sure you’re doing better.”
Oh, her pity, thick and palpable.
She put the muffin down on my desk and then perched. “The designer did well. You happy with this?”
Each piece was beautiful, and I couldn’t deny it. But it wasn’t my dining room, and it wasn’t what I wanted.
Looking at GG’s hopeful expression, I could feel what she wanted me to say. Praise, adoration, gushing over how life was looking up, and in such beautiful surroundings, too.
That would make GG feel better, it would make everyone feel better. But not me.
Right now, though, I needed them off my back. I needed them to stop worrying about me, so they could stop cutting me out of everything. I needed this chaos to calm, for the noise to cease.
“Very happy with it,” I said, with my forced, insincere smile.
After GG left, I pulled out my notebook, the one I had been using to collate all the information about what was happening around me. On a blank page, I scribed the date and began a new list.
‘Find where I put my copy of the contract.’
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