Page 6 of Distrustful

"What's wrong?" Ursula looks up, intrigued.

"Anabel, from accounting, has submitted her voluntary resignation," Maria comments to her boss's stunned look.

"Voluntary resignation? Why?"

Ursula doesn't understand anything. Anabel has been working for her for more than ten years. She has good hours and more than reasonable pay, plus an extra week of vacation every year that she arranged with Ursula at the time to spend a full month in Argentina, her home country. All this not to mention that the woman loves her position and, moreover, is very effective, so Ursula is also delighted with her.

"Well, she hasn't commented according to what they say in Human Resources, she's given her two weeks' notice and that's it," Maria responds and clears her throat.

"I don't understand, tell her to come see me."

"Here?" Maria tenses.

"Of course, Maria, I'm not taking her to my house," Ursula says.

"Well, I might have something to do with this," she admits in such a low voice that Ursula takes time to process what she's said.

"What did you say?" the businesswoman asks.

"That maybe..."

"I heard you, Maria, what I'm wondering is what you did to make a woman who supports an entire family in her country want to leave her job to run away from you," she says trying to stay calm.

"I might have flirted a little with her and we slept together, and apparently, she fell in love a little, but not too much..."

"Oh my God!"

Ursula drops the speech document and falls back against the chair's backrest.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Maria? Aren't there enough people on Tinder that you have to sleep with company staff too?"

Maria doesn't know what to say, she feels bad about what happened with Anabel. She felt very flattered when she saw how she started looking at her and flirting with her seemed very fun and boosted her self-esteem a lot. But she should have stopped there, she should never have gone to her house, slept with her or let her cook dinner, because Anabel fell head over heels, love at first sight, and Maria had to be very rude to her to make it clear that the feeling wasn't mutual.

"I'm sorry, it got a little out of hand," she says and lowers her head again.

Ursula looks at her for a long time and then also looks at the stapler on her desk that she'd like to throw at her head. If it were anyone else, she'd probably fire her immediately, but it's Maria, her best friend and she loves her like crazy.

"Fine, get out of here and have her called in, I'll handle it. And Maria, don't you dare go near her again, understood?"

"I swear," Maria raises her hands in relief, she knows that if there's anyone capable of consoling Anabel and also convincing her not to leave, it's Ursula Monte.