Page 43 of I Hope This Finds You Well

I should respond. But then I know she’d only use it as an invitation to ask for more—a phone call, a visit, and always the pressure to move back in with her. Exhaustion sweeps over me at just the sight of them.

So I toss the phone back where it came from. I have enough problems to take care of right now.

When Caitlin returns, I watch her closely, searching for any indication of what went down during her meeting with Cliff. She doesn’t immediately do cartwheels around my cube to celebrate my termination or even so much as smirk at me, which might be an encouraging sign, but her behavior is too indecipherable to be assured. She just spends the next half hour continuing to furiously type her giant email. Yet nothing appears in her sent folder.

I riffle through the emails of everyone she works with for good measure too, and still nothing.

Cliff’s emails remain untouched too. What is he doing? Maybe he’s working on a termination form for me right now. I think of DMing something random to him—I don’t even know what—just to see if he’ll respond. But that might be suspicious, so I stare blankly at my cubicle wall and wait for death.

Finally, lunch hour comes, and people begin to trickle away from their desks, marinara-stained Tupperwares in hand. Rhonda gets up and grabs her keys, declaring to no one in particular that she’s going to buy a sandwich.

I stare at nothing as I break off pieces of my pathetic homemade PB and J. Normally this would be an ideal lunch hour, but I can’t relax.

It feels like no time has passed when people begin to return to their desks. Armin is one of the last to come back, dragging himself towardour pod with a cloud hanging over him. Rhonda tilts her head toward the clock. “You’re over twenty minutes late.”

He presses his palms to his temples. “Okay” is all he says.

Rhonda squints at the ground. “Are those your new sneakers?”

Armin lets out a slow sigh. “I don’t know how that’s relevant.”

“Is that why you were late? Did you go to the mall? Young people spend so much money on silly things. At your age, my Carl was saving for a down payment on his house.”

Armin sits down hard in his chair and slides his feet pointedly out of Rhonda’s sight. “First of all, I had an appointment. It was cleared by Gregory, and you were cc’d—did you forget?”

Her body tenses, clearly caught off guard by the undisguised heat in Armin’s reply. I mentally take stock of all the times Armin has barbed her—but it’s normally more emphasis on the passive than the aggressive.

“You have too many appointments during work hours. It’s not good for—”

“Hey, it’s my PTO,” he cuts in. “So why don’t you save your stellar mom advice for Carl this weekend.”

Yikes. I’ve never seen him bite back this hard.

Rhonda presses her lips together and backs away. “Well, Larry is in his HR appointment this afternoon. So if EAE inquiries come, you’ll have to cover for him.”

Armin rubs his temples again. I wonder if the vein in his head is finally going to explode. “Why doIhave to cover?” His gaze flicks to me pointedly.

Fuck. I realize I’ve been staring between him and Rhonda intensely, and the earphones I have on are not disguising it. Sweat gathers on my skin beneath my shirt despite the cool air they blast to keep us alive.

“Jolene and I are working on aspecialproject.” Rhonda gives me a little insider grin. “This is a busy time, so we need everyone here to pull their own weight.”

Armin raises his eyebrow at me, clearly imploring me to interject. But defending him would mean going against Rhonda, who is finally coming around to liking me. So I look down at my keyboard.

I feel his stare linger, before he throws on his headphones and hunches over his computer. “’Kay.”

It shouldn’t be this hard to remain neutral with people. But trust Supershops Incorporated to turn a desk job into an air-conditioned version ofSurvivor,complete with alliances and betrayals.

Rhonda shakes her head and turns to her own screen.

I take a single sip of tepid coffee to calm me, and then nearly spit it out when I see the message from Caitlin to Armin pop up on my screen.

Caitlin:BTW the HR guy said it’s important to have multiple testimonies if there’s a problem with a colleague. So I was thinking if you wanted me to also vouch for you and the creepy situation with Jolene, I’d be happy to join your meeting. Just throwing it out there that you have my support, friend. ??

Caitlin:Also, he’s really nice, so don’t be afraid to be open.

Heat rushes up my neck. Caitlin has no right to call anyone “nice.” She can’t recognize that trait.

My head whips toward Armin. He’s drooping lifelessly against his desk. He doesn’t make a move to type a response.