Page 61 of I Hope This Finds You Well

I’m dying. Sweat pools in my pits while I stare at my hands.

Marla gives him a confused look while Armin says, “Hey, Lar, if you want you can go have mine. I don’t want it.”

Larry lets out a disbelieving puff. “You got one too? Oh my god.”

He marches back to his office double speed. As he disappears around the corner, I spot Cliff coming from the other direction. He walks right past my desk but doesn’t even look up to say hi, just stares down at his phone. Heat flashes across my cheeks. Gregory suddenly turns to stare straight at me. Our eyes catch and he looks at me appraisingly. There’s something mysterious in his gaze, like he’s thinking something messed up, and it makes my skin prickle. I swing back around to look at my monitor.

Caitlin calls, “Oh, hi, Gregory. Thanks for the scone.”

His brow twists. “What?”

I turn to stone.

I need to step in. I need to say something, do something—

A buzz suddenly tears through the room. Caitlin darts for her phone and stabs at it to turn it off. “Sorry, my fiancé’s just trying to plan a weekend thing and—” Her shoulders drop as her phone starts ringing again in her hands. “I’ll remind him that I can’t talk during work hours.”

Gregory smiles. “Young love is exciting. But it’s smart to not let it distract you when you’re here.” And he leans closer. “Might be how errors sneak into the building.”

She shrinks into herself and nods.

Cliff walks into the boardroom and Gregory follows behind him, closing the door.

My hands are shaking so hard I can barely move my mouse across my screen to fake work. It’s taking so much effort to rein myself in, I almost don’t notice Armin watching me.

A DM for Caitlin flashes across the screen. I can barely look at it.

Armin:Hey, didn’t Jolene get a scone?

Caitlin:I guess not. Ha!

Caitlin:So the “exciting incentive program” Gregory mentioned at the meeting was... plain scones from Artistic Coffee? And to leave them in the lunchroom like that—what the fuck?

I blink several times, trying not to twitch or do anything weird with my face.

Armin:That’s Gregory’s brand. He’s always giving us rewards that are secretly punishments to put us in our place.

Caitlin:I mean true. Remember the “pizza party” we “won”?

Armin:I almost punched the guy when I caught him bogarting all the microwaves to heat the shit up.

Caitlin:I guess this is better than Kirkland brand pizza pops. The cheap prick.

I stifle a chuckle. I remember the lead-up to that party that Greg kept selling us on: the printouts with graphics ofactualpizza-shaped food—a defining moment about this place. Caitlin thanked Gregory for the pizza about a million times at the party. She sold her enjoyment so well that I genuinely worried for her.

I knew she was good with the BS, but I guess even I can’t see through everything about her.

Thirty minutes pass in silence. I drag my mouse across my desktop, making grey boxes on top of my default wallpaper. I open the calculator app and type in random numbers.

Finally, the door to the boardroom clicks open. I don’t turn around, but I can sense the two of them emerge. Gregory’s footsteps sound behind me, heading back to his office. A moment later, I glimpse Cliff walking past. Again, he keeps his head down, eyes on his phone, until he disappears around the corner.

I can’t just go and grab my phone right away. So I wait another fifteen minutes in agony.

Finally, once I’m certain that everyone is thoroughly entranced by the light of their monitors, I head to the boardroom.

When I step back out, I halt when I clock Armin watching me. His eyes shift, before he turns back to his monitor and throws his earphones back over his head.

I stand there for a beat, clutching my phone. There’s no way he noticed I didn’t walk in with it. I’m sure I’m just being paranoid.