Page 43 of Best Served Hot

Kelsey continued. “We’d talked about wanting to stick it out to show them we were strong. We didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of driving us out.”

Alice exhaled long and slow. “But I realized I was dreading going into work. Why were we trying so hard when it’s a booming job market out there for software engineers?”

So they wrote out letters stating exactly why they were leaving and posted them on the company-wide Slack channel. “HR’s been calling nonstop,” said Kelsey. “I had to turn off my phone.”

“So now we’re jobless,” said Alice. She reached up to push her overgrown bangs out of her eyes and . . . Was her arm shaking? No. All of her was shaking. “And I’m starting to regret posting that letter for everybody to read. What if it goes around the whole industry? We might be unhirable.”

“I think that it’s badass,” Emerson Leigh chimed in. Both Alice and Kelsey jumped, as if they hadn’t noticed she was there. Emerson Leigh jumped, too, but to her feet. “So hashtag girl boss. I wish I had some of your nerve.” Her lips wavered a little bit, then pressed up into a smile. “Actually, my starting a business takes a lot of nerve. I don’t even have time to worry about anything else! Like my . . .” She trailed off, blinking, lips still frozen in that smile.

Alice blinked. “You must be Emerson Leigh.”

Emerson Leigh pressed a hand to her chest, now full-on beaming. She was the only person in the room smiling right now. “You’ve heard of me! Is it because you have a pet and you’ve thought about signing up for my services?”

“No,” Alice said. Emerson Leigh’s smile faltered a little. “Julie’s told me about you.”

“Oh, I see.”

“So now we’re both freaking out,” Alice said, turning back to me. Kelsey nodded in agreement. “Because we don’t have jobs, and we don’t know if anyone’s going to want to hire us. I mean, I’m okay for six months or so if I have to be—I have some money saved up—but I really wanted to save that money for a down payment on an apartment one day.”

Kelsey nodded again. “I’m okay for a few months, too. But I have student loans to pay. So many student loans.”

“Solidarity.” I held out my fist. She wrinkled her brow at it, like she wasn’t quite sure what to do, but then gamely gave me a fist bump.

“That really sucks,” said Emerson Leigh sympathetically. “But I think it’s a good thing you’re not there anymore. It sounds like a toxic workplace.”

“It really was,” said Alice.

“You should just get your parents to help you out,” Emerson Leigh said earnestly. I suppressed a sigh. “Even if they just pay your rent for you and float you some extra cash for going out, that’ll help a lot.”

Alice and Kelsey blinked at her again, as if Emerson Leigh had just touched down from another planet and they were trying to make sense of her green skin, four arms, prismatic eyes. “Um . . . thanks,” Kelsey said finally.

Alice did not thank her. “Okay, but in the real world, my parents can’t help me, and I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s all going to be okay,” I said. “I bet there are plenty of companies who will look at this positively. I know sexism is rampant in the tech industry, but there have to be places out there who are run by or are at least supportive of women. Who knows? Maybe HR is trying to call you to offer you your job back because they fired the dicks on your team.”

“I wouldn’t want to go back even if they were,” Alice said, then looked a little shocked at what had come out of her mouth.

“And it’s true, there are so many places out there to work, big companies and small companies and everything in between,” said Kelsey slowly. “And the demand is greater than supply right now when it comes to skilled coders.”

“That’s true,” Alice murmured.

They were looking better already, which was encouraging to see. “So take a couple days, see how everything shakes out, then do some research and start sending résumés,” I said. I might even be able to get them some good leads through Mr. Decker’s contacts, but I’d wait to confirm that before making promises I might not be able to keep. “You’ll get snapped up in no time.”

Alice sank down into one of the squashy armchairs, propping her elbows on her knees and sinking her face in her hands. “Thanks,” she said, her voice muffled. “I’m glad we came here. We stalked out and I just . . . I didn’t know where else to go.”

A lump rose in my throat. “I’m touched.” So much so that I thought I might cry.

“Whatever you do, you should def go wild tonight,” Emerson Leigh said. “Like, wild wild. If you wake up and remember everything that happened, you didn’t go wild enough.”

“Definitely. I’m taking you out,” I said.

Alice lifted her face from her hands, and the shiny look of optimism on her face made me want to find her the best food, the best drinks, the best place to scream into the void and have nobody look at you. Maybe Times Square? Probably Times Square, at least when it came to the screaming part. “Thank you, Julie,” she said. “I think that’s the only thing that could make me feel better.”

“Anytime,” I said. That settled it. Those expense reports I was supposed to file today could wait. I’d spend the next hour or two, or however long it took for Emerson Leigh to get bored and leave, doing research on where to take them, and then I’d tell Mr. Decker I wasn’t feeling well and duck out early. Alice and Kelsey definitely needed the hot chocolate at City Bakery, which might as well have been drinkable fudge, and they closed at four today. So hot chocolate, and then later, for dinner . . .

Dinner.

Bennett.