“You’re fired!”
Sam’s hands
slammed down on the arms of the office chair as she jerked forward. “Because
some dude stole a necklace from his wife, pawned it and got the insurance for
it? And I had the nerve to tell the story?”
“You’re
fired!”
There was so
much more she wanted to say to him, to tell him. It wasn’t fair that she was
getting kicked to the curb for other people’s lies and secrets. It wasn’t her
fault that she felt truth should win out at all costs. Climbing to her feet,
she stared hard at her boss, debating about telling him again why she’d written
that story. The blue vein bulging from his forehead and the deep crimson color
of his puffy cheeks told her it was pointless and might just cause a heart
attack.
“The story
didn’t run, so what’s the big deal?”
His mottled
face started to shake with fury. Sam picked up her coffee which she was glad
she’d set down when she came in and took a step back. The last man she’d seen
that angry had thrown a punch.
“Only
because I caught it. Nothing and I mean nothing, gets printed in this paper
without my say so. Very sneaky Samantha. Not acceptable. You’re done here. And
don’t worry, you won’t ever work in this industry again.”
She shook
her head hoping something would fall into place and this would all make sense.
It wasn’t like it was any different than any of the other stories the newspaper
wrote – they got details, or as many as they could and then skewed them sideways
if that’s what made the tale sensational. Only she hadn’t needed to do that. The
facts themselves had been enough to make the story astounding. For once the
paper might have been able to print the truth and nothing but the truth. The
informant who’d put her on to this situation had been right, it had been
unbelievable. She wished she’d been able to thank him but that was part of the
agreement – no names, no thank yous, no mention of where the story started. And
she couldn’t tell anyone because it wasn’t actually supposed to have been hers
to tell.
“I’m fired.”
It didn’t compute.
“Of course.
I don’t say things I don’t mean. Now get out.”
She eyed Mr.
Donner, the man that she’d thought she was going to have a lot of respect for,
the man she’d envisioned thanking in the future for all he’d taught her. For
taking her under his wing and making her the exceptional journalist that she
was. Okay she knew that was crap but she had hoped that her initial ‘feeling’
about him had been wrong. Besides she figured that even if he wasn’t more than
a pompous figurehead, there had to be some people at the paper that she could
learn from. To date, unfortunately, she’d only been patted on the head and
given the lame jobs. Still, she’d actually started to believe that this work
might be her calling. Well, until she’d taken it into her head to run with a
tip she’d been given. It hadn’t really been meant for her but since Tom hadn’t
been at his desk when his phone kept ringing and ringing, she’d figured it had
been hers to run with since she’d been the one to answer it. She had planned to
show them what she could do and that would have been the start to her amazing
career.
Another damn dream dashed.
Without
stopping to think about what she was doing or even taking the time to rationalize
that this wouldn’t be in her best interest, she tossed her almost full cup of
lukewarm coffee across the expansive cherry wood desk, into the face of the man
who had been her supervisor for a few short months.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have you ever had a boss like Sam that you may have wanted to do what she did?
