Page 63 of My Boss

Oh, you naive Mary.

Oh, you fucked-up day.

I hate Christmas Eve, I hate Christmas! I now know it for sure and at the same moment the light goes out.

I hold my breath. What is it? The light comes on, but only for a second, only to dim in a moment and dissipate into a faint glow.

The elevator slows down, making a buzzing sound, and suddenly stops. I catch hold of the handle, glance at the panel, and it fades, as if the batteries in it have run out. The air conditioning shuts off. There is nothing but deathly silence.

Is this our floor?

And then all the lights go out. Complete darkness falls.

What the fuck?

A few seconds later, the emergency light on the panel comes on. In the dim light, I notice that Jan is pressing the emergency bell.

We both wait, staring at the dark panel. The silence is deafening.

His thumb pushes on the button again. Nothing.

“Here is the phone number for the elevator service.” I fumble in my pockets looking for my cell phone. It’s not there. Only smokes, a lighter and chewing gum. All my stuff is upstairs in mypurse. “Call them,” I order Jan and put a piece of gum into my mouth.

“Since when does a subordinate give orders to the boss?” he replies sharply and presses the button again.

Well, there you go, so he can talk.

“Since the boss started thinking with his dick instead of his brain.”

“What did you say?” He turns to me.

“If you had behaved like a normal boss today, nothing would have happened between us, I would have finished my report earlier and would have been sitting at the Christmas Eve table with my parents instead of being stuck in the fucking elevator with you.”

“With the same parents who consider you a total zero?” He raises an eyebrow.

I clench my jaws. Wow, a quote, imagine that.

“Stop picking on me. I prefer their company to yours. I think I made it clear what I think of you.”

“Yes, you did a great job. However, I would disagree with a few statements.”

“Really? I’m dying of curiosity.”

“Maybe I’ll start by saying that I didn’t treat you at all like…” He pauses. He grunts, as if the words choked him.

“Like what? A whore?”

He makes a grimace.

“I would never have thought of you like that, Maria. Never.” He sounds so convincing that I almost believe him.

“But that’s how you treated me. I felt like a whore used to give satisfaction and to be dismissed right afterward. Is this damn report really that important? Does some fucking string of numbers, analysis and statistics mean more to you than me?”

“No.”

“Then why did you tell me to finish it when you saw perfectly well that I was in a hurry?”

Jan doesn’t answer, just pushes the button again so hard until his finger turns white.

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