Page 11 of One Day and Forever
‘I am a strong, badass woman. I am a strong, badass woman. I am a strong…’She repeated it in her head, all the way to their destination.
‘Wait here please,’ Scooby Doo announced, pointing to two chairs in reception at the HR department. Kara and Tress did asthey were told, while security took a step back and stood at the door.
Tress leaned in. ‘I have no idea what I’m doing,’ she whispered, ‘but I’m here for you. Just try not to get me fired too. Small child to feed.’
Kara responded with a smile, but said nothing else, hyperaware of the security guard a few feet away and the HR assistant who had now taken a seat at the desk in front of them. The door to the HR director’s office was closed, but Kara was pretty sure she could hear rumblings of voices behind it.
Almost half an hour later, they were still sitting there, and in that time, Kara had googled ‘how to handle an exit interview’, ‘employee rights’ and declined three calls from Josh, then swiped two texts away without reading them. She had no interest in anything the man she was supposed to marry this week had to say. After that, she’d scrolled through Twitter to see if anyone had posted footage of Ollie arriving in Glasgow last night. It was a weird life when that was the easiest way to track your best friend. Meanwhile, she could see that beside her, Tress had caught up with all her emails and booked a ten-day Easter holiday to Paphos.
That was the point at which Kara’s patience ran out. She’d seen this power play. Keeping someone waiting was straight out of countless spy movies. Or maybe it was Chicago PD, she couldn’t quite remember.
She stood up. Time to test out that strong, badass woman mantra.
‘Look, I’ve waited long enough. When I got the email, I thought I could come here and be treated with courtesy and respect…’ She was making this up as she went along, but that sounded pretty good. ‘But clearly that isn’t the case. I’m leaving, and you’ll be hearing from my lawyer.’ She didn’t even have a lawyer, but again, Chicago PD.
‘Miss McIntyre,’ came a voice from the doorway that led to the inner sanctum of Human Resources management. ‘Apologies for our tardiness. We were waiting for a couple more people to join us, but it appears they’ve been held up.’
Kara didn’t believe a word of it, especially as it was coming from the mouth of Abigail Scary Knickers Dunlop, the notoriously ruthless head of HR. Behind Abigail, Kara could see John Stoker, the studio’s top legal guy who’d sent the email to summon her. She suddenly got the feeling that a costume designer and a set designer who’d just booked a jolly to Paphos were going to be no match for these two.
‘Please come on through and we’ll get started without them.’
Kara met Tress’s gaze again, and got an encouraging nod.
Sod it. Nothing to lose.
They followed Abigail into the office, where John introduced himself, then gestured to two seats on the opposite side of the small boardroom table.
‘Thank you for coming in to meet with us. I must start by apologising.’ For a split second Kara got the wrong end of the apology stick and thought they were repenting for the behaviour of their star and the studio heads. He soon set her straight. ‘I believe you had actually booked a holiday period beginning today. I wasn’t aware of that when I sent you the email suggesting we meet this morning.’
Holiday. For her wedding. The one that was no longer happening.
‘That’s okay,’ she said, trying to keep her chin high and her voice strong. ‘I don’t actually leave until tonight, so I was happy to fit you into my schedule.’
Two could play at the posturing game. They didn’t need to know that until she read that email, her entire schedule today had been, ‘Wallow for as long as possible. Cry. Eat high-sugar foods. Wallow some more. Go to airport.’
‘Excellent. Well, I’ll get right to it,’ he went on, with an air of impatient irritation. ‘I’ve been told that you resigned your position at the studio’s Hogmanay party, and we’d just like to establish what exactly happened leading up to that event.’
‘I’m pretty sure you already have that information,’ Kara said boldly, refusing to appear intimidated, although she absolutely, most definitely, totally was intimidated.
John didn’t confirm or deny. Oh, he was good. ‘We’d like to hear it from your perspective. I’d also like to record this meeting, with your permission.’
‘No. You’re not recording me. I don’t have legal representation, so that puts me at an unfair disadvantage.’
Those twenty minutes reading up on employment interviews hadn’t been wasted. Beside her, Tress was nodding in solemn agreement, although Kara was fairly sure she had no idea whether that was a good move or not.
She could tell that answer had displeased them, but she remained defiant. If anything had become clear to her this week, it was that she’d had enough of people trying to tell her what she should do.
‘Okay, then,’ Abigail said, with a heavy, disdainful sigh, ‘Perhaps you could just give me the details of the incident from your perspective.’
Kara wanted to point out that ‘her perspective’ was the only one that mattered, because it was the truth. She had absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Corbin Jacobs’ side of the story would require more dramatic acting than the double-episode, Sunday omnibus of the show.
‘Certainly. I’m just going to be honest and lay it all out there. Take from it what you will.’ She could do this. She could. Do not show fear. She took a deep breath, exhaled, and began. ‘As you said, we were at the studio’s Hogmanay bash at the Halcyon Club in the city centre. Many of the studio management, staffand cast of the show were there too, including Corbin Jacobs. It’s important to mention that he has a reputation in the studio for being sleazy, inappropriate and way too touchy-feely with the women. He’s hit on just about every female in the eighteen to fifty age bracket, and the only reason he stops there is because he’s also ageist.’ She paused, backtracked. ‘Actually, that last comment might not be true, as it’s a personal opinion, not an ascertained fact.’ Hopefully that would convince them that she was trying to be honest and fair.
‘Anyway, at the Hogmanay party, I was dancing with one of the girls…’ She cleared her throat. ‘I mean,women, on the show. An actress.’
Abigail interrupted her, with the sharpness of a trained interrogator. ‘You’re referring to Casey Lowen?’
‘Yes.’ Casey was a relatively new addition to the cast – in her twenties, pretty, sweet, and she played the long-lost granddaughter of the character who’d been made famous by Odette Devine, the former matriarch of the show who’d retired about six months ago. And Kara really hoped they didn’t ask her opinion on that because she’d be far too willing to tell them that Odette had been treated terribly – the TV soap equivalent of put out to pasture. More blatant ageism at work there.
