Page 11 of Quinn
QUINN
The following Monday, after spending most of the weekend in bed together, Evan picks me up to take me to work. He said it didn’t make sense that I take the bus every day when he could drive us both since he got his car back from the shop.
We get to the office and walk together to our desks. I don’t miss the sneer that Claudia gives me when she notices Evan holding my hand. She storms away from our cubicles. I was all prepared for the jokes she had prepared for me about what happened on Friday, but for once, she had nothing to say—to me at least.
I didn't find out until later that she'd stormed into Mason's office until I got a call from Mason to come and speak with him privately.
“Do you think he already knows about us?” I ask him.
Evan shakes his head. “He’d only know if someone told him. Besides, we planned on disclosing our relationship to HR today anyway. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Easier said than done. I’m not really one that can just flip a switch in my head and choose not to worry about something. Besides, I had an uneasy feeling in my gut from the moment we walked in. Call it a lifetime of waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I knew I was too happy this morning not to have something go wrong.
“Have a seat, Quinn.” Mason gestures towards the lone chair on the other side of his desk.
I sit down and prepare myself for whatever it is Mason's about to say to me.
“I want to talk to you about what happened on Friday.”
Despite the strides I've been making over the last few days, I find myself suddenly reverting to my old self.
“You left work early without giving me any notice.”
“Something happened—”
He holds up his hand to stop me. "I heard what happened. Many people around the office heard what happened, and I have to say that this is alarming behavior from you."
“Leaving early without asking?”
“No,” he shakes his head like he's frustrated that I'm not following what he's trying to say. "I'm talking about the inappropriate material you played on your phone out loud in the office."
“It was an accident.”
"Accident or not, I'm surprised by this behavior from you. I thought you were a nice girl.”
I sit back in my seat, shocked at his words. “I am nice.”
He frowns. “Not from what I heard you played. Nice girls don’t read that smut.”
Is he trying to shame me?
The old me I’d been reverting back into when I walked in here dissipates like vapor and gets blown away with the breeze coming in through Mason’s open window.
“Now I’m going to have to write you up for this,” he says, opening a manila folder in front of him. “I think that you should take this as a lesson to reevaluate your behavior both in this office and outside it.”
Okay, that’s fucking it.
I've never felt more confident in my voice than I do at this moment.
"Listen up, Mason. I'm not going to sit here and let you pass judgment on me and call my behavior inappropriate. I've seen the way you stare at the women in this office and only show them a favor when they play to your ego. There is nothing wrong with my behavior. And if you have a problem with how I act, then let me be the first to tell you that I'm no longer your problem anymore."
His brow creases in confusion. “What does that mean?”
I stand and slap both my palms against the table against his desk so hard he flinches back in his seat. “I quit.”
“You can’t quit.”
I turn and open the door and say over my shoulder without looking back. “I just did.”
