Page 66 of My Merry Mistake
I don’t look at her. “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I?
“Oh, just because, you know . . .”
I shuffle past her, flip on my office light, hang up my bag on the hook by the door, and sit down in my chair. I turn away from Jill, trying to slow my breathing.
Why am I out of breath?
I turn back as she hugs a stack of folders to her chest. “Brian said you were taking a leave? Told us we need to look for ways to fill in the gaps until you’re healthy enough to come back.”
I stare at her, trying to process this. “He said what?”
Jill winces, giving me a half-hearted shrug.
I stand, but the movement makes me feel a little light-headed, and I have to pause for a second before I move.
What is happening? Why is my body being so uncooperative?
The doctor’s words rush back:“If you don’t make some changes, this could happen again, and next time, it could be an actual stroke—or worse.”
The low-level anxiety is back, just beneath the surface. I shove it aside.
“Raya, are you okay?” Jill moves toward me, but I stop her with an upheld hand.
“I’m fine.” I get my bearings and walk down the hall, past Landyn’s cubicle and into Brian’s office. He looks up and frowns at me.
“What are you doing here?” he asks. “Didn’t you get my email?”
“No,” I say. “I just got in.”
He clucks his tongue and squeezes the knot of his tie. “I should’ve called. Could’ve saved you a trip.”
“I don’t need time off, Brian,” I say. “I can’t take it, anyway. We have The Alabaster Group tonight. You asked me to oversee their visit.”
“I put Hoff on that,” he says.
I glance through the glass of Brian’s office wall and see Hoff, whose name is actually Douglas Hoffmann. He’s the newest addition to the team, and I have no idea if he can handle this. I refuse to have office drama with a guy who graduated from college a few months ago, but I’m annoyed. It feels like I’m being punished.
I sit in the chair opposite Brian’s desk. “Why would you do that? I’ve been coordinating it for two weeks.”
“Jill gave him all the notes yesterday while you were out,” Brian says.
I raise my eyebrows. “She gave him my notes?”
“Raya, we’re a team here. We all have the same goal. Doesn’t matter who gets the credit for getting us there.”
“Did I do something wrong?” I frown. “I thought I was handling things well.”
He leans back in his chair. “You’ve done nothing wrong. In fact, you’re pretty amazing.”
“Thank you.”
“But—” he says, and I feel like that just erased everything he just said. “After yesterday—” His eyes go wide, like he’s remembering. “We can’t work you into the ground, Raya.”
“You’re not. I don’t understand,” I say. “I need to be here. I need to be working.”
“And you will be,” he says. “After you give yourself a break.”
I squeeze my folded hands tight in my lap, memories of sitting in another boss’s office seven years ago running through my mind.
