Page 3 of Mission: Merry Christmas
“I’ll need the keys to the corporate apartment by next Friday.”
That part hadn’t even entered her mind yet. It just keeps getting better.No jobandno home for Christmas. She closed her eyes, hoping she wasn’t going to cry. She blew out a breath and faced him.
“Of course you do. How about I send the keys with the wedding gift?” She closed the door behind her and walked straight out of the building. There wasn’t anything in her office she couldn’t live without. All she wanted right now was to get as far away from The Ware Agency as she could.
ChapterTwo
Evenafter reciting the chain of events to her sister over the phone, Avery still found it hard to believe she was out of a job.
“He fired you?” Corinne’s disbelief echoed in her head.
“I wasn’t fired.” Avery scowled. She hated it when Corinne’s voice went up that way. Avery wanted to be consoled, not judged. “Fired is what happens to someone when a person doesn’t perform. I performed. Exceeded all expectations. I took his business to the next level. I raised the bar for the whole industry.”
“Call it whatever you want. It sounds like he fired you.”
“Eliminated my position,” Avery mumbled.
“You’re out of a job either way. What a jerk. I told you that dating in the workplace was a bad idea.”
“Seriously? We’re going there? I didn’t deserve this. We didn’t date. I wasn’t anything more than an arm piece for him in public to a few games, and that was like two years ago. History.” Okay, so they’d been major sporting events and very public, but they weren’t romantic or cozy. It had been her job. Fun at the time, but boy, did she regret it now.
“Well, apparently it looked like more to someone, because it’s biting you in the butt now, isn’t it?”
“You mean Violet?” She’d spat the name, which wasn’t fair. Violet was very capable and deserving of her position at the agency. It was hard to believe she’d agreed to marry Tom, but then that was Violet’s problem, not Avery’s.
“Yeah. Maybe Tom, too. Who knows? I guess all that matters now is that your life is going to change, and you have the opportunity to move in whatever direction you like. It could be a good thing.”
Corinne had always been the bright-side-of-the-picture girl. It drove Avery nuts.
“Doesn’t feel very good,” Avery muttered. “I hired Violet. You’d think she might have been grateful for that.” The blood pounded in her temples.
“I’m sorry this is happening to you right here at Christmas,” Corinne said. “He couldn’t have waited until the New Year?”
“On the bright side, the severance pretty well covers Christmas, New Year’s, and practically to Memorial Day.”
“That was generous,” said Corinne in her ever practical way. “So, what are you going to do?”
“I have to be out of the apartment in a week. I’ll find somewhere to stay and then figure out legally what I can do for work since I signed a non-compete with him.”
“Don’t worry about that. You’re good at what you do. It’ll sort itself out. You know you can always work for me. You’re over-qualified for most of the work, but it’ll pay the bills.”
Corinne ran a huge network of traveling nurses and health-care professionals. Before Avery decided to specialize in sports medicine, she had worked for Corinne.
“I’ve got some money put away and this big check. I’ll be fine once I find a place to live.”
“We have plenty of room. You can stay as long as it takes you to figure out where you’re going to land.”
“Thanks, Corinne. The apartment was furnished, so it’s really just my clothes and a few things. I could put everything in storage, I guess.” Going back home to Vermont for the winter and spending some time with Corinne would be nice. It had been too long between visits, with work being so busy.
“Just ship all your stuff here.” Excitement grew in Corinne’s voice. “We’ve got room in the garage. I know it's lousy circumstances, but I can’t wait to see you. How many years has it been since we were all together for Christmas dinner? Mom and Dad will be so thrilled. But we have to do it at their place. Dad still isn’t getting around that well.”
Avery’s muscles froze. “Wait. Corinne. I can’t.” She sucked in a breath. “They’ll know something’s wrong.”
“Oh, yeah. You never did have a good poker face.”
“Dad will freak out if he thinks I’m out of a job, no matter how much money I’ve socked away. We can’t put that stress on him right now. Not so soon after the last episode.”
“You’re right. He’d give himself another heart attack,” Corinne said.
