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There was a moment’s silence. But then Sophia asked patiently, “What’s bothering you specifically?”

“You want me to fire him?”

“You’re his direct boss, Megan, so, yes, I want you to fire him. I don’t expect you to enjoy it, but I do expect you to get used to it. You’re about to be a VP and unless you’re the luckiest VP in the history of VPs, you’re going to have to fire people from time to time.”

Megan felt like a silly schoolgirl.

“Of course,” she said firmly. “I’ll take care of it right away.”

Sophia nodded, apparently satisfied.

“Good. Have a great rest of the morning.” And Sophia ended the Zoom call.

Megan slumped back in her chair. She looked at the clock. It wasn’t even eight-thirty; too early for the drink she felt she needed now. It was also too early to call Vanessa and talk about it; La Vida Mocha was still open for another ninety minutes yet. That was probably a good thing, now that Megan thought about it because Vanessa would probably think Megan was being a baby. Vanessa had probably fired lots of people when she had worked at that energy company. And Vanessa would sure as hell have no problem firing a sucks-ass employee from La Vida Mocha in order to keep her business running shipshape.

She took a deep breath.

She had promised Sophia that she would take care of firing Trevor right away, but right away turned into something closer to twenty minutes while she steeled herself to call a person she knew and tell him he was out of a job during possibly the worst time to be out of a job since the Great Depression.

She knew the only decent way to handle this was via Zoom—the closest thing to an in-person meeting she could have with someone nowadays. Taking a couple more fortifying breaths, she made the call.

When Trevor’s face appeared on her 32-inch monitor, Megan forced herself to keep her expression neutral. He was about ten years older than her, she remembered, and had that kind of square-jawed handsomeness she supposed straight women simply melted at. Before they even had a chance to greet each other, Megan saw a young woman cross the room behind Trevor but

not before running her hand lovingly across his shoulder as she passed. Megan suddenly recalled that Trevor had once mentioned a fiancée during a team meeting, that they were planning on marrying on New Year’s Eve.

Fuck my life!

“Hey, Megan, what’s up?” he greeted her as though he didn’t have a care in the world.

Megan had decided before the call that, like Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi, she would dispense with the pleasantries.

“Trevor, I’m very sorry to have to do this, especially now, but I’m afraid it’s been decided that it’s best for you and BeachSoft to part ways.”

She watched Trevor frowning as he processed her words. To Megan, it seemed to take a ridiculously long time.

“Wait…you’re firing me?” he finally said, loud enough to attract the attention of his fiancée, who suddenly reappeared in the far background, standing in the frame of a doorway to watch this interaction.

This just keeps getting better.

“Yes, unfortunately, Trevor—”

“No, no, no…wait a minute! You’re firing me? You. Megan.”

“Well, I…”

“You’re a goddam kid! How the hell do you get to fire me? Does Sophia know about this?”

Megan had to take a deep breath to quell an anger rising in her. First, what does her age have to do with it? She was still a rather high-ranked person in the company. Secondly, the insinuation that she needed Sophia’s approval—as if Megan was a child who needed permission from Mommy—was insulting. Fine, Sophia had been the one to prompt Megan to fire Trevor today but technically, it was Megan’s right as Director of Mobile App Development. But she’d be damned if she let Trevor know that.

“Of course, Sophia knows,” she answered him, managing to keep her voice calm. “But I don’t need her authority. Unfortunately, your performance makes me feel that—”

“Makes you feel like?” Trevor interrupted. “You? So, you’re, like, what, one of the top dogs at BeachSoft? You’re in all the meetings about how all us little people are doing?”

Megan finally had enough.

“You know what, Trevor? I am one of the top dogs in the company. Not only am I the director of your division but I’m about to be a vice-president of operations. You would have been better off keeping my role in mind while doing your work instead of assuming that just because I’m young and a woman that you could get away with poor performance. You can keep interrupting me all you want but it’s not going to change the fact that you’re fired. And you can call Sophia or any of my fellow executives and they’ll tell you the same thing. You’re fired.”

Trevor sat there shaking his head, his face red, looking like he was nowhere near capable of having a rational conversation about this.