Page 8 of Merry & Bright
I cleared my throat. “Well, you don’t need to worry about work. Everything’s under control on that front.” I sent an awkward glance Rob’s way and added, “Project Charlie’s finished and nothing else important is happening right now. We should be quiet till the New Year.”
Rob didn’t return my look, but his jaw tightened.
“Thanks,” Marley said. “I appreciate it.”
She turned to walk away from us then, starting towards the door, but after just a couple of steps, she stopped and when she turned back to face us, her expression was thoughtful.
“You know what?” she said. “None of you need to be here. Why don’t you go home?”
I frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”
She was looking at all of us, her gaze moving between me, Rob, Brian and Holly.
“We’ll shut the office early for Christmas. You can spend the extra time with your families and friends.”
Christ. I could just imagine what head office would make of that.
I jumped in quickly, before any of the others could speak. “That’s not necessary. We close at lunchtime tomorrow anyway—we can all hack another day and a half till the office closes.” I looked at the others, willing them to agree. “Right, guys?”
Holly pressed her lips together in an annoyed way and Brian looked like a kicked puppy. Rob glared at me, then said through gritted teeth, “As you know, I’ve already asked for the rest of today off.”
I opened my mouth to respond to that but Marley spoke over me.
“That’s fine, Rob,” she said. “Take whatever time you need.”
She turned her attention back to me then and said crisply, “Since Project Charlie’s all wrapped up, I’m authorising closing for the holidays today instead of tomorrow. It won’t make any difference on the work front, and if the board are pissed off about it, they can take it out of my profit share. Everyone’s worked a ton of extra hours these last few months so it shouldn’t make any difference to your bonuses.”
“But what about the billing for Charlie?” I protested. “Or what if something urgent comes in? Somebody needs to be here to take the call.”
Marley shrugged, unconcerned. “Finance won’t process any invoice requests till January now, so there’s no point worrying about billing. As for urgent stuff coming in, trust me, nothing new is going to come in before next year now.”
Beside me, Rob muttered, “I told him that already.”
I sent him a filthy look before turning my attention back to Marley. “I was going to give Phil a call. See if he needs assistance on the new Singapore project—”
She gave a humourless laugh at that. “What, so he can dump his crap on you and swan off for Christmas while you do his dirty work? Jesus, Quin, I know you want to be promoted but don’t look desperate. Guys like Phil can smell it.”
I bristled. “You’re the one who told me that successful people create their own opportunities! Besides, Phil wouldn’t dump on—”
“Oh, yes, he would,” she scoffed. “He’d be delighted to find someone mug enough to take on his shit so he can have a nice relaxing Christmas.” She narrowed her eyes at me, the way she always did when she got serious about something. “Besides, just ’cause you don’t care about working an extra day and a half doesn’t mean the rest of these guys have to grin and bear it too.”
I felt myself colour, humiliated. It’d been years since Marley had given me a dressing down in front of other people and it rankled. It especially rankled that Rob was witnessing my authority being so thoroughly countermanded after the argument we’d just had.
“Well, that’s pretty rich coming from you,” I said. “How many holidays have I worked through because you said you needed me in the office? Remember the France trip I cancelled when you said Ihadto be on that big job in Newcastle? Ben didn’t speak to me for a week after that.” I shook my head, disbelieving. “And I never once complained when you said ‘That’s the job, Quin. If the client needs us, we have to suck it up.’”
“Well, youshould’vecomplained,” she snapped back. “Do you want end up like me?” She gestured at herself disgustedly, her eyes glimmering with sudden tears. “I’ve had nothing in my life but work for the last twenty-five years. Andy loved me, and I threw him away because I wasn’t prepared to put him before the job. As for my brother, the next time I see him, he’ll be in a casket. I’ll never speak to him again. He’sgone. I hadn’t seen him for two years and I fucking regret that, now.” She blinked and the tears glittering in her eyes fell to her pale cheeks.
Instantly, I felt awful. How could I have blown up at her like that? Jesus, her brother had justdied.
“Marley—” I began, then broke off, not knowing what else to say.
“Last night, all I could think about wastime,” she continued, dashing her tears away with an impatient hand. “That’s all we have to give each other. Our time, here on earth. And now that I’m looking back, over the last twenty-five years, I realise how much of it I’ve wasted.”
I swallowed, hard. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that stuff about holidays.”
She shook her head. “But Ididmake you work through your holidays, and it was a shitty thing to do. I’m sorry, Quin.”
“It’s okay, I—”