Page 14 of Quinton's Quest

“Oh? That’s all you can say? Oh?” I glared.

He cocked his head. “You look quite angry.”

“Fucking right I’m angry.”

He blinked. “Oh.” He winced. “Still inarticulate. I’m kind of busy—preparing for a complicated surgery—”

“Did you know Sheila has three children?”

“Uh—” He removed his glasses, rubbed his eyes, then put them back on. “Who is Sheila?”

“Oh my God. You yelled at the woman and you don’t even know her name?”

He frowned. “Oh. Yes, I suppose I know her name. I’m busy with—”

“You can fucking make time for me.”

Again, he blinked. “Are you here formally? Are you part of the union or administration or…?”

I pursed my lips. Well, I couldn’t bluff my way out of this one. “I’m here as a concerned coworker.”

“Did she ask you to come?” Another frown.

“No.”

“Ah.” He scratched his stubbled jaw. “And does she know you’re here?”

“No.”

“Do you think she’d appreciate you barging in here on her behalf? Like Sir Galahad?”

This time, I blinked. “Huh?”

“The pure and gallant knight from King Arthur’s court.” He flapped his hand in front of his face as if swatting away a fly. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “So you’re here to defend her actions, but without her knowledge.”

I frowned. “She doesn’t need defending.”

“And yet you’re here.”

“Did you report her?”

His eyes widened. He held my gaze. “I did not.”

“But you wanted to.”

“What I did or did not want was irrelevant. Needless to say, if I see such behavior again, I won’t be so lenient.”

“Lenient? You dressed her down in front of colleagues.”

“She deserved it. She was inattentive. She was reckless—”

“Her daughter got on the wrong school bus and was missing. Sheila’s a single mom with three young children. Her husband died last year from a heart attack. Just twenty-nine. Undiagnosed cardiomyopathy. So not only was she dealing with his sudden death, but she was panicked about her children.” I put my hands on my hips.

“Oh.” He frowned again.

“So maybe you should determine if there’s something wrong before you berate someone. And, for the record, she was on a legitimate break. She didn’t want to leave the floor because they were short-staffed, but she needed to ensure her daughter was going to be okay.”

“And is she? Going to be okay?”