Cocktail Hour (30 page)

Just then, an email appeared in her Outlook inbox from Molly:

Lucie,

I can't believe you gave me this resume. Leah Cohen? Are you kidding? Come see me right now.

Molly

It was just like Molly to wait until the last minute of the day. How late would she make Lucie stay? No Lucie wouldn't stay; she was dead-tired and she wanted to go home. She would rush through whatever it was, just punch it out and be done. Lucie stood up and limped over to Molly's office as if going into war, her face set and determined.

Molly looked up when Lucie appeared in her doorway. "Come in. Shut the door."

Lucie closed the door and stood in front of her desk. Molly let out one of her irritated sighs. "Lucie. Lucie, Lucie, Lucie...how many Jewish people do you think work here? Huh? Give me a number."

Lucie blinked her eyes in dismay and disgust. No, that's right. Molly was no bullshit, per her. Well, it repulsed Lucie. She shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well, think about it. What's Rosh Hashanah like around here?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about."

"It's a ghost town, that's what it's like. I mean, yes, we have a diversity program. We're not idiots. But it doesn't apply to religions. The last thing we need is more Jews."

Lucie realized then that she would need to look for another job. Somewhere where she could work for a decent human being. Fighting the urge to vomit, Lucie managed, "I'm sorry, what do you want me to do?"

"Tell Abe that we don't have a position suitable for Leah currently, but that we'll prioritize her for anything that comes available. And don't do it again. Remember: no more-"

"Fine," Lucie said, turning away and cutting Molly off before she could reiterate her earlier statement by opening the door so that others could hear. 

Lucie went back to her desk and sat down. There was a new email in her Outlook inbox from Molly who had re-forwarded her original email that had Leah's resume attached with an addendum:

Were you listening to me? No more Jews!

Molly

Lucie's phone for the department rang then, and she answered it. Then she forwarded the resume back to Abe Feingold, a Research Director in the the Manhattan office, telling him that they would be keeping Leah's resume on file and prioritizing it for the next appropriate position. She shut off her computer and left, practically jogging to the elevator bank to get away before Molly caught her and gave her something else to do. Her and Ryan's living room couch was calling, and she was going to beg Ryan for a backrub. Better yet, a head rub.

She didn't know she had made a disastrous mistake until the next morning. A sticky-note was centered on the face of her computer monitor, reading: "Lucie, Please see me. Molly."

Molly was sitting in her office with Anna Maher, TMB's Employee Relations Officer and Molly's top suck-up toady. Oddly, Anna was sitting in the far visitor seat rather than the one closest to the door where all of Molly's visitors sat because the far one was hard to get to, requiring a bit of climbing over the first chair wedged in front of the desk. Although Molly's office was the largest of those given to the HR department, it was still small, its only benefit a window overlooking a pretty wooded area.

Molly looked up when Lucie appeared in her doorway and smiled a strange closed-lip smile at her. She gestured at the empty guest chair. "Lucie. Please come in. And shut the door."

Lucie felt a cold dropping sensation, like ice-melt trickling down through her. Molly had never asked her to close the door unless it was just the two of them. Lucie did as she was told, closing the door and sinking into the chair, back rigid.

"Lucie, I'm shocked at what you did last night. I'm really in shock."

Lucie looked at Molly and then at Anna, who was regarding Lucie with a look of undisguised hatred. "I'm sorry? What's going on?"

"Well, we all know you've been having trouble. Your time management skills are poor, you pay no attention to detail, and the amount of mistakes I've had to correct on your work is getting in the way of my being able to do my own job. I wanted to cover for you. I had faith in you. But what happened last night, the sheer viciousness of your behavior, it can't be tolerated."

Anna leaned toward Lucie and spat, "You're horrible. How could you write something like that?"

"What? I don't understand?"

Molly leaned back in her chair. "Jews. You hate Jewish people? And to think you put it in an email to Abe Feingold, trying to make it look like it came from me. It's astonishing, frankly. I have no idea why you would do such a thing."

"I don't...," Lucie said, sputtering. She forwarded
that
email? How? But she'd been so tired. And what was Molly talking about? It was she who- "You wrote that. You said that! I just, I made a mistake, but it wasn't-"

"Are you accusing
me
?" Molly gasped and put her hand dramatically to her chest, lifting up her shoulders like a histrionic lead in a high school play.

Anna sucked in a disbelieving breath and then let it out in litany of attack directed at Lucie, "You've done something that's unpardonable! First attacking Abe, and now Molly! Molly, who's been helping you this whole time? Who's been your champion! Apologize!"

Molly shook her head and waved her hand at Anna. "That's not necessary. This isn't about me. Just sign this and you can go," she said, sliding a page thick with small type across the desk toward Lucie with a pen on top of it.

"Sign?" Lucie said, hearing the word echoing in her head. What was going on? She felt turned around, her thinking confused, muffled. If only she wasn't so overtired; it had been weeks since she'd had a decent night's sleep. She took the document and squinted at it. It was a legal document, impenetrable and dense. What did it say? She tried to read it.

"Please, Lucie. Let's not drag this out," Molly said, repeating that beleaguered sigh she had been uttering for months in Lucie's presence.

Lucie straightened. She couldn't sign this, this who-knows-what-it-said legal document? She pushed the document and pen back toward Molly. "No, I won't sign this. I didn't do anything wrong. I mean, I forwarded your email, the one where you said-"

Molly's cool composure broke. Eyes bulging, she shouted, "Don't you dare!"

Lucie raised her voice, continuing, refusing to be cowed this time, "You said no more Jews. I think that's what you said. You said that this place was a ghost town at-"

"Shut up! Shut up right now! How dare you!"

Anna started shouting, too, and between them both, the noise was so loud Lucie knew she wouldn't be heard and she stopped talking. Seeing Lucie's mouth shut, Molly fell back against her chair from which she had risen and had been standing over Lucie, screaming down at her. Anna continued her attack for a moment longer before also falling back.

After a beat, Molly pushed the document back at Lucie. "Just sign it. It's not a big deal. It just says that you relinquish your right to severance pay and unemployment benefits, that this was a disciplinary issue. And before you say one more word, remember that you have been falling down on the job for months. There are countless witnesses here who can attest to your inability to perform your duties. So no matter what you claim you didn't do last night, TMB has a strong case should you foolishly decide to fight this," Molly said and then sighed and shook her head, looking at Lucie with pity. "Do yourself a favor. Sign it. Go home."

Oddly, it wasn't Molly's other words about witnesses and HR's case against her, all of the words frighteningly true, that resonated with Lucie. It was just the last one: home. That's what she wanted to do, go home. This day, only fifteen or so minutes long, had already been overwhelming. She wanted to go home, run into Ryan's arms and be held, understood. He was home right now, probably just sitting down to a bowl of Cheerios and the paper having worked late at the bar the night before.

She looked at the document, started to pick up the pen, but instead put her hand on top of it. "No. I need to know what I'm signing. I can't read this. It's all legalese. I need a lawyer to see it."

Molly's soft-featured face hardened until it looked as if it was made of rock. "Anna," she said, flicking her eyes over and then back to Lucie. "Can you give us a moment?"

Anna leaned forward and started to protest. "Molly, I thought we agreed that-"

"Please. A moment."

Anna shook her head, shrugged, and then got to her feet. Lucie stood to let her out, refusing to meet Anna's angry and accusing eyes, and then sat, hearing the door softly latch beside her.

Molly leaned forward, her elbows propped on her desk, her virtuous expression from the meeting with Anna evaporating and a devious narrow-eyed look taking its place. "So I must have pissed you off last night. Forwarding that message probably seemed like a good idea. Good way to let everyone know who Molly Knowles really is. Well, girlie, it backfired. It's all on you now. Lucky for me I was here late last night. Had plenty of time to clean things up on my side, plant a few bombs on yours. You should have seen Anna's face when she found the neo-Nazi stuff in your miscellaneous folder. I knew she'd want to look through your desk."

Feeling like Daffy Duck, but unable to stop herself, Lucie said what she had grown to know about Molly, "You're despicable."

Molly laughed lightly. "Go ahead, call me names. But sign on the dotted line," she said, nodding at the document still in front of Lucie. "Because, if you don't, I'll make sure you'll never work again in the tri-state area. You won't be able to get a job scrubbing toilets. I will work my network like it's never been worked before. That's a promise."

Looking into Molly's knowing eyes, Lucie fought the urge to shiver. She meant it. Lucie looked down at the document again, tempted. But she wouldn't sign it. It could say anything, could be filled with lies condemning her. Over the years, life - her parents' divorce, her mother's untimely death, the automobile accident, her father's disappointment in her - had managed to beat down the strong little girl she used to be, the kid who'd try anything, who stared down fear, raising her fist and shaking it in trouble's face. She had to stop subverting herself to please others, stop being the "good girl".

Lucie forced herself to stand. "No, I won't sign it, not unless I can have a lawyer look at it."

Molly let out a puffing bark of shock. "You've got to be kidding. You really are stupid."

Lucie shook her head. "No, I'm smart. Very smart. Maybe too smart."

"You know what you're asking for, right? I guess you must be planning to move away. Well, suit yourself," Molly said, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms over her chest. In that defiant act of assured confidence, Lucie saw a glimmer of uncertainty hiding underneath Molly's armor. Within that glimmer, a seed of hope for herself was planted.

Seeing no point in continuing their conversation now that they had reached stalemate, Lucie turned, pulled open the door, walked as gracefully as she could out of Molly's office, ignoring Anna, who was following her, and grabbing her work bag to put in the few framed photos she kept on her desk: her father, Flo, Erin, and herself in one sunlit shot taken by a local photographer at the beach, another of her mother looking composed and peaceful and taken during that last trip to Paris, and a recent shot of her and Ryan with their arms wrapped around each other - photos she had looked at countless times during her months at TMB, trying to overcome each painful day with happy memories. Then she took the stairs down, not wanting to run into friendly co-workers at the elevator bank and be forced to explain what had happened.

In fact, she didn't know what to say about what had happened. Should she declare the truth or would that only make Molly's retaliation worse? After much discussion with Ryan about her next career move, during which she decided to take the leap and start her dreamed-of catering business, she also realized she just wanted to leave the whole terrible business behind her rather dredge it up again and again. The dark times of working for Molly at TMB were over: let in the sunshine! Besides, other than Chelsea, she had never spent time with co-workers outside of her job, so who was she going to tell?