Page 88 of Hurt Me Not
“My office it is, then. Pearl, get us some refreshments, will you?”
She took them back to her office and tinted the windows while it felt like my feet were frozen in place.
“Fuck,” I whispered as I finally headed to our snack kitchen. Cristian was there, and he attempted to talk to me, but all I could manage was a small smile.
I looked at the options and tried to think of something they would like. Muffins? Something savory, like a bagel? My inexperience was clearly showing.
Cristian handed me three cups, all filled with coffee.
“The one with the brown hair, his name is Henry, and he likes his coffee black. The other one, who looks like he belongs at a frat house, Derek—fitting name if I do say so myself—he likes it sweet as fuck. You know which one’s Emerson’s.”
“Thank you,” I whispered as he patted me on the back and left.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself.
It's not the end of the world. Yes, you should've been paying attention, but you can fix this now.
Raising my head high, I put the cups on a tray, along with a few muffins and cookies, and marched back into her office, opening the door with one hand. As a former waitress, handling a tray one-handed wasn’t hard.
“It would be good for the company,” the one I now knew was Derek said. “They're profitable, but they need to lay people off. No more than five hundred.”
I couldn't stop pausing as I set the coffee down in front of him. He looked me in the eye and sent me a carefree smile, as if he hadn’t just casually mentioned ruining a bunch of people’s lives for the sake of profit.
“I know you don't like layoffs,” Henry added. “But we're not the only ones asking. We’re the messengers.”
“Yeah, the messengers,” Derek said and grabbed a muffin straight from my tray and took a bite.
“Let me guess, Parker put you up to this?”
Both men looked at each other, neither of them seeming to want to speak up.
“Yeah, it’s her,” Henry replied with a sheepish look. “She is our biggest investor.”
I lowered the tray for him to grab a muffin and then quietly handed Emerson her coffee. She sent me a look I couldn't decipher before getting a muffin too.
“She's been on one of her binges recently. She says she loves how things are going but then keeps mentioning a layoff here, a layoff there, then reorg. She's just ready for some fast changes?—”
Emerson’s eyes widened as she took a bite of her muffin, and then her gaze shot to Henry, who was strangely quiet. When I followed it, I realized his face was turning red.
Emerson shot up, interrupting Derek.
“EpiPen, now! Pearl, call 911!”
Derek scrambled to find Henry's EpiPen in his pocket while the man kept getting redder. He started gasping for air, and his choking sounds had me panicking.
I quickly dialed 911 on my phone as Emerson helped Henry to the floor, and Derek finally found an EpiPen and slammed it into Henry’s thigh.
I tried to answer the operator’s questions, but I couldn’t stop shaking and my voice was tight.
“He's having some sort of allergic reaction… I don't know… They have an EpiPen but… We need an ambulance immediately… The address is…”
Henry gasped for air, his hands grasping Emerson's suit as he tried to steady himself.
“I already administered the Epi, and the ambulance is on the way,” Emerson said reassuringly, without even waiting for my confirmation.
“Come on, let's get you somewhere more comfortable,” Derek said as he helped Henry back into his seat.
I watched helplessly as they kept him stable until the ambulance came.
