Page 68 of Paradigm

She stood up, planning to find her boss and ask what was going on, but before she could do that, Dave appeared at her open door, and he wasn’t alone.

“Hello, Eline,” he said. “You know Teri from human resources.”

“Um… Yes,” she said nervously. “Is something going on? I saw–”

“Have a seat,” Teri told her, motioning to one of the guest chairs and not the chair that was behind Eline’s desk, where she was currently standing.

Eline sat behind her desk, ignoring the motion, and Teri closed the door behind her and Dave. Then, Eline noticed something that looked like a folder in her hands, but the reason she couldn’t comprehend what the woman was actually holding was that her heart was racing, making her thoughts a bit foggy.

“Eline, we need to talk,” Dave said, sitting down in one of the guest chairs. “Unfortunately, we’ve had to make some tough decisions in light of the data breach, and we’re eliminating some positions.”

“What?” she asked.

Teri sat down in the chair next to him and added, “Unfortunately, your position was one of those impacted, Eline.”

“What?” she asked again, her heart falling into her stomach instantly.

“We were going to make some organizational changes before this happened, so some roles would’ve been impacted anyway, but with the email hack and the outcome from that, we have to take immediate action,” Dave said.

“I’ll take it from here,” Teri told him. “I have a packet of information here for you, and it will also be sent to your personal email. Due to your brief tenure with the company, you weren’t eligible for severance, but we were able to secure two weeks. We’ll also pay your healthcare benefits until the end of this month.”

“What about my visa?” she asked quickly, more worried about that than anything else.

“I figured you’d have that question, so I included more information in the packet about it, but an H‑1B is employer-specific, so when your employment with us ends at the end of the day today, your H‑1B status will, unfortunately, become invalid at a certain point. I’ve got that info in here for you, but you can also find it online anytime you need it. You will have to get a new H‑1B visa with a different employer before your visa expires. If it expires without it being renewed, you’ll have a ten-day grace period to leave the country or apply for an extension. I’ve managed to get you access to our employment attorney for free for the next thirty days as a thank you for your service to the company, and you’ll have ten hours of his time to see how he can help you should you want to remain in the country.”

“Want to remain? You spent months interviewing me and getting me that visa to begin with, and after only a few months, you’re terminating me? I moved my whole life here. I was going to apply for a green card.”

“And you still can. If you can get through the process before your visa expires–”

“I can’t get that whole process done before the visa expires,” she interrupted.

“Unfortunately–”

“Please stop saying that word,” Eline requested, looking down at the shaking hands in her lap. “I just got here,” she added softly.

“We’re reducing the size of many teams,” her boss explained, finally speaking up again. “It’s not due to your performance. I’ll happily be a reference for you, and I can ask around to see if anyone I know is looking for someone.”

“That they’d have to sponsor?” she asked. “You know most companies won’t want to do that.”

“I know. And I am sorry, Eline.”

“Eline, we’ll need you to pack up your things. I’m going to go over the paperwork here with you, and then I’ll have someone escort you out of the building.”

But Eline sat there, frozen, save for her shaking hands, because the first thing she had thought about wasn’t the fact that she’d just lost her job. It was that if she couldn’t find anything else, and soon, she’d have to leave, and that would mean leaving Arlowe. She couldn’t leave Arlowe again. They’d just found one another a second time, and she had told Arlowe that she was going to be here; that she’d planned on staying in the country. She’d put off worrying about applying for a green card because she hadn’t needed one and because she’d only been here for a few months, but now, she was regretting it.

Getting another work visa in this job market would be nearly impossible before her existing one expired, and she’d have to see about getting an extension to stay in the country if she could, but all those thoughts jumbled together as she packed the box that Teri handed her with a sympathetic look on her face.

Then, Teri moved on, probably to another person she was about to make redundant, and one of the other HR people stood just inside Eline’s office door, waiting to take her company ID and escort her out of the building. She’d never see this office again, and while that was the least of her worries right now, Eline couldn’t comprehend not coming into work the next day. She’d read somewhere once that people usually got terminated on Fridays, but it appeared that GoldStash had decided to change things up, and no one had seen this coming.

She carried her box out of her office, along with her bag, which she’d slung over her shoulder, allowing herself to be escorted out as she passed people who were now her former co-workers. She was embarrassed, but she couldn’t focus on that feeling because all she could feel was sadness and confusion. She’d never not had a job. She’d also never needed a job more than this one, and now, she had lost it, and she might have to move back to Holland, which would mean that, once again, the woman she’d always loved would be on one continent, and she’d be on another.

Eline didn’t remember the drive home. She didn’t remember parking her car, walking inside the building or into her apartment, and she couldn’t remember much about the entire day now. She just sat down on her sofa and stared at the blank wall in front of her. She’d been meaning to buy a TV and put it on the stand that she’d already bought for it, but she hadn’t gotten around to it. She likely wouldn’t now. She wasn’t sure what time it was or how long she had been sitting there, not moving, but eventually, she picked up her phone to dial Arlowe’s number, only to put it down because she had no idea what to say.

CHAPTER 21

“You have the biggest smile on your face,” Sarai said.

“Hey. I thought you were working from home today.”