“Outstanding Merit”
Without even knocking, Edward Marten II walked into Anna’s office. Not taking his eyes off his phone, he sat down, put his feet up on her desk, and said, “They said you were looking for me.”
Anna took a deep breath. She had been planning for this moment for weeks. “I just want to say, I’m sorry to hear about your skiing accident.”
It took a moment for Edward to register what she said. He looked at her and went, “What?”
“Well, I’m guessing your father wouldn’t want it to be known that his son was fired from his first job, so there will probably be some story as to why you no longer work here. A ‘skiing accident’ was just my idea for a cover story, although I doubt he’d go so far as to put your leg in a cast.”
With a smile, Edward took his feet off her desk and leaned closer. “You’re firing me?”
“Your shift started over an hour ago.”
Edward laughed. “You do know my dad bought this entire company?”
“Yes, and he wanted his son to work at all levels – even down to stocking shelves – to see how the company actually works. A fantastic, and noble idea.” Anna opened her desk drawer, and took out a folder. Dropping it on her desk, she explained, “Documentation of every time you were late, or left early, or took two-hour lunch breaks, or were rude to customers.” Tapping the folder, she added, “This is enough to fire ten people.”
“When my dad finds out-”
“What? He’ll fire me. Go ahead. And the world will know what a selfish asshole he raised. And then I’ll sue him, and he’ll go from the tenth richest man in the world, to the eleventh.”
Putting the folder back in her drawer, Anna told him, “Get the fuck out of my store.”
Go back to the main Monthly Story page, or the main page of my website.
Just to be clear, the title refers to Anna.
For each story I publish, I like to give the backstory, or anything interesting that happened while writing it. You can see what I wrote for this story on my Published Works page.
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If you liked this story, you might want to check out A Man of Few Words, my collection of fifty stories all under 1000 words.