2 A Month of Mondays Read Free Page A

from Barb. He remembered to smile.
Barb always gave him extra caramel. Barb had a wart on her left cheek and a
chipped front incisor. She wore White Diamond perfume and Avon hand lotion. She
was right-handed and she spoke with a southern drawl, probably from Texas, he
thought.
    Hallie followed him. Predictable.
He thought about her nails. Her jacket: wool, yet it was June. Her heels were
purchased from JC Penny. Her necklace looked like an heirloom. Probably her
mother’s. He could not make out her accent. Possibly Pennsylvania? It didn’t
matter. He developed a profile in his mind and worked diligently to decipher
this annoyance. He couldn’t let a rookie have the upper hand.
    “I just wanted to visit with you
to give you a heads up, Mr. Monday.” She sounded desperate now, but she caught
him off guard again. He was beginning to really not like Hallie. His thumb dug
into the soft sugary Danish and his hand pressed dangerously against the hot
cup of macchiato.
    He turned on his heel and she
stopped abruptly. He could hear her heels slipping on the tiles of the lobby.
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.
    “Heads up, you say? Why, rookie,
why didn’t you say so?” He stared down at her. She was tall, especially in the
four inch heels, but he was still taller. Hallie looked down as if to make sure
she had not spilled. Jake tossed his Danish in the trash and licked the icing
from his thumb.
    “Look, Hallie. I had a hard week
last week. We all are aware of that. If you have some sort of comment, why not
save it for the briefing? Or even better yet, keep it to yourself until you’ve
walked in my shoes for a while.” He straightened his Forzieri tie and smoothed
his Paul Frederick suit jacket.
    She did not respond. Satisfied, he
turned and followed the mass of employees toward the elevators. He didn’t care
if he had upset her. He didn’t care if she followed. She had piqued his
interest and if she really had something to tell him, she would assert herself.
    He waited with the throng of
sleepy-eyed and young coworkers for the elevators to arrive. Everyone was going
up and so he usually waited until the lobby cleared out to go up last. He
pulled out his smart phone and checked his e-mail.
    “So, you really don’t want to
know?” Hallie sipped her espresso and glanced at him over the lid.
    He looked up at her like he did not
know who she was.
    “Excuse me? What do I not want to
know?”
    “Well, for starters, you might
want to know about the contract on your head.” She raised her eyebrows to
emphasize her point.
    He was not worried about being
overheard. The lobby was buzzing with conversation. The cameras could pick up
their visual, but he knew from experience that the audio was limited.
    “And this is different how?” He
tried to seem calm. He wasn’t. He could feel sweat roll down his shoulder
blades. He fought the urge to remove his jacket and loosen his silver-and-gold
lined tie.
    “It is coming from the very top,
for starters. Your actions last week evidently marked you as expendable.”  She
shrugged.
    “Let me get this straight:  you
come up to me to warn me like you are looking out for my best interest?  I’m
confused, rookie. Aren’t you here to get my guard down so that you can be the
one with the feather in your cap?”
    “Ambition is your calling card,
not mine.”
    “Trust me, rookie. You are just as
interested in climbing the ladder here as I was when I started. I can see it
your greedy little eyes.” She appeared hurt. Her frown took in her entire oval
face. He couldn’t help himself. He felt a little sorry for her. This was
dangerous. He could not let her get the best of him like this.
    I need to get in control of
this and fast.
    “I think you are forgetting where
you came from,” she said, anger tingeing her voice. He could tell he made her
mad.
    Despite this, he had to resist
with every fiber in his being from ripping out her beautiful little throat. He
felt his vision narrow, and