May 2024 short story of the month
Their day began like it always did. They woke up and went from sleeping to parent mode with a blink of an eye. At home they were just Mom and Dad, but at the lab they were Dr. Sarah Fellows and Dr. Reginald Lockhorn. They tried their best to keep work at work and home at home, but few humans are capable of compartmentalizing one hundred percent of the time. Today was one of those days where they were having trouble keeping the two separate.
"Make some toast while I make the eggs," Sarah said over her shoulder to Reggie.
Reggie either didn't hear her, or he was so used to ignoring her that he didn't even look up from his phone.
Sarah glanced up and noticed she was being actively ignored. She sighed out loud and added some volume to it on purpose. It still didn't register with Reggie to look up.
"Reggie?" She asked. "What is so important that you can't be bothered to make toast?" Her voice grew in volume as she spoke. By the time she asked the second question, the entire house could hear her.
Reggie finally came out of the locked-in mode he exhibited whenever he was on his phone.
"What?" He asked looking up.
Sarah pointed with the spatula at the bread.
"Sorry. Toast. Right." Reggie stammered out a few words and put bread in the toaster. He didn't actually push the lever down though, and in a few minutes, while the eggs were being served up, the toast was still sitting, uncooked in the toaster.
During the entire meal, Sarah couldn't help but glare at Reggie. Reggie was oblivious to her anger, like most things these days, and he just kept staring at his phone.
They didn't speak as they drove to the lab. There didn't seem to be much to talk about these days. Sarah discussed most things involving the kids with the nanny, and since her promotion, she had been able to hire both a cleaning lady and a personal assistant. Everything about her home and personal life, she discussed with her "employees," though she hated thinking of them that way. Over the last several months they hadn't started to feel like more than just people she paid to make her life easier.
And at the same time, there was an ever-widening gap between her and Reggie. She glanced in his direction. He was engrossed in his phone again. She couldn't see exactly what he was looking at, and she didn't want to pry. It looked like a document of some sort. White background, lots of text. Was he looking at stuff for work?
She sighed. That was the part of their lives with the most tension right now. The lab. She'd been promoted, and ever since then, he shut her out. They'd never worked in the same section. The directors thought it was a bad idea for married people to spend ever second of their days together, and to be honest, they were probably right. However, she was now the director of her section, and Reggie, even though he'd worked for the company longer, was still only a level three researcher.
Ever since the promotion, he spoke to her less and less about work. He wouldn't tell her what project he was currently on, and if she tried to discuss it with him, he shut her down, acting like she had no business knowing. He'd never acted that way before. They used to openly discuss their current projects.
She was trying to not let it get to her, but it was hard to ignore the difference in their relationship. Why couldn't he see that it was better for them all if they had more money and that getting promoted and advancing her career was important to her? If it had been Reggie that had been promoted, she would have been happy for him, but he was acting like she was emasculating him. She didn't think any less of him. But she couldn't tell him that because then he would accuse her of that exact thing. Men were such babies sometimes. She wanted to remind him that she also wanted to be successful and highly regarded in their field, that wasn't a desire unique to being a man.
Once the car was parked, Reggie got out without saying a word to her. She shook her head.
Walking through the foyer, the security guard nodded to her as she scanned her badge. She was trying to let the morning go and forget about Reggie's behavior. She was trying to focus on the job at hand. Today was a big day. Her section had a quarterly presentation before the board. These presentations were big deals. The outcome of which would basically determine how much funding her department got to keep. There was a constant struggle within the company to justify each and every dime spent. In the years she worked for them, she'd lost count of how many sections had been shut down, the workers shuffled into other sections or simply let go. Her section was currently working on some highly classified military project, and that alone kept them funded. In addition, she was good at spinning the presentations so that it always looked like they were making progress, even when they weren't.
As she entered the conference room, she saw that a few of the board members were already present. That was unlike them. They made a point of all walking in together and sitting down at roughly the same time.
Two of the three came up to her. This was also unlike them. Usually, their entire discourse was reserved for the presentation. They rarely spoke to anyone outside of their formal functions.
Amy Bachman, one of the younger members of the board, stepped very close to Sarah. "We need to talk," Amy whispered. She moved only her eyes in the direction of the one board member who wasn't currently huddled together with them.
"Okay," Sarah said also in a whisper. "Now?" She asked.
Amy nodded. "Ladies room." She whispered and then promptly strolled out of the room. The other board member, also a woman, followed closely on Amy's heels.
Sarah looked over at the one remaining member. He stood looking out the windows with his hands behind his back. He was doing his best to look nonchalant, but Sarah didn't think he was pulling it off. He knew something too.
Sarah sighed. This wasn't how she expected her day to go, and with everything going on at home, she didn't have the patience for office politics.
Inside the ladies' room, Amy and the other board member, Tanya, were making a show of fixing their hair. Neither of them had a hair out of place.
Sarah walked in and crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation.
Luckily the two didn't waste any time.
"Your section is in danger. There has been an inner office complaint made about you and your team. They are claiming that you have been falsifying data." Amy said all of this really fast like it was happening right then and there.
Sarah scrunched her forehead. "What? That's ridiculous. We don't falsify data. We…" she trailed off and flapped one of her hands in a circle. "We sometimes make leaps in conclusions, but every department does that."
Amy and Tanya were both nodding. "Of course," said Amy. "We just wanted to give you a head's up. When this meeting starts today, the allegation is going to come out."
"Thank you for letting me know, but there is no proof because it's completely untrue." Sarah rolled her eyes. This was a lot of unnecessary drama.
"Well, that's just it," said Tanya, finally chiming in. "They claim they can prove it."
Sarah took a step back and her face scrunched up even more. "But that can't be. Unless someone on my team has actually been lying to me, there is no proof."
Amy sucked her teeth, clearly trying to avoid saying something.
"What?" asked Sarah.
"The complaint also says that you knew about the data being falsified and okayed it," Amy looked at the floor.
"Well, that's simply ridiculous." Sarah shook her head. "Who is making this complaint? Am I allowed to know?"
Amy and Tanya looked at each other. Neither of them wanted to answer that question. Their reluctance was all the answer Sarah needed.
"Reggie!" Sarah gasped. She knew he'd been upset and jealous about her promotion, but this response wasn't something she thought he was capable of. What was he hoping for? Did he want her to get fired? This kind of accusation could ruin her reputation.
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