He'd been silent this entire time. Now he looked at me and let out a quiet sigh.
"Tracey, hand off whatever you're working on."
He was telling me to go.
I smiled and stood up without a word.
Honestly, none of this surprised me.
He'd sat there the whole time Virginia was smearing my name and hadn't said a single thing to stop her.
What was that, if not approval?
"Fine. I'll get my things."
At the doorway, my coworkers parted for me like I was contagious.
I didn't have much to pack.
Virginia was right about one thing: most days I just sat in my office drinking coffee and scrolling my phone.
What she didn't know was that Nelson had begged me to come work here in the first place.
I rinsed my coffee mug, packed the espresso machine into a cardboard box, unplugged my charging cable from the desk, and dropped it into my bag.
That was everything.
Virginia didn't bother knocking. She strolled right into my office like she owned it.
The look on her face—pure petty triumph.
"Nobody ever teach you to knock before walking into someone's office?"
I was taping up the box. Didn't even look up.