Maggie rolled her eyes. "She expected you to be thrilled and who wouldn't be? After all, you would have the honor of working directly under her."
"Lucky me," Jim sarcastically said.
Maggie climbed up on the table to sit beside him. "Did you see the look on Susan's face?"
"I missed that part."
"She actually looked disappointed when Nicole offered the job to you."
"Then we were wrong. We thought she didn't want the job either. They must have been talking about something else that day in the break room. How did Roxie the Robot look?"
"I didn't notice." Maggie collected her thoughts for a moment. "Maybe she won't fire you. Bronco says people can complain to Labor and Industries, if they get fired unjustly."
"Or get a lawyer and sue. I might do that."
"Good, you'll have plenty of witnesses."
Jim's attitude brightened a little. "You're right, I do have witnesses. Maybe I'll stick around until they do fire me. I would love suing this place. On the other hand, everyone is so scared of getting fired, they probably wouldn't testify."
Maggie hung her head. "I'm one of them."
"I wouldn't ask you to, you know that."
Jim scratched the top of his head while Maggie interlaced her fingers and rolled her thumbs. There didn't seem to be a lot more to say on the subject, and it was good for both of them, to just try to calm down.
Finally, Maggie asked, "Any luck job hunting?"
"I've got an interview next week. Keep your finger's crossed."
"You know I will."
"I better go back. I'm behind in my work now."
Maggie nodded, watched him walk away and looked at the new seven-story office building across the street. The building was probably going to open soon, but just now, she wasn't thinking about how it glistened in the sunlight, or how traffic on the street was about to become impossible. Instead, she was thinking about what she would do if she got fired - or worse, got offered the job next.
What a nightmare that would be.
*
Teresa was beginning to like Laura more each day. They swam, watched movies, and talked about all sorts of things. Her cleaning duties got farther and farther behind, but if Laura didn't care, she didn't see why she should either.
During the long summer days, seven o'clock in the evening seemed the perfect time to go for a jog, and jogging was Teresa's second favorite thing to do. Swimming was her first. Laura was pretty well on her way to full inebriation by seven, and wouldn't require anything until time to put her to bed - unless the liquor cabinet collapsed, which was highly unlikely.