Working It Read Online Free PDF Page B

Blackberry as soon as possible.
     
    Wait, what? There’s only one reason Nicola would be asking for my keys, laptop, and Blackberry. She’s dismissing me. No. No. That’s ridiculous. She can’t dismiss me because I wore cheap perfume to a staff meeting.
    Text to Nicola Salupo:
    Over a spritz of perfume? You must be joking?
     
    Text from Nicola Salupo:
    A spritz of perfume? YOU must be joking.
     
    I am so confused. Is Nicola dismissing me or not?
    Text to Nicola Salupo:
    Are you dismissing me?
     
    I hold my breath and wait for Nicola’s response. I don’t have to hold my breath for long. Nicola’s one word text hits my phone with terrifying speed.
     
    Text from Nicola Salupo:
    Oui .
     
    Salope . She’s really going to fire me for some minor corporate violation? That’s ridiculous, even for her. If she thinks I am going to lie down and let her walk all over me in her hideous freakishly large pumps, she’s as bat shit crazy as she looks.
    I start jabbing the screen and have nearly finished composing a strongly worded text when my Blackberry chirps again.
    Text from Nicola Salupo:
    Check your email for a termination letter and details from HR about your benefits package, severance pay, et al.
     
    Molten acid is churning inside my stomach and bubbling up my throat. La Vache! This isn’t happening. This is not happening. I am not being dismissed from L’Heure.
    I open my email box and begin scrolling through my new messages. The first fifty or so are from fashion bloggers and style reporters. This doesn’t surprise me. My inbox has been jammed with interview requests from local media outlets, fashion magazines, and bloggers ever since we announced the date of the grand opening. I keep scrolling until I come to an email from Nicola Salupo.
    I think I might be sick. The subject line reads: Employment Contract Termination. I try to inhale, but choke on the acid burbling up my throat.
    Stéphanie Moreau
    2200 Sacramento Avenue, 1906
    San Francisco, CA 94109
     
    Dear Ms. Moreau:
     
    This letter is to formally announce that your position with Aurèle L’Heure, a division of the LVMH Group, has been terminated, effective immediately.
     
    You are being terminated, per company policy, for exposing L’HEURE to public censure and embarrassment through the distribution of an unauthorized press release (See attached). After lengthy consultations about your performance with LVMH Group’s Human Resources and Legal Departments, it was determined that termination was the only option.
     
    Your final pay will be direct-deposited to your checking account of record. You will receive any accrued vacation time in the form of a check within fourteen days of your termination. Please contact me to arrange the return of your company cell phone, laptop, and passkeys. HR will be sending you a package regarding severance eligibility and health insurance costs, if you would like to continue your coverage. Otherwise, all benefits will be terminated thirty days after your termination date.
     
    If you have any questions about this letter of termination, call Human Resources at ext. 9424.
     
    Best regards,
     
    Nicola Salupo
     
    Unauthorized press release? The last press release I distributed was about the store’s unique architecture and unrivaled square footage of retail space. There wasn’t a single word that could have opened L’Heure to censure and ridicule. The Botox must have migrated from Nicola’s forehead to her brain. What other explanation could there be for her mentally retarded behavior?
    I open the second attachment, titled Mission Statement, and begin reading. The words are only slightly familiar, so I keep reading, and then I remember, in a mortifying, blinding flash. The wine. Father True Allight’s article about finding joy. My email about giving L’Heure a purpose beyond profit. But wait! I saved that email as a draft, didn’t I? So how did Nicola get a copy?
    I click back into my email box and open my sent