“So I should lower my standards to make this a more pleasant place to work?” He locked eyes with me. “I don’t bend. People need to reach.”
“Have you ever seen a therapist?”
Merrick sat back in his chair. “You won’t be counseling me, Ms. Vaughn.”
“Doctor Vaughn. And I thought all of the employees were mandated to have monthly sessions.”
“I’m not an employee. I’m an owner. And if you read through the board minutes, you’ll see that I made sure their mandate for therapy was very specific in not including me.” He reached up to the two monitors on his desk and turned them on before checking his watch. “If you don’t have any other questions, I need to start my day.”
I nodded and stood. “Thank you for your time.” But as I reached the door, Merrick spoke again.
“Evie?”
I turned back. “Finally, he calls me Evie and not Ms. Vaughn…”
The corner of his lip twitched. “I just wanted to say that while I may be strong willed, I can admit when I’m wrong… And I am. I shouldn’t have hired you.”
My face fell.
“My goal was to hire someone incompetent to prove a point. But I can already tell you’re not.”
“I think there was a compliment buried in there somewhere, wasn’t there?”
Merrick looked like he tried not to smile, but failed as he shook his head and turned to face his monitors. “Try not to soften my troops too much on your first day.”
CHAPTER 7
Merrick
It was almost eight by the time I shut down for the day. On my way out, I took the stairs down one flight to the other floor we occupied to drop off a package in the mailroom. The hallway lights on both floors ran on motion sensors, so most of the corridors were dark by now, with the majority of the staff gone. But as I turned left, I noticed light streaming into an otherwise dark hall to my right. It looked like it might be Evie’s office, so I diverted to pass by.
She was talking on her cell, but smiled and held up one finger when I stopped.
“Dave, huh? What’s the story behind that?” she said into the phone. Evie’s smile widened as she listened. Her eyes twinkled. “Oh my God.” She covered her mouth in laughter. “That’s hysterical. And you’re right, it’s good information to keep tucked in my back pocket.” After another minute, she said, “I have to run. My boss just came into my office. But thank you for checking on me.” She laughed again before saying goodbye and tossing her cell on the desk.
“That sounded interesting,” I said.
Her smile widened. “Oh, it was interesting, alright. That was Kitty.”
It took me a few seconds to backtrack through the conversation, but I realized what they must’ve been talking about. Dave. I closed my eyes and hung my head. “Fuuuck.”
Evie laughed. “I’ve never heard of anyone being terrified of Dave Thomas. What did the guy do, other than being the founder of Wendy’s?”
“I’m going to kill my damn grandmother.”
She smiled. “Seriously. Why were you afraid of him when you were little?”
“I have no damn idea. I just saw him on a commercial once, and he looked scary to me, I guess. I was only like three years old. My sister made it worse. She used to threaten that she was going to call him if I didn’t do whatever she said. Why did Kitty have to share that shit with you?”
“She called to ask how my first day went. She said she knows you well enough to know I might need some pointers on how to keep you in line.”