Chapter 4: Severance Schemes & Screen-Share Scandals

The boss’s moods are like June weather—impossible to predict.

When I left the office, everyone was already gone.

I checked my phone. The work group chat was blowing up.

[Big Butt Boss: Relax, go home, nothing’s going on. Anyone still working now will be considered to have given up the holiday.]

A flood of grateful, over-the-top messages followed.

These were sent while I was still in his office.

He sounded like he was chasing everyone out, not much different from how he just shooed me out.

I rolled my eyes: I’m not vain enough to think my resignation alone got everyone three days off.

And "nothing’s wrong"? Yeah, right. He’s probably using this to draft his layoff list.

Natalie messaged me: [No idea which jerk yanked out my computer cable—I’m so mad.]

[Borrowing your computer to transfer some files.]

I replied with a few memes—proof I’d already left.

Took the chance to whine about Marcus.

Then turned off my phone and started packing up slowly.

Running through my plan:

Step one: withdraw resignation letter.

Step two: make the boss lay me off himself.

With my laptop still on, I googled:

"How to make your boss voluntarily..."

Suddenly, the blinds rattled open.

I looked up and came face to face with a thundercloud.

"Aubrey, you’re screen sharing with me."

Crap.

I stared in horror at the spinning blue circle on my laptop. Marcus’s name was up in the corner—present, watching. This was worse than accidentally replying-all to a snarky email. My cheeks flamed as I slammed the lid, heart pounding like I’d just been caught shoplifting at Target.