The Chemistry of Love(4)

But Jerry cut me off. “Your work is often subpar, forcing your colleagues and me to cover for you.”

That made me rear my head back in surprise. I knew I was one of the best chemists in the lab. I was always given the most difficult assignments because the product managers knew I could deliver. I opened my mouth to say something, but he went on.

“Everyone else managed to get to work, again covering for you. I don’t understand why we keep having issues.”

It was bad enough that he’d accused me of doing subpar work, but was he really going to keep harping on the tardy thing? I had never been late before, not in the entire time I’d worked here.

I wanted to defend myself but realized it wouldn’t do me any good. He seemed to genuinely dislike me, and I wasn’t sure why. I did do good work. Despite his assertion to the contrary, I hardly ever messed up.

This felt so personal, and I didn’t know how to take it. Some part of me desperately wanted to quit. To be honest, I always wanted that—to strike out on my own. But I knew that wasn’t the right decision. I didn’t have a safety net. I was stuck here. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “It won’t happen again.”

“Be sure that it doesn’t. At this point, your job is in jeopardy. I don’t want to keep having these conversations with you. We have an inspection this morning, and I can’t—we can’t afford to look bad in front of upper management.”

He gave me one last glare and then walked away from my workbench. An inspection? Upper management?

Did that mean Craig was coming here?

My emotions shifted so quickly from humiliation to giddy anticipation that I felt a little nauseated. This situation needed to be discussed. Which members of upper management was Jerry referring to?

After Jerry closed his office door again, I inclined my head toward the supply room, sending Catalina a message. We kept all our materials and supplies there and in the walk-in fridge and freezer.

She met me in the refrigerator, closing the heavy door shut behind her. Virtually soundproof. She gave me a quick hug, asking if I was okay. I nodded.

“What was that?” she asked, her eyes flashing in anger. “He was so completely out of line! I’ve never seen Jerry be so—”

But that wasn’t the thing I wanted to discuss. I’d shove those angry feelings down deep so that I could keep my resolution and focus on the things that might make me happy. “An inspection. Who do you think is coming? Did Jerry say something before I got here?”

She frowned at me. “No, our illustrious leader didn’t say a word. And I know you want me to guess that it’s going to be Craig, but I think it might be Loch Ness GQ.”

Catalina and I had nicknamed the CEO of Minx Cosmetics Loch Ness GQ, because we hadn’t ever seen him in real life, much like the Loch Ness Monster, and he was ridiculously handsome in the one photo we had seen in the quarterly report, where he looked like a model on the cover of GQ magazine. I assumed he had an actual name, but we’d been calling him Loch Ness GQ for so long that I had no idea what it was.

There was a rumor he was somehow related to Craig, but I figured it had to be a distant connection. They looked nothing alike.

“Why would he come here? He has other things to worry about.” Loch Ness GQ was apparently good at his job because the company’s earnings increased year to year in a highly competitive market. “But Craig, on the other hand, he has to concern himself with what our department is doing. He’s more of the hands-on type of leader.”

“Yeah, I know what you want him to put his hands on.”

“Ha ha.”

Then she put her hands on my shoulders, turning me toward her. I was a head taller than her, but I felt a little intimidated. “You don’t know Craig. I’ve heard some things. I think you should steer clear.”

“I can handle it,” I said, not willing to believe bad things about my future husband. “Rumors are just that: rumors.”

She didn’t look convinced. “If even a fraction of them are true, I would blow up this whole lab before I’d let him date you.”

“I appreciate your willingness to choose violence on my behalf, but I’m a big girl. You don’t have to protect me,” I said. She had told me more than once that I was like a newborn lamb, walking around on wobbly legs, and that she felt compelled to protect me from harsh reality.

While I loved her for it, I really could make my own choices.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she said, letting her arms fall.

“If you’re right, I give you full carte blanche to tell me I was wrong and you were right.”

That got me a smile. “I’ll remind you of that.”

“I know. But we should probably get out there and go back to work,” I said. Technically, I hadn’t actually done any work at all yet, and I did not need to make Jerry even angrier by staying in the refrigerator. Especially when she didn’t have any useful intel.

As if she could read my thoughts, Catalina stopped me, putting her hand on my arm. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about Jerry?”

That icky soap-residue feeling was back. I pushed my glasses back up the bridge of my nose. “No. I was just trying to gather data about the inspection. You know how much I enjoy doing that.”

I opened the fridge door and gasped.