Cut loose

I have been scarfing down green chili peppers and cheese tamales and spinach and tofu egg rolls while recovering from last night ‘s binge of barhopping in the lower east side. We finally had the meeting yesterday and it went just they way I thought it would. Sh***ty.

The meeting was supposed to take place early in the morning but instead it kept getting delayed because was in a bunch of meetings. Finally around 4pm G rolled with a black berry in one hand and cell phone in the other, working them simultaneously.

He called my boss in. Five minutes later he called me into his office. I sat down to see my boss have this look of death. He sat down behind his desk and laid it out.

“PP, I apologize for all chaos in the last couple of weeks. There was a huge amount of miscommunication on my part and what was supposed to happen was that this new addition was to absorbed into Angel Feathers with zero impact to the rest of the group. HR informed me if we brought her in we would go over budget but I gave the green light for them to proceed without thinking of the ramifications.

He paused.

“I never gave HR the authorization to let you go, but please do not blame them for this situation since at the time they had no choice but to exercise that option. This was entirely my fault.”

“Unfortunately, in order for this person to join Angel Feathers, we need to make room for her which means someone has to leave the group.”

I began to feel a lump in my throat and my eyes began to water.

“I have heard absolutely amazing things about you and your progress about the group and your boss has gone to the mat for you. But this new employee, her connection to this specific client could bring in a ton of business.

“I instituted a last fired, first fired policy to make things simpler.”

He sucked in his breath as if he was caught pilfering M&Ms from a candy store.

“What I mean, is that you were chosen because you were the last person we hired and your removal would have little impact on the group overall. Please understand the decision had nothing to do with your work.”

The pit began to form in my stomach.

“I am not going to leave you twisting in the wind. We will make a place for you here with one of the groups here. If you are not happy with that I will make every effort to place you somewhere where that meets your needs. That I promise you.”

I took a slow breath and looked at G straight in the eye. I really wanted to jump over the desk and drop kick him in his enormous basketball like head but the passive aggressive in me kicked in.

“I accept your apology and I appreciate your efforts to assist me. Despite what has happened I still have faith in this company and I would like to maintain a position here.”

My boss jumped in.

“We also want to let you know you will have first crack at any openings that come up in Angel Feathers.”

G nodded his head in agreement.

“I will send out an email to the staff to see if they need an extra person and I will get back to you.”

After the meeting my boss took us all out for drinks. She assured me that everything was going to be fine.

“G is not a bastard. He will not f**k you over. I am really sorry it had to play out like this but he would not budge on that girl and our budget couldn’t handle another addition.”

She said as she held onto a half of henie.

I just nodded in agreement. The rest of the night was an alcoholic induced haze of talking to drunken frat boys, dancing old school rap and waiting on line for the ladies room.

So I now I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. My heart feels tight in my chest. For better or worse I will have relief on Monday.