Tina

You know what? I quit. I can't stand this place. I've worked here for twenty-five years! I just worked on the biggest project of my life. Tina was working on it with me.

She and I started at the company at the same time. We get along pretty well and as the years went by, ended up as friends, not colleagues. We went to lunches and she even came to some of my son's soccer games on the weekends! So, when our boss gave us the opportunity to work on this major assignment together we jumped at it!

"You know this is going to take a lot of overtime, don't you?" Tina asked me. "Is Ed going to be okay with it?"

""He knows how much this project means to me. He won't mind."

We started at the beginning. The toughest time is how to get a project started. We shuffled through boxes of papers and pie charts, expense reports deep into the night with no end in sight. At midnight, we dragged ourselves out to the parking lot, got in our cars and went home.

My husband Ed was at the door, a glass of wine in his hand. "What? You can't call when you're working late? Sam had his choir performance tonight. Where were you?"

"Omigod, Eddie, I completely forgot! Sammy's been working so hard on that! How was his solo?"

"Here, watch it yourself." Fortunately, my hubby recorded it on his I phone. Sammy looked nervous but sang beautifully. "Oh, honey, he looks adorable! " I said proudly.

"Yeah, well, you can be sure to tell him that tomorrow, as you drop him off at school."

"Oh, honey, can you do it? I promised Tina I'd go in early tomorrow. The boss just upped the deadline, and we are now officially behind!"

Eddie started at me, finished his wine and said "goodnight." I made sure there was warm French toast in the oven for both of them the next day. I left a video on my son's phone "Hi love! Sorry about yesterday. Daddy taped your concert for me. You did great! I'm proud of you!. Listen, Daddy's picking you up after school. Tina and I have a big project that is due soon. I promise we'll spend some time together right afterwards! There's breakfast in the oven for you two, gotta go! Love you!" I sped off to work , only to find that Tina had gotten there first and was already working on the project. "Hey, there's coffee for you and I picked up some bagels. I'm just going over the rough draft of our proposal. I had to make some changes, just minor stuff. You want to take a look?"

"How long have you been here?" I asked, as I took off my coat and put my purse in the desk drawer.

"Oh, I don't know. I guess when the building opened.", her eyes never left the computer screen.

I looked at the corrections she made. "Tina, you changed the whole budget here, this isn't going to be approved."

"Yes, it is. Look, with a little bit more money, we can make major improvements. This will put us on the cutting edge. That's what the boss wants. Not these tiny little nudges you were proposing."

"You tripled the expenses and increased the time needed to make all these changes, Tina!"

"It's okay, we need the upgrades. Believe me, with AI, the workflow is going to be easier so we can get twice the work done! "

"This isn't what we talked about. Look, we have to go to three staff meetings today. Why don't you come over for dinner tonight so we can discuss this?"

"Well, okay but this is the way to go, trust me."

Tina and I came home with a pizza. It was so late, my husband had already put Sam to bed. "Hi honey, sorry we're late. I picked up a pepperoni pizza, okay?". Ed looked at Tina and said "Sammy and I ate already. And I helped him with his math assignment. Afterward, we went to the park and played some basketball. It's 10 pm, what were you thinking? Did you actually think Sammy would still be up?"

"Ed, I 'm sorry. We got working on this so hard, I forgot the time! "

He looked between us once more and said, “It’s either her or me."

It took a few seconds to realize I was utterly and completely lost.

I looked at Tina "Um, I think maybe we better discuss this tomorrow at work okay? And Tina? I'll be in at 9 am and I'll be leaving at 5pm okay? "

Tina said, "We can't do that! This proposal has to be on the boss's desk by tomorrow noon and we aren't finished! Look, It's okay. Ed, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have taken so much of your time together. You guys have been great friends to me. I'll see you tomorrow, Take your time." She smiled and left.

The next day, I arrived at the office at 9 AM as promised. Tina smiled at me and said "It's finished! Our boss approved the changes! The biggest project I ever did was approved!"

Her project? Something in me began to seethe. All those weeks and months we spent on it, and she finished it?

"Can I see the final draft?" I held out my hand. The proposal landed in my hand like a lump. It felt like a stone, cold and heartless. I perused it quickly. "Where are my ideas in this?" I asked her.

"I told you; we had to make more major adjustments than what you originally thought. The boss loved it when I spoke with him this morning."

"I'm sorry. You two had a meeting this morning? When? Why wasn't I told about it?"

"Well, it was kind of last minute but I did email you. It was scheduled for 8 AM. I brought in bagels. I put one on your desk, if you want." She took the proposal and placed it in a manilla envelope. " I emailed it to the Managing director after I got approval from the boss. Just like we said we were going to do." She went back to her desk and started putting her things in a box. "What are you doing, Tina?" I asked

She said smugly. "Oh, you know, the boss was so pleased , he gave me the corner office. You know the one we were looking at the other day? By the executive washroom? By the way, if you ever want to use it, I'll show you where I hang the keys. You can use it anytime, just don't let anyone else know. Oh, I forgot. The cream cheese on your bagel isn't low fat, they were out. Sorry. See you later."

I watched as she walked down the long hallway to the worshipped corner office. Mark came up to me and asked "What's up with her? She sleep with the boss or something?"

Alice said, "The boss really liked her project! I thought the two of you were working on it but she said you were her assistant."

The rest of the day, I watched. A plan was forming in my mind. Fool proof. A plan that Tina would never forget. Five o'clock came so I left with the crowd. I knew Tina would be staying late as she said she had a meeting with the boss about her new position. I sneaked back in and waited. She and the boss came out of the board room. He was fixing his belt and she was buttoning her shirt. She went into the executive washroom. I followed her in. She turned when she saw me "Hi! What are you doing here? I thought you went home?"

I came out of the executive washroom alone and drove home. I spent the rest of my night playing with my son and listening to music with my husband. All was right again.

The next day I got off the elevator at work and noticed a crowd around the washroom. I said, "What's going on?" Alice looked at me and said "Tina was found dead this morning! Blood was everywhere! "

"What? " Not believing my ears.

Mark chimed in "Yeah, it's weird. The police saw a name scrawled on the floor in Tina's blood? It's funny, it kind of looked like your name.."

I stared at the crowd and told the biggest lie of my life.

I was exhausted. I had been at the police station for hours answering the same questions a thousand different times. They let me call home, so I called Ed and told him that I couldn't stand redoing the proposal so many times but I would be home late and not to save dinner. After several hours, the police let me go home. I got in my car, put on some music, drank a bottle of water. At the intersection, I could go right and head home — but turning left would take me.....

The End