Chapter 42 The Absurdity Of Corporate Hierarchy
It started with a knock three polite taps that absolutely did not match the panic on Ashly’s face.
She stood at their cubicle entrance clutching folders like they might fly away. Cheeks flushed, breathing uneven, eyes wide with the look of someone who had been sent by upper management on an errand nobody else wanted.
“Ms. Whitnley? Ms. Joy?” she whispered, like speaking too loudly might trigger another audit. “Cynthia sent me. There’s a big meeting in the lobby. She said all departments must attend. Especially the managers.”
Lotus blinked. “Managers? Us?”
Ashly nodded hard enough to bounce her ponytail. “Yes. Now. It’s already started. First floor. Big conference hall. Cynthia said” She swallowed. “to please hurry.”
Joy slowly closed her laptop, her smile growing in that dangerous, knowing way.
“Wow,” she said. “First time they remembered we exist without needing something fixed or forwarded.”
Ashly winced. “I’m just the messenger.”
Lotus softened. “We know, sweetheart. Thank you.”
Ashly practically fled clearly afraid she’d get blamed for something if she lingered.
The moment she disappeared, Joy turned in her chair.
“You get a calendar invite?”
“Nope.”
“A Teams message?”
“Nope.”
“A pigeon with a scroll?”
“Not even a feather.”
Joy let out a low whistle. “So it’s official. One of those ‘Oops! We forgot the entire floor that keeps this place running!’ meetings.”
And right on cue, Paul wandered over munching a granola bar like it was the highlight of his day.
“Y’all look confused,” he said. “Which is normal for management-level events around here.”
Lotus crossed her arms. “Do you know where this meeting even is?”
Paul laughed—laughed—like they had just asked where socks disappear in the dryer.
“Welcome to the third floor,” he said. “They don’t tell us about big meetings until three things happen:
It’s already started.
They need us to print something.
Or they want to blame us for something.”
Joy threw her hands up. “So we’re basically on a need-to-know basis, and apparently we never need to know.”
“Exactly,” Paul said, already walking toward the elevator. “C’mon. I’ll show y’all the back route. They start locking the main doors once the pretty departments get seated.”
Joy and Lotus exchanged a look equal parts exhaustion, amusement, and the quiet understanding that this was why the third floor was emotionally exhausted.
“Fine,” Lotus said. “Lead the way, oh Wise Granola Oracle.”
Paul saluted with his half-eaten bar. “Third floor hospitality.”
They hustled into the elevator before the doors shut on them literally and metaphorically