I'M not happy

“You’ve gotta be fucking shitting me,” Dayana growled. “You’ve heard about this, right?”

She was waving a familiar set of papers around as she walked towards me, so I nodded. “If that’s what I think it is, I have.”

“I’m comping more champagne in one day than half of my employees make in a fucking year,” she said, her voice getting lower. She was being a little hyperbolic, but only because of tips. The base wage of a bunch of the catering staff, bartenders and line cooks probably did top out under the amount the hotel was about to give away in Dom Perignon champagne.

“I know, and it’s ridiculous,” I said, meeting her halfway across the loading docks. “But it’s not our money. Just keep a total over everything that gets comped handy so that it’s ready to go if someone starts asking questions.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Dayana rolled her eyes at me and then sighed, her shoulders relaxing as she looked up at me. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” I sighed.

“Uh-oh,” she said, narrowing her eyes slightly. “What else is blowing up? Did something go wrong last night?”

I knew she was talking about my therapy session. “Last night was… I’ll tell you about it at lunch, but for me it went OK,” I said. Then I glanced around the loading dock - it was still early morning, but that didn’t mean we weren’t surrounded by people. Every day trucks were in and out of there from dawn to dusk. Food deliveries. Drink deliveries. Cleaning supplies. Furniture. New casino games. Armoured cars. Art. Uniform services. Laundry services. The list went on. At least half of it was food and drink for the various kitchens, restaurants and bars on the property. Technically it was the jurisdiction of the Security crews, but no one ‘owned’ it so to speak and since Dayana had so many of the daily deliveries for her department she often ended up the de facto go-to on any issues out there.

There were two trucks being unloaded at the moment, with the truckers and maintenance crews milling around doing work at their regular pace of not-quite-slow, so I nodded Dayana over further into the shade and a private corner. She followed, her frown deepening.

“I didn’t cause some sort of extra issue, did I?” she asked as we stopped where we couldn’t be overheard. “I kinda tore into Cass in text, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”

“No- Well, Cass did take that hard,” I said. “But more in an ‘Oh shit, she’s so right’ sort of way that compounded on her guilt when she found out I had another attack. She’s OK though, and not mad at you or anything.”

“OK,” Dayana sighed with relief and ran her fingers through her hair as she pursed her lips and glanced back at one of the crews, absently checking their progress. She was wearing a tight blouse and pencil skirt today with a gold necklace hanging just below her collarbone. The movement pressed her chest out at me as she arched her back a bit with it, and I managed not to stare. Was that the outline of her nipple? Just a little bump? When she turned back to look at me I wasn’t looking low enough to tell. “So what is it then?”

I swallowed, grimacing a little. “I told Vanessa about all the stuff going on with the potential moves,” I said, gesturing upwards to let her know I was talking about the stuff with Doug, Shaun and the VP positions.

“Alright,” Dayana said, quirking an eyebrow slightly. “What does she have to do with anything on our side of the building?”

“She doesn’t,” I said. “But I figured she might be able to give some insight into things. She didn’t have any confirmations about what might happen, but she did have thoughts on what the best course of action would be.”

“Let me guess,” Dayana said. “She thinks you should try to cut out Doug and Shaun, fuck me over and go for VP of Hospitality?”

I gave her a look. I was friends with Dayana, and friends with Vanessa, but they weren’t friends. “No- Well, technically her analysis did include me becoming VP of Hospitality as a best-case scenario, but too unlikely to be worth serious consideration.” Dayana snorted and I rolled my eyes but continued. “Her actual best case scenario was that we both get promoted to our respective VP positions so that we stay an equal team.”

It wasn’t the first time I’d seen Dayana surprised, but I still loved the look on her face as she processed that. “Vanessa said that?” she asked.

“She did,” I chuckled softly. “She knows you're very, very good at your job, and I’m good at mine. And if one of us gets promoted and the other doesn’t it might get weird.”

“Right,” Dayana frowned. “I don’t think it would, but it could.”

“We’d try to keep that from happening,” I said. “But, theoretically speaking, both of us staying even would be best.”

“How does that happen when, if it shakes out properly, there’s one position open?” Dayana asked. “Unless we’re getting someone fired.”

I gave her another look, this one a ‘that’s kind of where I’m going.’

“Robbie,” she said. “Really? You are thinking… cut throat like that?”

“I had an interesting discussion with Doug as soon as I got in today,” I frowned. “Apparently the only thing that matters is him looking good at meetings this week and next week, even if it means everything else is a mess during or beyond that. He basically pointed out a bus, and that he was ready to push me in front of it if I didn’t do exactly what he wanted.”

“Qué jodido,” she grunted, shaking her head. “He’s seriously pissing me off lately.”

“Yeah, well, his inner asshole is overtaking his usual hands-off weasel tendencies,” I said.

“So, what, we try to get Shaun promoted to VP Hospitality, and get Doug fired?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But… It's an option. And Vanessa made a good point that everyone knows you do almost all of Shaun’s work for him anyways, so trying to make him look bad will just reflect on you.”

Dayana winced and nodded. She was about to say something when she got a text, and a glance at it made her scoff.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Five minute warning on the Princess coming in,” Dayana said deadpan. “Hold on, let me text my guys to get the stuff up to that suite, and then we can go lurk in the atrium and get a look at this VIP.”

That sounded like a good idea.

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