“I still need my things.”
“Of course.”
Brenda stepped aside, rigid.
Karen took three steps before stopping.
She turned.
“Brenda.”
The manager looked at her.
Karen expected anger to rise.
She had imagined, during smaller humiliations over the past eight months, all the things she might say if she ever had nothing left to lose.
Now that moment had arrived.
Strangely, she did not want revenge.
“Mia wasn’t trying to embarrass the store,” Karen said.
“She was hurting.”
Brenda said nothing.
“You don’t have to understand everything somebody feels,” Karen continued.
“You just have to believe them when they show you they’re overwhelmed.”
Brenda’s mouth tightened.
“Are you finished?”
Karen nodded.
“Yes.”
She walked to the back.
When she returned several minutes later, everything she had accumulated over eight months fit inside one paper shopping bag: spare flats, a sweater, a chipped coffee mug, hand lotion, and a photograph of her and her sister.
It looked insultingly small compared with the size of the fear she had carried about losing the job.
Mia was still wearing the cashmere scarf.
Lorenzo was waiting beside her.
Brenda stood behind the counter, staring at a computer screen she clearly was not reading.
The customers had begun moving again, but the atmosphere had changed.
Their silence no longer protected Brenda.
It accused her.
As Karen approached the door, the woman in pearls who had backed away from Mia earlier caught her eye.
For a second, Karen expected another look of discomfort.
Instead, the woman lowered her gaze.
Ashamed.
It was not an apology.
But it was something.
Outside, Madison Avenue roared with ordinary life.
Cars passed.
Horns sounded.
People hurried by carrying bags, checking phones, chasing appointments.
Karen stopped on the sidewalk and breathed.
She was unemployed.
Technically.
For perhaps thirty seconds.
Lorenzo came through the doors with Mia beside him and the two men several paces behind.
Mia reached for Karen’s hand, then paused.
“Can I?”
Karen’s chest tightened.
She nodded.
Mia took it.
Lorenzo noticed the question and permission exchanged between them.
Another small detail filed away behind those watchful eyes.
“My office can discuss everything with you Monday,” he said.
“Nothing is final until you decide.”
Karen looked at him.
“You really mean that.”
“I rarely say things I don’t mean.”
