Chapter 7 Innocence Lost

Lily!” My boss’s voice thunders from his office down the hall. “In my office. Now.”

I roll my eyes. What the hell does he want this time? I finish typing a text to my lazy-ass boyfriend, reminding him to call me when he gets out of work so I know he’s not off getting drunk with his low-life friends. Pushing up from my desk, I leave the empty reception area and head for my boss’s office at the end of the hall.

The door is open, so I don’t bother knocking. “Yes, Mr. Royce?”

He doesn’t even look up from his desk. “Where’s the McKenzie file I asked for?”

“It should be there.”

“It’s not.”

I fold my arms. “Well, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Mr. Royce sighs and leans back in his fancy leather chair. There are wrinkles in his fancy white shirt, and I can tell he’s been running his hands through his fancy new haircut. He’s frustrated. Well, so am I. This is my first summer back from college. I should be on the beach with my friends, letting my boyfriend rub suntan lotion on my back. I should not be holed up in my stepdad’s buddy’s law office answering inane phone calls and pushing papers—as in actual paper. It’s like this guy refuses to move into the twenty-first century.

Of course, if I hadn’t gotten fired from my last job for checking my phone too much, I wouldn’t be here. Hard asses thought I couldn’t multitask. Whatever. My boss was a total asshole anyway.

Not unlike my current boss.

“Lily, I need that file. Go check and see if you missed it. Please.” He says the word please like it’s an afterthought, as if my time isn’t worth anything.

I clench my teeth and turn to go—

“Are these the files you’re looking for, sir?” Mina, Mr. Royce’s assistant and technically my direct supervisor, sweeps past me into the room with a file between her shoddily manicured fingers.

She sets the folder on the desk. Mr. Royce checks the contents, then flashes her an appreciative smile. “Thank you, Mina. It’s nice to see someone around here is still willing to put in some effort.”

I close my eyes so I can’t roll them. “Can I go now?”

“For now, yes,” he says. “But I need you to stay late tonight.”

I scoff. “Mr. Royce, I can’t. I have to meet my boyfriend.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass if you have to meet God himself. I need you to stay and help move those files from the back-office cabinets into the new storage room.”

He can’t be serious. “But—”

“I don’t want to hear it, Lily. You can either stay and help or leave now and never come back. But good luck finding another employer that’ll take someone with no skills and zero work ethic.”

Mina’s smile is smug, her lipstick so two years ago. Mr. Royce turns his attention to his computer screen. My eyes burn, seeing red.

“I have skills.”

“Like what? Besides getting on your knees for that shithead boyfriend of yours.” He snickers at the horrified look on my face. “You don’t think your dad knows what you two get up to in the rec room after dark? Please. If you put half as much effort into your job here as you do into keeping that little prick happy, you’d be my star employee.”

My throat tightens. I can think of a million awful names I want to call him, but they all get stuck in my throat like garbage in a drain pipe. All I can manage is a quiet, “How dare you.”

“I gave you this job as a favor to your stepdad, Lily. But my goodwill only goes so far.” Mr. Royce motions for me to leave. “Now go do your goddamn job before I find someone who will.”

I turn on my heel and march out of his office. As soon as I leave the room, I hear a heavy sigh, and stop.

“I swear to God,” says Mr. Royce, “if she were my kid, I’d tape her fucking mouth shut.”

“Maybe you should,” says Mina. “Lily obviously needs a firmer hand. You’re not doing her any favors by coddling her. Frankly, I’m surprised you haven’t fired her yet. You don’t have to keep her, you know. It’s not like she’s your kid.”

“She’s smart when she wants to be. I just wish she’d apply herself.”

“Next time she crosses a line, there have to be real consequences,” says Mina. “It’s the only way she’s going to grow up.”

Bitch.

I continue down the hall, stopping to grab a diet soda from the break room before returning to my desk. I text Kevin to let him know I won’t be coming over, then load up a game on my phone and settle in for the rest of my shift.

It’s going to be a long one.

Four hours later, feet and back aching from carrying box after box of dusty old files into the storage room, I’m seriously considering giving up my job and taking up sex work. Mr. Royce has been shut up in his office since a little before five, and I haven’t seen Mina in almost an hour. I glance around at the piles of folders on the floor and the wall of cabinets they’re supposed to go into.

There’s no way I can do all this tonight. He’s going to have to let me finish tomorrow.