Lila stood, left Dovey’s office, and counted her steps in sets of ten as she made her way to the office of Andi Fitch. Dovey had moved the first piece on his political game board, a move Lila believed she understood. Assigning Lila to Andi Fitch had nothing to do with getting her in front of a judge and everything to do with building a paper trail that would justify his firing her. The quarterly performance review Fitch had written for Ryan was microscopic in its thoroughness, detailing every minor stumble and flaw. Dovey planned to kill her with paper cuts, and she would have no choice but to take it.

Lila paused outside of Fitch’s door to gather her resolve before knocking. She wanted to present herself as the epitome of confidence: no shake in her voice, no fidget in her hands. At the very least, she wanted to hide the biting anxiety that roiled in her stomach. Then she knocked.

“Enter.”

Lila stepped in, closing the door behind her. “I’m Lila Nash,” she said.

Fitch gave her a glance and then turned her attention back to the document she was reading. “Congratulations,” she said. “Why are you standing in my office, Lila Nash?”

“Mr. Dovey didn’t tell you?”

At the mention of Dovey’s name, Fitch put the paper down and looked at Lila. “Tell me what?”

“I’ve been reassigned to you.”

Fitch pursed her lips and took in a slow, deep breath. “Is that a fact?”

Lila was about to answer, but Fitch pointed at a chair and said, “Sit,” which Lila did. Then Fitch punched some buttons on the phone and set the ringing line to speaker. Frank Dovey answered.

“Frank, Andi here. I have a confused girl in my office who thinks she’s been assigned to me for supervision. That has to be a mistake, so could you clear things up for her?”

“No mistake, Andi. I sent her there.”

Andi picked up the receiver so Lila could no longer hear Frank. “What part of ‘no more clerks’ did you not get?” There was a long pause, after which Fitch said, “I’m tired of babysitting, Frank. We’ve talked about this.”

Lila wanted to say, I’m right here, but she held her tongue.

“Goddammit! I don’t know what your game is, but—”

There was another pause before Andi said, “Go to hell, Frank,” and hung up the phone.

Andi looked at Lila as though she had just noticed that Lila was still in the room. Then Andi took her seat and dialed the phone again, keeping it on speaker. Ryan answered.

“Yes, Ms. Fitch?”

“Grab your files and bring them to my office.”

“Which ones?”

“All of them!” She hung up the phone and pressed a finger against each temple, rubbing slowly. Lila wanted to say something but had no idea where to start. They sat there for minutes in silence until a knock announced Ryan’s arrival with his arms full of files.

“Give those to…What’s your name again?”