Searching for Mr. Darcy

Scene Twenty-Two

"Two Yahoo! articles in less than a week? You're practically famous!" George waited in her chair when Maisie reached her desk. He held out a scone and paper coffee cup.

"Thanks," she said, accepting the breakfast. "I'm going to be even more famous later this week."

He stood and let her sit. "Why?"

"Talia and I are going to New York Wednesday to meet with an editor at Buzzfeed."

"Whoa - seriously?"

"Yep. I'm so glad I've been saving up vacation days." Maisie dropped her purse into her bottom desk drawer and opened the middle one, extracting a time-off request form from the hanging files. With a click of a pen, she filled it out swiftly and handed it to her friend. "Would you mind dropping this off at HR on your way to your desk?"

George glanced down the page. "You're taking the rest of the week?"

"Yeah, we're going to do some shopping, really make a vacation out of it."

"Have fun." He rubbed the back of his neck as he walked away, and Maisie got down to the pressing business in her inbox.

****

"Ms. Frampton!" Roseberg's voice blared from the intercom at an uncomfortable decibel.

Maisie sighed and answered, "Yes?"

"My office, now."

She rolled her eyes and punched the button the phone to turn the speaker off. Lunch had only been over for ten minutes. She hadn't expected him to learn of her vacation for at least another hour.

"Yes, sir?" she asked, stepping in his office and pulling the door shut.

"Why the last minute need to take three days off?"

"A personal matter has come up, and I need to be out of town for it. I have plenty of unused vacation time stored up, and there are no major sales happening this week. I'll make sure all of my work is done before I leave tomorrow afternoon."

"I'm not sure I can approve this request without more information." He tapped his finger hard on his desk, then pushed his chair out.

"There's nothing in the employee handbook that states a reason must be given for vacation time to be used, and the only notification requirement is 24 hours, which I've met."

A low cough-like growl escaped Roseberg's throat. He quickly cleared it, then stood up, leaning forward on his knuckles. Maisie tried not to laugh. If he thought he was intimidating, he should take a look in the mirror a get a glimpse of how ridiculous he looked.

"You'll be back on Monday?"

"Yes, sir."

"Fine, then. Did you take care of that other thing?"

Instead of answering, she opened the door and took a step out. "Thanks, Mr. Roseberg. I've got a lot of work to do to prepare for my absence."