Just us.

19. Mia 2.0

After that argument with Marjorie I haven't spoken to anyone in the nursery. I finished the day quietly and went home.

This morning, I'm working with Carly, I'm just talking to a child when I turn around to talk to her,
"Carly, I'm just going to- Carly? Are you okay?" She's almost falling over and looks extremely pale.

"Ughhh I feel so rough" she stumbles, "I woke up feeling absolutely on deaths door"
"Why did you come in then? You should have called in sick"
"Can't" she sighs, "Jodie's been moved to the kitchen now so I'm picking up for a lot of her stuff. If I called in sick, I would have left us all in the lurch"

This is my fault. If I didn't complain about Jodie she wouldn't have been moved to the kitchen. I mean, it needed to happen, but now Carly is suffering. She shouldn't have to have all this extra workload. She's just an apprentice. She's so sweet trying not to cause hassle but she also needs to take care of herself too.

"Carly you have to take care of yourself, okay? You can't put yourself in this position" I tell her
"Yeah but you know what it's like when you call in sick, it's just, you feel like you're letting everyone down" she signs
"No one's gonna think that, okay? You're literally ill. Look, I'll go and talk to Marjorie for you"
"Aren't you two in a fight?" Oh. Yeah. I guess everyone did hear us in the car park. Do I really want to talk to Marjorie yet? Maybe I can patch things up? I don't like this one bit.

"Yeah but, maybe this will be an opportunity for us to patch things up. Because I absolutely hate being in an argument with her. It feels awful" I reply
"Oh thank god you said that cause honestly I feel like a child of divorce right now" oh Carly
"Right, I'll go and speak to Marjorie. Be back in a minute"

...

Dreading for my next move, I slowly step into the office, Marjorie is in the phone to whom I'm guess is Reece,
"Okay, I love you" she laughs, "alright..." as she turns to face me her smile fades. I quickly look away but stay where I'm stood, "I'll speak to you later. Bye"

Marjorie puts the phone down but as I begin to speak to interrupts,
"Right before you jump down my throat, that was actually a work call. I was just saying goodbye to him, okay?" She huffs.
"Okay, I-" I wasn't even going to say anything about it,
"I just thought I should make that clear before you throw another accusation in my face about me flirting with my boyfriend on company time"

"Look that's not what I came in here to talk about. I came to talk to you about Carly" I say calmly
"Oh my god. What you're going after another staff member now? Jodie wasn't enough? Carly was next on Mia's hit list right?" What?
"What's Mia got to do with this?"
"Well tryna get rid of all the staff, I'd say you're basically a 2.0 version of her now" what? I can't believe she just say that. To me. She wanted me to stand up for myself did she not?

"Why? Because I stand up for myself now?" I ask. She told me to grow a back bone. So I grew a backbone.
"Because you're just as cold and heartless as she is" cold and heartless? That's not like Mia at all. And it's not like Marjorie to say things like that. I know she doesn't like Mia but if she listened just once she would know that it's not always what it seems.

"Everyone here was on at me to grow a backbone. And as soon as I do, you all start tearing into me for it" I cross my arms over my chest,
"Yeah, a backbone. Stand up for yourself. But don't grow an entirely new personality aka Mia!"
"D'you know, you constantly tear into Mia. But at least she actually saw what was going on right in front of her unlike you. You're completely oblivious"
"Really? What now because I've already sent Jodie into the kitchen way earlier than I wanted to. I barely speak to Reece on the phone, I'm literally moving heaven and earth to please your ladyship so what am I oblivious to now?" How about your so called friend going through shit and not even noticing!
"Right now Carly is practically falling asleep in the toddler room because she's burning the candle from both ends. She's too ill to be here but she was too scared to call in sick because she knows it would have left us in the lurch. Because she's having to cover for all the slack Jodie has left us in" I explain
"And whose fault is that, exactly? That she's having to cover for Jodie"
"You were gonna move her into the kitchen anyway" I reply. But maybe this is all my fault.
"I was. As soon as I found a replacement for her, okay. But because you made such a song and dance about it, I've had to move her out sooner and now everyone's picking up her slack. So tell Carly she can go home, I'll send autumn in to cover for her. If that's okay with you" I just nod and muffle an okay, on the verge of tears. 

As I turn to leave, there's one more thing I want to make clear,
"By the way, I turn back to face her,
"What?" She huffs
"It wasn't my husband that sent me those flowers"
"Charlotte of I'm being perfectly honest, I really don't care who did"
"Good to know" I nod before leaving. Good to know.