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“You’re fired, Manila”

I stare at ht He’s sitting there watching , deafening silence

He reaches across the table to patpersonal It’s just, you know, you’ve been gone for so long…”

“I hadtoit all by myself –”

“Well, that was your choice,” he points out

I ball up my fists at my sides “How is that any different from Rebecca? Or Marcy, or Tamara?” I list every woman in this office with kids of her own Marcy took an extra month of nancy led to an eency C-section Tamara works from home Mondays and Fridays to have extra ti husband walked out on her What’s different about me?

“You chose to bring those kids into the world without a father,” Mark replies

I a at him, full-on, open- away as this asshole’s personal secretary Never once did I coencies in the ht on a Saturday, not when he askedteot a little too handsy at the office Christmas party last year Because the rest of the tiuy to work for

So I thought

“So let ally allowed maternity leave,” I say

He frowns There’s the key word, fucker Legally allowed Yeah, that’s right But then he shakes his head “Of course not, Manila We would never do that But you asked me if you could take an extra month, remember? And then you came back and asked for another couple of days, and you were late two days last week, your first week back on the job…”