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Fallon stared at Allison, trying her hardest to keep her jaw shut. Her first instinct had been to drop it, expose her tongue and her tonsils, but she kept her teeth bound together and frowned. Her fingers crumpled the page in her hands, the paper folding under her grip, tearing at the very edges. Allison stared back at her, hands behind her back, teeth worrying at her bottom lips. She stripped off a particularly large film of skin and blood bloomed from her lips. She soothed it over with her tongue.
“You’re handing in your two-week notice?” Fallon asked for the second time, eyes flitting down to the paper. Dear Ms Carrington… Overly formal and clearly copied from an online template. Poor thing has either never done this before, or was afraid of offending Fallon more than necessary. “I thought you liked it here.”
Fallon Unlimited had the best employee rating of any company Fallon had ever worked at. Admittedly, there were only two others, but the point still stood. Carrington Atlantic was an institution, but a desk job was a desk job to the lower-downs. Morell Corp had employed three people, and Jeff and Fallon weren’t exactly the business partners they’d hoped to be. Of course Allison had to have liked it here. Where else did she get free lattes and meditation retreats and dental on her insurance plan? Nowhere else in Atlanta (Fallon had checked). Not on an assistant job, anyway.
“Yes,” Allison said with a short nod. Her hands moved from behind her back to clasp them in front of her. She didn’t elaborate, and hadn’t in her letter either. I am ready to move on with my life, and I no longer have room to work at Fallon Unlimited. Fallon didn’t know what that meant. Allison no longer had the bandwidth to work for Fallon, she guessed. It might have hurt less if Allison told her outright she was a terrible boss.
“Did you get a new job?”
Allison was overqualified to be an assistant. She had a master’s degree in computer science from Cornell. She had potential far outside of managing Fallon’s time and getting coffee. Fallon knew that when she hired Allison, the job was a pit stop, and not the final destination. Fallon knew that . But, still, a pit of something sunk and settled in her stomach. She didn’t recognise it, didn’t like it, so she filed it to the back of her mind of unpack later. Unconsciously, she twisted her wedding rings around her finger with her thumb.
“No.” The word was strained, overloud. Allison didn’t have a job, and she was quitting anyway. Had Fallon done something? She didn’t remember doing something, didn’t think she had. Though obviously she had. Allison wouldn’t dive into the deep end of unemployment just for the fun of it. “Not yet,” she corrected, loosening her shoulders a fraction. Her posture was still rigid, nervous. Allison was perhaps the most anxious person Fallon had ever met, but this was bad.
“Oh,” Fallon said, and pressed her lips together, but made a point not to purse them. She wasn’t angry with Allison, just surprised. Yes, surprised was the right word. “Well, I wish you good luck.” Perhaps the most civil Fallon had ever been to a departing employee.
Allison looked to the ceiling for a moment before clamping her gaze back on Fallon. “I’m moving to New Orleans.”
This time, Fallon’s jaw did drop. Only slightly, and she righted herself quickly. But it dropped all the same. “New Orleans?” she repeated, embarrassment crawling around at the base of her spine. New Orleans as in where Fallon had her bachelorette party and Allison made out with a stranger. A female woman stranger. That was fine. Completely okay. “That’s…” the worst thing you could ever do! Who’s going to tell me when I have visitors?
Allison nodded again, visibly swallowing. “Elena asked me to move in with her.”
“Elena?” Fallon had no idea who that was. She probably should have. Listening was not a skill she’d mastered, but she could not for the life of her remember Allison ever bringing up an Elena.
“My girlfriend.” That was quick. The bachelorette party wasn’t even a month ago.
Girlfriend . Oh.
“Oh. Congratulations. I’m sorry we only have two weeks left working together.” Remorse wasn’t an emotion Fallon allowed herself to feel often, but she was well and truly sorry that Allison was whisking herself out of Fallon’s life, just like that. Fallon needed more than two weeks to prepare herself for Allison’s departure.
“Me too.” Allison pushed up her glasses to sit higher on her face. Several beats of melancholy silence passed, smothering the room; refusing to let light or air in. “Do you need anything?”
“A coffee would be nice, thanks.” Fallon cleared her throat and looked to her to-do list. “I’ll email you if I need anything else.”
“Coming right up.”
Allison smiled sympathetically and let her eyes linger on Fallon for a moment before leaving the room. Fallon put her face in her hands and exhaled through her teeth.