Up before dawn, I carried the lunch my housekeeper had packed into the office.
The usual morning chaos cut off the second I walked in.
I knew exactly what they were doing. Freeze me out, ice me down, make me bow my head.
Not a chance.
All morning I sat at my desk and did my job, clean and quiet, like nothing was wrong.
At twelve sharp, the punch-out chime rang through the floor.
Heads swiveled toward the door, faces bright with expectation.
On any normal day, the five delivery guys I'd hired would already be lined up at the entrance.
Handing out diet meals, one by one.
But today, ten minutes ticked by.
Nothing at the door but a draft of cold air. Not a single person.
Quinn had slipped out at eleven.
And still hadn't come back.
"What's going on? It's already twelve-ten. Where's the food?"
"Fay, what's the deal? Go chase it down."
Luke from sales couldn't sit still any longer. He shot to his feet and turned on me.
I was busy savoring my housekeeper's ginger duck.
"Fay, nobody else's lunch is here and you're eating already?"
His voice climbed, sharp with accusation.
Lance Gray, at the desk beside him, grabbed his arm fast.
"Luke, did you forget? We ordered from Quinn yesterday."
His face went scarlet in an instant, and he dropped back into his chair with a thud.
"Relax, everybody. It's Quinn's first day covering the orders. A few minutes' delay is totally normal."
Maud Chavez stood up to smooth things over on Quinn's behalf.
The minutes crawled past, one by one. Another fifteen gone.
Normally by now the whole room would be thick with the smell of food.
Instead, it was dead silent. Eerily so.
Every last one of them stared at the door like starving wolves.
Finally, the elevator dinged.
"It's here! Today's feast has arrived!"
Quinn dragged in a huge bag, sweat pouring down her face.
"Eat up, eat up, while it's hot!"
After fifteen minutes of scrambling, with everyone elbowing and snatching,
the whole crowd finally got the diet meals they'd been craving.
"Tastes good. Really good."
Maud was already wolfing hers down.
Quinn had run so many trips her makeup had melted off.
"Sweetie, this one's for you. Give it a try. See if my $8.80 lives up to your $29.90."
She beamed at me. "No thanks. I already ate."
She acted like she hadn't heard me refuse, set the diet meal down anyway, and moved on.
I took one look. She'd kept her word, all right.
The broccoli looked wilted on sight, the purple cabbage an off color.
Those two limp red slices of meat? I couldn't tell you what animal they came from.
Still, she was clever. She'd loaded it with additives.
The taste was good.
"The free deli dishes are on the table, everybody dig in."
After dropping off the last batch, Quinn finally sank into her seat.
I opened the deli box she'd set down, and a wave of spicy-savory steam hit my face.
The duck carcass inside was bone-dry, dotted with little black specks.
The lotus root layered underneath had gone soft and mushy.
If it weren't drowning in heavy seasoning,
even an idiot could've seen this stuff had gone bad.
For her to pull this off on that budget,
she really had cut every corner she could.
Half an hour later, Quinn bustled around clearing the heaps of trash people had dumped.
I watched the exhaustion she couldn't quite hide beneath that smile.
I sipped my flower tea and quietly watched her run circles around the room.
All show and no substance. I was curious how many days she could keep it up.
