“Oh, honestly, Suzanne. It isn’t as if I hadn’t kept it a secret that I was looking to move up in the company. I was pretty honest with you from the start.”

Suzanne stood there speechless. Melinda took off her glasses and laid them on the desk; the desk that up until twenty minutes ago had been Suzanne’s desk.

“Melinda, you played me.”

“Oh come off it, Suzanne. We’ve known each other for long enough for you to understand that I get what I want whatever it takes. Did you really believe I wouldn’t fight for this position just because we were sometime friends? How naive.”

“So that’s it, then? Suck it up, buttercup? You nasty, vile piece of humanity. I GOT you this job when you came crying to me when the logistics company fired you. I vouched for you. I have let you bunk at my apartment for months and now you have appropriated my ideas, slept with my boss, and have my job.”

Melinda sneered. “Are you done whining? Because I have work to do.”

“No, Melinda, actually I have one more thing. You might want to sign on to the project site. I left you my own little gift. Just a small thing to celebrate your new position. Oh! And the locksmith is changing the locks at the apartment right now. Your stuff will be on the street. You can ignore the “FREE STUFF” sign. There probably won’t be much left by the time you get there.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Oh, but I would.” With that, Suzanne turned on her heel and left Melinda sputtering after her. Suzanne was waiting for the elevator when she heard Melinda scream.

“That bitch! She erased the whole damn project!”

Suzanne smiled at the man standing next to her who was staring wide-eyed down the hallway toward Melinda’s office.

“Karma’s a real bitch, isn’t it?” she said, stepping into the elevator and pushing the button for the Lobby. “Just a real bitch.”