Chapter 2

We went down to the cafeteria on the ground floor.

A crowd had packed in tight, three deep on every side, nobody able to move.

"Ms. Pruitt's here!"

People from the company recognized me and cleared a path.

I stepped through to the middle.

Clement was locked in a fistfight with a young man.

Both of them had faces already swollen and bruised.

When they saw me, they finally broke apart.

"What's going on here?" I asked.

Clement gave a resentful grunt.

"This guy from your company said the portions were too small, and then he goes and smashes up my cafeteria!"

The young man was furious.

"I already told you I'm not with Ms. Pruitt's company. What gives you the right to serve me such a tiny portion?"

Clement ground his teeth.

"Your boss is standing right here and you're still going to deny it?"

"Did your boss put you up to this on purpose?"

Then he turned on me, still full of complaint.

"Some piece of work you are, Carly Pruitt, pulling a stunt this low!"

"My cafeteria can't do business anymore today. You're going to pay for every bit of this loss!"

I couldn't help frowning.

One of the company's employees came up to me.

They explained that today, to keep our people from "getting a free ride," the cafeteria had simply cut everyone's portions down.

This young man hadn't taken it well, argued with Clement, and then smashed a few bowls.

Then the two of them had gone at each other.

"Are you actually with our company or not?" I asked the young man, my tone hard.

"Hmph. Still playing dumb, Carly Pruitt? He's yours!"

"There are plenty of witnesses here today. Don't even think about weaseling out of it!"

Clement jumped in first, a smug edge on his face.

The young man knocked his hand away hard and pulled a card from his jacket.

"Take a good look. This is my work ID. I'm with Avery Corp next door!"

Clement took the ID and looked at it, then stood there dumbstruck.

Then he shook his head, unwilling to accept it.

"No way. This is fake, right?"

"Carly Pruitt put you up to posing as Avery Corp, didn't she?"

"You're all posing as people from other companies today, and Carly Pruitt's behind all of it, isn't she?"

He finished and glared at me, his whole face full of hate.

Then the officers arrived and took Clement and the young man away.

Clement kept insisting the whole time that I'd put them up to it, demanding the officers take me too.

But plenty of people vouched that it had nothing to do with me.

Clement still wouldn't let it go. Before he was hauled off, he told the cafeteria staff to treat everyone like they were from our company.

Cut everyone's portions.

Clearly he meant to keep fighting us.

The result was that more than half the cafeteria crowd cleared out on the spot.

I went back up to the company.

First I had finance add a $300 meal stipend to every employee's pay.

To cover the extra they'd spent ordering delivery.

Then I told Cecil to start rounding people up.

Before long, food trucks started pulling up to set up shop downstairs.

Some selling quick meals, some fried rice and noodles, some breakfast sandwiches and savory hand pies, and even some doing barbecue.

By evening the trucks downstairs had stretched into a long line, quite a sight.

Then Cecil came running over.

"Boss, there's trouble downstairs again!"