Last Man Standing

Chapter 39

"Freja." The Danish friends looked at each other and it was enough for Marylinde to have to swallow a lump in her throat.

"Mary, good that you are here. We need to get over the necessary things. You missed a couple of interviews. I have rescheduled them for today. You have one of them in thirty minutes and we need to come up with a statement asap as to why you weren't there yesterday."

"Freja." George, standing behind Marylinde shook his head. "I tried to get this through to you, but you didn't listen apparently. Freja, whatever you think is right for Mary, it is not true."

"If she wants to continue her journey to the top-"

"She needed to talk to her bosses, which she did. And they understood and informed her that her seat isn't in danger like she feared. They weren't even upset when she told them about her previous relationship with Pierre Gasly unlike you had told her they would be." Freja opened and closed her mouth as she started to play with the bracelet around her wrist.

"Freja, I think we need to talk." Marylinde's breathing was rapid. "Right now."

"We have thirty minutes before your interview, do you really want to do this now? We both know it is going to end in tears."

"And I know that I won't have the courage to do this later, so yes, this has to happen now." George's hand laid on her back, comforting her as she spoke the words. It needed to happen.

"Fine, let's sit down but I swear, if you break down we stop. We don't need you to look like you have cried on tape."

"Freja, we don't care about the interview!" George raised his voice at her. He rarely ever raised his voice at anyone. "We care about Marylinde's mental health more than anything. So should you. You are her friend!" Freja started to tear up herself now as well. They were still standing across from her, Marylinde with her friends behind her, all backing her up, facing Freja. It was intimidating.

"I... Do you have any idea how hard it is to combine being a friend with being a professional that needs to look out for her image!" Freja retorted. "It's not like I want to have to tell her all those things! I'm just trying to look out for her career because I know that a blow to her career was going to be a blow to her mental health!"

"This was a big blow to her mental health!" Lando exclaimed. "You should have known how much she cares for Pierre and how keeping her away from him was going to cause at least as much trouble as losing her seat!" Freja dropped her head in her hands as her shoulders started to shake.

"Freja." Marylinde stepped forward, away from her friends and towards her Danish friend and pr assistant. "I don't blame you for what happened. But I do think that we need to do something about this, us." She sat down next to her friend. "I love you, you know that."

"And I love you but-"

"You need to look at my life from two sides, two different perspectives that sometimes clash." Freja nodded. "So I think it to be wise to release you from that burden."

"You are firing me?" Marylinde wiped a tear away as she looked at her friends, still standing in the doorway and then back to Freja. "Are you?"

"I am," Marylinde whispered. "Not because you aren't an amazing pr but because I think this is eventually going to kill our friendship. I don't want to lose you as a friend. I can't." Freja shook her head.

"Then what am I supposed to do? You didn't even give me a notice!" Marylinde sighed.

"I will keep you on for another month, I believe that is what is in your contract, in that time, you will have the time to look for a new job but after that, I am letting you go as my pr. I believe that is for the best. That month will also give me the time to look for a new pr because frankly, I can't do without one." Freja nodded.