As she continued to self-narrate and talk herself up, she made it safely out of the car and into the building.
“Why are you limping?” Davis Kapoor, one of the four interns working at True Green Bioplastics, asked after she entered the common room.
“I’m not limping,” she said and immediately realized she was in fact favoring her sore knee.
Davis’s gaze dropped to her leg and then glanced up again. “Sorry, my bad.”
Davis was a brilliant scientist, but preferred to work alone and only collaborated when forced to. Maleah knew he sometimes annoyed Holden. On more than one occasion, Holden had come to her with specific requests and then asked if she would pass the information along to Davis, thereby avoiding the intern completely. Holden trusted her to relay important information to her co-intern, work together exclusively on the latest project, and report their findings back to him.
Davis’s self-important, know-it-all douchebaggery tendencies were mentally taxing, to say the least. Maleah put up with him because Holden thought they worked well together. Her boss had not been wrong. She and Davis made a breakthrough in the lab that had Holden speechless. They had delivered their news and turned in their report last week. Holden said he would present their findings to the other business partner and get back to them, but he had been ecstatic. He mentioned he thought they had earned their permanent positions at True Green. That was the last time Maleah had spoken with her boss, and she didn’t understand why he hadn’t gotten back to her even by text message. He’s busy, she told herself again. He’d announce her and Davis’s accomplishment in the hemp and mycelium-based biopolymers project to the rest of the staff and interns this morning. She was sure of it.
Maleah shifted her laptop bag from one arm to the other and glanced at her favorite seat at the conference table where everyone would be gathering in the next few minutes. She took a step in that direction, and was about to ask Davis if Holden had said anything to him about their report, but her knee buckled.
“Ow!” The sound escaped from her before she could stop it. Davis didn’t reach out to steady her but instead leaned away as if she were contagious. Maleah winced and regained her balance on her own.
“But you’re not limping,” Davis said flatly.
“And you’re not helping,” she threw back at him. This brought a slight quirk to the corners of his mouth. “I forgot,” she lied. “I had a minor accident this morning. I’m not hurt, though.”
“I don’t really care.” He walked over to the table where he planted himself in her favorite spot, two seats to the right of where Holden always sat.
Jerk. She should be more annoyed, but she had worked with Davis long enough to know he was unapologetically honest and blunt. He claimed he had little to no empathy and had even warned and apologized to her about his sometimes-brash personality. Maleah suspected Davis was a genius, but if being a genius meant you were also an ass then she’d take a hard pass.
Maleah set up her laptop on the opposite side of the table from Davis and opened her notes. Holden McNutt and Terence Zhang, her bosses and the owners of True Green Bioplastics, entered the common space from the direction of their offices. Terence wore a kind smile, but the pinched creases around Holden’s eyes and lips didn’t give Maleah a good feeling. He also wouldn’t make eye contact with her. Something was wrong, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what it was.
“Good morning, everyone,” Terence said as he approached the table.
They took their places, one on either end of the conference table. The rest of the seats were already taken. Maleah noticed the entire staff and all interns were in attendance for the meeting.
Terence Zhang started. “As you know, today’s meeting is not our regular weekly update. We have a lot to share with you, including some exciting progress on the hemp polymer project.”
Maleah felt a burst of pride at the mention of her and Davis’s project. She glanced at Holden, but his eyes were trained on his business partner.
“Unfortunately, we also have bad news that we received yesterday. I’d like to start with the good news. Holden was able to combine two of our interns’ hemp polymer findings with his research and the results are exactly what we have been looking for. We are now going to be able to take the new mycelium hemp polymer plastic into the final stages of development. With Davis’s preliminary findings, we are ninety-nine-point-nine percent certain we have found the missing link we have been looking for. Without our incredibly talented interns, this breakthrough would have never happened. Which is why our bad news is such a shock and a hugely disappointing blow to Holden and me.” Terence stared down the length of the table at his partner. Maleah watched Terence let out a deep breath before compressing his lips into a frown.
Her head swiveled to look at her boss, her potential soon-to-be boyfriend. He stared at his phone. She’d never seen him so disconnected. What’s going on? She couldn’t imagine what could be so terrible.
Terence continued, “Let me preface this by letting you know that we have been trying to work out this turn of events for our company since receiving the news. We have gone over every possibility. We haven’t slept.” He looked at every person sitting around the table and said, “We’ve barely eaten as we’ve been too busy working on finding a solution to these new challenges. Our team has been the most dedicated group of individuals we could have ever hoped to bring together, and we have been thriving day in and day out. For that we are more grateful than you will ever know. Unfortunately, there are aspects of working with government-funded grants that are out of our control. Holden, will you take it from here, please?”
The sinking feeling in Maleah’s gut hit bottom like an anchor. Oh no. Terence’s bad news had to do with their funding. She turned to face Holden and steeled herself to hear the rest.
Holden rose to his feet and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his slacks. He made eye contact for a fleeting moment and then looked skyward as if searching for the right words. The creases of concern and stress softened, and he smiled before speaking.
“Well, Terence sounds rather ominous, and while it’s true this is the hardest thing we have had to do since we started True Green, hang in there with me as I go over the worst of it first. Then I will share the solution we have come up with.” He smiled again, but there was an obvious element of sadness and stress. “We’ve had an excellent run, and I know everyone here believes in our company’s mission and what we are attempting to do with bioplastics. Before I go any further, I want to tell you we have lost our grants. With the current administration in the White House, this should not have come as a surprise, but we thought our funding was secure for at least two more years. That is no longer the case. We are definitely not the only ones affected by current politics. I’m sorry for it and for everyone else who has lost their funding.”
Holden took a deep breath, then continued. “True Green is on the verge of making a substantial profit in bioplastics within one to two more years, but without our grant money, we have to cut back by fifty percent. What this means to you is that we have to eliminate all paid internships. All staff members will remain in their current positions, and we will review contracts as they come up. Terence and I have chosen to take considerable pay decreases. We are offering one new position to an intern because Melissa is leaving us. Her husband is being deployed to Korea and she is going with him. We’re sorry to see Melissa leave but happy to offer her position to one of our incredibly talented interns.” Holden paused.