My boss said he wanted to talk to me. When were were in his office I could feel that it was bad news, but he just kept talking about other unimportant things. In the end I asked him to cut to the chase (auf den Punkt kommen) and tell me what was wrong.
The phrase comes from the early days of the film industry in Hollywood. Silent movies often ended with an exciting chase scene, but before this was the romantic storyline. So to cut to the chase means to skip over the less important or less interesting things and jump straight to the big finish.