by A. L. Brooks
“Can I suggest you take a break now, if you’re able? Do you have anywhere to be right now?”
“No. I’m working uptown this afternoon but no meetings or anything this morning.”
“Then I think you should grab your stuff and take off for a couple of hours. Go have a coffee, read a book, whatever you need to be able to give yourself a little breathing space. I’ll inform Derek you are absent this morning, but I will not tell him why, okay?”
“Thanks, Zoey. That’s…that’s great.” Could she trust Zoey? Would she investigate Derek and Chrissy? Or was this another moment of Jenny being stupidly gullible?
Zoey leaned across the table. “I promise, I am taking this seriously, okay? I can understand why you might have doubts, but those policies are there for precisely this reason. You can trust me on this one.”
She sounds like she means it, right? God, I have no idea. Jenny wondered if her ability to judge anyone’s real intentions had been completely lost. “Okay, thanks,” she said, because what else could she say?
Zoey showed her out of the room, and Jenny walked to the stairwell, her heart rate still high but gradually slowing. Had she done the right thing? Would it backfire on her? She walked down the stairs, her notes and laptop clutched tightly against her chest.
Well, I guess I’ll soon know.
Olivia looked over at Jenny’s empty desk for the umpteenth time, her teeth worrying at her bottom lip.
The email from Derek had been a tad vague.
Jenny is taking some time off this morning for personal reasons. She’ll be back in the office tomorrow.
Should she message Jenny? I mean, I can’t encourage this, whatever it is, between us. But a concerned colleague would check in with her, wouldn’t she? But what if she misconstrues that and…
Olivia slumped in her seat. God, what a mess. Now she couldn’t even send one text without analyzing the hell out of it in advance.
Fuck it.
She pulled out her phone, tapped her message, and hit send before she overthought it. Then she spent the next hour wondering why she’d had no reply and regretted sending the damn thing in the first place.
“Are you okay, Olivia?” Maxwell asked from close by.
She leaped out of her skin and turned to see he’d wheeled his chair over to her desk. “I’m fine.” She glanced around; no one in earshot. “I’m worried about Jenny.”
“Me too.” He looked meaningfully at Chrissy’s empty desk. “You don’t think…”
Olivia startled. God, that hadn’t even occurred to her. Had Chrissy somehow got Jenny in trouble? Was she going after Jenny now as well as Olivia? Jesus, this was some awful soap opera storyline. “I honestly have no idea.” Olivia tapped her fingers on her desk. “But I hope not. I’m with you, Maxwell. I hate all this.”
He nodded sadly.
The rest of the day passed in a blur. Olivia was grateful for the work she still needed to do on the cooking show because at least it took her out of the office and kept her mind occupied. By the end of the day she still hadn’t heard anything from Jenny. Well, I suppose that’s what I get. I mean, I did tell her to forget everything, so I suppose she has every right to shut me out.
It stung, though. As hard as she’d tried all week since they’d been back from Christmas break, forgetting Jenny and how she’d felt in Olivia’s arms had been impossible. Every time she’d looked across her desk and seen Jenny, all she could remember was those lips, that tongue softly stroking hers. And every time Jenny laughed at something Maxwell said or made yet another intelligent observation about any of the projects they worked on, Olivia cursed her situation. If only we were another four or five months down the track. If only we—
Well, yes, she could do the “if only” thing until the cows came home, but it wouldn’t get her anywhere.
She left the cooking studio that evening with a heavy heart.
The next morning, Friday, Olivia entered the office with dread weighing her down. She’d slept badly; it was the day they all found out if they had a job, and there was her concern over Jenny and her worry that Chrissy had somehow sabotaged her own chances of a role with C&V.
Broderick had forced her to eat some breakfast before she left home, insisting she’d feel worse if she tried to push through it all with nothing to fuel her body. She knew he was right, but at the moment that breakfast sat like lead in her stomach.
Jenny was at her desk.
Relief at seeing her, looking physically okay, washed over Olivia. “Hey, everything okay?”
“All good.” Jenny gave her a weak smile, then very obviously turned her chair and looked back at her laptop.
Ouch. Okay, Sinclair, careful what you wish for—this is the result of telling her to leave you alone. Ugh.
It was neither the time nor the place to talk to Jenny about it, to emphasize they could still be friends, work together, keep it amicable. But she made a mental note to have such a conversation with Jenny as soon as she could.
By nine-thirty, Maxwell was at his desk, but there was no sign of Chrissy. This was a little frustrating for Olivia as she and Chrissy were supposed to collaborate on a transport schedule for a new project starting in a week or so. Olivia had set up a meeting request with Chrissy late last night for eleven this morning, to which Chrissy had yet to respond. Where the hell was she?
Jenny got up at around ten and walked over to the coffee station.
Olivia tried hard not to look, not to stare at that perfect ass and those strong legs, but she failed spectacularly and sighed as her libido reminded her once more what her marriage situation had cost her.
As Jenny returned to their desk area, a steaming mug in her hand, a commotion broke out near the elevators.
Everyone turned to rubberneck what was happening, and Olivia couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped her lips at the sight of Chrissy being escorted toward them with a security guard on one side and Zoey, the HR manager, on the other.
Zoey held an empty cardboard box in her hands.
Chrissy talked loudly, and angrily, waving her arms in the air. She got nearer, and some of what she said became clearer. “You’re all assholes! You have no idea what happened. I can’t believe you’re doing this!” Her face was beet red, her eyes wild.
“Please, Ms. Gillard, don’t make this any harder than it has to be,” Zoey said calmly just as they reached the desks. She placed the cardboard box on the desk and stepped back. “Please.” She gestured to the box.
Jenny walked up from behind them. Her face was ashen, and the coffee mug trembled in her hands.
“Oh, come to enjoy the show, have you?” Chrissy spat. Then she glared at Olivia. “This was you, wasn’t it? You scheming bitch!”
“Ms. Gillard!” Zoey’s voice was loud. “If you don’t calm down and immediately pack up your desk, I’ll have you escorted out of here right now without any of your possessions.”
Chrissy threw Zoey a vicious look, then huffed and stepped over to her desk.
“What’s going on?” Olivia mouthed to Jenny.
Jenny looked away without answering.
Another commotion began by the door to the stairwell. This time it was Derek escorted onto the floor, with a security guard and another senior manager from HR. Derek stomped over to his office without giving anyone a glance, then appeared a couple minutes later with a box in his arms.
“You stupid asshole!” Chrissy yelled at him. “I might have known you’d try to lay this all on me!”
Derek scowled at her. “Fuck you.” He turned away and followed the security guard to the elevators.
Olivia glanced around. Staff stood everywhere she looked, either singly or in groups, staring at the drama unfolding before them.
“What are you all looking at?” Chrissy said to no one in particular, her face a deeper shade of red, as she threw her possessi
ons into the box. “Fucking idiots. All of you.” A minute later she was done and picked up the box. She turned to Jenny. “Call me, okay? I still want to keep in touch. This is all bullshit and I’m going to sue the ass off them, but I’d like to meet up with you sometime, okay?”
“Sure,” Jenny said, but the lack of conviction in her tone was crystal clear.
Chrissy seemed oblivious. With one last evil look at Olivia and a sneer twisting her mouth, she turned on her heel and marched off toward the elevators with the security guard striding along beside her.
Zoey turned to face Olivia, Jenny, and Maxwell. She raised her hands and looked over their heads at the rest of the production department. “Okay, everyone, back to work, please.” With a rumble of voices, the rest of the staff did as they were told. Zoey dropped her hands and returned her gaze to Olivia and her colleagues. Zoey’s expression was calm despite the storm that had just occurred. “Can I ask all of you to join me in a meeting room, please?”
Chapter 26
Zoey waited until the three of them were all seated before she started speaking. “I know that wasn’t pleasant to witness, and I apologize for any distress it may have caused.” She meshed her fingers together. “Ejecting someone from the premises is never a nice thing to have to do. But, in this case, I’m afraid it was necessary.” She leaned forward and folded her hands together on the table before her. “We received a complaint earlier this week about an inappropriate relationship between Ms. Gillard and Mr. Flanigan. After investigating, we discovered a number of breaches of company policy of a serious enough nature that they both had to be instantly dismissed.”
Olivia flicked a glance at Jenny and Maxwell. He looked as shocked as she was but—
Her heart skipped a beat.
Jenny didn’t look shocked. She didn’t even look surprised. God, did she know? Wait, was she the one who complained?
“So,” Zoey said, “this obviously means that our process for selecting three production assistants has been simplified.” She gave a small, mirthless chuckle. “Congratulations, you all have permanent roles with C&V beginning Monday. We also have a new vacancy for a production manager. We will initially be advertising that internally and we encourage anyone who feels they have the relevant experience to apply.”
She looked pointedly at all three of them, and Olivia’s heart skipped another beat. Production manager? Now that was something to think about.
“Now, if any of you need some time to deal with everything that happened this morning, I will completely understand. Make sure you’re not leaving anything not done that needs to be but take all the time you need. Have a good weekend and come back ready to get to work on Monday, okay?”
Olivia’s mind whirled with everything she’d been told and everything she thought she’d deduced from everyone else’s reactions. Before she realized it, Zoey was leaving, with Maxwell and Jenny following.
Olivia stood and rushed after them. “Jenny, can I talk to you for a sec?”
Jenny took a moment to turn around. When she did, her eyes were so haunted, it was all Olivia could do not to pull her into her arms. “I’d like to—”
“Can we go for coffee? Out of the office?” Olivia said. “Please?”
Jenny shoulders slumped and she nodded, almost imperceptibly.
Jenny took a deep breath as she sat at their table. They’d found some space in one of their local coffee shops, away from the tourist crowds and only half-full. She knew Olivia would ask her about the Chrissy situation. On the one hand, it would be great to tell someone. But on the other, the shock of seeing both Chrissy and Derek marched out of the building still hadn’t worn off, and she’d rather not talk about it at all.
You could have said no, a voice in her head said. Except, somehow, she couldn’t. Not to Olivia.
“Want to tell me what’s going on?” Olivia’s voice was gentle. “You didn’t seem shocked by the news that there’d been a complaint about them. Did you know?”
Jenny wasn’t actually sure what to say, so she did the next best thing and pulled her phone from her pocket. She scrolled to the photo Roz had taken and slid the phone across the table toward Olivia.
“Oh my God. When was this?” Olivia stared up at Jenny.
“Monday night.” Jenny ran a hand through her hair. “I was downtown with some friends in a bar and spotted them across the room. My friend took this pic and sent it to me. I didn’t know if I would do anything with it, but then everything came back to me. Everything you’d said about how she manipulated us.” She toyed with the phone where it lay between them. “I didn’t want to believe it. That she would go this far. I thought she was my friend. But you were right.”
“I’m so sorry,” Olivia said. “I really am. I never wanted you to be hurt by any of this. And I honestly thought she was only after me.”
“I don’t even know just how much she did or to who. I just knew her being with him was wrong. She’d definitely be able to influence him into making sure her job was secure. And that got me thinking about whatever else she could convince him of.” She sighed, embarrassment at her gullibility creeping back. “I fell for all her crap and I feel pretty stupid as a result.”
“Oh, wait, no! She was, unfortunately, exceptionally good at this. Everything she did to me left no trail, and I had no way of proving it, even though I knew she’d done it. Hell, she practically admitted it to me on Monday morning and I still couldn’t do anything with what she said! You have nothing to be embarrassed about, trust me.” Olivia tentatively laid her hand over Jenny’s. The touch was soft and warm, and—
Jenny snatched her hand away. “Don’t. Please…don’t.” She couldn’t bear Olivia toying with her too. Olivia had kissed her, then told her to back off, and now she was being all nice to her again. Even being in her presence got harder and harder by the minute. All Jenny could think about was that damn kiss.
Olivia’s face fell. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” She exhaled loudly. “For what it’s worth, I’m very impressed by what you did. Going to HR must have been hard. Not only because you’d considered Chrissy a friend, but because I suspect you wondered if HR would even believe you. You were incredibly brave to risk it.”
Jenny shrugged and tried to act like Olivia’s praise didn’t mean anything when, deep inside, she glowed from her words. “I don’t know about that. Yeah, it was hard. But it had to be done. She was toxic.”
“Yes, she was.”
“Look, I’m going to take off. I need some air.” Jenny stood. She couldn’t be around Olivia anymore; she wanted her too badly. Wanted to lunge across the table and kiss her, to wrap her arms around her and hold her. Why do I crave the one thing I can’t have? And how am I going to get past this so we can continue working together?
Olivia looked startled but made no protest. She nodded, her eyes sad. “You take care, okay? I’ll see you on Monday.”
Jenny, not trusting her voice, fled the coffee shop before she lost the will to resist.
Olivia returned to the office but only to collect her laptop and travel mug. Ordinarily she would have soldiered on and kept her head down, showing C&V she was dedicated and professional, but not today. She was emotionally exhausted, and it wasn’t even eleven in the morning. “I’m heading home,” she said to Maxwell once she’d packed her bag.
He nodded, his expression sad. “Over one third of employees admit to having a workplace romance. But only one third of those have a happy ending.” He shrugged. “I guess the odds of that would be higher if you didn’t pick someone who was already married.”
Olivia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at his words. She also wasn’t sure if he was talking about Chrissy and Derek, or if he had somehow picked up on the tension between herself and Jenny. “Yes, quite,” she murmured.
“I think you should apply for Derek’s job.”
She stopped packing her bag and lo
oked up. “You do?”
“Yes. You are very good at what you do. Much more organized, and fair, than he was.” Then Maxwell frowned. “However, if you want to start a relationship with Jenny, and you get Derek’s job, you will be in breach of company policy just like Chrissy and Derek were. You should consider that.”
Olivia stared at him as she sank back into her chair. “How did you…?” It never occurred to her to try to deny it.
“I’m not stupid, Olivia.” He shrugged. “I am not an expert at relationship things. I’ve only ever had one girlfriend and she said I was ‘not husband material,’ whatever that meant. But I can see the way you two look at each other, so I think there must be something there.” He leaned forward in his chair and locked gazes with her. “I don’t know anything about your marriage, but if you are not happy in it, then you should leave. It’s not fair to anyone. My dad had a ton of affairs before he died. My mom knew about every single one but she kept waiting for him to realize he was better off with her. He never did.”
Olivia waited for more, but nothing was forthcoming. “I… That’s good advice, Maxwell. Thank you.” He couldn’t know that it didn’t apply in her case, but she appreciated how much he seemed to be looking out for Jenny’s wellbeing. She swallowed. “I won’t hurt her. Well, any more than I’ve inadvertently done already.”
He sighed. “Sometimes I think we would all be better off alone.”
“Do you truly think that? Is that what you want?”
“No,” he said after a moment. “But trying to find someone is so hard.”
“You’re not wrong.” I’ve found someone who makes my pulse race and puts a smile on my face and I’m pushing her away. Damn this bloody arrangement with Broderick. She almost wished she’d never started, but if she hadn’t, she’d never have met Jenny in the first place. God, what a mess. She stood again, confident her legs would support her now. “I’m going to go.”
Maxwell turned back to his desk. “Me too. My mom is visiting my aunt today, so I’ll be able to play FIFA 20 all afternoon.” His look of glee was almost childlike. “I’ll see you on Monday.”