“Okay, thanks Harper. Is there anything I can do in the meantime? To help?”
“No, that’s fine, I’m sure you have a lot on your plate to finish up before the break. Thanks, Greg.”
I turn to my screen as if to say, we’re done now, you can leave. I can feel his eyes on me and it makes me want to shudder. I don’t know what it is about him that makes me so uncomfortable. I think it’s the way he stares at me always a second too long, or the way he always seems to pop up around the corner when I least expect him. I never feel at ease around him.
I never found out if it was him who called me and just breathed over the phone, or if he was the one who left notes in my mailbox. The only thing I was able to prove was that he was lurking outside my house and according to HR that was only grounds for a warning. Everything stopped after the warning though: the phone calls, the notes, the prickly feeling at the back of my neck.
He leaves my office and I let out a sigh, glancing through the glass to make sure he walks away. Maybe that feeling is just leftover nausea from this morning. I don’t know what’s been wrong with me these past few days, but I wake up feeling like I’m going to throw up. Even the smell of coffee when I first get up makes me want to vomit, and I drink coffee like it’s water.
It might not be Greg that makes me feel uneasy at all, it’s whatever this stomach bug is that I have. I rub my temples and feel uncomfortable tightness around my favorite ring. I slip it off my finger and place it into the top drawer. Between Greg, the nausea and feeling like my fingers are little sausages this whole day is just uncomfortable.
I look down at my organization chart and I know we have gaps for the holiday work period. We could definitely use another body to get us to meet this deadline, but I just can’t say yes to Greg. The thought of spending two weeks with him in a half-empty office with long nights and lots of overtime just sounds like a recipe for disaster. If it means I have to put in more hours myself then that’s what I’ll do.
I sigh and get up from my chair. Suddenly I need a coffee, or a snack, or something. Monday morning never seemed so long.
Once in the kitchen I grab a mug and the hot pot of coffee. Someone’s just made a fresh pot and I silently thank them, whoever they are. As soon as I grab the pot the smell of the coffee hits me like a wall and I feel a wave of nausea come over me. I put the pot back down and grab onto the counter.
Rosie’s voice makes me jump.
“Harper, are you okay? What just happened?” she whispers furtively.
I turn and see her standing in the doorway wearing a worried expression on her face. I frown, trying to force a weak smile as my stomach quiets down again.
“What do you mean?” I answer. “I’m fine.”
“You look like you’re about to hurl,” she whispers again with a frown. “Is it because of Greg?” She takes a few steps toward me. My heart starts beating faster. I try to keep my voice steady.
“What about him?”
“He left your office and he looked like he was about to punch through the wall! I’ve never seen him look that angry! I mean, except for the time I confronted him about following you.”
My heart is thumping in my chest. It’s not right to feel this uncomfortable at work! I turn to Rosie and she places her hand on my arm.
“Harper, is everything okay? Do you want me to talk to him?”
“No!” I exclaim. “Thanks Rosie, but last time it made such a scene, I don’t want to put you in that position again. Not for my sake.”
“I don’t mind. I’ll slap the fucker if I have to.” Her eyes are blazing. Last year I never would have had the strength to approach HR if Rosie hadn’t supported me.
I shake my head. “It’s nothing. He asked to be on the Latif team. I said no,” I reply. “I lied to him. We do need more people to volunteer. Maybe he knows that.”
Her face contorts with worry. “It didn’t look like he took it well. Look, I’ll work. Would that help?”
I smile. “That would help a lot, actually. Are you sure?”
She nods and I take a deep breath before turning back to the pot of coffee. The smell is still overwhelming and nauseating. I don’t know what to say.
If Greg was mad, that’s bad news for me. I try not to think of those months last year when I was consumed with fear and paranoia. I’ve convinced myself there’s no need to worry, but Rosie’s face says it all.
“What am I supposed to do, Rosie?” I ask as I turn back to her. I shrug and plead with her with my eyes. There are a thousand unsaid things weighing on me but with one look I know she understands.
“We’ll figure it out together,” she responds, straightening her back. I see her resolve strengthen and the fear leave her eyes. “Record everything about the conversation. I’ll write down what I saw. If he causes any issues, we’ll have everything on paper.”
I nod. “Okay.”
My thoughts fly back to that Friday night two weeks ago at the Christmas party, to the stack of plates on the floor. The nagging feeling comes back to me like a wave.
“Rosie,” I start. I don’t even know what to say. “The Christmas party…”
“What about it?” She takes a step toward me. I glance around to make sure no one is within earshot and I lower my voice.
“I think someone was here, you know, while we were…”
Rosie’s eyes widen and she takes another step toward me. She’s a couple of inches taller than me and she bends her head closer to mine.
“You think it was Greg?”
“I don’t know!” I exclaim, shrugging my shoulders. “I don’t know! There could have been no one here.”
“Why do you think there was someone here?”
I take a deep breath. Suddenly it seems silly to think that a stack of plastic plates would mean that someone saw me with Zach. I force myself to say it out loud to Rosie, who’s staring at me intently. Maybe if I say it, the nagging fear that we were seen will go away.
“We were in his office and I heard something. Like a noise or a bang or something out in the main room. Zach went out and didn’t see anyone and then we… you know.” I look around again and whisper. “Slept together.”
“Right,” Rosie says with a grin. “You told me about that part already.”
I can’t help but smile. My smile fades as I tell her the next part. “When we were leaving, I saw a stack of plates on the ground. I know I put them on the table. I remember putting them on the table! But then when we left, they were on the floor. But you know, the place was a mess so I could be wrong. It was a disaster with food and cutlery and decorations everywhere. We were fooling around near the table and they could have fallen off, but I swear I remember them being on the table! I’m probably wrong, but I don’t know, Rosie, I just have this feeling.”
“Like someone knocked them over and that’s what you heard?”
“Yes!” I exclaim. I inhale deeply and Rosie puts her hand on my forearm.
“Maybe. But let’s not panic,” Rosie says gently. “It’s possible someone was here, and it is possible it was Greg.” I shiver, and Rosie continues. “But, it’s also possible that you were all hopped up on wine and endorphins and your sex-addled mind was hearing things and thinking things. I mean, at the end of the day you slept with Zach Lockwood at the office! Who knows what kind of tricks your mind would play on you in that situation!!”
I chuckle. “I definitely wasn’t thinking straight.”
“So let’s not panic, okay? Let’s just write everything down and if things get weird with Greg, we’ll have some backup. We can operate on the assumption that no one knows about Friday night except you and me.” She pauses and cocks her head to the side. “And Zach, obviously.”
I grin. “Oh right, him.”
“Did I mention how generous it was of you to volunteer to spend all that overtime locked up in this office with him over the next few weeks? What a sacrifice you’re making for the team.”
“Shut up, Rosie,” I laugh. “You�
��d do the same.”
“I’d do worse,” she replies with a laugh. I giggle and then sigh. Rosie gives my shoulders a squeeze and I sigh again. I feel better.
“Thank you,” I say softly.
“You know I’d do anything for you, right?”
I smile. “I wouldn’t have made it through the past year without you.”
With one more squeeze of my shoulders she winks at me and we head back to our desks.
16
Zach
I’m looking at the HR report on Greg Chalmers and I can feel my blood boiling. Why wasn’t I told about this? The woman’s name is censored from the report and I wish I knew who it was. I’m told she still works here, and I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it must be for her.
I read through the details of the file. I can’t believe this guy still works for us. He followed and harassed a coworker for months. I read through the transcript of a meeting with her and I shiver.
I’m always looking over my shoulder, I don’t feel safe. He was outside my house!
The HR representative asked her if she wanted to press charges and she said no. Why would she say no? She had grounds to get this guy fired and she never pursued it. Why?
At the moment we don’t have enough evidence to fire him. A ‘feeling’ isn’t evidence, you understand that, right?
I can almost hear the contempt in this person’s voice, even just reading the transcript. How are they not outraged? This must have been incredibly difficult for whoever was sitting on the other side of the table.
I push my chair back and stand up. This has gone too far. If she won’t press charges then I will. I need to confront this guy directly. I feel like a fool! How did I not know this was going on? I should know everything that happens in my company.
My hands fly up to my temples for the thousandth time this morning. I can’t ignore the shame and disappointment that’s making my stomach burn right now. The last year I’ve been neglecting my work. I’ve been too busy going out and meeting women, partying, or ‘networking’ as I call it. It’s a necessary part of the advertising industry, but now I realize I’ve been neglecting my company, my employees! This was going on right under my nose as I was off having nice lunches and dinners and going out with a new woman on my arm every night. It’s not right.
I stomp out of my office and turn the corner, heading for the accounting department. I can feel the anger flaring up deep inside me, giving every step a new purpose. No one is allowed to make my employees feel uncomfortable! No one! He followed her to her house!!
As soon as I’m done with him, I’ll find out who she is and apologize to her personally. I should have known. I should have been here.
I get to the maze of cubicles in the accounting department and turn to the first one.
“Where does Greg Chesney sit?” I ask gruffly. The middle-aged man looks up and shock paints itself on his face.
“Mr. Lockwood! Hi! Um, Greg? Greg sits over there.” He points to a cubicle a couple of work stations down.
“Thanks,” I grunt. I march over to the cubicle and get ready to chew his ear out. He’ll feel the wrath of Zachary Lockwood. I take a deep breath and get ready to spit my words out.
One more step and I’m there.
And… No one. He’s gone.
His desk looks perfectly clean and tidy, like he hardly has any work in progress. There aren’t any personal effects. No photos, no plants, nothing hanging on the cubicle walls. Just a neat row of pencils and a stack of files with ordered tabs separating them.
I turn to the woman who sits next to him. Was she his victim? I don’t even know her name. I’ve been a terrible boss.
“Where’s Greg Chesney?”
She’s wearing the same surprised expression as the last man. I guess I haven’t been over here in a long while. Maybe ever.
“He’s gone,” she says quickly. “He was just here maybe an hour ago and he grabbed his bag and walked out. I asked him where he was going but he didn’t even look at me.”
The frustration inside me builds. This shouldn’t be this hard!! I’m the CEO of this company! I built it from the ground up and I should be able to find one accountant when I need to speak to him!
I stalk back to my office with a dark cloud over my head.
“Becca!” I bark. She jumps and looks at me like a deer in the headlights. “Get Greg Chesney on the phone. I need to see him right away.”
She nods and picks up the phone, finding his number and punching it in. I walk into my office and wait for her to page me through.
I’m taking deep breaths and composing my speech for him when she walks into my office.
“I couldn’t get a hold of him, Mr. Lockwood,” she says, wringing her hands with worry. “The number he gave us for his personal phone was disconnected. I tried his building but they said no one by that name lives there.”
My heart starts thumping. “What?”
“I don’t know,” she says. Her mouth opens and closes again and she looks at me, terrified.
“Get HR on it. Do we not know anything about this guy? Get him in here ASAP.”
She nods and almost runs out the door.
“Becca,” I call after her. She turns around. “Thanks for your help with this,” I say. Her face softens and she nods before leaving my office. I lean back in my chair and rub my temples, closing my eyes and taking deep breaths. Rage won’t help me. Frustration won’t help me. There could be a simple explanation for all this. I need to figure out what I’m going to ask this guy, who he is, how he got a job with us when we know virtually nothing about him.
I can’t believe I’ve let this happen.
17
Harper
The days are flying by this week. It’s already Wednesday and I feel like I haven’t looked up from my desk. Most of the office will be on vacation from tomorrow onwards but I’ll be staying in. I look at the team list of people scheduled to work overtime with me. It’s pathetically short. We can’t force people to work over Christmas, and it looks like most people have lives and families. Lucky them.
“Harper,” Rosie says quickly as she slips into my office. Her eyes are wide and I can tell she’s about to tell me some juicy office gossip. She looks at me and her expression changes to bemused amusement. “Harper are you eating pickles at 8:30am?”
“What’s wrong with that?” I say before crunching into my fourth pickle of the day.
“That’s disgusting,” she says with a laugh.
“These are the best fucking pickles I’ve ever tasted in my life,” I reply as I bite down. I don’t know why I’m eating pickles at 8:30 but I had this almost insatiable craving for them and I had to stop at a grocery store on the way in to work. And you know what? I’m an adult. I’ll eat pickles whenever I want to eat pickles. If that means 8:30am on a Wednesday morning in December, so be it.
Rosie shakes her head. “Whatever. Did you hear about Greg Chesney?”
Even his name makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m thoroughly sick of talking about him.
“No, what about him?”
“Apparently on Monday morning he took his stuff and left and he hasn’t been back in the office since. HR had a fake phone and address so no one knows where he is! He’s just fallen off the face of the earth.”
I can feel the blood draining from my face. For once I’m not blushing. My heart starts beating hard and it feels like my chest is hollow. My eyes struggle to focus as I process what Rosie’s just told me.
“What do you mean, fake address and phone number?”
“I mean, we have no idea where this guy is. The information we have on him is all bogus. They’ve been looking for him and he’s just… gone!”
“Since Monday?”
“Since Monday!”
“What time on Monday?” I ask. I think about my conversation with him, and how angry he was afterwards. What if he left after speaking to me and being turned down from the holiday team? My blood runs cold as I think of Greg Ches
ney being angry at me. I have no idea what he’s capable of.
“I don’t know what time he left. In the morning.” Rosie pauses. “Harper, I think that you should come stay at my place.” I glance up at her and see the deep concern in her eyes. “If you want,” she adds. “I… I don’t know. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
I look down at my desk and take a deep breath. If Rosie doesn’t have a good feeling about it then I know I should be worried.
I almost say yes to Rosie right away, but then something happens inside me. I take a deep breath and think about the past year of my life. I feel a deep anger well up inside. It’s not anger. Not exactly. It’s outrage. I look up at Rosie and I know that I have fire in my eyes.
“You know what? Fuck him. I’m done letting him control my life. Good fucking riddance. If he wants to walk out on this job then be my guest. I’m not going to rearrange my entire life because he’s a fucking creep and no one would listen to me about it. I’m done being scared. I’m done being paranoid and looking over my shoulder!”
I’m shaking. I take a few ragged breaths and Rosie stares at me. Her eyes soften and I feel a tear fall onto my cheek. I’m crying. God, I hate when I cry! Anytime I get angry or offended I start crying!! I wipe at the tears angrily and look at Rosie again. She’s wringing her hands and her face is full of worry.
“Thank you, Rosie. Honestly. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. But I have to be able to stand on my own two feet. I can’t let this guy control my life anymore!”
She nods and sits down across from me, reaching her hands across my desk. She grabs my hand in both of hers and looks me right in the eye.
“I get that and I admire you for it. I just want you to be safe.”
I nod. “I’ll be fine. I have pepper spray,” I grin. She’s the one who bought it for me last year.
Rosie laughs. “Good. Remember to spray downwind.”
She stands up and walks out of my office. I take a deep breath and wipe my eyes. I won’t cry over this, not again. If Greg Chesney walked out and never came back, it should be a good thing. I won’t let fear control my life, not anymore.
Unexpected (Complete Accidental Pregnancy Box Set) Page 6