She raises an eyebrow at me, as if indicating that something had changed. I guess that something is me.
“I see.”
“Yeah, just be careful with your heart. But you are. So, you’re fine.”
She smiles at me, as if that’s that.
“Yes,” I tell her. “I’m fine.”
Except I’m so not. I just realized I’m in love with a player. I can’t believe I was thinking about baring my soul— along with my body— to him.
Good thing I didn’t.
I’m going to have to try not to give him my heart. But I’m not so sure I can resist when it comes to my body. In fact, I don’t think I even want to try.
Chapter 20 – Cameron
I can’t get Ruby out of my head. It seems she has taken up permanent residence there.
She is working in the filing room and in her cubicle a lot today, whereas normally she seems very eager to stay close by me. I like it better when it’s the former. I don’t know why she’s being so distant. And I hate that she is.
I’m in way too deep. I have never felt this way about anyone.
At some point— I’ve lost track of the time and all I know is when Ruby is in my office or not— Asher drops by.
“Hey Ron,” he says, looking a little stressed.
I hope I haven’t been worrying him too much by telling him not to get in too deep with Madilyn. Now I feel guilty. And hypocritical.
“Hey Asher. I didn’t mean to be so harsh about you and Madilyn. If you’re happy, then I’m happy for you. I think it’s great if you found the one. A little surprising, but great. Good for you.”
“Thanks.”
He shakes his head as if he’s distracted.
“How did you know Damien Hudson’s net worth?” he asks me, as if he hadn’t already asked me that yesterday.
I shift uncomfortably in my chair.
“I told you. Google.”
“I talked to the tech guy for the company and he says that that information’s not public.”
I stare at him. I try not to so much as blink because I don’t want to say the wrong thing.
I have no idea how Ruby came across the information. I do know she’s good with computers. And I don’t know much about computers so I have no idea what she did to find out about the companies.
“How much do you know about your Ruby, Ron?”
Now I do blink.
Why is he bringing her into this?
“I know that she’s very good at her job. She’s smart. She’s a go-getter.”
He nods.
“Why?” I ask him.
He shakes his head.
“I’ve heard she’s good at tech stuff.”
“Yeah. The toy company thinks that someone may have… hacked into their computers to get this information.”
“Hacked?”
Asher nods.
“Is hacking like, really fucking bad?” I ask, feeling like an idiot. I don’t know anything about these things. "Is it, like, a crime?”
Now Asher shrugs.
“I’m sure it’s something like that. It’s stealing information. Violating someone’s privacy.”
“I see.”
“I think we should ask Ruby what exactly is going on here,” Asher says.
“I’ll ask her,” I say quickly.
“Ron, we have an obligation to report this to HR unless there’s some logical explanation. We don’t have time to wait. Where is she?”
“I think in her cubicle,” I answer, knots turning in my stomach.
I don’t know what Ruby’s been up to. But I feel bad confronting her about it with Asher. I wish I had had a little advance notice so that I could ask her on my own.
But he’s right. Our firm could be at stake. I knew that being with Ruby could get me into fucking trouble but I didn’t know how much trouble.
“She wasn’t out there when I came in,” Asher says.
“Then she’s probably in the filing room.”
The same place I tied her up just yesterday. Today we’ll be having an altogether different interaction.
“Let’s go,” he says.
I follow him, my heart feeling heavier than my feet. No one else in the office seems to know that anything is amiss. But for me it feels like the end of the fucking world. I can’t believe that my relationship with Ruby is likely ending right as it was starting.
And right when it was getting really fucking good.
Chapter 21 – Ruby
I’m still in the filing room, leafing through the copy of The Sound and the Fury that Katie had left behind. It’s not nearly as captivating as the book of Neruda poems but there are a couple lines from it that have caught my attention.
“I am not one of those women who can stand things.”
I never used to think I was a woman who could stand things either. Yet here I am, working at a law firm when I no longer have to be, just because I want to be around my boss. Who likes to tie me up. And train me to do what he wants.
And then there’s this line: “She loved him not only in spite of but because he himself was incapable of love.”
I guess Cameron Sanchez has really changed me. I put up with a lot because of him. Do I want to be around him because I can’t have him— because, as Katie suspects— he’s a player? Someone incapable of love?
I’m pondering this question when Cameron himself walks in. I look up, happy that he’s come to find me even though I’ve been avoiding him, trying to figure out what to do. But then I see that Asher Isaacs is with him.
“Hello, Ruby,” Cameron says. “Asher wanted to ask you something.”
He sees my expression and adds, “You’re not in any trouble.”
But it sure feels like I am.
“What’s this?” Asher asks, reaching above me and pulling something off the shelf.
He holds his hand out to Cameron to see.
It’s Katie’s vape pen. Great.
“I don’t know,” Cameron says. “Ruby?”
I look at it, silently willing him to just trust me. But he’s looking back at me as if I’ve betrayed him.
I know that older guys are weird about pot but I didn’t know that a vape pen was still that huge of a deal to them these days. Even if it was mine. Which it isn’t. But I’m not about to rat out Katie.
I’m really not sure what to say. I don’t want to pretend I have no idea what it is, because that would be an outright lie. I’ve already lied to Cameron enough by omission, and other people here directly. I’m sick of all the lies. But I’m also not about to be a snitch.
I try to take a middle road.
“It appears to be a vape pen,” I say.
It’s a technically correct answer.
“For tobacco?” Asher asks.
“Could be.”
Again, a technically correct answer.
Asher smells it.
“It doesn’t smell like a vape pen,” Asher says. “It smells like marijuana.”
I look at him, and at Cameron who is still searching my face.
“Could be for that too,” I tell them. “All I know is, it isn’t mine, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Ruby, come on,” Cameron explodes, obviously upset with me. “You really expect us to believe that?”
“Yes,” I tell him.
Although, why should he? There are other things I’ve said that he shouldn’t believe. So, I don’t really blame him for not believing me, even if it’s about the wrong thing.
“We come down here and find you just sitting in the corner reading a book and there’s a vape pen on the shelf right above you,” Cameron says. “How do you think that looks?”
“Not good,” I answer.
Which is a very, very technically correct answer.
“If it’s not yours, whose is it then?” Cameron asks.
“I… can’t answer that,” I tell him.
“If you can’t answer that then you are going to find yourself out of a job,” Ash
er says.
I look at Cameron. Now I’m getting a little upset. Sure, I know whose vape pen it is but what if I didn’t? How could I prove a negative?
“I’m not going to be able to answer that,” I tell them.
Asher shakes his head as if he’s dumbfounded and Cameron shakes his as if he can’t believe he trusted me. I don’t really blame him.
“Ruby, get your things,” Cameron says.
His fists are clenched as tightly as his jaw. I know he doesn’t want to do this. But neither does he want to stand by and let Asher do it without being able to protest or save my job.
He’s a man of decision and action, which are traits I’ve always admired about him. I can’t exactly be mad at him for exercising those traits now.
I nod at him and he walks out the door with Asher.
I’m left alone, near the same spot he tied me up and took me. Trained me. Taught me what it was like to really be with a man.
And now it’s all over.
I guess it was better off this way. I don’t belong here anyway. I can’t believe I even managed to pass myself off as a suitable law firm employee and get the gig. It was all temporary and now it’s over and luckily I don’t even need the job like I once did.
But I do need Cameron. And I feel as if I belonged with him. Belonged to him.
I guess I was wrong.
Chapter 22 – Cameron
A FEW DAYS LATER
Where the fuck is Ruby? Where did she go?
I spent the whole weekend mad at myself for how I handled things with Ruby. And worried that I’ve lost her forever. I’ve been trying to call her but I only have the cell phone number she listed on her application and it goes straight to a voicemail with a generic greeting.
I know I have to find her somehow. I’m not sure what I’ll say when I do but I know that she has to forgive me. For being so stupid as to let Asher fire her without proof that she’s even done anything wrong. For not standing up for her.
For letting her leave my life when I need her in it so fucking bad.
I’m in my office doing my best to prepare arguments for my appeal of the Baez decision when I hear a feminine-sounding clearing of the throat. I look up right away, hoping that it’s Ruby. Maybe she got my messages and came back to the office to hear me out.
But no. It’s Jim’s secretary.
“Katie?” I ask, hoping that I’m remembering her name right.
I’ve never talked to her much. She seems to stick to herself and not be at her desk a lot even though Jim says she’s an efficient and fast worker.
“Yo, Mr. Sanchez,” she says, craning her neck around the opening of my doorway.
“Katie, come in,” I tell her, a little surprised by her brazenness.
In that way she reminds me of Ruby. She’s not as pretty— or at least, I obviously don’t think so— but she seems to have the same quirky, spunky personality traits.
She walks right in and flops down in the chair on the other side of my desk. I can’t help thinking of how I tied up Ruby to that very chair. I wish she was here sitting in it right now instead of Katie.
“So, where’s Ruby?” she asks me.
“I can’t discuss the status of a former employee,” I say automatically.
I’ve been trained well by HR. Some HR reps just had a little sit-down with Asher and Madilyn about accusations regarding their relationship. It turns out that everything is fine because they are both okay with the relationship.
Still, I can’t be too careful. I doubt that Ruby is okay with the state of our relationship, or lack thereof, right now. And neither, for that matter, am I.
“A former employee?” Katie asks. “Wow. She finally figured out she was too good for this place and left, huh? I wish she would have at least stopped on her way out to say goodbye to poor little old me.”
“I’m sure she would have, had she had the opportunity,” I say, too fucking quickly.
My statement is probably not HR approved. But it’s just the first thing I could think of to say, and it’s honest.
“What?” Katie demands. “Was she fired? That’s bullshit.”
“Katie.”
I would tell her to watch her language but then I’d be the biggest fucking hypocrite of all time.
“Well it is,” she says, slouching further into my chair and pouting.
“I didn’t know you and Ruby were friends,” I tell her, wondering why any of this matters so much to her.
“Yeah, well, I know a lot more about you and Ruby than you’d think I do,” she says. “And I can’t believe you had the balls to fire her. That’s just straight up asking for a sexual harassment suit.”
I stare at her, incredulous that she’d say such a thing.
And then it dawns on me.
At first I thought she was just here wanting office gossip. Now I find out how close she and Ruby apparently were. And I put two and two together. I don’t know how I didn’t figure it out earlier, with the stench wafting from Katie’s clothes as soon as she walked into my office.
Ruby can be redeemed. But I need a confession.
“You know, Katie,” I tell her, pretending to shuffle some paperwork on my desk as if I need to get back to work. “There are certain things that employees can be fired for that have absolutely nothing to do with sexual harassment.”
“Oh yeah?” she asks, shrugging. “Like what? Because I’ve done a lot of things that are supposed to be considered ‘no-no’s and I’ve never been fired. I know a lot of people here that are the same way. No one seems to notice or care. So, like, what could be a fireable offense around here? I’d love to know.”
“If an employee is doing drugs, for instance,” I tell her. “Especially on the job.”
“What the hell?”
Katie looks at me like she doesn’t even know what I’m talking about.
“Ruby doesn’t even do any drugs,” Katie says, defensively. “Or at least she doesn’t anymore. She hasn’t even heard of ‘Puncture.’”
“Of what?” I ask her, shaking my head.
“The movie. ‘Puncture.’ With the lawyers who are cokeheads?”
I just stare at her blankly, so now she’s the one to share her head. Then she continues.
“Why has no one heard of this movie around here? Anyway. Ruby doesn’t even have time to watch movies because she’s so busy coding.”
I look at her. Wow. They really were friends.
I’m glad, because that means Katie won’t let Ruby take the fall for her.
“Well, I’m just saying. An employee doing drugs, especially at work, would be a fireable offense for sure. And if they leave their drug paraphernalia lying around, at the office, that’s an especially clear cut case. There’s really no choice for us to do anything but fire them, in that instance.”
“Leave drug paraphernalia… oh.”
She looks at me, comprehending now. I expect her to act shady or perhaps break down in a tearful confession.
But instead she starts bursting out laughing.
That’s definitely not the reaction I was anticipating.
“Oh, Mr. Sanchez,” she says, laughing so much there are tears rolling down her eyes. “You’re talking about weed. The way you made it sound… so serious… I thought you were talking about, like crack or something. ‘Drug paraphernalia.’ Oh my God. So, funny.”
She’s still laughing. But I’m not. I don’t see how she thinks any of this is very funny. But more importantly, she still hasn’t confessed that the vape pen was hers.
“Well, Katie, you shouldn’t be laughing because it’s a very serious matter.”
“Oh, I know, Mr. Sanchez, I know,” she says, straightening up in her chair. “But you have to admit, you made it sound a bit more serious and scary than it really is. A vape pen is ‘drug paraphernalia?’ Really?”
Ah-fucking-ha. Got her.
Now I can save Ruby’s ass. And hopefully claim it as my own.
Chapter 23 – Cameron
“Oh, all right, it was mine and you seem to know that,” she says, cutting through the bullshit.
I admire that about her. It’s another Ruby-like trait.
“And I shouldn’t have left it there,” she admits. “I must have gotten a bit too… medicated… and forgotten.”
“Medicated?”
“Yeah. I have a weed card.”
“A weed card?”
“Mr. Sanchez,” she sighs, as if explaining something to a kindergartner. “I have a medical marijuana card. For health conditions.”
“For what health conditions?”
This is a new one. I wasn’t expecting this.
“Actually, Mr. Sanchez, I don’t have to tell you. But since you’re so curious, anxiety and ADHD. I’ve consulted with a weed attorney who tells me it’s really no different than if I’m on Prozac for depression or Xanax for anxiety, or a host of other prescriptions for a bunch of other conditions.”
I just look at her, stunned. She sounds like more of a lawyer than some of the actual lawyers I employ.
“And honestly,” she continues, “Would you rather me be unable to focus or calm down all day while I’m here at work? Or have to quit or get fired because I can’t function well enough to do my job based on my disability? My attorney says that when viewed that way, most employers would rather their employees medicate than the alternatives…”
“You’ve consulted with a… okay, never mind,” I tell her. “I didn’t mean to ask about your medical conditions or medications. That’s private, of course.”
Oh shit.
I’ve probably violated HIPAA.
Then I realize I have no idea how any of this will be viewed. HIPAA is a Federal law and medicinal marijuana is still illegal federally.
Still. It’s not a battle I want to fight in court. Especially not with super liberal judges like Baez taking over the bench these days.
“Katie, I’m sorry,” I tell her. “I didn’t mean to imply…”
“It’s fine,” she says. “I won’t sue you. Just don’t fire me.”
SEAL's Virgin: A Bad Boy Military Romance Page 39