I Want Candy

by Laveen, Tiana

  * * *

  “I’m really not in the mood,” Gabriel said as his personal assistant fixed his tie.

  “Mr. Justice, I’m sorry, but you must attend. This was planned months in advance. Besides, you should be thrilled. This is all in honor of you!” Samantha explained as she patted his tie and handed him his gold cuff links.

  “Who decided to honor me with a dinner ceremony anyway? Who’s responsible for this?” Gabriel complained as he put his cuff links on.

  “Oh, Mr. Justice! Don’t be a scrooge. Christmas is over,” Samantha teased. “Lots of people did. You’re loved by so many, seriously!” she complimented.

  Gabriel laughed. “I find that hard to believe right about now. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I have a lot to do, and this is taking away from it. Thanks for all of your support by the way.”

  “You’re more than welcome. You can spare two hours. It’ll be over before you know it, and you’ve already said you need to do this. It’s the perfect time!” Samantha walked out of the dressing room while Gabriel looked himself over once more. His cell phone rang. “Yes?” he asked, hoping he would learn new information.

  “Hi, Gabriel. It’s Eric. My friend spotted Quentin out at her house again. I came back over here, and I’m watchin’. She still isn’t home. We may have to call the cops. Now I’m really startin’ to get worried. I can tell he really doesn’t know where she is though. He keeps checking around and looks mad as hell. Anyway, it looks like he’s about to drive off. I’m drivin’ my mother’s car. I’m gonna follow him.”

  Gabriel sighed with disappointment. “OK. We’ll give it the rest of this evening, then we’ll call the police. I’ve left several more messages for her, but she still hasn’t called me back. Go ahead and let Quentin continue to hang himself. I have something special coming for him.”

  “OK. I see he’s on the move. I’ll call you back.” Eric quickly disconnected the call.

  * * *

  “That’s what makes Gabriel so great. He can play a great round of golf and tell you about the best deals at Target all in one breath.” Everyone laughed. Gabriel sat on a chair in the middle of the stage while various managers sat beside him. His thoughts drifted periodically to Candy’s voice, her smile, and her sense of humor. Her image swirled in his mind.

  ‘I know in my heart you’re OK,’ he thought. ‘I can feel it. I need to know where you are, Candy. I need to make this right between us.’ Different people approached the podium and spoke fondly of Gabriel, everyone from custodians to the owner of the company, Kevin Hardy. Gabriel smiled gracefully, at times becoming choked up from the outpouring of love and support. Gabriel heard his cell phone vibrate. He looked down and saw it was a call from Eric. Swallowing deeply, he sent a quick text message:

  Can’t answer my cell right now. Business dinner. Text me back what you know.

  Eric responded:

  QUENTIN’S CRAZY ASS IS INSIDE WHERE YOU ARE! I THINK THIS IS A GOOD TIME TO CALL THE POLICE!

  Gabriel replied:

  NO. Let him come.

  Gabriel braced himself as he waited to be dethroned. As acceptance set in, his body relaxed. He closed his eyes, leaned his head back and laughed. He waved to Samantha.

  “Yes, Mr. Justice?” she asked.

  “Bring in the green thumb drive. We’ll need it after all.” Samantha smiled and dug in her purse. She pulled it out and waved it in Gabriel’s direction.

  “Good. Hold on to that until I tell you when,” Gabriel instructed. The night continued on with eloquent speeches, jokes, and dedications. Things came to an abrupt stop as someone shouted from the crowd.

  “I want to speak! I want to talk about how perfect Mr. Gabriel Justice is!” The elegantly dressed employees looked up from their expensive dinner plates as they surveyed a man with a wrinkled, button-down white shirt half tucked in, making his way steadily towards the stage. Gabriel gripped the arms of his chair, his short fingernails sinking deeply into the upholstered fabric as his nerves were nearly getting the best of him. He relaxed himself and waited patiently. Quentin smiled and nodded at people as he continued to maneuver his way through the shocked crowd. A security officer stepped in front of him.

  “No,” Gabriel said calmly. “Let him through.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Justice,” Quentin said. His dark eyes shined as he gave an ominous grin. His pupils dilated as he made erratic facial expressions and body gestures. The room erupted in whispering.

  “Shhh,” Gabriel said. “Let’s let our National IT Director, Mr. Quentin Evans, speak. Excuse his appearance. He’s had an exhausting day, no doubt.” Gabriel waited to meet eyes again with Quentin who shot him a look of disdain.

  Quentin leaned down and whispered in Gabriel’s ear. “This is the end of you. I’m gonna enjoy every second of this.” Quentin grabbed the microphone, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

  “We are here tonight to honor this man, this magnificent man, Mr. Justice. Isn’t he a great guy? Let’s give it up!” Quentin began to clap, encouraging others to join in. A few sporadic claps were audible amongst the sea of whispers. “We’re here to honor his commitment, leadership, and friendship to everyone here at Blue Sun. Yeah – Gabriel, I mean, Mr. Justice, loves his employees. And how do we show love to people that are important to us? Well, we give them attention. We do things to make them feel better when they’re having a rough day. We give them gifts, right? We listen to them and talk to them and make it seem like we really care. Mr. Justice sure does love his employees! He does all of those things. He loves one employee a whole lot, so much so that he’s been fucking her. Her name is Ms. Candace Benet, and she’s the Director of Finance. That’s how Mr. Justice shows love, by having sex with subordinates!”

  There were loud gasps in the room. The security guard ran up the steps to grab Quentin.

  “No!” screamed out Gabriel. “It’s OK. Let him finish.”

  “I have proof right here.” Quentin held up Candy’s diary. “This reads just like a low-budget porno movie,” he laughed. “I see Candy isn’t here tonight to support her favorite man. Maybe she’s recuperating from having been bent over, tied up, and engaging in other freaky shit she let him do to her.” Quentin burned with rage as he recalled every sentence he had read while sitting outside her house.

  “I don’t know where the hell she is tonight, but I can tell you where she was several weeks ago.” Quentin opened the diary. “She was in Mr. Justice’s bed, in Mr. Justice’s hot tub, and on Mr. Justice’s floor, but it wasn’t because she slipped and fell. Oh, no. She was in his shower, pinned up against the wall in his den, on the beach after flying in his private plane, and even outside in the damn woods. They were gettin’ it on like two wild animals!”

  People began to yell and move about.

  “These are her words! Now unless Candy is lying to herself, this must be true!” Quentin turned around and looked at Gabriel who was staring back at him. Gabriel swallowed, put his hand up to his forehead and continued to look at Quentin, not breaking the silent exchange.

  “Tell ’em, Mr. Justice! Go ahead and tell these good people about you fucking the daylights out of your employee!”

  Gabriel looked down and smiled. “Are you finished, Quentin?” he asked calmly.

  “No,” Quentin smiled. “I’m just beginning. Because of you, Candy has run away.”

  Mandy raced across the stage and whispered, “Gabriel, is this true?” Gabriel slowly stood up, pushed Mandy aside and walked up to Quentin.

  “I need to stand by this man because he has the microphone, and I want you all to hear me. Quentin’s concerns will be addressed shortly, but…”

  “No, you address my issues now!” Quentin returned.

  Gabriel continued, unmoved. “I want to first and foremost say that I’m sorry for everything you just heard. Unfortunately, there is truth to most of what he stated.”

  An uproar ensued. People stood up, talking loudly and gesturing.

  “No on
e here has had to explain who they date, sleep with, or marry to anyone,” Gabriel began. “However, because of who I am, I have to divulge it, it seems. Ever since my divorce, I’ve received daily solicitations from women who will remain unnamed. They, too, work for the company. Some of these women flirted openly in front of others. I became a very eligible bachelor. There were three magazine articles about my bachelorhood. People would hang around the water cooler and laugh. Many of you thought it was funny. But it wasn’t funny, not for me. It’s not funny when you have women throwing themselves at you but are lonely because you haven’t found your life partner and so desperately want her. It’s not funny when you’re in love with someone with whom you’re required to maintain a strictly professional relationship according to people who don’t have to live your life, and it’s not funny when that person loves you back, yet you have to hide her away and keep her a secret. Going to the movies, holding hands in public, and giving a simple kiss on the cheek at a restaurant are forbidden. Ms. Benet isn’t married, and neither am I. We’re two consenting adults who decided that we wanted to be together. We never had any sexual relations on company property. I knew that many would find the relationship inappropriate, but luckily, I’ve never allowed others to dictate what I should do with my life. If I had, I’d probably be working in a bar somewhere for free drinks.” The crowd quieted as they continued to listen.

  “All of you who attended the holiday party got to bring your significant others and children. We have gay and lesbian employees who were free to bring their mates. We had foster children, extended families, and conventional families. You’re able to kiss them, hug them, and love them. I just wanted the same thing, people. That’s all I wanted. Mr. Evans here is quite angry because he feels I took something away from him, something that he owned. Well, slavery is over. I’m glad you brought that diary, Quentin. Evidence is very important before making slanderous accusations.”

  Eric slowly walked into the room, making his way closer to the front.

  “You have Candy’s diary there, and quite frankly, I never knew that a diary existed, but knowing Candy the way I do, it isn’t surprising. As Mr. Evans, and now even Candy have shown us, evidence is crucial in substantiating fact. I’m about to make a few points myself.”

  A large projector screen lowered from behind the stage curtains. Gabriel waved at Samantha. Everyone watched anxiously.

  “I’ll narrate to make this go a bit faster. Thank you, Samantha.” Samantha nodded and smiled as she pushed “Start.”

  “We’re running short on time due to Mr. Evans’ monopolizing so much of the evening detailing intimate details about a matter that is none of his business, so I’m not going to give a long introduction. I’ll just jump right into it. Here we have a camera capturing Mr. Evans stealing company emails. This was over the course of say, three months. He tapped into the security privacy database that even he wasn’t allowed access to, and was reading very confidential information. After this was discovered by a local IT Manager, we were alerted. We immediately began to surveil Mr. Evans. Here’s footage of Mr. Evans driving over to one of our competitors. He parked his car and walked inside with a large envelope. We later determined that it contained confidential company documents regarding our new product lines.”

  Everyone gasped. Quentin’s mouth dropped. He looked at the screen wide-eyed as he watched himself on the footage.

  “Now, I could’ve easily accused Quentin of lying here tonight. I could’ve said he’s just trying to save his job. I could’ve even found a clever way to explain away the diary, but no, that would be wrong. It would be wrong because I’d be lying. What’s ironic is that all this time, I was fighting on Quentin’s behalf. You know those two men you saw me with at the hotel?” Gabriel smiled as he looked Quentin squarely in the eyes. “Those men were investigating your very serious crimes. They were from Columbus, and not only were you going be fired that following morning, you were going be arrested, because what you did is felonious. I asked them to please let me speak to you first, to see if you could just be allowed to leave the company with a fine. Even after I saw you with Candy that night, even after all the pain and hurt I had seeing you two together, I tried to help you. Because Candy apparently didn’t put her latest whereabouts in her diary, Mr. Evans’ plan came undone in the end, people, and that’s why he’s here. Now, Samantha, let’s continue with our little presentation, shall we?”

  Quentin began to back away. Three police officers and a security guard blocked his path.

  “I was visiting my family and received a troubling call from one of Candy’s dear friends.” Eric looked down at the ground and smirked, then back up at Gabriel. “Candy’s ex-husband, Eric, called me from his hospital bed. He warned me that Mr. Evans had been blackmailing Candy about our relationship. Now, I knew of Mr. Evans’s interest in Candy. I also knew he was in town before running into him at the restaurant. What I didn’t know is that he’d forced Candy to leave me. I didn’t know that he was making her do things against her will, and since Mr. Evans here gets some sort of enjoyment out of exposing my private sex life with everyone, let it be known that Mr. Evans here even went as far as to plan to sexually assault Candy.”

  There were audible gasps in the room.

  “He had the audacity to taunt her about it in advance. All this time, I thought she was dating him again willingly. Let me direct you to some footage that was caught today. Here’s footage of Mr. Evans breaking into Candy’s house. That man yelling at him upon his return to the front yard is Candy’s ex-husband, Eric. I’m very sorry that all of Ms. Benet’s business is now available for everyone to see, thanks to me in part. I’m really sorry about that because we all deserve a private life, but Mr. Evans here left me no choice after he exposed me, not realizing he was also exposing himself. Now, Samantha, please fast forward.” Samantha nodded.

  “Here’s Quentin returning to the house later this afternoon. By this point, he didn’t know I had already contacted the police and explained the situation. This is where having some officers as friends come in very handy. My college buddy, Bruce, is a Cincinnati cop. He’s one of the good guys.” Bruce was standing behind Quentin and smiled and waved to everyone. “Bruce was alerted two months ago that there was an investigation regarding Mr. Evans. Once I got word from Eric about his stalking Ms. Benet, we put surveillance on her house immediately. I’m sorry, Eric. I couldn’t tell you why I didn’t want you to call the police. I was told to not inform anyone of their presence.”

  Eric waved and laughed. “No apology needed. I’m glad it all worked out.” He crossed his arms over his chest and continued to listen.

  “So, not only has Mr. Evans been stealing company information to sell to competitors, he’s been harassing Ms. Benet, a fellow employee who no longer showed romantic interest in him.” Gabriel sighed and breathed deeply, trying to gain his composure. “I’m sorry Ms. Benet loved me so much that she was willing to allow this person to do these things to her in order to keep my life private and safe from public scrutiny. She made a huge sacrifice. All of you who know Ms. Benet personally know her as ‘Candy.’ She’s one of the few managers you can call anytime to ask a business question or even just chat and won’t have an attitude. Candy is – spectacular, and it was hard for me not to fall in love with her.” Gabriel paused and reflected before continuing. “I know what will happen after I leave here tonight. Many of you’ll never look at me the same. I can’t change that and I really don’t care. There will be a big corporate meeting about what to do with me. I’m not going to apologize for being in love with an employee. You all are people just like me. Why am I not allowed to date someone I work with, even if I’m in a higher position than her? I’m the CEO, everyone is in a lower position than me. I care about each and every one of you. You’re Blue Sun as much as I am. Please remember to always be true to yourselves. Tell the truth, even when it hurts. Find a way to do the right thing, and do it as quickly as you can because when you waste time, you may not e
ver get a second chance.” Gabriel brushed past Mandy as he made his way down the steps. Several people clapped. Eric grabbed his arm and leaned in close to him.

  “Gabriel, I know where she is. She’s in Cairo with Jasmine and Dallas with some book club. She did it to get away from Quentin.” Eric held up his cell phone and showed a text message from Candy. “She still has no idea what’s happened here. I’ll leave that up to you.”

  “When is she coming back?” Gabriel asked nervously.

  “In two weeks.”

  Gabriel grimaced. “Two weeks! That’s too long! Thank you for everything, Eric.”

  Eric laughed. “Seems like you had it under control, but you’re welcome!”

  The police officers shoved Quentin’s hands behind his back and cuffed him as they walked him outside. As he was escorted by, Gabriel grabbed Quentin’s arm and whispered in his ear, “I’m gonna find my baby, Quentin.”

  Gabriel fought the urge to say, “While you’re rotting in a cell, I’ll be holding Candy.” He was too much of a man to stoop to Quentin’s level. Quentin lunged at him but was promptly whisked away.

  As Gabriel walked away, some people yelled out, “We love you, Mr. Justice!” while others looked at him in disgust. Gabriel went out to his car. He buttoned his coat and shuddered in the cold air.

  “Mr. Justice!” Mandy called out as she chased him, her thick, chunky platform shoes hitting the pavement.

  “What?” he snapped as he got into his car.

  “We need to have a meeting right now!”

  Gabriel sighed and closed his eyes as four other Human Resource Managers approached him. “Fine. Let the trial begin.”

  * * *