Leslie looked at Graham like if she wouldn’t lose her job for it, she’d leap across the table and gouge his eyes out. Graham wasn’t concerned about her, or even about her harassment. He just wanted to draw first blood in case Leslie got mad enough to flip it on him.
“Has Roger accurately described your claim?” Shelly asked.
Graham nodded. “The truth is, she can’t take no for an answer. I tried to let Leslie down easily.”
“Let me down easy? You act like I’m crying over you or something.”
“I don’t know whether you’re crying or not. I just know that I’ve told you that I’m not interested in dating you, and you won’t stop making advances.”
Leslie narrowed her eyes to tiny slits. “You should feel privileged that someone is looking at you. The way you have your head up Lorne’s behind, I should’ve known that you wouldn’t be interested in me. I’m not your type.”
Graham closed his eyes and shook his head. He wasn’t going to respond to this. She wanted him to flip out on her, and he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction.
“Are you implying that Graham is homosexual?” Roger asked. “That is uncalled for, Leslie. We’re not going to get anywhere trading insults.”
“I don’t consider that to be an insult,” Graham said, “but I’m not gay, and she knows it.”
“These allegations further state that Leslie and her friend, another coworker, implied that Graham was going to have sexual relations with Leslie at a recent training,” Shelly said. “What do you have to say about that, Leslie?”
“First of all, that was a joke. Second of all, am I on trial here? I thought this was a mediation.”
“What would you like as a resolution, Graham?” Roger asked, clearly deciding to side with Graham.
“I would just like her to stop, that’s all. I don’t want anything else.”
“And you couldn’t just ask me to stop?” Leslie asked. “Your grown ass had to pull me into a meeting with our boss to tell me to stop bothering you?”
“Leslie, do you agree to stop pestering this man?” Roger asked.
“Wait a minute. Graham took me out on a date. He’s up here trying to act like I’m a crazy person or something. He led me on, and then started acting up when he moved on to another woman.”
Graham sighed. “We never went on a date. She called it a date, but it wasn’t a date.”
“Just because a man goes on one date with you, it doesn’t mean he has to enter into a relationship with you,” Shelly said. “It’s okay for him to change his mind.”
“It wasn’t a date, and I haven’t changed my mind. I didn’t date her. I don’t want to date her. I’m never going to date her,” Graham said.
He didn’t mean for his voice to sound as harsh as it did, but it was too late. The words were already out. Of course, Leslie burst into tears, but to Graham’s surprise neither Shelly nor Roger moved to comfort her. After almost a minute-long performance, she just stopped.
“Can we go on now?” Shelly asked.
Leslie nodded.
“I believe that what Graham is saying is that if you simply stopped your advances, he would no longer feel that the workplace was hostile,” Roger said. “Am I correct, Graham?”
“Yes.”
“Leslie, this means that you don’t make jokes about dating Graham, and you don’t ask him out again. You will also not harass him on social media or outside the workplace as a part of this agreement,” Shelly said.
“Why doesn’t he just get a restraining order then?” Leslie said.
Her voice sounded so defeated and pained that Graham almost wanted to take it all back. He didn’t, though. Being nice was what got him here in the first place.
“Graham can get a restraining order if he finds it necessary. We’re hoping that he doesn’t,” Roger said. “If he does, it could impact your public trust clearance for the federal government.”
Leslie’s shoulders slumped. Graham had probably won. It didn’t feel like it, though. Both Roger and Shelly were white, and Leslie’s eyes told him this betrayal went deeper than two coworkers having a disagreement.
“Do you understand?” Shelly asked. “Can we consider this matter closed?”
“It’s closed,” Leslie said.
“Graham?” Roger asked.
“Yes. I consider it closed.”
“Great,” Roger said. “Now, let’s get back to work, folks.”
Roger and Shelly rushed out of the conference room, leaving Graham and Leslie behind. They must’ve had another fire to put out. Probably going to counsel two more employees to try to keep them from filing a lawsuit.
When they left the room, Leslie glared at Graham again, then glanced up at the surveillance camera in the corner of the room. She stopped glaring.
“I’m sorry, Leslie,” Graham said. For some reason, he felt like apologizing.
“You sure are.”
Leslie pushed past Graham out of the conference room. He hoped she found a man soon. One who wanted her.
Graham needed a break after this meeting, so he went outside the building. He was going to find Starbucks or a snack.
“Graham!”
He heard a man’s loud voice calling him, but he didn’t recognize it. He looked around until his gaze stopped on a man in a three-piece suit. The man was staring at him, so he must’ve been the one who called his name.
“Who are you?” Graham called.
“Someone who knows Onika better than you ever will.”
Graham felt his muscles tense. He flexed, ready to fight the man if he had to, although the man was clearly not dressed to fight.
“What do you want?” Graham asked.
The man walked toward Graham, and Graham didn’t move an inch. If the brother wanted to talk to him, he could come to where he was standing.
“I was just about to leave my business card at the security desk and ask you to give me a call,” Aaron said. “This is better. I’d rather see you face-to-face.”
“See me face-to-face for what?”
“To introduce myself. I’m Aaron. Just letting you know that your girlfriend lives in a homeless shelter.”
“You’re the ex-boyfriend, right? You put her in that shelter.”
“Actually, I bought her a plane ticket to North Carolina to see her people.”
Graham tried not to look confused. He failed.
“Oh, she didn’t tell you about them?” Aaron said.
“She doesn’t have to tell me everything about herself. We haven’t been dating long,” Graham said.
He nodded. “You’re right. At least you do know her name is Onika. She introduced herself to me as Nikki. She always has secrets. She’ll never tell you the entire truth.”
Aaron’s words echoed Graham’s fears. Onika’s reveal about being homeless made him wonder what else she was hiding.
“Are you still in contact with her?” Graham asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
Aaron smiled. “You’ll have to ask her, but just know that we were together for a very long time. I was her first, so she’ll probably always still carry a torch for me.”
Graham slowly clenched and unclenched his fists. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I helped her put that torch out.”
“Pretty sure or positive? I know you’re not positive, because the look in your eye says you’re worried about what I’m doing here. You’re probably going to call Onika as soon as you go back up to your cubicle. You’re going to ask about me, and she’s going to give you vague answers.”
“I’m not worried about anything. When Onika gets ready to share, I’ll be ready to listen. I’m treating her with respect, which is obviously something you never did.”
“No need to insult me, brother. I’m not your enemy. See you around.”
Aaron turned to walk back to his car—a silver Jaguar. Graham would have to save for years to have a whip like that. Apparently, they shared the same taste in women and in cars, but Graham disagreed
with Aaron on one thing.
Aaron was, without question, Graham’s enemy.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
The day after he sent all of Onika’s clothes and shoes to Safe Harbor, Aaron showed up in person. Onika saw him pull up in the Jaguar, his out-and-about car. Seeing him again so soon was irritating. She wished she hadn’t been desperate enough to cash his check.
“Who is out there now?” Charmayne asked.
“My ex.”
Charmayne fumed. “The nerve of him showing up here. Get rid of him.”
Onika nodded and went outside to meet him, even though she wished she could stay inside and hide.
He was, as usual, dressed to the nines in blue linen pants and a casual, short-sleeved shirt. He was wearing sunglasses, and little dots of sweat peppered his head.
“Why aren’t you at Martha’s Vineyard? Why are you here stalking me all summer?”
“You think I am the only one impacted by our breakup? You think I want the Richards to know that I was forced to throw you out?”
Onika couldn’t help it. She laughed, and it sounded like a holler.
“You were forced to throw me out? I have never seen the victim role played out so well.”
“My dignity forced my hand. How could I be with a woman who wasn’t honored to bear my child?”
Onika knew he was insulted by her decision. She’d gotten to the point that she didn’t care.
“Can you please not belabor the point about the pregnancy?” Onika said.
“Can you come closer so that the entire neighborhood doesn’t have to hear our conversation?”
“Or you could just leave, and the conversation would be over.”
“So rude to your benefactor. So rude.”
“Dropping designer clothes off at a homeless shelter does not make you my benefactor.”
“What about that $25,000 check?”
“You gave me more than that to shop with in Paris.”
Aaron smiled. “Do you not miss that?”
Onika took too long to reply. Their rapid back-and-forth banter had suddenly paused.
“You do miss it. No need to lie about that.”
He was right. Onika missed the money, clothes, vacations, and shopping sprees. She missed almost every part of their life. It was the part she didn’t miss that gave her strength to rebuff his advances.
“Come sit in my car and talk. We have hurt each other. You don’t have to come back. I get that. But let me put you in your own place.”
Onika knew Aaron was poisonous, and she wasn’t quite sure she was immune.
“I’m not going to bite, Onika. You act like you don’t know me,” Aaron said.
Not fully trusting him, but wanting to hear what he had to say, Onika followed Aaron to his car. Ever the gentleman, he opened the passenger-side door for her to get in.
“You could invite me into the shelter,” Aaron said when he got in on his side.
Onika rolled her eyes. “Or not.”
“I get it. I don’t really want to see you living like that anyway.”
“It’s actually nice on the inside. It’s not what you think.”
Aaron nodded. “So you don’t mind staying here, then?”
Onika sucked her teeth. “Man, are you playing games or what? You said something about helping me get a place to live.”
“I can give you keys to an apartment tomorrow. I can send the movers to pick up your things, but you’ll have to make a choice.”
“What choice?”
“To allow me to come and see you when I need to see you.”
Onika felt her stomach turn. He wanted her to become one of the women she had always loathed. He wanted to leave his live-in girlfriend, her replacement, to lay up in her bed.
“It would be like old times. Just that you’d have your own space, away from me. You can even keep your boyfriend if you want. I visited him at his job today. He’s quite the traditional macho man. I thought he was going to take a swing at me.”
Onika wanted to choke him. She had never wanted to do physical harm to him before, but she wanted to wrap her hands around his throat and squeeze the life out of him.
“Why were you at his job? Why do you know where he works? Stop stalking me.”
“You’re mine, Onika.”
“You put me out!”
“I’ve reconsidered. It was a mistake.”
Onika couldn’t believe that she’d stayed with this narcissist for so long. He really felt like he was entitled to her.
“I created who you are right now,” Aaron said. “Your boyfriend should thank me. He only looked at you because of my grooming.”
Except that Graham hadn’t met a groomed version of her. He’d met Onika at rock-bottom when she no longer had access to Aaron’s money, power, or influence.
“Thank you for the offer, but I don’t want the apartment from you. The price is too high.”
“But you’ll accept the clothes, the shoes, and the job?”
“You can take that back, too, Aaron. I don’t need anything from you if it comes with sex.”
Aaron chuckled slowly. “But you sure as hell cashed that check already.”
“Sure did.”
Onika got out of the car, slammed the door, and turned her back on Aaron. She never wanted to see him again. If he didn’t stop his stalking, she’d get a restraining order. She was turning the page on this relationship. No, that was too mild. She was burning it down to the ground, collecting the ashes, and spreading them to the four corners of the earth. She was done. She didn’t desire him anymore, nor did she need him.
The place in her heart where Aaron had lived had a new resident—Graham. And hopefully he’d want to stay a long, long while.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
She got in his car.
Graham had left work early and gone straight over on the Metro to surprise Onika. To let her know that nothing she’d said could change how he felt about her. He had flowers and wine, and was going to take her out for the Thai food that she loved.
But when he got halfway down her street, Graham saw the car. The same silver Jaguar that had pulled up outside his job earlier. The car that held her ex-boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend who had come with warnings about Onika and her secrets.
Seeing the car didn’t bother Graham at first. It just made him walk faster. Clearly this guy wasn’t done with Onika. He’d thrown her away like a bag of trash and now he was mad that Graham had scooped her up and identified her as treasure.
He saw Onika storm down the walkway. It looked as if they were arguing. They were definitely going back and forth. Graham almost called out Onika’s name, but he wanted to see how she would handle the situation on her own. He definitely wanted to see what she would do.
After a few moments of talking, she got in his car. What had he said to make her do that? When she didn’t get out right away, Graham scowled. Why was she in there? Were they kissing or rekindling their flame?
Graham found that he didn’t want to know the answer, so he didn’t stick around to find out. He dropped the bouquet of flowers on the ground. Turned and walked away.
This girl had one secret too many.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Graham stared at his phone. There were multiple text messages from Onika. Asking questions. What was he doing? Was he done teaching his swimming class? Did he want to get together?
He didn’t reply to any of them.
Then he realized if he didn’t reply, then she’d think his silence had something to do with her big reveal. She needed to know that if they were broken, it was because of her shenanigans and not any judgments on his part.
He replied to all her texts with one line. SUPER BUSY. LET’S GET TOGETHER NEXT WEEK TO CELEBRATE YOUR NEW JOB.
It was a cop-out that bought him more time. Graham didn’t plan on getting together with her at all. He was going to cut his losses before he was in too deeply.
But he was already in too deeply.
S
eeing Onika get in Aaron’s car hurt him badly. True enough, it could’ve been innocent, even though Aaron insisted that Onika carried a torch for him.
Why would she get in his car or even talk to him at all after what he’d done? What kind of game were they playing?
Graham had too many questions, and he didn’t want to have Onika give him scripted, well-thought-out answers, or none at all. That’s what she liked to do when she didn’t want to tell the whole truth—she went silent.
Then his phone rang. He should’ve known she would call. He hesitated. Let the phone ring a few times.
Finally, he gave in. “Hello.”
“Hi, Graham cracker. What’s going on? I haven’t seen you all weekend.”
“I know. I just have a lot going on.”
Onika was quiet for a moment. Maybe she caught his tone. He didn’t care.
“What’s wrong, Graham? Why are you being short with me?”
Graham sighed. He was a communicator. Keeping his feelings bottled up wasn’t in his DNA.
“Why were you in the car with him?”
“Huh?”
Graham’s head felt close to exploding. He just realized that Onika was just like a dude with her secrets and evasiveness. Every guy he knew said, “Huh?” when trying to avoid being interrogated by their woman. And Graham’s woman had just given him the “huh” treatment.
“I can’t believe this. You know what I’m talking about, Onika. You were in the silver Jaguar. Your ex-boyfriend’s car. Why?”
The silence on the line went on for too long. He knew she was trying to quickly formulate a response to his question.
“Graham, it’s not what you think. He made an indecent request of me, and I turned him down. That’s all.”
“But you got in his car. I saw you talking to him; then you got in. Why couldn’t you turn him down from the sidewalk?”
“I wanted to . . . I don’t know . . . hear him out. He said he would help me get my own apartment.”
“And you thought he would do it out of the kindness of his heart?”
“Not out of kindness. Out of guilt. Just like he sent over my clothes and shoes and got me a job.”
“If you’re tired of that shelter, you can move in here. I already offered you that.”
Her Secret Life Page 24