Enlightened (Red Flags)

by C. C. Brown

  I nodded my head and tried to keep the pea green color layering my queasiness at bay. No matter what everyone said to me, I just couldn't find a way to find the positive thoughts that they kept talking about. It's much easier to say those things when you aren't the one who is on the chopping block.

  Nonetheless, I smiled at her.

  "Thanks, Chels."

  Chelsea blew me a kiss and then scurried out of the condo, leaving me all alone.

  Walking sluggishly into the bathroom, I programmed my phone to a metal rock station, plugged it into the speakers and put it on full blast. If there was any way to drown away the incessant thoughts of losing my job and ruining my professional reputation, it would be through music that left me with no ability to hear my own thoughts.

  And that was just what I did.

  <>

  Parking in the parking lot of SDSM, I sat in my car and stared at the large building in front of me. Déjà vu hit me as I sat with my knuckles white, wrapped around the steering wheel, same as I had done the morning of my first day. The only difference was the apprehension of wanting to prove myself and do well, versus the fear of being terminated. I swallowed hard as I realized that I couldn't sit in my car forever. I grabbed my things and made my way out, letting the crisp morning air and the warm sun hit me, before taking the forever long walk to the entrance of the building.

  When I walked in, nothing was out of the ordinary. I wasn't sure if I was expecting anything different, but a weird feeling passed through me, as I stepped in and realized that with or without me, this place would continue on and I would soon be an after-thought.

  Sunny was sitting at her desk, on the phone, her quintessential shit stain expression plastered on her face. As I approached her, she quickly ended her call and smiled an overly condescending smile at me, making me lose it.

  "What the fuck, Sunny?" I asked, completely annoyed with her.

  She gawked at me as surprise overtook her. Holding her hand up to her chest, I found the fight in me that had been buried for far too long and felt compelled to say what I thought needed to be said.

  "I've done absolutely nothing to you besides exist, and from day one, you've pulled some insecure, jealous, bitch behavior out on me and I certainly don't deserve it." She moved her mouth to speak but I quickly cut her off. "I don't give a shit if you're fucking William or the whole damn company. I don't want him, I never have, and I'm not going to take your shit anymore. Grow the fuck up!"

  By the time I stopped talking, or rather, yelling, I was breathing so hard I had to hold my own chest in a failed attempt to slow it down. My eyes were fixated on Sunny, and I could feel the anger that had been brewing since the past week, finally start to spill out of me.

  "I… I'm sorry, Cara," Sunny said, through a broken and battered voice.

  "I don't need your stupid ass apologies. I need you to grow up and leave me out of your shit."

  Sunny sat dumfounded. She had nothing to say in response and I didn't give her the chance to find anything to say. The people milling about the lobby area stopped and stared at me as I shouted at her, but I didn't care. It felt good to finally release some frustration. I stalked off to the elevators, growing impatient with the thought that I was making my way up to my fifth floor office for the last time.

  When I stepped off the elevator, I walked into a rather serene scene that didn't seem to jive with my internal emotions. On the inside, a volcano was eagerly awaiting eruption, but on the outside, the office looked unnaturally calm, making it feel like an omen. Reel me in, hook me, then lay down the law. I casually walked down the hall and into my office, trying my best to remain composed even though I was feeling anything but. Amanda walked in with uneasiness riddled on her face, and as she sat my mug of coffee down on my desk, I caught her off guard by speaking first.

  "You don't need to prance around me. I know what's up."

  She looked up from the mug with bulging eyes. "You know what?"

  "I know that I'm going to lose my job today."

  Amanda sighed. "What happened on Friday? Damian came in angry this morning and he and William have been holed up in William's office ever since."

  "It's a long story, but at the end of the day, Damian is not the good guy that you might think he is."

  Amanda looked at me in utter confusion. I couldn't blame her. She had probably heard some pretty slanderous things about me and didn't know which side to believe.

  "Amanda!" William angrily yelled, sending her jumping and hurrying out of my office. I walked over to door, hoping to hear more of their conversation.

  "Is Cara in yet?" he asked.

  "Yes. She just got here."

  "Send her in."

  I moved out of my office before she even came for me. As she walked out of William's, I was standing in front of her. She gave me an apologetic smile and then led me into his office. My stomach turned in angry knots as I walked in. William sat in his chair with a deep scowl on his face, looking like the big tyrant-like boss that he had been previously labeled as. His expression didn't bother me so much. It was Damian standing just behind him, with a rather smug grin on his face that bothered me. I wanted to shrivel up on the spot, but I cleared my throat and walked in with confidence instead.

  "Thank you, Amanda. Shut my door please," William growled.

  Amanda nodded her head and hurried out of the office, leaving me alone with the prick of the year and a very angry boss.

  "Take a seat, Cara," William said, motioning towards the chair in front of his desk. I wanted to decline and just tell him to get it over with already, but I sat and, tried to look like I had not a care in the world. "Cara. I think I made it clear when you were hired that above all else, professionalism is paramount." I nodded my head. "Besides what Mr. Rossi has had to report back to me, what I saw on Friday with your out of control boyfriend, makes me think you didn't take me too seriously."

  "In my defense--"

  "You'll get your chance," William said, holding his hand up in front of me. "Your boyfriend accosted our team owner, threatening his safety and making him re-think if this is the place for his business. Why do you think I should overlook that?"

  "Mr. Rolston," I spit out in exasperation. My breathing had begun to pick up again as I could no longer sit and listen to a very lopsided scenario. "My boyfriend was only defending me from Mr. Rossi. He has been a nightmare to work with."

  William's eyes lowered as he listened to me speak. "What do you mean?"

  "Mr. Rossi has been hitting on me since the night of the meet and greet and he has some sort of sordid history with my boyfriend so after turning him down, and finding out who my boyfriend is, he's been making life miserable for me."

  Damian laughed. My eyes darted to him, and so did William's. "This is rich. Cara, I would think as a college educated, marketing manager that, you would leave the high school shenanigans out of business. I would never threaten the integrity of my reputation or my business."

  William looked back down to me as I sat bewildered by the scene happening right before my eyes. Damian was a sly one. I had no idea he could act so well. In fact, if I wasn't so filled with rage, I would have given him a round of applause for his performance.

  "He took my phone, Mr. Rolston. He's been sending text messages back and forth between my phone and his to make it look like I've been texting him."

  William stood as he shook his head. "Cara, you are new in the business world, so I'm not sure that you fully comprehend the severity of losing this million dollar contract with The Tide." My mouth dropped. "I cannot and will not risk the reputation of this firm, or the business relationship that I have with Mr. Rossi because you cannot get your emotions, where Mr. Rossi is concerned, in check."

  Fire thrashed my chest as I sat infuriated, watching William take the word of Damian and what he thought he had seen over my genuine complaints.

  "If there was a problem with Mr. Rossi, why didn't you ever say anything?"

  I sat glaring at Damian
who still hadn't wiped his smug grin from his face.

  "Cara!" William barked out.

  I shook my head and swallowed hard again. "I just couldn't. You’d warned me about the account and I didn't want to stir up trouble."

  William shook his head as he tightly held his eyes closed. When he opened them, he stared at me with emptiness inside of them. "I'm not sure if you're ready for this world, Cara. I'm not going to throw away the biggest account SDSM has ever had because you can't get things together with your crazy boyfriend." He looked back to Damian who stood, lips pursed and expressionless, before saying, "I'm sorry, Cara, but you're fired."

  The dreaded words pierced my ears with the sting of a thousand needles. I knew they were coming. I thought I had prepared myself for them, but when they came, they hurt and burned more than I could have ever imagined. Seeing my dismay, Damian stretched his not-so- long-ago grin into a mega-watt smile. He walked over and patted William on the back, lightly saying, "Thank you. I want to make this partnership work."

  I sat in the chair and watched the two of them, growing sicker by the second. I couldn't believe Damian had completely ruined my career even before I'd had a chance to really make my mark. I couldn't believe that William did no due diligence in finding out exactly what had happened and, I couldn't believe that I was still sitting there, watching the two of them act like they had finally gotten rid of a cancer.

  "Amanda will help you clear your things," William said calmly.

  Just as I stood to leave, I could hear Amanda just outside the door shouting, "You cannot go in, Mr. Rolston is in a very important meeting."

  The door swung open and in walked Hunter. I stood, frozen in place.

  Damian looked at him in amazement. "What are you doing here, Hunter?" he asked, looking genuinely surprised. Hunter didn't say anything and just as Damian began to walk over to him, he stopped. Shortly after, Jason walked in, looking like he could murder someone. Damian's mouth dropped. He and Jason stood, glaring death stares at one another. "William, call security and have this man escorted out of the building please."

  William moved to his phone, but was stopped by the low rumble of Jason's angry voice. "I wouldn't do that so fast, William." Jason moved closer into the office and Hunter trailed behind him. "This will only take a second."

  "Jason!" I shouted. This was becoming more than what it needed to be. "I told you I didn't want you to come here. What the hell?"

  Jason turned his head to me and gently softened his scowl, but completely ignored what I had to say and went back to glaring at Damian. "You think you can throw your money and your so-called prestige around? Think again, Rossi." Damian lowered his shoulders and cocked his head, but didn't say anything. "You have no idea what it means to be professional. I can take you hating me, but when you throw that hate at Cara, and try to destroy her, I have a big fuckin' problem with that."

  "Excuse me. You're going to need to leave before I do call security and have all three of you thrown out of here," William said, his eyes fixed on Jason. But as Jason turned his wrathful gaze over to him, he slightly backed down.

  "You call yourself a business man, yet you have no idea what kind of unprofessional asshole you've formed a partnership with, and you didn't give a rat's ass about finding out."

  "Jason, that's enough!" I yelled out, but he didn't turn his gaze away from William.

  "Listen to your girlfriend, young man. You won't be in any trouble if you leave now."

  Jason laughed a wicked laugh that sent shivers through my body. He was trying to channel his anger, and for the most part, he was doing a good job with it, but that laugh sent my skin trembling, and not in a good way. I watched as Damian and William altered their expressions as well, indicating that the laugh had the same effect on them that it'd had on me.

  "I'm not going anywhere. In fact, I think it should be the other way around. William, go ahead and have security escort Mr. Rossi out of here." Jason's mouth turned up in an evil grin that deeply overshadowed the effect that the laugh had on me. "You see, Mr. Rossi is so busy trying to exact his revenge on my girlfriend, that he took his eyes off me."

  "What the hell are you talking about, Bradley?" Damian looked as if his mind was moving a mile a minute, leaving him utterly confused.

  "Your stock. The price was right. When I saw you were the owner, and that you had chosen SDSM as your marketing company, there was no way I was going to let you hold your power over Cara. So what did I do? I kept buying and buying, and to my shock, you weren't paying any attention." Jason moved closer to me and stood with both hands rested on my shoulders. "It looks like The San Diego Tide has a brand new owner, and that owner is none other than Jason Bradley."

  My mouth hit the floor and I heard a couple of gasps fill the room. Damian looked like he was going to be sick, but quickly twitched his neck, trying hard to regain his composure.

  "You're a lying bullshitter, Bradley."

  "It's all here," Hunter said, pulling an envelope out of his inside jacket pocket. I looked over to Hunter completely flabbergasted. He winked at me, but quickly turned his impassive face back to Damian, as he handed the envelope over to him.

  Damian looked over the contents of the envelope and I watched as horror flashed through his face.

  "You see, Damian, I own a majority share of The Tide, so it's now my team." Jason's grin widened. "I could slap you with theft, sexual harassment, and a host of other things that you've done wrong since working with SDSM, but I'm not going to do any of that. Instead, I'm gonna let you walk out of here, without so much as a wrinkle on your pretty little designer suit. But if you ever, come near Cara again, I'll beat your ass so quick you won't know if I'm coming or going."

  Jason quickly wiped away his smile and turned to William. "Go ahead and call security."

  William quickly dialed the number for security. When he finished with the call, he moved around the desk and stood in front of Jason. "I'm terribly sorry for the misunderstanding, Mr. Bradley."

  "There is no misunderstanding. You didn't protect your employee. No ifs, ands, or buts about it."

  Just then, there was a knock on the door and a tall, overly muscular security guard stood in the door frame. "I'm here to remove someone from the premises."

  "Yes. Will you please escort Mr. Rossi out?" William said, waving his hand in Damian's direction.

  "Actually, you'll be taking--" Jason stopped to look at William's name placard on his desk, "Mr. Rolston with you as well."

  William's eyes shot open. "What?" he asked.

  "Yeah, see, I don't like your business practices and, since The Tide is the largest account that this firm has, I had a pretty good say over who I wanted working with my team. I told the Board of Directors that I would pull the team and move them elsewhere if you still had anything to do with SDSM. They, not unlike yourself, value the almighty dollar and gave in to my demand." Jason walked over and patted him on the shoulder. "You can check if you'd like."

  I couldn't believe what was unfolding before my eyes. It felt like a dream, but as I pinched myself, I quickly realized that this was real.

  Jason escorted William over to where Damian and the security guard were standing. Just as they were walking out of the office, Jason yelled out, "And take that sour faced receptionist from downstairs with you. Fraternization is not tolerated at SDSM." The men walked out of the office, looking sick and defeated.

  "Amanda," Jason called out, "Some of the guys from the supply room will be coming up with boxes. Will you please pack up Mr. Rolston's belongings?"

  "Yes, sir," she quickly answered, looking over to me, nervous as hell.

  "Well, if that's it, I'll wait for you down in the car." Hunter said, nodding over to Jason and me.

  "Thanks, man. I'll be down shortly." Jason said, and then turned back to me. He walked over and took my hand, then proceeded to lead me out of the office. We walked back down to my office, and Jason lightly closed the door behind him. "You okay, Gorgeous?"

  I l
ooked at him through a mix of emotions. I didn't know if I should be happy or angry with him. He had done me a huge,, necessary favor, but he had also withheld something else from me. Frustration came out the clear winner and I plopped down in my chair, blowing out a deep breath that had embedded itself into the walls of my chest.

  "No. I'm not, Jason!" I shouted. He looked at me completely baffled. "This is something else that you've kept from me. Did you not learn anything about all of the gosh damn secrets we went through the first time around? They don't help us."

  Small traces of the nightmare we'd gone through before began filtering in, and it scared and angered me all at the same time. I did not want to have a repeat of the secret keeping, and this felt like round two.

  Chapter 20

  "I couldn't say anything, Cara. I swear, I wanted to tell you." Jason's voice was escalating, but he caught himself, bringing it back down to a normal level. "Hunter didn't even tell Chelsea. We were under a very tight gag order, and I didn't want to risk anything souring this deal."

  His eyes looked at me in a pleading manner, begging me not to be mad at him. I didn't know what to feel so I just sat, staring at him until he spoke again. "I did this for us. I can't stand Damian Rossi and I damn sure didn't want you to be tortured by him because of me." He moved around my desk to where I was sitting and tilted my chin up so our gazes met. "Cara, everything in my life is about doing the right thing to make you happy. You think I'd deliberately do anything that I know could jeopardize what you and I have?" He spoke with conviction and, with a face to back it up.

  "I guess not, but you can't blame me for suspecting," I said, softening my tone. "All this weekend, when I was worrying over my job, you knew."

  Jason cautiously smiled. "Yes, I did. Hunter did too. It was so hard for both of us. Especially when we were all together last night, but we knew it had to be kept on lock down for a few more hours. That’s where I rushed off to this morning."