by Bella Rose
***
Landry could not believe how nerve racking it was to walk into work carrying such a huge secret with her. She had spent last night with the owner of the company having what amounted to an illegal tryst. Ugh! The drama of that statement was disgusting. She was becoming Morgan!
“Hey you,” Dinah said brightly when Landry walked into their shared cubicle. “I’ve got some stuff for you to look at. I think I figured out that requirement versus documentation issue.”
Bless Dinah. That was all Landry could think. The woman immediately allowed Landry to immerse herself in work. She sat down and the two of them started an animated discussion about very simple, very straightforward issues with the newest release of the Maximov security software. Before Landry could even blink, it was already lunchtime.
“Uh-oh,” Dinah whispered, looking over Landry’s shoulder. “Don’t look now, but the princess Taylor is headed in this direction.”
Landry tried to cast a surreptitious glance over her shoulder, but it was difficult to do without being obvious about it. Finally she settled for hoping that Taylor would just fly on by. However, the cloying scent of perfume that invaded Dinah and Landry’s workspace suggested otherwise. Taylor had planted herself right in their doorway as though she was making a point to come and chat.
“Can we help you?” Landry asked coldly.
Taylor smirked. “You might want to be a little nicer to me, you know. Since I’m fucking the boss I could just have you fired on the spot.”
Dinah gaped. “That’s against company policy!”
“Maxim changed the company policy. He wants us to be together,” Taylor boasted. “Ask anyone. He and I are together now.”
Landry hadn’t spoken. She had no response. How could she? On one hand, she knew without a doubt that Taylor was lying through her teeth. Yet how could she claim that if her only proof was the fact that she was the one sleeping with the boss?
Dinah glanced at Landry as if she could not believe that Landry had remained silent for this long. The incredulous look woke Landry’s intellect just enough to figure out a plan of attack. “Yeah,” Landry drawled. “I sort of realized that yesterday when I happened to be walking past Maxim’s office and saw you sucking him off.”
Dinah made a noise like a chicken, but it was Taylor who blushed an unbecoming shade of pink. “You saw that?” she stammered. “So I guess you know I mean what I say about having you two fired.”
“I’m not worried,” Landry shot back. “He didn’t look like he was enjoying himself very much, which leads me to believe that you need to work on your oral skills before you go around pretending that you hold his balls in a jar. I think there are some online videos if you need help. Although I have to admit that you looked pretty good down on your knees. I imagine that’s pretty much how you spend your time, isn’t it?”
Taylor’s face went from pink to purple as rage crept its way over her features. “How dare you?”
“How dare me?” Landry pointed right at Taylor. “Don’t you mean how dare you?”
“What?” Taylor backed off a step, obviously put off by Landry’s aggressive response to Taylor’s attempts at intimidation.
“You’re out here bragging about something and we all know you’re lying. You’re pathetic. Even your attempts to be a bully are pathetic. Why are you doing this? You have a great job. Your work is respected. You’re a real person here. Why would you try to make yourself nothing more than a piece of ass? I’m sorry but it makes no sense.”
Taylor didn’t say another word. Her eyes grew huge and she opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but couldn’t. Then she spun on her heel and actually ran away. It was both satisfying and yet oddly uncomfortable. Landry was starting to feel sorry for the woman.
“Oh my God, you are my new hero!” Dinah squeaked. “That was incredible!”
“Maybe.” Landry pursed her lips and looked at her friend. “Don’t you wonder what’s really going on? We know she’s lying. She has to be. After everything else that’s happened? Really? Why do that? It’s like she’s following orders or something and the person giving them doesn’t give a shit about the carnage that’s going to follow.”
“Hmm,” Dinah mused. “You might be onto something.”
“What would make her so desperate that she would take a chance like that?” Landry stood up. “I’m going back to human resources.”
“Why?”
“I need help from Danvers.”
Now Dinah was doing the openmouthed fish-eyed look. “Why would he help you?”
“Because I think he’s starting to think—just like I do—that there’s something else going on around here that has nothing to do with software.” Landry glanced at her watch. “We’ll come back to this stuff, okay? Just go grab some lunch and meet me back here in like an hour.”
“You sure you don’t need backup?” Dinah’s eyes sparkled with interest.
Landry put her hands on her hips and affected a look of mock thoughtfulness. “Gee, let me think. Do I want to take the biggest gossip I know on my excursion to human resources to talk about more gossip when I know that my friend Dinah would just be soaking up the big stuff to tell everyone later?”
“Hey!” Dinah protested. “I totally resent that remark.”
“And yet you’d still be telling everyone you could find whatever we found out from Mr. Danvers.”
“Maybe,” Dinah allowed. She sniffed at Landry and folded her arms over her chest.
Landry gave her friend a fond look. “I know you’re dying to know what’s going on as much as I am. But I think Danvers will be more willing to talk if you’re not there. It’s not like it’s a big secret that you know pretty much everything about everybody around here.”
Dinah looked disappointed. “That’s fair. But you’d better tell me everything!”
Chapter Eighteen
“I want to change the dating rule,” Maxim announced as he strode into Danvers’s office.
The round little man looked up from his computer screen in slack-jawed confusion. “I’m sorry, sir? What did you say?”
“I said,” Maxim annunciated carefully, closing the door behind him, “that I want to change the dating rule.”
“What dating rule would you be referring to?” Danvers frowned behind his glasses. “Surely you can’t mean the rule that prevents our employees from dating one another? And actually that is more of a section of the code as opposed to a single rule.”
Maxim grunted in frustration. “I don’t care what it is. I want it gone.”
“Might I ask what specifically makes you want to remove that section?” Danvers removed his glasses, set them on his desktop, and pinched the bridge of his nose as though he were getting a monster-sized headache.
Maxim realized that he needed to phrase this just right. He didn’t want to somehow ruin Landry’s reputation. “That stupid cunt Taylor Pearson is trying to make a big deal about some supposed inappropriate contact, right? So let’s just take away the illegality of it. If there’s no hint of impropriety, then I can fire her scheming ass.”
“I believe that plan falls under the heading of throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” Danvers said wearily.
“Excuse me?” Maxim drew back in horror. “There are no babies involved in this scenario.”
Danvers started laughing. In fact, the little man threw back his head and howled. Then he slumped forward and went silent. Maxim wondered if the guy had totally lost it. Of course to be fair, Maxim had been running the man ragged this last week. This was probably more action than the HR department had seen since the company first opened.
“It’s a saying,” Danvers finally told Maxim. “You know, it just sort of means you’re overdoing things in a way that will make more trouble than it will help.”
Of course Danvers would think that. Maxim hadn’t told him about Landry. If this was all about Taylor then yes, he was certainly overreacting. Now, how to rephrase without actually lettin
g the cat out of the bag…
“Last night I followed Taylor,” Maxim admitted in a clipped tone. “I discovered her meeting with my business associate Boris Orlov here in the city.”
Danvers’s bushy eyebrows shot up. “Is she selling company information to a supplier or competitor? Because that would constitute an ironclad reason to terminate her employment.” Danvers made a face. “Even if you were sleeping with her.”
“No, not exactly,” Maxim began slowly. He chuckled as Danvers’s face fell with disappointment. “However, it was obvious that she and Boris are working together to somehow damage my standing in my own company. Boris ordered Taylor to get herself in my bed as soon as possible. That’s why I’m thinking that if it wasn’t against the rules, there would be no leverage.”
“The problem is that the section of the company employment code that you’re referring to is fundamental in helping us keep our sexual harassment complaints down,” Danvers explained. “If people could date each other, there would be innuendo and flirting all over the place!”
Maxim couldn’t help it. He laughed. “You make it seem like that’s the worst possible outcome ever.”
“It is!” Danvers insisted. “At least from a complaints perspective.”
Maxim sighed and slumped into a chair. “What would happen if I got married?”
“Excuse me?” There went those eyebrows again. It was like they were going to flop right off the man’s forehead. Had he never heard of trimming his facial hair?
“If I was a married man, these things would hold much less weight. Yes?”
“Yes?” Danvers seemed almost hesitant to commit to an answer of any kind. “Although married men commit just as much sexual misconduct as unmarried men.”
“I was thinking of Taylor and Boris’s plan specifically. If I’m married, there’s really not much room for them to poke at me.”
“Actually, sir,” Danvers said hesitantly. “I almost believe there might be more ways to poke at you depending on how much your wife is able to vouch for your loyalty, etc.”
“So you think they’d just seek to make me look unfaithful?” Maxim sighed. “Is there something in that code that prevents me from having my wife work for the company?”
“Excuse me?” Danvers was looking green again. “I suppose not. Not exactly. But wouldn’t you have to date an employee in order to marry one?”
“Not if we had a relationship before she was an employee, and then cooled it off right before she was hired.”
“And then potentially get back together just to marry as a spur-of-the-moment decision?” Danvers asked in confusion. “That sounds very strange. Do you actually know a woman who would be party to that sort of situation?”
“I might.”
Danvers gave a helpless shrug. “Then I suppose there is nothing in the code of conduct to prevent it.”
There was a knock at the door. Maxim stood up and turned the knob. It opened, and to his surprise, Landry came rushing into the room. He stood back and gazed at her in surprise. She actually blushed. He could not imagine how anyone wouldn’t know what had happened between the two of them all things considered. Their body language was all over the place. He could not stop himself from wanting to be as close to her as possible. And the way her posture kept subtly leaning in his direction, it was obvious that she felt the same way he did.
“Ahem.” Mr. Danvers cleared his throat in a very deliberate manner. “Mr. Sokolov, if you’re finished? I’m sure Ms. Tobin needs privacy.”
“Of course.” Maxim sent a heated look in Landry’s direction and was satisfied to see her squirm and look away. She couldn’t even hold his gaze. Probably because she knew that if she did, she would see just how much he wanted her.
***
Landry was mortified to see Maxim inside Mr. Danvers’s office. She’d known he was blustering about changing rules and things, but she had thought he would realize how foolish an idea that was and give up. Apparently Maxim Sokolov did not give up. Ever.
The way he looked at her! It was practically X rated! She felt her skin tingle and her temperature rose twenty degrees at least. Blood surged to her groin and her nipples hardened. Her reaction to being anywhere near that man was instantaneous and devastating.
“You can sit down now,” Mr. Danvers said calmly. “He’s gone.”
“Right.” Landry sank into the chair that Maxim must have only just vacated.
Mr. Danvers waited several minutes before prompting her. “Did you have something you needed to discuss?”
“Right,” Landry said again. She tried to force her mind back to the matter at hand. “I’m sorry, but Taylor Pearson just walked into my cubicle and told me the most horrendous rumor.”
“All right.” Danvers leaned back in his chair and pressed his fingertips together. “Go ahead.”
“Dinah was there with me.”
Danvers’s eyes fluttered closed at that announcement, Landry could only guess why. Then he sighed. “Continue, please?”
“Taylor claims that she and Maxim are having an affair and told Dinah and I that it meant she was soon going to be in charge of whether or not we got to keep our jobs.”
“I see.” Danvers seemed to be thinking this over for a moment. “And are you simply telling me so that I’m aware, or do you have a more complicated purpose?”
“It’s not true!” Landry burst out. “I know it’s not!”
“And you know this because?” Danvers prodded.
Shit. She’d forgotten about this little part of the problem. She was about to out herself to human resources. Although she wasn’t sure that Maxim hadn’t just done that already. Did it really matter? It was all such a pain in the ass!
“Yes. I know that for sure,” Landry said quietly. “Because Maxim and I have slept together.”
“So you lied to me the other day during our interview?” Danvers said in a severe tone.
“No.” She shook her head, feeling strands of her hair coming loose from her ponytail. “Actually I didn’t. Maxim and I met before I was employed here. We had a fun time over a weekend, but I didn’t actually know who he was. It was a casual liaison. I hadn’t started working here yet.”
Something happened to Danvers then. His expression grew closed and yet he seemed excited about something. “And now?”
“Well everything was fine until Ms. Pearson started poking at us. One thing led to another and then we sort of…well I’d prefer not to talk about that actually.”
“Yes. Yes. I understand!” Danvers said eagerly. “It’s become very apparent that Ms. Pearson is making things quite difficult for the entire company with her lies and excessive attempts at manipulation.”
“Yeah,” Landry mused. She sat back in her chair and folded her hands together in her lap. “Do you know why she would do that? It seems really ridiculous. She has more to lose than to gain, don’t you think?”
“She has children,” Danvers said suddenly. “Three of them. Perhaps this is about them.”
Landry could barely wrap her mind around that thought. Taylor Pearson had children? She wasn’t like any mother Landry had ever known. The woman was a snake! “I’m sorry, but I have a really difficult time believing that she’d do something like this because she’s trying to benefit her children.”
Danvers snorted. “Try something along the opposite lines.”
“Huh?”
“It’s possible that her children are providing leverage against her in this situation. Maybe she is being pressured to work against Mr. Sokolov because somebody has the power to hurt her children.”
“Oh.” Landry tried to look at this from a new angle. “So then she needs help.”
Something in Danvers’s expression shifted. “You’re a really good person, Landry Tobin. I’m not sure Taylor Pearson deserves your compassion and empathy, but I applaud you for your choice to offer them.”
“So how do we help her enough to make sure she stops ruining everyone’s lives?” Landry wondere
d. “And I’m totally aware of how messed up that sounds.”
“Perhaps you could talk to her.” Danvers seemed to think this over some more.
Landry wasn’t sure how she felt about that notion. “She’s trying to take away my job!”
Danvers waved his hand dismissively. “You’re in no danger of getting fired because of anything that woman has to say. I can promise you that.”
“Okay.” Landry wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. “So you want me to just go confront her?”
Danvers brightened. “Ask her about Boris. Pretend you know the whole thing. See what happens. And then report back to me,” he added.
“Boris?” Now Landry was really confused. “I have no idea what Boris has to do with any of this. I don’t even know a Boris.”
“But Taylor does,” Danvers insisted. “You’re going to be helping me and Mr. Sokolov make a plan to get her out of our hair for good.”
“But what if she’s really trying to do this for her children?” Landry protested. “It’s not fair to just make it all worse!”
Danvers gave a little sigh. “God save me from a woman with morals and ethics.”
“Hey!” she said indignantly. “That’s supposed to be one of my better qualities.”
“It is,” Danvers agreed. “When it’s working for us and not against us.”
“Oh great, so you’re a fan of situational ethics. No wonder Maxim hired you to run his human resources department. Nobody does situational ethics with as much flair as Maxim Sokolov.”
“Oh that we agree on,” Danvers said with a firm nod.
Chapter Nineteen
Maxim sat at his desk and stared at his computer monitor. The West Coast investors were sitting around a table several thousand miles and more than a few time zones away. Now he was faced with the awkward necessity of explaining why the return on investment wasn’t going to be exactly as promised.