by Cat Carmine
“Can’t put this in email. Can you call me?”
It sounds urgent so I grab my cell phone and dial her.
“Kelly, it’s Claire.”
“Claire. I’m glad you called.”
“What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Oh, I’m okay. I’m more than okay. I need your help though.”
“Sure, anything.” I wonder if she’s going to ask me for a reference or something.
“We have to talk in person. Can you meet me after work tomorrow? Somewhere far away from Godrich and Associates.”
She spits the name out like it’s poison. Her request takes me aback, but I can’t say I’m surprised that she doesn’t want to come downtown and risk running into any of her old colleagues, after getting surplussed like that.
We end up making plans to meet at a coffee shop in midtown.
“Oh, this is going to be good, Claire. This is going to be really good. We’re really going to do this.”
“Do what?”
“I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll see you tomorrow, Kelly.” I distractedly smile at William again as he walks by.
“Plans with a friend?” he asks.
I shrug it off. “Sort of.” To be honest, I have no idea what tomorrow will bring.
16
Claire
The coffee shop Kelly picked isn’t one I’ve ever been to before.
Actually, calling it a coffee shop is probably a bit of a stretch. They do sell coffee, but it seems to be more of a place for sketchy characters to hang out and conduct even sketchier business. I check my phone nervously, wondering if I have the right place. Sure enough, it matches the pin Kelly sent me — Ludo’s Cafe.
I order a coffee and am served a mug of black sludge. I add liberal amounts of cream and sugar to make it palatable. This is a far cry from the usual moccaccinos I get from Aroma.
Thankfully, Kelly arrives soon after I do — but her arrival does nothing to comfort me.
She looks terrible.
I say that in the most concerned-as-a-friend way, mind you. Her hair is greasy and she’s thrown it up into a top knot that looks like it’s been there for a week now. She isn’t wearing make-up and by the smell of it, no deodorant either. She’s wearing sweats and a stained Berkley t-shirt.
To be totally honest, she looks like she fits right in with the rest of the people at this coffee shop. I can see now why she picked it.
Guilt wracks through me. Kelly and I were never exceptionally close — we didn’t really hang out outside of work — but we talked every day at work and got close in the way that colleagues do. We were comrades at Prescott & Bailey. I should have made more of an effort to reach out to her after she was let go.
I get up and give her a huge hug.
“It’s great to see you,” I tell her, which is the truth.
“Yeah, yeah,” she says. She sounds anxious.
We sit down and she orders a coffee. When it arrives, she pulls a small bottle of Jack Daniels out of her purse and pours a generous shot of it into her mug. No one in the coffee shop seems to care.
“Are you okay, Kelly? How’s everything going?”
“Well, to be perfectly honest, it hasn’t been great. Not great at all. But things are finally looking up.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s why I called you actually. Things are going really well, or at least they will be, but I kinda sorta need your help.”
“Anything.” I mean it. Kelly is usually so bright and funny and capable that seeing her like this is a real blow. “What do you need? A reference?”
She scratches her face. “No, see, me and some of the other ladies from Prescott have been talking. And Bev — you remember Bev, big lady from accounting? Anyway, her husband said we should go to a lawyer.”
“A lawyer? What for?”
“To nail that fucker.”
My heart sinks.
“What are you talking about, Kelly?”
“We found a real good lawyer. He’s got all kinds of billboards around and television commercials, so you know he’s good. Anyway, he thinks we have a really strong case. That Godrich bastard is already known in a lot of circles. Apparently he’s the type that makes extra requests of his staff, if you know what I mean.”
I swallow. Hard. My heart is racing now. I go to take a sip of my coffee but the sight of that sludge makes me stomach roil even further.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You sure?” Kelly’s eyes narrow as she studies my face. Despite the fact that I’m pretty sure this isn’t her first shot of Jack Daniels today, her eyes are still sharp, and I have to look away as my face reddens.
“I’m sure. I don’t think I can help you. I don’t know anything.”
“You could find stuff out though. You’re on the inside.”
“Yeah, but I don’t really know much about what’s going on.”
Kelly’s face drops. “What do you do there?”
Shit. I can’t exactly lie to her — my name is on the company directory, all she has to do is look it up when she gets home.
“I’m his personal secretary.”
“Godrich?” Her face lights up. “This is perfect then. You have complete access to him.”
“It’s not like that,” I backpedal. My mind is flitting to yesterday, when he fucked me on his desk. “I barely see him. I mostly do filing.”
Kelly scratches her face again and looks around the cafe. She takes so long to respond that I almost think she’s forgotten that I’m there. Then she looks back at me, her eyes gleaming.
“No, I’ve got it. This is even better. You can just join our suit. We can say we got fired because we refused to participate. You can tell everyone that he hired you but has been pressuring you to service him.”
I swallow again. This was bad. This was really really bad.
“I don’t know, Kelly. Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Of course I’m sure. Think about it, Claire. This is our ticket. I’ve been reading up on these wrongful dismissal suits. The money we make could set us up for life. You’d never have to worry about money again.”
Never have to worry about money again? I can’t lie — that sounded appealing. But not at William’s expense.
“Come on, Claire. You’d be able to ditch those bitch roommates of yours. Do something you actually want to do… buy a house where you can garden and grow your own tulips. Go back to college and get that art history degree you wanted.”
I silently curse myself for confiding so much in her.
“Kelly, I’m sure it’s not going to be that easy. They’re going to put you on the stand. Under oath. Are you really going to lie to a judge and tell them William pressured you? They’re going to want some kind of proof.”
“That’s why we need you. Your testimony will give it more weight, since you actually work there.”
I shake my head, but Kelly isn’t hearing any more.
“Here.” She hands me a white business card, with burgundy letters emblazoned on it. Kurtz, Marsden and Park. I knew their brand. They had those dodgy late night commercials for people who’d been hit by cars. Suddenly I felt a little better about the validity of their suit.
“Think about it,” Kelly says. Her face is so hopeful that I can’t bring myself to tell her no. I take the card and throw it in my purse.
I give her a hug before I leave.
“Our luck’s going to change, Claire. I can feel it.”
I don’t have the heart to tell her that I feel like mine already has.
17
William
While Claire is out running some errands, I take advantage of the quiet to actually get some work done. She’s been keeping me very distracted lately — or maybe I should say we’ve been keeping each other very distracted. My mind drifts back to the other day on the couch … yesterday on the floor … this morning in my chair.
My
dick starts to throb at the mere thought of her.
Think unsexy thoughts, I tell myself. This company isn’t going to run itself.
I start going through the massive pile of folders of things that need my signature. Claire’s been nagging me all week to sign them and I can already picture the satisfaction on her face when I hand her the completed pile.
God, this is really fucking pathetic. I’m prioritizing my to-do list based on what’ll get me a smile from secretary.
Ah, fuck it.
She’s more than just a secretary. I find myself wanting to make her smile as much as I can.
Well, smile and do other things. Like moan. And gasp. And writhe.
Fuck, seriously, Godrich. Unsexy thoughts. Cockroaches. World War II. Grandma in an apron. Grandma in nothing but an apron.
Okay, that’s better. Actually, that last one worked a little too good. I might not get another erection for awhile.
I finally turn to my folders and am just starting to get down into them when my phone rings. Not too many people have my direct line — most of my calls get routed through Claire, and I know she’s not back yet — so I pick up.
It’s James, my lawyer.
“Hey,” I say, happy to hear from him. “I’ve been meaning to call you. Racquetball on Saturday?”
“Sure, that sounds great. But I actually had another reason for calling you.”
“Oh?” I can hear a note of trepidation in his voice, which sets me a little on edge.
“Look, it’s nothing official. Just someone gave me a heads up about something last night at O’Malleys.”
O’Malleys was an Irish bar in town that was known as the hot spot for lawyers to drink. It was also known as the best place to get any kind of legal gossip.
“Look, I can’t say who, but a friend told me that Kurtz, Marsden and Park is sniffing around about the merger.”
I actually laugh. “Those ambulance chasers? What the fuck interest do they have in corporate law all of a sudden?”
“Not the merger itself. All those employees you let go. The ones from Prescott & Bailey.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. Like I said, nothing official. But I can make some time tomorrow to talk to your head of HR. Just to make sure we can get out ahead of this. If it turns into anything.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” I force my voice to be calm but inside I’m seething with rage. Nobody comes at me unless they really want to go. I make sure of that.
“Look, I really can’t stress enough that this could all turn out to be nothing. I’ve been over the merger paperwork a hundred times, and it’s tight as a bride’s asshole. I got my guys going over it again now just to be safe, but I wanted to give you the heads up anyway.”
“Yeah, thanks James. I appreciate it.”
“Will, one more thing. If this goes ahead, they aren’t going to have much of a legal leg to stand on. So they’re going to try to play on emotion and paint you as a prick. They’re going to come at you with everything they have. Any personal stuff they can dig up. Lila.”
He doesn’t have to say anything other than her name.
“I got it.”
“I’m just saying, make sure you’re keeping your nose clean.”
“I got it, James. Thanks.”
I hang up the phone in a blind rage.
“Fuck!” I say to no one.
I burst out of my office hoping to see Claire but she isn’t back yet.
“Fuck!” I say again. I slam my hand down on her desk. I just want to see her. I know seeing her will calm me down.
And then that pisses me off even more. Since when did I get so attached to her? Fuck this.
I go back to my office to call Tom Jacobs, our head of HR, but there’s no answer. Do people not pick up the phone for the CEO anymore?
I decide to march down there myself. I want a list of names of everyone we let go from Prescott & Bailey. And maybe seeing me in the flesh will strike some fear into them and they’ll pick up the damn phone when I call.
I stalk down the hallway to the office, but just as I come around the corner, I freeze.
Claire.
Coming out of Tom’s office. She doesn’t see me, but I see her. Her blond hair hangs in her face, and she looks around quickly before she darts down the hallway in the opposite direction from where I’m standing.
Now that’s weird. What the fuck is she doing in HR?
I don’t like this. First James’s call about the lawsuit and now my secretary’s coming out of HR looking all furtive?
Hell no.
Memories of Lila and her betrayal are floating upwards from the depths where I keep them buried.
Claire’s not Lila, I remind myself. Give her the benefit of the doubt.
But the ruthless businessman in me doesn’t believe in giving anyone the benefit of the doubt.
I go back to my office without stopping in to HR. I need to think about this some more.
I need to find out what the fuck’s going on.
18
Claire
The days pass and there’s no word from Kelly. I start to relax a little. Maybe nothing will come of this stupid suit and it will all blow over.
I know I should tell William about it, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. Especially not if it’s all going to turn out to be nothing.
He’s been crazy stressed this week as it is. I don’t know what it is — I assume something to do with the business, but he won’t talk to me about it. He spends all his time brooding in his office with the door closed, arriving in the morning before I get here and leaving long after I’ve gone home. I’ve barely seen him all week.
And to be honest, I miss him. I miss the sound of his voice and his weird little jokes and yes, the way he knew how to fuck me senseless.
I knock lightly on his door. He makes a grunting noise from inside his office which I take to mean ‘come in’.
I step lightly into the room. I have his cappuccino and a muffin in a little bakery bag.
“Coffee, tea, or me?” I smile.
He barely looks up from his laptop. “Just the coffee’s fine, thanks.”
My face falls but he doesn’t even see it because he’s so focused on his work.
I set the cup and the bag down on his desk. I take my time doing it in the hopes that he’ll say something else or otherwise acknowledge my presence, but he doesn’t. Just stares at that monitor, occasionally pounding on the keyboard.
I slip back out of his office unnoticed.
At my desk I try to get back to work. I have about forty-two million spreadsheets to update but I can’t concentrate on any of them.
All I can think about is William. My boss.
What if everyone was right? What if sleeping with my boss was a terrible idea?
God. What am I thinking? Of course they were right. Was there ever a scenario in the world where fucking your boss led to anything but heartbreak? Sure, he could walk away unscathed. He was a man and he was the boss. He’d be able to replace me in a week. If the rumors were true, I was just one in a long line anyway.
I was the one who was fucked here. And not in the good way.
My mind is already running over the implications of this. I would have to find a new job. Without a pay check, I could lose my apartment. Especially since April and Vanessa had made it abundantly clear that they weren’t willing to cover for me anymore.
But to be honest, those things didn’t scare me as much as the idea of never seeing William again.
Oh no. What have I gone and done? I’ve broken the number one rule of sleeping with your boss.
I actually fell for him.
I need to get some air.
Even though I just got back from getting coffee, I head outside for a walk. It’s not like William will even notice I’m gone.
Once I’m outside I take in deep gulps of that smoggy downtown air. Salty tears prick my eyes, threatening to spill over onto my cheeks. I tilt my head back and blink
furiously. I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe let this happen.
No. I’m not ready for this to be over yet. I know it might be — hell, it’s probably — for the best, but I can’t just let go. I need one more fix. One more fix and then maybe I’ll be able to purge him from my system.
I steel myself and then head back upstairs, and once I’m there I go into William’s office without knocking. This time he does look up, probably just due to the surprise of being intruded on.
“Yes?” He already sounds bored of me. I fight back tears.
“Take me.”
His eyes widen in surprise. I am already sliding off my blouse. It falls to the floor.
“Take me. Do whatever you want to me. Anything.” I reach around and unhook my bra, letting that fall to the floor as well. My nipples harden and reach for him.
I can’t believe the words coming out of my mouth, and the door I’m opening. Yet it seems to be working. William puts down his pen. His eyes flare. He pushes his chair back from his desk and stands up.
“That’s a very generous offer, Claire.”
“I mean it. Use me. Hurt me.” I slide my skirt down over my hips. I haven’t worn panties to work in ages — not since the incident with the scissors — and now I stand before him, completely naked.
His nostrils flare. He’s standing stock still in front of me and I can tell he’s holding himself back, that he wants to do exactly what I’m asking. Good.
He takes another step towards me, brings his hand to my chin, lifts my face.
“Don’t make offers you can’t follow through with.”
“I never do.”
William turns from me abruptly, and for a second I think he’s going to refuse me, but instead he strides towards his desk and throws everything on to the floor. All of it. Laptop, file folders, coffee cup. Everything crashes to the floor.
“Get over here.”