Page 17 of Not Safe For Work

I show Andie the texts from Mitch and give her the bullet points from last night at Gavin’s apartment. She whisper-yells several expletives and I see her cheeks burn pink.

She tosses my phone back to me like a hot potato and takes a deep, centering breath. “We should discuss how to murder Mitch later, but I still don’t understand how Gavin’s involved. Why didn’t you go to HR? Or Daanesh even? Why resort to a fake boyfriend?”

“It’s just for a few days. It got Mitch to stop harassing me and it’ll be nice to have a buffer on Friday when the whole office finds out Ian and I are over.” I don’t mention how good it felt to have Gavin stand up for me, or the butterflies I felt this morning as we walked into the office together.

“Still. I just hate letting Mitch get away with treating you like that. Isn’t there something we can do?”

“You know exactly what happens to women who complain about these things. I mean, what would I even say?”

“You wouldn’t have to say anything. The texts speak for themselves. You know this is sexual harassment, right?” Andie argues. “Just because he’s not the one hitting on you doesn’t mean he’s innocent.”

“Sure,Iknow that. But I also know I’ll end up being the one who gets blamed. You saw what happened to Megan after everything with Davide blew up. I can handle Mitch being Mitch if it means I get to keep my job. I’ve worked too hard for this promotion to just throw all that work away and start over.”

Andie sighs. I can tell she’s frustrated with me, but I also know she gets it. Even as a team lead, she knows what it’s like being a woman in tech. Companies in the Bay Area love to tout how forward thinking and feminist they are, but it’s always stillmen who are running the show. Women are celebrated, just as long as we play by their rules.

She pulls up the texts on my phone and reads through them again. “So, Gavin saw these and just suddenly agreed to pretend you’re a couple?”

“He didn’t agree to anything. I never asked. He just did it.” I shrug, not really knowing how else to explain why he jumped in like that. I still don’t understand it myself.

“Good for him. You need a man like that. Someone as righteous as you are.”

I do need someone like that, and for a split second I forget that this is all a façade. That no man who was actually mine has ever defended me so gallantly.

“We’re not really dating, you know. He’s notmy man.”

Andie twists her lips, giving me a thoughtful once over. “He got youramen, Liv.” She says the word like it’s the equivalent of organ donation. “I’d give it a real shot.” She pops another soup dumpling in her mouth and grins at me.

SLACK DIRECT MESSAGE

Gavin Scott:

How’d it go with Andie?

Olivia Diamond:

Fine. I’m glad I had a chance to explain things before the rumors started.

Did you get a chance to tell Gabby?

Gavin Scott:

Yep. All good

Gavin has been checking in on me all day. Not in an annoying way, but how an actual boyfriend might act. And not just about our arrangement. After our chat with HR he told me to cometo him if Mitch ever made me feel uncomfortable again. He promised he wouldn’t insert himself into the situation like last night unless I asked him, but that he wanted to make sure I had someone to talk to. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Gavin Scott might care about me.

Which is the thought I’m trying to erase from my head when Mitch heads to our desk pod and asks, “How are the love birds?”

Mitch and I haven’t actually spoken yet today. Just minimal eye-contact across the office. He has a good excuse, prepping for his board meeting in two days, but it’s still weird.

“Mitch, should we chat for a sec?” I know it’s the end of the day, and I can see he’s about to head out, but I don’t want this awkwardness to linger any further.

“It’s fine, Livy,” he says, ruffling my hair. Seriously? “So, are you gonna take the ferry with us on Friday or will you be going with yourboyfriend?” He nudges his head at Gavin when he says the b-word. And I’m…lost.

I look to Gavin, wondering what Mitch is talking about but he just scowls. “Scottie?” I ask.

“You know I don’t do boats.” I try to school my features when he says it because apparently, I’m supposed to know this. Mitch laughs, loving our first Newlywed Game fail.

Trying for a save, I respond, “Oh, I thought it was just smaller boats. No ferries? Really?” Why would he not be okay with ferries?

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