Page 107 of Business Casual

“There was a sexual harassment lawsuit that was settled out of court a couple years ago. The head of marketing and an employee that worked under him were in a relationship and it blew up. My father and the board agreed that changing the language to explicitly forbid fraternization between management and employees was for the best. Any violation is deemed a fireable offense.” He paused. “The HR folder for the employee was in my stack.”

As if a memory unlocked and collided with the information a tipsy Josephine gave me, I sucked in a sharp breath.

“CW?” I asked.

His eyes widened. “How did you know?”

Something in my gut told me not to throw Josephine under the bus just yet. “Uh well, when I interviewed, your dad left you a note and told you that I was a lawsuit. And said—”

“Remember CW,” we said in unison.

We stared at each other wordlessly.

“You think Josephine put the folder on your desk?” I wondered.

“It was either her or my father. Or both of them. I don’t know. But I knew I had to throw them off, so I reached out to Syd. She owed me a favor. I just wanted to make it through Friday—”

My jaw dropped as I brought my free hand to my mouth when I realized. “Your meeting with the board! Oh my God!”

“Yeah. So by Friday night, I knew shit was going to hit the fan sooner than later. I was just trying to buy a week and postpone it until after the board meeting.”

I wanted to reach out to him, but I squeezed my bottle instead. “Why didn’t you tell me? This isn’t all on you. You shouldn’t have been stressing about this all by yourself.”

“We already had plans to get together today so I was hoping to be able to tell you that they don’t suspect anything.” He grimaced. “But then all the stuff with you happened last night and”—he put his bottle on the table and picked up a folder— “when it came down to it, I realized I don’t know what you want.”

“What do you mean?” I questioned slowly.

“What do you want, Imani?”

I wanted to answer his question with the truth that I felt. But I was unsure if I could handle all that came with it. I was unsure if he could handle all that came with it. What I wanted was to be with him. What I needed was for us to be okay with the consequences of our decision. What I feared was that he would resent me.

Seconds passed and the silence stretched between us.

He nodded. “Okay.”

“Tre…”

“I need you to sign this please.” He opened the folder and handed me a piece of paper. “If you want to have someone take a look at it before you sign it, that’s cool. But I need it by two o’clock tomorrow.”

With shaky hands, I placed my bottle of water on the coffee table and took the paper out of his hand. “What’s this?”

“It’s a consensual relationship form. It says that we had a consensual relationship that began after you were hired. It makes it clear that our relationship had no bearing on you getting the job. It protects your contract with the company and your privacy. It also acknowledges you have no grounds to sue the company. It covers you and it covers the company,” he explained.

I skimmed the form. I had to reread sentences because I kept hearing him talk about us in the past tense. My heart broke when I noticed he had already signed it.

“You said…” I looked up and as soon as our eyes connected, my throat started burning. “You said it covers me and it covers the company?”

“Yes.”

“Does it cover you?”

“No.”

I shook my head. “Why?”

“It covers who it needs to cover. I told you I was going to protect you and that’s what I’m doing.”

My eyes started to sting. “Why aren’t you protected in this?”

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