Page 32 of Behind Frenemy Lines

“Right? I mean, the cookies would have been thrown away otherwise.”

“That’s what I thought,” agreed Charles. “Are you going to report him?”

I stared at him. “What?”

“I’d be happy to be a witness, if you’re planning to raise it with HR,” said Charles. “Obviously I wasn’t present for the original incident. But the conversation we just had with him makes more sense with the added context of what he did in Hong Kong.”

“I… thank you.”

It wasn’t like I didn’t know going to HR was an option. But it held at least as much risk for me as for Arthur, even with Charles on my side. As Charles said, he wasn’t in a position to corroborate my account of what had happened in Hong Kong. And even though he could vouch for the fact Arthur had been unhinged about us sharing an office, that on its own wasn’t self-evidently out of order. Maybe firm policy did frown upon romantic partners sharing an office. I hadn’t read the policy, since it wasn’t relevant to my situation—or rather, it hadn’t been, until Arthur had decided it was.

“I thought about it,” I said. “But what would I be reporting? Nothing really happened.”

Charles raised an eyebrow. “You said he hit on you.”

“Yeah. And when I said no, he went away. He didn’t try to force me, or push back, or anything.”

Charles’s forehead wrinkled. “I’d hope HR would have a more nuanced view than that. He came to your hotel room, you said? It was inappropriate.”

“He’s apologised,” I said. “Maybe I should have recorded it.If you think about it, it was an admission.” I rubbed my temples. I couldn’t believe this was my life now, that I was regretting not taping my boss. “Say HR take our view of it—I agree with you, by the way, that it wasn’t a great thing for him to do.” Understatement of the year.

“Arthur’s going to deny it,” I said. “He’s going through an expensive divorce, he’s moved firms because he wants to reset his career. He can’t afford to be labelled a sexual harasser. And if it’s my word against his, who are they going to believe?”

Charles didn’t try to reassure me. “You’re not obliged to report it, if you don’t want to. It’s your decision.”

“It was a single incident,” I said. “He did back off after I told him I was seeing somebody. All of this is really out of character for him. I’ve worked with him for eight years, and he’s never done anything like it before. Definitely not to me, and not to anyone else that I know of. He’s been under a lot of pressure recently…”

My voice trailed off. I could hear how unconvincing I sounded.

But what could I do? If I was wrong, if thiswasn’ta one-off I could put behind me, that would mean my career, as it was, was over. Even if I went to HR and they believed me, and it was Arthur who lost his job instead of me.

I didn’t know what my career would look like without Arthur. I’d have to rebuild it from scratch, and I didn’t have a model for that. I wasn’t prepared to sink my career as I knew it over one mistake—a mistake Arthur had owned up to and had promised not to repeat.

“I think he’s learned his lesson,” I said.

I could tell Charles wasn’t buying it. But all he said was, “It’s up to you. My offer stands. I won’t say anything about it without your agreement.”

“Thank you,” I said.

Charles was being so decent. I felt bad for calling himKawan Baik all those years, though it was barely an insult. After how he’d behaved today, it didn’t feel like he deserved to be the object of a running joke.

“I’m sorry you got dragged into this,” I said. “I’ll tell Arthur he got it wrong, since he’s got it stuck in his head that you’re the guy I’m seeing.” I sighed.

“Can’t you tell him who it is you are seeing?” Charles recollected himself. “Of course, you probably don’t want to share personal information with him.”

“I mean, yeah, that. But I’m not seeing anybody! I only said it because I wanted to let him down gently.” I ran my hands through my hair. “I’ll tell him I met somebody on the apps. That should sound plausible. He probably thought it was you because he knows all I’ve been doing is working lately. I’ve hardly had time to keep on top of my laundry, much less meet someone new.”

“You don’t have to,” said Charles.

“Don’t have to what?”

Charles was pink. “If it makes things easier with Arthur, you don’t have to clarify. I don’t mind.”

I wasn’t sure if I’d understood him. “You mean… let him keep thinking we’re dating?”

Charles shrugged. “You’ve already denied it. If he doesn’t believe you, that’s his lookout. It makes no difference to me either way. I’m not in a relationship, so there’s nobody to object. I wouldn’t have to do anything differently, it sounds like. Arthur seems perfectly capable of inventing the evidence to prove his hypothesis.”

“Oh.” It would be one less thing to worry about. I didn’t even know how I was going to persuade Arthur I wasn’t dating Charles, given that several outright denials hadn’t worked.

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