Page 18 of Get It In Writing
This one clearly didn’t get the message.
But I’ll take the highroad, even though right now I’m literally scrambling around on the floor.
“Uh, yeah,” I say sarcastically. “The last time I checked, we were both admins. We have exactly the same job.”
She laughs and starts to walk away from me.
“Yeah, right. I know what you’re up to. You’ve really been going above and beyond for the boss, haven’t you?” She stomps away, and I get a terrible feeling in my gut.
All I can focus on are her shoes. Her heels thud against the carpeted floor, and I’m just thankful right now that the floor isn’t tile or marble. Her heels would sound that much more obnoxious if it were.
I finish picking up all the packets and get up slowly, careful to look around to check if anyone is looking at me. There are a couple of people standing up inside their cubicles, and they dart down and out of sight when they see me looking at them. The last thing I want is to cause a scene and be looked at, but it seems that it’s too late for that. Like it or not, I’m part of a scene right now.
I press the packets close to my chest and try to avoid eye contact with the few people who are still looking at me and pretending not to. My steps are slow and deliberate as I make my way across the office and back to the conference room, and I take my time in distributing the packets in front of each place at the conference table.
Finally, after it’s impossible for me to stall any longer, I go back to my desk, and that’s when Joanna’s words truly take meaning in my stomach.
I can’t claim plausible deniability. I can’t shrug off her words as the petty accusation from a jealous coworker.
The email is on my screen, clear as day, and Joanna’s smirk next to me says everything.
How could I have been so stupid? So careless? I left this thing open on my computer?
Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
I slump my face into my hands and close my eyes tight. Maybe if I ignore the writing on my screen, it’ll go away.
Yep, count to three, open my eyes, and it’ll be gone.
One.
Two.
Crap. I peek through a sliver between my fingers. The email is still there.
“You think you were the only one who wanted Harper? You’re just the only one stupid enough to go for it.” Joanna takes a crumpled piece of paper out of her top drawer and slides it over to me.
How about a drink?
I hide my face again and wish everything in my world would just go away. My finger hovers over the delete button on the email, and I click with a shaky hand. This is the equivalent of flushing the drugs down the toilet, and this is what I should have done a long time ago.
Gathering up my things, I notice the time. It’s nine-thirty, and if I’m fast, I can slink away, not run into Harper, and pretend I never even worked here.
I don’t need this job. I have a lot of other offers. I have my side business to fall back on. I have…
Crap. Harper strides through the door and comes over to me and Joanna.
“Good morning,” he says, completely professionally. “I trust the conference room is set up for my ten o’clock?”
“Yes, Mr. Harper,” Joanna responds, “and you had one message. I emailed it to you.”
She shoots me a look that nearly kills me.
He doesn’t even look at me as he continues past us and into his office, closing the door behind him.
“Don’t you want to go follow him into his office?” Joanna says to me in a sickly-sweet sarcastic tone. “Maybe do some personal favors for him, or whatever the hell you two have been up to?”
“That’s none of your business.” I blink tears away, begging them to get sucked back into my eyes.
