Page 10 of Phishing for Love
Says the man whose office is The Ode to All Things Drab and Dreary.
“I take after Monet,” I explain airily. “He avoided using black for nearly his entire painting career.”
His eyes do another sweep of my cubicle, seemingly spellbound by my desk with its messy stacks of papers and multi-colored pens everywhere. “There is nothing artistic about this space.”
“Happy chaos,” I point out.
He shakes his head. “Oxymoron.”
“In your case, only one part of that word is true.”
When he narrows his eyes at me, I decide to hastily haul this conversation back on track. “I came to speak to you because, apparently, you sent out a bunch of those phishing emails and anumber of people in the company clicked on them. Not just me. Why didn’t you includethatinformation in the meeting?”
His forehead creases. “How do you know that?”
As if I’m going to reveal my source. “You singled me out!”
“Well, you were the only one to click on the phishing test email containing the cat video,” he says after a moment. “And you did make a point to draw attention to yourself in the meeting. I simply followed through on that.”
I’m struggling to keep my composure. “It’s an important detail that nearly everyone else also failed your tests. One you could have mentioned in the meeting.”
“I could have,” he says, lifting one shoulder in a dismissive shrug.
It’s such an infuriating response! The man can’t even be bothered to make the effort to use both shoulders when it comes to me.
“If you’re worried about Calvin, he’s aware of all the failed responses,” Aaron informs me, looking bored. “They’ll be mentioned in the first training session.”
In the meantime, I’ll have to endure everyone’s self-congratulatory expressions, thinking they’d successfully passed while I’d failed. I shouldn’t care what other people think, but unfortunately, no matter how often I pep talk myself in front of the mirror, I do care. And I think less of myself for it.
“You know, what you did was really deceptive,” I accuse him. “You could’ve at least warned us we were being tested.”
He levels an incredulous look at me. “You think hackers aren’t deceptive? That they’ll warn you before they try to destroy you?”
My exasperation goes up a notch. My sister would insist I’m being unreasonably stubborn here, but Kate hasn’t met Aaron. I don’t care what he says to justify his actions. What he did wassneaky, plain and simple. And that tells me all I need to know about the man doing the sneaking around.
“Now it’s the pretty boy’s turn for a question,” he says.
Annoyance flashes through me. Really? He couldn’t just be a gentleman and let it go?
Reluctantly, I say, “Ask away.”
“Why did you click on that video?”
I frown at him. “That’s your question?”
“That’s my question.”
“It’s a cat video,” I say, as if the answer is obvious.
He looks at me in incomprehension. “So?”
“So,everyoneclicks on cat videos.”
“I don’t.” He radiates silent disapproval. Well, he can radiate whatever he wants. He’s the anomaly here.
Before I can censor myself, I say, “I should have been clearer. Every person with abeating heartclicks on cat videos.”
His expression is unamused. “Very funny.”
