Page 105 of Due Dilligence (Takeover)
“Boy...” She flattened her hand against the desk. “He wasn’t just afriendfrom high school.”
He shook his head.
“God, Todd. I wish you had said something to me. Apparently Anderson knew.”
He looked down at his hands. “I knew you’d...”Flip your shit.Todd bit back the words. “You’d discourage me from pursuing any romantic ties with a consultant.” He looked up. “I figured if we got our jobs done, by the time it became relevant, he wouldn’t be here anymore.”
She didn’t look impressed. “Well, your assumption was incorrect. Apparently Nathan saw you at a club together.”
At a club? He furrowed his brow. “But the only place we went to was...” That littleshit. He had to have been on Capitol Hill Sunday night. He swallowed. “We kept things quiet. Did our jobs. Did you have any clue before Nathan blurted out information about ourprivate lives?”
Oh, that had been the wrong question. She folded her hands. “That’s immaterial.”
It wasn’t. But he gave up. “Yes, I had a romantic relationship with Fazil Kurt. It didn’t change how I worked, my performance, oranything.”
“You can’t be the judge of that, Todd.”
“I’m gathering that this is a greater problem than harassment?”
There was that paleness again. “Certainly not. But you bent—and broke—rules. As did Dr. Kurt.”
“Is that what Sam Anderson said?”
Her turn to furrow her brow. “I’m not discussing my conversations with Mr. Anderson.” She rose. “Before this, your work has received high marks and your performance reviews have been satisfactory or above. We’ve taken that into consideration.”
We’ve.Uh-oh. Stephen must be in on this. Or maybe the BoD had found out somehow.Shit. He straightened in his seat.
She grunted at that. “You’re also on probation, Mr. Douglas. Subject to review in two months.”
Cold washed over him. “What does that mean, exactly?”
She stared down at him. “You’re next stop is HR to find out.” She looked up and away, and for a moment, extraordinarily tired. “This was the best I could do.”
Double shit.“We can’t keep going like this.”
She met his stare, grit in her voice. “I know.” She opened her mouth but then shook her head. “Go to HR, please.”
Todd rose, and on shaky legs, did just that.
An hour later, he left with a stack of papers and a rock the size of Mount Rainier in his belly. Holy fuck, they were serious. An action plan. Performance goals he had to meet. Reviews by Stephen. Hours he must be in the office during. Everything spelled out. One slipup, and he was out of a job.
The cynical part of him wondered if Nathan had gotten the same plan... or if he’d just been slapped on the wrist and handed some vacation time.
Nathan, who either hung out on Capitol Hill to bash gays, or was there to hook up because hewasgay.
Typical. So very typical with his type. Family values, rah rah, but some cock on the side, please. He pulled out his phone. Still no texts from Fazil.
Todd set the phone down and eyed his stack of paperwork. Probably a good thing Fazil hadn’t texted. They’d be watching him.
So no texts, no e-mail, no anything that wasn’t work-related. He’d follow their rules, dot theirIs, cross theirTs. He wasn’t about to become the scapegoat for Singularity.
Todd eyed his phone again.Just... don’t leave before I can say good-bye.
He had all of Fazil’s things, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fly home and ask Todd to ship everything.
More than anything, he wanted one last chance to convince Fazil tostay.
