Chapter 21
been over a month since I’ve seen Emily. I wasn’t home the day she collected her mother’s desk and left her keys and the new lease paperwork Walking into the apartment to find her keyring on the counter was like a punch to the chest. My daily voicemails and messages had gone unanswered up to this point which both frustrated and hurt me. I could see she was at least reading my messages but I was unsure if she was listening to my voicemails. The Emily I knew wouldn’t usually to stay angry for this long, she was too sweet to think of me hurting and not do anything to comfort me. For now I’d decided not to approach her at work because I knew that would upset her if I stepped into her professional environment, and I didn’t need to give her any more reasons to be mad at me.
I’d had plenty of time to think about the decisions that had brought us to this place and while I still felt my intentions were good I could acknowledge that a part of me knew she’d be heartbroken if she found out. And did it anyway. Risked it anyway. I let my confidence in my ability to keep my work and private life separate cloud my judgement. And it had imploded in the worst way. My decisions had hurt the one person I cared about and I was scared she’d stick to her current plan and not take me back. But after so many years together I wasn’t letting go without a fight.
So I continued to send her daily messages reminding her that I loved her. Forwarded her old photos of us and reminisced about the good times. I also had deliveries of her favourite flowers and treats delivered to the hospital and was hoping that by keeping myself in her space in a positive way, I could slowly get her to accept me back in her life. I was patient I could wait until she felt I’d suffered enough
stripping
Having been back at the Club multiple times over the last month I was reassured to not see her anywhere in sight. Bess gave me very unfriendly looks but didn’t approach our booth. My guess was that Simon spent enough money there to give us some space. But I will say she made sure I understood I wasn’t her favourite person, Simon was definitely pissed at me after I’d cursed at him the night of Emily’s performance but id explained it away by saying that the foursome had been intense and then seeing someone I knew had thrown me. That I’d worried she might tell Emily. When he questioned who the stripper was, I had lied and said it was a friend’s sister and I was concemed why she would be in a place like this. He laughed it off and said maybe he’d invite her into the backroom if she performed again because she’d been stunning. It took everything I had not to punch him in the face.
I’d also spent the last three weeks gathering evidence. With the help of Roxy who I’d had to continue seeing, reverting to our previous arrangement of only getting her off and not letting her touch me. She was angry, but with additional payments had accepted that was all I could offer her. She’d been helping me capture video recordings of the team during private dances for even more cash and I had a friend discreetly taking video of our table and the goings on. He’d captured footage of everyone in our team with strippers on their laps, walking towards the back rooms and then returning some time later with clothing askew and on occasion still groping their stripper of choice. Add that to all the screenshots I’d been capturing from our group chat and I had put together a large portfolio of wrong doings involving my entire sales team.
Thinking on what to do with it was making me nervous. I knew if I took it to Simon he’d find a way to have me fired and there’d be no justice. I had decided that I should put out some quiet feelers about new employment in case this all blew up in my face. After a call to a friend in recruitment I knew that Baxter and Finch were hiring and although I’d only been with Kent and Brockman for less than a year they were keen on meeting with me. They were interested in what I could bring to their small firm and impressed that in my short time with the company I had been lead on the Kingston Account and recently joined the Flinders Account. I hoped that both clients would provide me with a glowing reference if approached. One upside of Emily leaving me was that I had been working insane hours and both my accounts were making some serious money and seemed very happy with my services.
Arriving at work on Friday I made my way into th heading up to where the Executives had their offices, along with HR and Finance. Td prepared a print out of the messages and some
the elevator and pressed the button for the tenth floor. Bypassing my usual level and incriminating photos and also had everything stored on a USB drive that I planned to give to the head of HR. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest when the elevator doors opened. I knew the receptionist for this floor, her name was Sandra and she’d tried flirting with me when I first started.
Hi Sandra How was
weekend?” I knew th
that I’d get further with her if I was a little flirty
She looked up and the fingers that had been busily typing away came to a stop. She gave m forward, giving me a view of her bra.
me a huge smile and leaned herself
Book 1 Chapter 21
“Hey Grant. My weekend was good. Went out with some girlfriends to Club Black and had a blast. How about you? Anything interesting?” She gave me what I’m sure she thought was a seductive smile as she nibbled on her pen. I did my best to keep my own
flirty smile in place.
“I actually worked all weekend. I have a big deal going through with the Flinders Account tomorrow and need to ensure everything runs smoothly.”
At the mention of the Flinders Account her eyes lit up. Everyone who worked at Kent and Brockman knew that Account was where the big money was made and she was no different.
“If you plan to celebrate after the project goes live be sure to let me know. I know my girlfriends and I would love to party with you and you
your team.”
I gave her the biggest smile I could manage before nodding my head as if it was a done deal
“Great. Sounds good. Just wondering if there’s any chance I could get ten minutes with Charlotte this moming?”
She began tapping on her keyboard again before smiling at me.
“Her calendar shows she’s actually got time this morning. Let me just call her and see if she’s available”
I felt my anxiety rise as she made the call. This was it. I was going to blow up my world and hoped that it was enough of a big gesture to get Emily to take me back. Give me a chance. If this didn’t show her I’d changed I wasn’t sure what would.
“Charlotte says you can go right in.”
“Thanks S
Sandra. You have a great day.”
I left before she could reply. My ability to pretend to flirt was all used up. With a quick knock on the door marked Human Resources Manger – Charlotte Fields I made my way inside.
Thirty minutes later Charlotte was staring at me with hard eyes and I wasn’t sure if coming to her had been the right decision. “You realise these are very serious allegations Grant. That what you’re claiming is such a breech of policy that people could lose their reputations and even their jobs over this.”
“I know that Charlotte. I wouldn’t have come to you if I didn’t have the evidence to back it up. But I can’t sit by any longer and let a Manager in this company behave in this way, let him bully his subordinates into participating in group sex and alcohol fueled depravity.”
My heart was pounding. Charlotte was giving nothing away. I’d been sure when I walked in here with the evidence I had that she’d be immediately appalled and ready to help me take action. I was getting the feeling I was wrong.
“Grant you’re going to have to leave this with me. I can’t just take your word for this. It’s too big an accusation for that. I need to interview all the other team members and also discuss this with Mr Brockman, Simon is his protege and a Senior Manager with the firm. Before I do anything else I need to let him know what’s been going on. Have you spoken with anyone else about this?”
I could feel my stomach churning at the ways
she said Simon was Mr Brockman’s protege.
“I understand these allegations are terrible but it’s not just my word is it? I have video and photographic proof. My hands were now shaking because I was getting the distinct impression that I was going to be fired when I’d done nothing wrong.
“I can see that. But I can’t determine when or where these were taken and as I said I have to remain impartial and speak with everyone involved. So can you please answer me, have you spoken to anyone else about this? Have you shown anyone else these images?
“I have not, I came straight to you as the Human Resources Manager because I knew I couldn’t approach Simon with it. I have time stamps and location markers for every video and photo so you can easily prove when and where they were taken. I can also show you our group chat on my phone if you need it. I’m not making any of this up.” My voice had risen by the end and she was now giving me what was meant to be a placating smile, but I could see she wasn’t happy with me.
“Orant I never said that. You need to calm down and go back to your desk. Let me talk to Mr Brockman and then we’ll go from there. He might want to sit down with you so please don’t go out on any client visits today. It’ll be best if you remain in the building and available to us both.”
Book 1 Chapter 21
With that said she rose from behind her desk and escorted me to her closed door.
“Right. Well I’ll wait to hear from you.”
Heading to the elevator I knew I needed to find a quiet place to make some quick calls and gather client references. I needed to have everything ready for when that call came for my sit down with Charlotte again. I had a feeling I would not be an employee of Kent and Brockman for much longer.
Reaching level eight I stepped into the first empty meeting room and closed the door. My first two calls were to my contacts at Kingston and then the Flinders Account. As I suspected both were happy to forward me a glowing client reference. I’d worked my ass off for those accounts and I knew they were happy with my work. When I’d asked for them to be sent to my personal email instead of the Kent and Brockman one we normally used they both questioned if everything was okay. I assured them all was good, I was just updating my CV because in this industry we all knew things moved fast and it was good to stay prepared. After some good natured joking around they both agreed. My next call was to the recruitment company handling the Baxter and Finch opportunity. Asking if they could forward me paperwork to my personal email for signing.
If I was wrong and everything worked out here I could eat humble pie and apologise for wasting their time. But I had the distinct feeling I wasn’t wrong. I was definitely worried. But felt that this was the first step in winning Emily back. This would show her
very how serious I was about our future.
