DEIRA
After Cassius left that night, I got a terrible night's sleep. It had seemed obvious from the way he reacted that he hadn't known about his ex, and hadn't been the one who told her about Makayla. That made me feel better about him, but worse about the situation as a whole. He had said that he would deal with it, but what was his plan?
I tossed and turned all night, and finally gave up in the early hours of the morning. I got up and made coffee and sat thinking through the last few days. As I thought over our conversation from the night before, I realized that I had dumped all my emotions on Cassius, even though he wasn't the cause of some of them. I hated to admit it, but I might have been too hard on him. And if he hadn't told his ex about Makayla, then I probably did need his help in dealing with her.
So again, I found myself lurking around his office at lunchtime. The door was closed, but this time I just went up to his assistant and asked if he was in. She shook her head.
"Did you want to make an appointment?" she asked.
"That's okay. I can just..." I stopped myself before saying "I can just call him," as that would have sounded strange. "It's not that important," I finally said. "Thanks."
I headed back to the elevator, pulling out my phone to give Cassius a call.
"Looking for the boss?" asked a voice beside me. I jumped and turned. It was Mr. White, the head of the PR department.
"Oh, I, um..." I wasn't sure what to say. I finally decided that I should go with the same story I'd told the other woman. "Just curious, you know?"
"Curious, huh?" He gave me a funny look. We arrived at the elevators, and he pushed the button for our floor.
"Yeah. Since no one really sees him," I replied.
"But you see him," Mr. White said. "In fact, he personally introduced us."
Damn. I had forgotten about that.
"Well, I... Yeah, but I haven't really seen him lately," I finished weakly. It wasn't very convincing, and Mr. White didn't look convinced. The elevator arrived, and we got in.
"I think that's probably not true," he said as the doors closed. Cassius's floor was quite a few above ours, and I suddenly wished I'd made an excuse to ride in a different elevator. Being alone with him was suddenly uncomfortable. My whole body was tense, as if trying to tell me that he was a threat. "But don't worry," he said, inching closer to me, "I'll keep your secret."
"There's no secret to keep," I said, shrinking into the corner.
"Okay," he said, and winked at me. Thankfully, the doors opened at that point, and I quickly slipped out and hurried down the hallway to our department, where there would be other people around. When I came through the door and realized all the desks were empty, my heart sank.
I was still technically on my lunch break, and I decided I would just go wait in the car until I saw someone else get back from break. But as I turned to head for the door, Mr. White was right behind me.
"You're not running from me, are you?" he asked. I straightened my back and tried to look intimidating.
"Look," I said, "I don't know what you think you've figured out, but you don't know what you're talking about. And you shouldn't go around implying things."
He laughed. He had stopped near the corner of my desk, standing between me and the door. All my instincts were telling me I should leave as soon as possible, but I was worried about what he would do if I tried to push past him. I also was reluctant to get closer to him. I had no desire to get near him at the best of times, but with the way he was behaving, the idea of touching him was repulsive.
"It's fine, Deira," he said. "Unlike some people, I won't judge you. Hey, if I could sleep my way into a job, I would. But I'm not as pretty as you."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I thought he might have figured out that Cassius and I had a relationship, and even accused me of using our relationship to get the job. After all, it wasn't entirely untrue. If I hadn't known Cassius outside of the company, I might not have gotten the job. But to imply that I was somehow untalented and had only gotten the job because I slept with someone? I felt a spike of fury in my gut.
"Like I said," I told him through clenched teeth, "you don't know what you're talking about. I got this job based on my skills."
"Sure," he said, and winked at me again. "And there's no reason for anyone else to ever hear about it." He took a step forward, further blocking my path to the door. "Why don't you come into my office, and you can show me those skills?" He reached his hand for my arm, and I slapped it away. He frowned and stepped even closer, grabbing my elbow. At the touch of his hand on my skin, I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Don't be a bitch," he said. "If the CEO can get a special glimpse of your skills, I want that, too." He tightened his grip, and I looked over his shoulder, willing someone to come through the doors. No one did.
"Let go of me," I said. Amazingly, he did, but he didn't move. The sick feeling in my stomach was getting worse.
"Just come back to my office," he said. "Don't worry. I'll make it fun, and worth your while. You'd be amazed how fast you can advance in the department when I'm on your side. Then again, if I happen to decide you're not working out... well, I do have the power to fire you."
He had leaned so close to me that I could smell his cologne. It made me want to gag. I reached behind me for a makeshift weapon. My fingers met the stapler I kept on my desk. I tried reasoning with him one last time.
"Please get away from me," I said. "I want to leave."
He smirked at me, so I hit him with the stapler.
"Ow!" He doubled over in pain, and I took advantage of that moment to slip past him. But as I went past him, he grabbed my hand. I jerked away from him but he had a tight grip on me.
"Just you wait," he snarled at me. "You won't last another day in this company."
I still had the stapler in my hand, so I slapped it down on his knuckles. He screamed and let go of my arm, and I fled the room.
I was terrified that he would come after me, so I didn't wait for the elevator. Mercifully, our department was only on the third floor, so it wasn't hard to run down those two flights of stairs to the lobby. I stopped at the bottom and didn't hear him coming after me, so I paused to catch my breath.
My mind was racing. Ever since the first day, he had made me uncomfortable. But I hadn't expected him to try to blackmail me into having sex in his office. Nor had I thought he would get physical with me, grabbing my hand like that. I had a sudden, crazy urge to laugh. It was ridiculous that I was having to deal with this on top of everything else that was happening.
And yet, I had to, because no one else was going to. I took another deep breath and decided to venture out into the lobby. In case he had taken the elevator down and was waiting for me, I decided the best course of action was to push open the door and make a beeline across the lobby and out the front door. Once I made it to my car, I'd be safe, and then I could decide what to do next. Call human resources? Or should I call Cassius? Or maybe I should just... no, I wasn't going to quit or let that jerk fire me. I was going to fight this! Maybe he'd tell the whole company about me and Cassius, and I'd get fired anyway. But if I went down, I was taking him with me.
I shook my head. I could strategize later. The first thing to do was get out away from him, so I could breathe and think clearly.
I pushed open the stairwell door and immediately locked my eyes on the exit. I wasn't running, but I was walking fast, taking deep strides. I'm sure it looked strange to anyone who was watching, but hopefully anyone who saw me just thought I was in a hurry for work reasons.
I was so focused on making it to the door that I didn't even notice Cassius standing over in the corner of the lobby.
"Deira," I heard him call my name and glanced over my shoulder, but I didn't stop walking. He caught up with me and reached for my hand, but I pulled it away.
"Hey," he said, stepping in front of me. When he looked at my face, he frowned. "What's wrong?" he asked.
I finally stopped walking and looked up at him. Some of my anger against Mr. White spilled over onto him. After all, if he'd just let me interview for the job in the first place, then Mr. White wouldn't have gotten suspicious. And he wouldn't have been able to use our relationship to try to force me to have sex with him.
"Ask Mr. White," I spat out. "I'm sure he'd be happy to tell you." And I pushed past him and out the door.