7. Lordy, There Are Tapes
7
LORDY, THERE ARE TAPES
BASIL
I barely looked up when Jessie walked into my office.
We hired her last year, and she was one of the best communications people I’d ever worked with. She was in her late twenties, had a master’s in communications from Stanford and cared about people. I knew that because she fought for the people on her team to get raises. I liked her as a leader.
“Good afternoon.” She sat across from me, her tablet in hand. She took copious notes whenever we had a meeting, which meant that she knew exactly what I needed and gave it to me—whether it was a speech, a press release, an internal announcement, or changes to the website. Jessie never let me down.
We reviewed the agenda she had prepared for our discussions. When I asked her about the communication plans for an upcoming software release, she informed me, “I just spoke to the Director of Product Management, and that launch is going to be delayed.”
I frowned. “That has not been communicated to me.”
She nodded. “You’re going to find out at the prioritization meeting later today.”
“That’s two delays.”
“Yes.”
This was not good news, and I was more than a little pissed that Drew hadn’t said a damn thing to me about it. She was the head of engineering, this was her department and team.
Jessie crossed one leg over the other. “Are you okay?”
I hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah.”
Fuck no, I wasn’t okay. I was replaying Saturday night on a loop—hating myself for the things I said to Summer each time I recalled them.
Drew had kissed me on the lips. If I ever saw another man do that to Summer, I’d lose it. She had male friends—Ocean, Bodhi—but I’d never once seen them cross a line with her. Never seen them touch her in a way that could be misinterpreted.
But here I was, only now realizing that what Drew had done—what I had let happen—wasn’t just inappropriate, it was disrespectful, as Summer had said. And worse, it had been designed to hurt Summer by Drew and I’d participated wholeheartedly like a fool.
Running through the what ifs— what if Summer had done X, Y, or Z with Bodhi, how would I have felt ?—was a revelation. The answer was clear. I wouldn’t have just felt uncomfortable, I would have felt betrayed, which was how Summer had felt.
I needed to get my head back into my work, I thought, when I looked at Jessie, who seemed to be waiting for me to say something.
“What’s next on the agenda?” I asked Jessie.
“You said you had some personnel changes to discuss,” she reminded me.
I straightened in my chair. “Drew’s promotion. We need an internal announcement and a press release. We will also be introducing her to the board next month.”
Jessie’s expression barely flickered, but something passed over her face—there and gone again—but I caught it.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.” She shook her head.
I let out a sigh of pure irritation. “Jessie?”
She was one of the people on the team who always gave me stuff straight up. When I asked her how the mood was about some change we were making, she told me what she thought and didn’t sugarcoat it. I appreciated that about her.
She gave me a measured look. “From a comms perspective, we need to be careful about how we message this. There’s already a lot of talk.”
“Tell me.”
She shifted in her chair. It was apparent whatever she had on her mind was making her uncomfortable. “People at Stratos think you promote your friends.”
I scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.”
She tilted her head, her voice thoughtful. “There have been three big promotions in the past six months. You made Felix CHRO. You promoted Kunal in the quality department, and now Drew. All three of you were in university together, and you see Felix and Drew socially. This is well known. People follow Drew on Instagram, and she posts pictures of when you all go on ski trips and have parties.”
I wanted to roll my eyes and say something pithy, like they were the best people for the job, but I knew and learned that perception was everything in the workplace.
“Do you think I’m promoting my friends?”
She regarded me thoughtfully and then cleared her throat. “Yes.”
That shocked the hell out of me. I had always thought Jessie considered me a good leader, and now….
Could this day get any worse? Magic words to think because it could and it did.
“Why do you think that?” I asked softly.
She exhaled heavily and then chewed on her lower lip. “Felix I get. He was head of HR at his previous company, so when you brought him here, it was someone capable. Kunal worked his way to this job. He’s been with you from the start and his reputation is good, and he doesn’t hang out with you socially.”
I waited for her to get to Drew.
“Drew”—she cleared her throat again, anxiously—“is not seen as competent.”
“What? You know she graduated top of the class?”
“That is academics. In the workplace, she has issues.”
“Come on, Jessie, that’s taking it?—”
“You asked, I answered,” she cut me off. “I’m only stating my opinion and what the water cooler conversations are. I’m not making any judgment statements.”
I was being unfair, and she called me on it. This was why I liked her so much. “My apologies. Go on.”
“Are you sure?”
I raised a hand. “Yes. I’m sorry I got defensive.”
She nodded. “The engineering team has some of the lowest engagement scores in the company. And frankly, Drew isn’t seen as a strong leader. This promotion won’t look like it was earned—it’ll look like it happened because you’re in a relationship with her. I’m sorry, but that’s how people are going to see it.”
I froze, my mind scrambling to catch up. I put my hands on my desk as if to ground myself.
“We’re friends, Jessie,” I said hoarsely.
She shrugged. “Not according to Drew.”
I fixed her with a look of pure disbelief. “What the hell does that mean?” My voice had risen an octave.
Jessie didn’t back down, which increased my respect for her by leaps and bounds. “She’s been telling people today about her promotion and how you and she are getting together since you dumped your girlfriend. Look, Basil, this is a workplace and this professional and personal relationship mingling means that the gossip is sometimes off the charts.”
I was blown away.
Drew was my friend. My friend . I trusted her.
“I’m sorry, Basil, I know you’re close.” Jessie’s tone was measured. “But this reflects poorly on you and the entire leadership team. Drew’s team has a high turnover rate, her software releases are consistently delayed, and she’s struggling in her current role—she won’t be able to handle the COO job either, though that’s just my personal opinion.” She tilted her head, her tone thoughtful. “On top of that, she’s not well-liked—except by the small clique of friends she hired. And again, those are her people . Not the company’s best.”
I founded Stratos five years ago while I was still in university. In two years, we got three massive contracts that put us on the map. The aeronautics market was a small one, and we were the preferred vendor for most of the big companies. We were looking at going public in the next few years. I had hired good people with experience. Our COO came from Boeing, our previous CHRO from Amazon. My goal was to not have founder syndrome, and I promised myself that if I couldn’t handle the job of CEO, I’d hire someone to run the company and sit on the board instead of fucking Stratos up.
I thought I was doing well because the company was making a lot of money—getting a lot of attention in the market. Had it gone to my head?
A broken inhale slipped past my lips. “So, the perception is that Drew is moving up because of me.”
“Yes.”
I exhaled, rubbing a hand over my jaw. “I have a girlfriend.”
Yes, I did.
I wasn’t going to let Summer go. Fuck no! I’d go on my knees and beg her to forgive me. I wasn’t going to lose the one person who made me feel at peace, who didn’t make me feel like I had to run harder, faster, more—the woman who I knew would love and care for me even if Stratos failed.
I’d made a colossal mistake out of sheer arrogance—thinking I was right and Summer was wrong. Hell, I’d been waiting for her to apologize to me for walking out on the party. Talk about being a clueless dumbass!
“The rumor is that something happened at a party between you and Drew, and that’s why you broke up with Summer.”
“You know what the rumor is?” I asked sardonically. You didn’t need to have a high IQ to guess what people were thinking.
A dry chuckle escaped her. “According to the grapevine or Drew, which are interchangeable, you and Drew are having an affair, and Summer found out. She left you, or you left her…that part is unclear. But I’m sure if we give it time, we’ll have the whole story.”
She was being facetious, I knew, but everything inside me stilled in shame, regret, and anger at my privacy being invaded because of Drew.
“That’s a lot of detail you have about something intensely personal to me.”
Slowly, she leaned back in her chair. “I don’t like this conversation any more than you do. But I am your communications person, and I need to tell you what’s happening in the company so we can mitigate issues—this is an issue.”
Jessie watched me carefully as if waiting to see how I was processing what she was telling me.
Acid churned in my stomach.
“Speaking of uncomfortable exchanges.” She reached into her slacks’ pocket and pulled out a USB stick. She set it on my desk. “I…I have had this since Christmas and…I didn’t know how to…what to do.”
I picked up the drive. “What’s this?”
“You know how everyone put photos and videos into the company drive from the Christmas party?”
I nodded.
“Well, I went through everything before we released the shared drive to the employees—you know, in case something is there that shouldn’t be.”
Jessie was thorough.
“I deleted some videos from the shared drive but I saved them on this USB stick. You should watch them.”
A beat of silence stretched between us. Then, without another word, I grabbed the USB, plugged it into my laptop, and clicked the first file.
The screen flickered to life, showing a dimly lit, crowded event space. Laughter and clinking glasses filled the background, a blur of people swaying to music.
I smiled when I saw Summer. She was in a green dress with red flowers and frills and flounces. She looked fucking adorable. Felix was next to her at the bar. The video was not of them, but of something happening behind them, but it caught their conversation.
“Basil is into Drew, you know that, right?” Felix’s voice was slurred.
Summer blinked, clearly caught off guard. “What?”
Felix smirked, shaking his head. “Come on, you have eyes. Or are you too busy looking at his money?”
Summer shook her head. “Excuse me.” She walked away.
I looked at Jessie who was looking at her tablet as if it held the secrets of who killed freaking JFK. She was probably embarrassed on my behalf for having such shitty friends.
I clicked on the next file with a sinking heart.
I’d yelled at Summer for being rude at the Christmas party because Drew told me she had been. If this was her being rude—I’d say she didn’t know the definition of the word.
Summer was mid-sentence, speaking to someone when Drew cut her off. “Oh my God, Summer, I love your dress. It’s so… boho . Not corporate Christmas party at all.”
“That’s a Johnny Was dress,” one of the women clipped.
“A knock off?” Drew asked insultingly.
My jaw tightened. What the fuck was this? How could I not have seen it?
Oh, come on, Basil, don’t kid a kidder, you didn’t see it because you didn’t want to. Summer told you again and again, and you just pretended she was being flaky. It was easier than believing the people you trusted were fucking with your woman.
I was almost afraid to click on the next video.
“So, a shop? Like…with candles and essential oils?” one of Drew’s team members asked Summer.
“Yes,” Summer replied smiling.
She loved her store, and it was a great place to shop. She stocked fair trade and locally made items. She was passionate about what she sold, and people flocked to her place, which was why she was so busy during opening hours.
“Good thing you hooked up with Basil then, right? He’s loaded,” one woman tittered.
“And will be even more so when the company goes public,” another said.
Summer, once again, walked away.
“I’m almost too scared to open the last one, Jessie,” I admitted.
She gave me a sad smile. “It’s the best one.”
I sighed. Summer wasn’t in the video, just Drew and one of her junior executives whose name I didn’t remember.
“Does she even know what an IPO is?” the junior executive said.
“Probably thinks it’s an essential oil.” Drew burst out laughing.
“I can’t believe Basil is still dating her.”
Drew drank some wine. She was drunk, it was apparent from how she swayed. “Not for long…not if I have anything to do with it.”
I stared at the black screen, a dull ringing in my ears.
Jessie’s voice was gentle. “I debated showing you this. But…when I heard what Drew was saying, I felt like you should have this. I don’t know why you and Summer broke up and, frankly, it’s none of my business. But what is my business is that someone uploaded these videos, which means some of our colleagues watched them. I hate to say this, but Drew is a liability. And, honestly, I like Felix as a CHRO, but his behavior was appalling, and I don’t quite know what to do with how I feel.”
My throat felt dry. “This is not easy to process.”
“I know.” She exhaled. “It isn’t easy for me either.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Summer kept telling me this was happening and I kept….”
A thick silence settled between us before she spoke again. “Look, Basil. You’re a good CEO. People respect you.” She paused. “But they also think that to get ahead, they have to be your friend.”
I looked up at her sharply. “That’s not true.”
She tilted her head. “Isn’t it?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
Jessie stood, smoothing out her blazer. “Our best employees are starting to wonder if being good is enough—and if being in your inner circle is how one gets ahead in this company.”
“Thanks, Jessie. This took courage. I’m deeply indebted to you.”
“Just doing my job, Basil.”
“I’m going to have some conversations with the board and some others in the leadership team. I think…no, I know that I’m going to need your help in conveying some messages to the company both through actions and words.”
I rose and held out my hand. “I appreciate you, Jessie.”
She smiled and shook my hand. “I’m here to support you in any way that I can, Basil, and I appreciate you as well.”