22. Derrick
22
DERRICK
T here was nothing remarkable about the chestnut leather chair across from my desk except that anytime I looked at it, I thought of Rachel.
It was the chair she always sat in during our meetings, the one she fell headfirst into, and in my mind, I thought of it as Rachel's chair. After she left on the train, the house felt empty, even with the rowdy kids. I had been looking forward to seeing her on Monday, to talking to her some more. It had been a long time since I'd talked to someone like Rachel and I did in my car. I missed it. I missed having someone to confide in and share my experiences with.
But it was Thursday morning, and I hadn't seen Rachel all week. She sent an email on Monday, and all it said was she was sick and was going to take the day off work.
Four days later and nothing.
I shoved down the incessant worry eating at my gut. She could take care of herself. But still, the silence was unsettling.
I blamed my sisters. If I wasn't the oldest boy to six sisters, I wouldn't be this damned protective. And if I wasn't this damned protective, I could forget all about Rachel. She was only an employee, after all. My concern should have been for the work she was missing, her irresponsibility at not showing up for her job, but that's not what I was worried about.
I was worried something awful had happened to her. Of course I was. After years of solving cases about the worst possible scenarios, I was always concerned.
A knock on my office door jolted me out of my thoughts.
Lexi poked her head in. "Hey, Boss. Got a minute?"
I gestured for her to come in, relieved to have something besides Rachel to focus on.
"Everything okay, Lexi?"
She plopped down in Rachel's chair, worry etched on her face. "I need help. Actually, not just me. All the hosts. I didn't realize how much work Rachel was doing with the social media tasks until she's been gone. A huge fight broke out in the comments over my last podcast, and it got nasty. I finally turned off the comments on all my posts. But I need to turn them back on so the listeners can interact with each other and me. It's part of my brand. But I don't have time to manage it and clean up the mess.
"And before you say anything, yes, I brought this up with Analise, but she's in Mexico visiting her family for two weeks on her annual holiday." She sat forward in the chair. "Look, Derrick, I had a lot of offers from different companies before I decided to take my podcast to Dreamary. I knew it was a smaller operation, which is why I liked it. But there's not enough support, and I'm sinking fast."
She exhaled, the expression on her face pained. "I hate to say it, but if you guys can't figure this out, I'm gonna have to find a better run ship. It's not good for my mental health, and I run a freaking therapy podcast."
I leaned forward in my chair and kept my features calm, even as my heart rate increased. Lexi was right. The wider distribution had exploded all our podcasts into the stratosphere, and we didn't have the bandwidth to keep up.
"Rachel needed some personal time," I explained.
Lexi closed her eyes and took a deep breath, held it, and took another. Then she looked at me and said, "I need help now. Either get her back or hire someone new."
"Can Peyton help out?" I asked.
"She's swamped too," Lexi said.
I frowned, a twinge of annoyance mixing with my concern. Rachel was spontaneous, but she wasn't flighty. Not when it came to work. She went above and beyond to make sure everything ran smoothly.
"I'll reach out to her," I said, running a hand over my face. "What can I do to help in the meantime?"
Lexi tapped on her iPad and turned it to me. There was a list of tasks that took up the whole page: post teasers for the upcoming episodes, post clips from current episodes, manage fan comments and respond to pertinent DMs, monitor hashtags, create fun polls and quizzes, repost latest five-star reviews, create behind-the-scenes content... It went on and on.
My head hurt just reading it.
"I'm not really a social media guy," I admitted. "But I could—" I looked at the list again and shook my head. "Fuck. I can't do any of that stuff. I mean, you could give me a crash course…"
Lexi raised an eyebrow that clearly meant “Are you fucking kidding me, I don't have time for that.”
"You're right. That won't help." I sighed. "Give me a case with complex clues and I can solve it, but ask me to post on The Artist Formally Known as Twitter and I'm lost."
"That's funny," Lexi said without smiling.
"I'll get some help. I'll talk to HR right now." I opened my email and typed a message to Prathi to come see me ASAP. I also set a reminder to watch some social media tutorials later. "And I'll speak to Rachel. It's not like her to just bail on her responsibilities."
"Did something happen between you two?" Lexi asked, setting her iPad in her lap.
"That's not an appropriate question," I said.
"It is if that's the reason she's ghosting us." Lexi crossed her arms and raised a tawny eyebrow.
"It's not," I said, but she may have been on to something. "I mean, I don't think it is."
Lexi sat there and stared at me, considering.
"Have you tried the medicine yet?" There was no teasing in her question. It was matter-of-fact.
"What does that have to do with anything?" I sat upright, heat spreading across my neck and chest.
"Nothing. It's just the first real conversation we've had since you shared what was bothering you," Lexi said, her tone gentle. "I wanted to follow up."
I cleared my throat. "There's no point getting meds now. My issue is when I'm with someone. And I'm not with anyone."
Lexi rolled her eyes. "You need to try the meds before you're with someone. You have no idea how your body will react. It's usually fine, but it's best to test it out first. Alone. To avoid any other embarrassing situations that could cause further issues."
I turned to my computer and moved the mouse to my email, ready to change the subject. "Thanks. Now don't you have a mountain of work to do?"
Lexi pressed her iPad to her chest and stood. "Talk to your doctor, okay? You'll be grateful you did."
I waved her off but nodded.
When she was gone, I logged onto my doctor's patient portal and set up an appointment for tomorrow. Then I did a quick check of my email, texts, and Slack, but there was still nothing from Rachel. This was getting ridiculous.
Where the hell was she?