Olly
“Why have you brought him in here, anyway?”
Ace’s question lingered in my mind long after I had answered it.
I wasn’t sure I had an answer. I’d given one that wasn’t real. I’d justified it as smoother for the working process.
But really…
Having Keaton in the room made it feel a little bit brighter.
I was glad I had made the move earlier today.
We were facing a real crisis. Keaton’s presence was calming and I needed that right now.
I didn’t have time to think about the logic of it.
There was no space in my head to wonder how I could have that reaction to a virtual stranger.
It just was. I needed it. I couldn’t question it.
“We need to do three things,” I told Ace and Ridley solemnly. “Figure out who set this up. Make sure the contract we signed is bulletproof. And find a way to appease West Morton without this turning ugly.”
“How are we going to do that?” Ace threw up his hands in disgust. “They think we approached them and now we’re just going to tear it away. In what universe is this not going to go viral on social media as a scandal about the most famous football player in the world treating his sponsors like shit?”
“We could be honest.”
I looked up sharply for the source of the voice. Keaton’s cheeks were heating up as he realized he’d interrupted us. It was almost easy for him to blend into the background behind that desk. But only almost.
I had a feeling he was never going to become part of the background for me.
“And say what?” I asked. If he was going to give his opinion then I wasn’t going to shoot him down. Not without hearing a full plan.
Keaton seemed much more hesitant now all of the attention was on him. I noticed the way he looked at Ridley and flushed deeper. I narrowed my eyes. Was that how it was? Ace had teased him about it earlier. Was he right?
“Tell them the truth,” he suggested. “When I spoke to Leo on the phone, he sounded like a really good guy. I think if we’re honest and tell him that someone set us up – all of us, him included – then he’ll be angry with the right person.
Them, not us. I think he’ll understand that we’re all victims in this. ”
“Especially if I give him a personal apology,” Ridley added.
I raised an eyebrow. “You would?”
He shrugged. “It’s the least I can do. This is going to affect my reputation if it comes out, and I didn’t even have anything to do with it.
I don’t want this to be something that hits the news and the resort can truthfully say that I didn’t call them and apologize personally. And anyway, I’m here.”
“You want to do it now?” Ace asked. There was only a hint of panic in his voice. He was getting better at hiding it.
“Why not?” Ridley shrugged. “The kid has a good plan.”
“I’m thirty-one years old,” I heard Keaton say faintly.
“It would be better if we had a full explanation,” I said. “The name of the person who did this. The how. The why.”
“It might be better to resolve the situation fast,” Keaton said.
I caught his eye. He seemed unable to believe that he was talking back to me.
“It sounds like they’re really looking forward to having Ridley at the resort, and so long as they still think he’s coming, they might start to outlay expenses and make plans.
They may even start talking about it on social media. ”
I did not let my pleasure show on my face. Keaton was already proving that moving him in here was a good decision. I did not want Ace ribbing me about it the way he had ribbed Keaton about Ridley. I kept my emotions firmly under wraps. “Then make the call,” I nodded.
Ridley jumped to his feet as though he had just been waiting for my word. “You have the number, Ace?”
“I’ll come out with you,” Ace replied as he got to his feet. They both walked outside. I guessed Ridley didn’t want an audience for the call. That was fair.
They left rapidly. I was alone with Keaton again within only a moment.
I looked at him curiously until he felt me watching. He looked up and flushed hard.
“Sorry for interrupting,” he said. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything. I just saw a way to fix things and I spoke without thinking.”
“It was good.” I focused in on his desk. His cell phone was propped up on a stand. “That phone stand.”
Keaton grabbed his phone off it as if it was on fire. “It was in the drawer,” he said. Curious how his cheeks turned an even deeper shade of red. Over a phone stand? “W-was I not supposed to use it?”
I narrowed my eyes thoughtfully. “I think it belonged to my last secretary.”
“Oh.” Keaton looked at it for a long moment. “Should I not use it? Is it, like… is there a bad memory with it, or something?”
I almost smirked at the thought. Almost. I had barely any memories of Helen. Good or bad. She was just the latest in a long string of forgettable secretaries. Almost all of them were useless.
And yet Keaton had proven useful on his first full day.
“I think she brought it from home,” I said. I had a good mental inventory of the items the company had purchased for that desk. “We should be courteous and send it back to her.”
Keaton brightened slightly. “Sure, I can do that,” he said. “How should I send it? Express? By courier? Is it super important?”
“It’s a phone stand,” I said. My tone conveyed exactly how important it was not. “Just see that she gets her personal property back.”
Keaton nodded and began clicking on the screen. I looked back at the paperwork. “How would you find this person?” I asked absently. Keaton had helped with the diplomatic side. Perhaps he could help with ferreting out the miscreant.
“Which person? Your old secretary? I have her details here,” he said. He stared at me blankly. The glow of the screen shone on his face. I realized it was late. Already getting dark out. Perhaps the evening hour added to his confusion. Other people got tired. I had to remember that.
“The one who sent the fake contracts.”
Keaton thought for a second. “I would start with motive,” he said.
“And if there wasn’t anyone obvious, I would try and find out who took Ace’s call about the contract last night.
Whoever it was must have been in on it, if not the actual perpetrator.
Oh, and I’d look at the package the contract came in.
Maybe the envelope has postmarks or something that can tell us where it was sent from. ”
I glanced at my wastepaper bin. I had worked late last night. I had stopped the cleaners when they tried to come into the office. I couldn’t have the distraction.
“It’s in there,” I said.
Keaton shot to his feet and squatted by the basket. He started rummaging around immediately. I wanted to protest that he didn’t need to stick his bare hands into my trash. He came up with the envelope before I could.
“Here it is!” he exclaimed. “Oh, wait. It’s not postmarked at all. I don’t think this was sent through the postal system.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?” I asked. I held out a hand to examine it for myself.
Keaton walked to my side and handed it over. “Look, the address is handwritten. There are no franking marks, no printed label like a courier might use. There’s no indication at all that it was brought by a third party. I think whoever delivered this brought it to the building themselves.”
I gave him an appraising look. “Two good ideas in as many minutes, Keaton Dunbar.”
Just as I had hoped: that pink flush spread across his cheeks. He was warm and shy under praise. I wasn’t known to be liberal with my approval. Perhaps I would find myself making an exception.
“Just an outsider’s perspective,” he said modestly. “Sometimes it’s easier to see things when you aren’t as close to the problem.”
Ace opened the door without knocking and stepped back inside. “Ridley made the call,” he said. “It sounds like the guy is sad, but he understands. That was a good save, Keaton.”
Keaton beamed as he sat back behind his desk.
“Good,” I acknowledged. “We have a lead.”
Ace’s eyes flashed eagerly. “First, can Ridley go? He wants to meet up with a couple of the other players. Apparently, they’re all going to O’Finlays tonight. That’s why he was already in the area.”
I considered it. “I think we’re done with him.”
Ace made to duck out of the room again but I held up a hand to stop him. “Yeah?” he asked.
“Get down to security next. We need entrance tapes from two days ago. See if you can find the person who dropped off the contract.” I held up the envelope for him to take. He would be able to compare it to what he saw on the screen.
He disappeared from my door again. I looked up at Keaton. He appeared to have finished setting up the delivery of the phone stand. He was staring at his phone and frowning instead. I watched as he typed something out and then appeared to delete it. He seemed troubled.
“Are you texting someone?” I asked. I didn’t mean for my tone to sound as harsh as it did. I’d noticed him doing the same earlier. That was with a smile; this with a frown.
“Sorry!” Keaton said. His cheeks flamed up in that deeper red shade again. Interesting. Pink for praise. Red for guilt. “I was – I didn’t mean to – the message just came up, and…”
“Who?” I asked.
I shouldn’t have. It was likely personal. The kind of thing a boss didn’t need to know.
But…
I needed to know who made him smile like that. Frown like that. Who took his attention from me and the work I needed him to do.
He swallowed. “My ex,” he said. His voice caught on the word. “Uh, Jordan.” The name was fraught with emotion.
“He broke up with you,” I guessed. Keaton still sounded heartbroken.
“I was the one to end it,” he said. I sat up a little straighter.
“I mean, I made the decision, but, yeah… Jordan was the one who made it all end. He wouldn’t come out.
I just can’t be with someone who’s in the closet like that.
We had to hide all the time, and it made me feel like I was nothing.
Like I was something for him to be ashamed of.
I can’t… feel like that all the time, not even for someone I love. ”
Love.
So he loved this Jordan.
And the man broke his heart.
I clenched my hands into fists on top of my thighs. I only stopped when I felt something snap inside the pen I was holding. “Why are you texting him?” I asked. “It sounds like he isn’t worth your time.”
A strange smile flitted across Keaton’s face. “No, you’re right,” he said. “He isn’t.” He looked down at his phone for a long moment. He swiped a gesture across the screen. Deleting the messages? Closing the app?
“Motive,” I said. “Look up news articles and social media posts for me. Anything anti-Ridley.”
Keaton nodded smartly and refocused on his monitor. His fingers began to fly over the keyboard.
I looked back down at the table scattered with contracts and picked up a sheet of paper. I pretended to read it.
Only pretended.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Jordan – Keaton’s ex who was in the closet. Refusing to share his true face with the world. Keaton had suffered because of that. Keaton was right to say he couldn’t live that way. No one who loved you should make you feel unimportant.
When I loved someone, I made sure they felt like they were the most important person in the world.
Or I would. When I next got the chance.
Not being out was harmful to your partner. This piece of information slotted into my head in a place that made absolute sense. There was a reason why I was single.
Why I showed the world that I was alone.
An uneasy kernel of truth lodged into my gut like a kidney stone.
Anyone who loved Keaton next would have to be out there in the world. Would have to show him off on their arm like he was a prize. Because he was a prize.
So I did need to focus on this contract. Not on my secretary.
Because he could never be anything more than that to me.