Chapter 6 #2
Anders’s voice cracked and faded into silence.
The color had completely drained from his face.
My gut told me that it didn’t matter what those reports showed.
Anders hadn’t done this. He was too open with his emotions, too earnest. My lawyer would tell me I was insane, but I knew I was right.
Although if I were asked to explain it, I’d come up empty.
“Anders, I meant what I said. I’m going to have my internal auditors review the books here.
Well, continue to look at the books because we were already doing it.
This just adds to their task list.” He’d remained silent without a single attempt to speak again.
“The suspension starts immediately.” Anders crumpled in the chair.
His hunched shoulders spoke volumes, though, and pulled at something deep in me that was hard to put into a neat cost-analysis spreadsheet. “But so does the offer I made.”
“What?” Anders croaked. “But you just said I was suspended.”
“From this company, yes. The offer is from me.”
Unfortunately, with John’s outbursts, the staff already knew at least some of what had happened in my office.
“Oh.” The shocked answer seemed like all Anders could manage in the moment.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, and I’m sorry the first part is going to have to happen this way. We’re going to find a box, you’re going to put your personal belongings in it, and you’re going to leave with me. Your colleagues are going to make whatever assumptions they make.”
It wasn’t much, but it was all I could offer him. And I found myself wanting, clearly and unequivocally, to protect him. “Let’s get it over with.”
I stood, came out around the desk, and Anders immediately followed without question.
We headed out onto the floor, and every eye in the place fixated on us. Anders kept his head down and went straight to his desk while he gathered his things. I quietly asked Lacey to bring a box over. She did it without hesitation. Silently, she set it on the desk and put her hand on Anders’s back.
“I know it’s bullshit,” she said.
Anders nodded, but I could tell it was taking everything in him to keep his emotions under control.
The nod was all Anders could manage, and Lacey knew him well enough to understand that.
She gave him a sympathetic pat on the back and then headed back to her desk.
Along the way, I didn’t miss the glare she sent in John’s direction.
He started to open his mouth, but a low noise from me caused him to turn on his heel and slam back into his office.
“I think I’m done,” Anders said quietly. He started to pick up the box, but I brushed his hands away and took it myself.
“Don’t forget your jacket,” I said, nodding toward the garment hanging off the back of his chair.
He grabbed it and slung it over his arm, and we headed through the lion’s den.
Anders followed a half-step behind me. Humiliation radiated off him, but so did pride.
When I opened the door for him, I saw that his head was held high.
I was inexplicably proud of him in that moment, and I also knew John would have seen it and would be fucking seething. No reason to be sad about that.
Once in the hallway, Anders hurried ahead of me to push open the suite doors and then again to push the elevator button for us.
Once inside the elevator, we both studied the floor numbers like they held all the answers to the universe.
I felt the worry pulsating off Anders. The tension he carried was palpable.
The ding of doors announced our descent into the parking garage.
Without speaking, Anders followed me to my vehicle.
“The keys are in my suit jacket. Grab them and open the trunk, please.” Anders obeyed, although his hands were shaky enough for me to feel the movement when he put his hand in my pocket. The chirp of the unlocking car was loud, but it was our silence that echoed through the concrete.
“I’m going to drive you to your mom’s so you can pack enough for a week. Then we’ll go out to the island and reassess.”
Anders stared ahead, but the tension, of course, was still there. “I’m still packed from when I got there, so it won’t take long. It’s just my toiletries.” His words were calm, unnaturally so.
“Take as long as you need. There’s no rush.”
Despite my assurances, Anders was quick inside the house.
In less than ten minutes, he was exiting his mom’s house with his rolling overnight suitcase behind him and a small bag of what I assumed were his toiletries.
He also carried a patchwork blanket with him, folded lovingly in his arms. I jumped out of the vehicle to open the back and load his cases.
“Do you want your blanket in here, or do you want to hold it?”
“I’d like to hold it, please,” he said with a sheepish smile.
“Of course you can hold it,” I answered. I came around to the side of the vehicle and opened the car door for him. “This drizzle is going to ruin my hair.” I hoped Anders would give a small pity laugh, but he just silently climbed into the passenger seat.
After I joined him, I realized with Anders next to me how much space the two of us took up. He was certainly broader than I was, but we were within an inch or so of the same height.
“I don’t think cars are made for people like us.”
“People like us?”
“Tall and oversized.”
Anders gave me another small laugh and then turned to look out the window. “I can’t believe I’m about to admit this, but I’ve never taken the ferry out to Almstead Island. It’s always been on my list of things to do, but I never got around to it.”
“I am genuinely shocked by this revelation,” I said with mock seriousness. “Well, now this becomes even more important. It’s a gorgeous place. I’ve been out here plenty of times, but I never seriously considered buying a place out here until a couple of years ago.”
“What do you like about it?”
“The privacy is definitely part of it, but it’s more than that.
It just feels like I can breathe out here, like I’m not in a fishbowl where people are watching me.
I love the company that I’ve built, but I need time away from it so that when I’m there, I can give it my full attention. Staying out here lets me do that.”
“And that’s why you built the secondary office?”
“Yeah, I wanted to keep the house a private space, so I created separate spaces for different jobs. But that doesn’t mean I don’t bring my laptop back to the house.”
“That seems like a hefty ask,” Anders offered with a hesitant smile.
I knew today obviously still weighed heavily on him, but away from the office, it seemed the load had lightened a smidgen. He clutched the blanket to his chest, but his grip was a white-knuckled one.
“Where did you pick up the blanket?”
“It was a gift.”
“From your mom?”
“Ha! I’m not sure my mom knows what a sewing machine actually looks like, and she definitely doesn’t know how to use one. One of my aunts made it.”
“That’s sweet.”
“Yeah, I used to help her by doing yard work and taking her to the grocery store after she stopped driving, and this was her graduation present to me when I graduated from college.” The importance of it was evident from his voice and the almost reverent way he smoothed over the panels.
“She passed away pretty quickly after that. It’s my favorite thing. ”
“Is there a significance to the fabric?”
He traced the seams of the panels. I didn’t know what the pattern was called, but they looked like little houses.
“Yeah, I’d come out to my family, and she wanted to remind me that I always had a home, so she did a log cabin design in rainbow colors.”
“I like how they are more muted,” I said with a quick glance in his direction. His lips were turned up with the tiniest hint of a smile. Keep him talking. “There were no beautiful gifts for my coming out.”
“What?” Anders asked with clear shock in his voice. “Since when are you gay?”