Chapter 4 Dexter #2
Something seemed off with Simon’s voice.
There was a meekness to it, when he usually spoke with an authoritative yet arrogant tone.
As Harriet spoke about what she had on this week, Simon focussed on her to the extent that it felt like staring.
It was like he was giving her his rapt attention and there was nobody else in the room.
Harriet was talking about the share scheme launch, which had not changed in the last five years.
Although neither she nor Simon had been here for it before, so perhaps they found it really fascinating. It wasn’t.
Dexter tuned them out. The share scheme was a huge selling point for attracting talent to the business, but right now he gave zero fucks and wanted to be anywhere but in this tedious meeting.
Dexter intended to keep his update brief and to the point.
This meeting was often about people getting across how busy they were.
Dexter preferred to be judged on the results he delivered, and not on how long his to-do list was.
This meeting also used to have five people in it, but they were dwindling quickly.
With any luck, Dexter would have a job offer soon and would no longer have to attend these things.
“Dexter, can you give us your update?”
Harriet gave him a smirk. Had he completely zoned out? Simon wasn’t looking at him, but was doodling on his pad. At least that meant he might not give Dexter the intense eye contact he had Harriet. Maybe he fancied her and wasn’t as fully gay as they all thought. He snorted involuntarily.
“Something amusing, Dexter?” asked Simon, without looking up.
“Intrusive thoughts. There’s nothing significant this week other than BAU being exceptionally busy. The team all have at least twenty roles each, so my attention is focussed on supporting them. The NED recruitment is progressing, but we spoke about that on Friday.”
“How many open roles do we have in total?” he asked, not looking up.
“Eighty-seven, or ninety with the three NED roles.”
Dexter noticed he had drawn the number eighty-seven on his pad, and was now colouring it in with his pen.
“Any business areas causing us delays?”
“Only finance, like always.”
“Do you need me to speak to Catherine?” Still no eye contact.
Catherine was the CFO. “No, it’s nothing we can’t handle.”
“Anything else?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Great. Okay, from my side, we’ve got the vendor sessions next week for the HR transformation programme. They should be in your diaries. Let me know if there are any issues, because it’s important we’re all there.”
He looked at Harriet for a second and then went back to doodling.
Now it was feeling personal. What the fuck was going on?
It was probably nothing. Dexter’s liver was still working hard to cleanse all the alcohol from his system, and he knew he became oversensitive when he was hungover, so he was probably overthinking things.
“Right, anyone got anything else?” asked Simon, still not making eye contact with him.
They both shook their heads.
“Great, see you both later.” He stood up and walked out without another word.
“What was all that about?” he asked Harriet.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t think he seemed a bit off?”
“Not really. Maybe it’s because it’s the first meeting without Gabriel, so it felt different.”
Maybe that was it, so he said nothing more.
Harriet picked up her stuff and left, giving him an odd look before leaving him alone in the room.
Dexter looked at his watch, wondering how long he had until his next meeting, which is when he noticed their team meeting had only taken fifteen minutes, or ten if you didn’t count the five when Simon was late.
That was unusual. They were in the diary for forty-five minutes and always went to time.
Something was definitely up with his boss, but Dexter wasn’t sure he even cared.
The rest of the morning dragged by with more meetings, which felt pointless as people wanted “updates,” and part of him wanted to scream, “If I had a fucking update, I’d have told you.
” But that would be frowned upon. He hadn’t seen Simon again, but that wasn’t unusual.
The guy’s diary was insane and reminded Dexter of why he never wanted to be an exec member.
The afternoon seemed to go even slower. He had his weekly one-to-one with Simon at five o’clock, and then he could go home and fall asleep on the sofa.
He intended to work at home tomorrow and catch up on sleep and the dreaded life admin.
His flat looked squalid at the moment, but it wouldn’t take him long to sort it once he had his energy back.
He’d been hoping all day that Simon might cancel, or at least reschedule their meeting, but sadly that didn’t happen.
Once the clock hit five, he wandered over to Simon’s office. The door was open and Simon was engrossed in something at his desk. Dexter tapped the doorframe. Simon looked up at him, and his eyes widened slightly. He glanced at his screen with a frown and gave a sigh.
“We can skip it if you want,” said Dexter. “There’s nothing major on my side.”
“I appreciate that, Dexter, but I think we need to talk about this.”
What the fuck did that mean?
“Can you close the door and have a seat?”
Dexter did as instructed and wondered what was about to happen.
His mind spun through a million possibilities.
Was he being made redundant? Did Simon know about his interviewing somewhere else?
Had he sent an offensive email when he was wasted the other night?
No, that wasn’t it. He had checked all messaging apps and emails and made sure that he hadn’t sent anything to anyone. He was in the clear on that side.
“First, I’d like to apologise for my behaviour. It was extremely unprofessional of me.”
Dexter wasn’t sure what he was talking about. Was it his lack of eye contact this morning? No, that was nothing. Weird.
“I overstepped, and I hope we can just put the matter behind us.”
Dexter wasn’t sure what to say. All he could do was nod in agreement, because obviously something had happened. Perhaps if he didn’t speak, Simon would reveal more.
“I would appreciate it if we could keep this matter between us.”
“Of course,” said Dexter, not sure what else to say.
Simon let out a breath of relief. Dexter still didn’t know what was going on, but something in the back of his brain told him to say nothing, just listen.
“I hope we can move forward and keep things . . . professional from now on.”
“I’d like that too,” he said.
Based on Simon’s smile, he’d said the right thing. Ugh, why did the guy have to be even more handsome when he smiled? It was annoying as fuck, but if it meant he could get out of here, he’d smile back.
“Thanks, Dexter. You have no idea how much I appreciate that. I have nothing on my side either, so you enjoy your evening.”
“Thanks. You too.”
He stood up and left without looking back.