CHAPTER TWELVE
Corey
I froze for two reasons. Firstly, the man by my side looked like he’d met Santa Claus after witnessing that interaction. Secondly, I kind of liked the idea of Nora calling me a hot piece of ass, even if she was only trying to embarrass me.
‘New man?’ he asked.
It dawned on me that I had no clue who Nora’s friends at work were besides Izzy. Was this guy making small talk while the elevator climbed eight levels, or were they buddies? Nora’s a chronic over-sharer, so I cleared my throat and said the first thing that came to mind.
‘Oh, you know. I’m getting to know the guy.’
‘At nine in the morning?’
Shit.
‘Yes, at nine in the morning. Don’t you eat breakfast, too?’
‘Huh, a breakfast date before work? I quite like that idea. Might try it myself. Is that why you’ve got a little…’ He gestured to his chest.
I glanced down and groaned at the coffee stain on my chest. ‘Long story, don’t ask.’
I listened to his complaints about his new roommate during the elevator ride until his lanyard finally bounced to face me as the doors opened so I could see his name.
‘Well, Brett. Good chat.’ I gave him a firm nod and turned down the hall.
Brett continued to follow me in the same direction, but I’d already committed to the goodbye, so I increased my pace to put some distance between us.
The little legs I’ve been forced to work with were a nightmare as I tried to outpace him, so I swung my hips and shoulders to the rhythm of my steps to move faster.
I turned the corner and noticed my reflection.
This manoeuvred powerwalk made me look like I was holding in a post-coffee demonic shit.
‘You okay, Nora?’ a nasally voice called from my right.
I stopped pacing and faced the cubicles on the right to smile. ‘Fine, fine. Just rushing to get into it all, you know?’
I darted my gaze from wall to wall but couldn’t find the face to match the voice. As I gave up, blonde hair with a frightening number of hair clips bounced in front of me.
‘You said you’d be my wing-woman, but you still haven’t messaged me back.’
I couldn’t see past the bright screen of the phone she’d shoved in my face, so I shuffled my feet backwards trying to feel my way to an exit.
‘Ah, I’ll check my calendar.’
‘No, let’s make a plan now.’
She grabbed my arm and dragged me to her cubicle.
Cat photos lined the walls and, call me crazy, but it smelled like cat in here.
Perhaps she’d stuffed a support kitten in her drawer for comfort pats when she was stressed.
I’d recognise the stench anywhere now that Lucky had moved in and claimed his territory by releasing an astounding shit in his kitty litter.
Last night’s alcohol swirled in my stomach, threatening a tidal wave of vomit over her white shirt.
The lady leaned against me, her diary inches from my nose, and a ball of cat hair slid from the page.
‘Nope.’ I crab walked some distance between us, hand to my mouth.
I didn’t care if she was Nora’s boss, soulmate, or a secret millionaire. I refused to start the morning covered in cat hair. It was bad enough I’d be returning to my couch covered in it.
‘I’m busting for a wee.’ I squeezed my legs together for emphasis. ‘Message me, I’m so sorry, I’ve been so busy.’
Like a newborn giraffe, my legs and ankles waggled in Nora’s purple heels out of sight of the cat lady, down the hall to her sad little desk. Wedged between Izzy and a man I’d yet to speak to, I collapsed into my chair.
‘Nora?’
‘For fuck’s sake, now what?’ I muttered.
My chair spun on its own, and Freddie’s nostrils flared in front of me.
‘Oh, Freddie. How nice to see you. I was just telling, umm…’ My pointing finger jabbed towards the man next to me.
‘Chris?’ he asked.
‘Yes. I was telling Chris what a perfect tie you’ve picked today. It matches your, um – your eyes.’
They were simply a dull brown. No interesting hints of yellow, green, or anything. Straight-up brown. There might have been a few different shades of it, but you couldn’t see where one ended and the other began. A bit like diarrhoea.
‘Thank you. My mum gave it to me for my birthday last week.’ He ran his hand down his yellow tie, straightened his posture, and grinned.
‘What great taste she has,’ I lied.
‘Look, I came over to see if you could maybe help me out with a report due tomorrow. Terry said you did such a great job last week with the data for that new clothing store, I thought you could have a go with this one, too.’
I’d given Freddie the benefit of the doubt, but just as I’d thought I could get used to this bastard, he tried to charm Nora into being his little data bitch.
Again. Each time he’d crammed into my space on Tuesday, he’d tried to worm a little bit of information out of me to do with a formula, report, or whatever he was working on.
‘I’ve got so much of my own work to get done, I don’t think I could manage your workload, too.’ I used Nora’s pleasant tone.
‘I thought you might like the opportunity to show the big guys what you can really do, you know?’
This guy was a born leader. The manipulative, bullshitter kind. The ones who lay a trail of breadcrumbs in the form of free labour, promising the path will take you to bigger and better things. Hansel and Gretel fucked around and found out, but I wasn’t sending Nora into the witch’s house of candy.
‘Sorry, Freddie. If they can’t see what I’m capable of, that’s their loss.’
I spun my chair back to my desk and flicked Nora’s screen on. The unmistakable scent of embarrassment faded as Freddie dragged his feet back to his office.
‘Damn, Nora. That was bad-ass.’ Izzy poked her head over our diving wall.
‘Oh, thanks.’ I massaged my temples and wished she was Paddy.
‘Do you need painkillers?’ she chirped.
‘Please,’ I groaned.
She threw me a packet as Chris poked his head over the other side.
‘We really thought we were going to lose you as our desk neighbour before they announced Freddie would take Terry’s job,’ he added.
‘So, I really wasn’t the only one surprised?’ I scrunched my face in confusion.
It still surprised me that Nora wasn’t being a dramatic, sore loser over missing out on that promotion, though I’ll admit, Freddie did seem to be floundering.
‘Gosh, no. Freddie doesn’t understand what we do. No wonder he’s out here asking for help every ten minutes.’
I became less certain that Nora had been a sore loser about this promotion the more we spoke.
Maybe being a chick was getting to me, but my intuition flared like a firework.
I owed Nora an apology now that both Izzy and Chris had admitted everything that she’d been sure of.
It sounded like Nora simply needed to wait out Freddie’s demise.
He can’t hide from the truth if he doesn’t even know what it is he’s really hiding from.
And who would be ready to pick up the slack and finally claim that position?
Nora, of course.
Two hours later, I’d gone over five years’ worth of income statements for a retail store and located the downfall in budget cuts.
I hadn’t searched businesses records for hidden details in years.
The satisfying moment of finding the treasure after a hunt was invigorating.
Much more satisfying than checking over the work someone else had already done.
More so, because I didn’t have my father’s bald head looming in another room.
According to previous emails, Nora had been working on this for three days.
I took a smug sip of coffee, which I immediately spat back into the mug after realising it had gone cold.
Perhaps I hadn’t been as quick at it as I’d thought.
‘Nora?’ A petite brunette stood next to me.
Management hadn’t hassled me by trying to offload their crap for at least an hour, but if they were back to try again, I didn’t care if she lost her job. I would raise hell.
‘Can you please come with me?’ she asked.
I tried for one of Nora’s pleasant smiles, the kind she gave when she didn’t know what was happening, but was already trying to get on their good side.
‘I’d love to.’
My dress swished back and forth between my legs, which I’ll admit, I threw in front with more enthusiasm than needed. I’d found it surprisingly fun, the way my dress flew through the air with each step.
‘In here, thank you.’ The brunette turned into an office marked Human Resources.
My throat tightened as I tried to gulp the saliva pooling in my mouth. This wasn’t a good office to be in.
‘Is there a problem?’ I hesitated in the doorway.
‘Would you like to close the door and take a seat?’ She gestured to the hard wooden chair in front of her desk.
I didn’t know what Nora had done to land me here, but I knew how to display confidence and demand respect. My posture straightened, my chin lifted, and her tiny frame increased to take up more space like a territorial animal.
‘Miss Claremont, I must tell you, this is the reason I’ve been asked to speak to you.’ She gestured her hands around my body.
I took a step back, mouth open, and dropped my gaze to inspect myself. No buttons had popped open, no tears in my dress, no stains other than the faint brown coffee on my chest. Nothing. Was it my face? I twisted my head side to side, searching for a reflection anywhere.
‘Our company policy very clearly states we do not tolerate sexual advances in any form.’
My eyes widened until particles of air were fighting for a chance to drain the moisture from them.
They became bone dry, until all of a sudden, they weren’t.
My body snapped into recovery mode trying to lubricate them.
I blinked in an attempt to coat them again, but the moisture rushed to the edge of my eyes like tears.
‘Oh, Nora, please don’t cry. We need to have a discussion, that’s all.’
I raised my palm to stop her mid-walk to me. ‘I’m not crying, I’m only surprised. I had no idea people thought I behaved that way.’
She held up a finger. ‘One person, but it means we need to go over the policy and make sure you understand what’s acceptable.’