Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Caleb and I had returned from Galena late afternoon on Sunday. As much fun as our trip had been, I was happy to be home. There was nothing better than sleeping in my own bed. Or my boss’s bed, I thought, chuckling to myself as the man in question snored next to me.
The clock read six-twenty. Ten minutes before our alarms would go off. I enjoyed waking up slightly earlier than I was supposed to so I could slowly ease into the morning. I didn’t like having to jump out of the bed and hit the pavement running.
Caleb had his meeting with Mike Amperage on Wednesday.
Trish, Mike’s secretary, had emailed me the files, and I had them organized and saved on my computer.
All I had left to do was print them out.
I’d do that first thing today, so he’d have them ready for his meeting in two days.
I wasn’t going to repeat my mistake from months ago.
I was sure there were at least a dozen voicemails and emails waiting for me since we had taken off early Friday afternoon. I would have to go through those immediately and put out any fires that had occurred while we were away. Something always happened over the weekend.
Our alarms beeped, and I rolled over to shut mine off.
“Ugh. Why does morning come so early?” Caleb groaned as he turned off his alarm.
He lay back against the pillow and threw his arm over his eyes dramatically. I’d discovered he was not a morning person once we started staying at each other’s places. How he had been so jolly and awake when we took our trip down to Marion a few months ago was beyond me.
“I’ll go get you a cup of coffee,” I said, sliding out of bed.
“You’re the best. Keep this up, and you’ll earn yourself a reward.”
I glanced back at him and smiled. “Who’s to say I won’t spit in your drink? Can’t ruin my naughty reputation.”
“And just like that, you’ve earned yourself another spanking.”
I winked at him as I headed off into the kitchen.
I’d never actually spit into his coffee, but it was fun to keep him on his toes.
Selfishly, I enjoyed my punishments. While they were happening, I didn’t like them.
But the feeling after the pain eased, when it seemed like every nerve in my body came alive, was addictive.
The coffee pot was full, hot, and waiting for me. I loved the preset function on the machine. I poured two cups, added our preferred amounts of cream and sugar, and headed back to the bedroom.
“Here you go. One delectable cup of coffee to start your day,” I said, handing him his. “Don’t worry,” I said, as he took a drink, “I withheld the spit this time.”
He shook his head as I took a swig of my own drink. “I ought to paddle your ass so you won’t be able to sit down comfortably at all today. Unfortunately, I need to take a shower. Care to join me?”
The offer was so tempting. Getting wet and naked and soaping each other up had led to some memorable sex sessions. But I knew we’d be late if we did that, and this wasn’t the morning for it.
“I’d love to, but I want to head back to my place and sort through the presents I got my friends.”
“Okay. You’ll be ready to go in an hour?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Have fun sorting.”
I gave him a peck on his cheek and left his place, crossed the hallway, and arrived at mine.
I took another sip of my coffee and put it on the counter as I went through the bags of stuff I had bought over the weekend. I didn’t get my friends anything fancy, just popcorn from the American Popcorn store in different flavors.
I set aside the Galena mix, a caramel and cheese popcorn, for myself, then packed up the birthday cake, buffalo ranch, kettle corn, and English toffee popcorn for my friends.
Time to get dressed. I reached for my coffee and took another sip of it. I felt like I’d be able to accomplish anything and everything that day.
Caleb and I rode the elevator up to his office. I was going over everything I needed to do again in my head. The machine pinged, the doors opened, and we stepped off. I expected Gretchen to be at her desk, waiting impatiently to hear how the weekend had gone. She loved girl talk.
She wasn’t at her desk when we walked past. We were a tiny bit early, so it wasn’t a total surprise. Like my boyfriend, Gretchen didn’t seem to be the biggest morning person.
Caleb walked over to his desk, put his stuff down, and logged right onto his computer. I did the same.
“Oh crap.” I was three emails in when I saw that there were over a dozen emails from Mike Amperage’s office. I checked them, and each was a request to move the meeting to today, an hour from now.
“Sir, change in your schedule,” I said, grateful that he hadn’t had anything planned and I’d finished the prep work.
“What is it?”
“Mike Amperage is coming today—in like forty-five minutes,” I said, glancing down at my watch.
Caleb furrowed his brows. He didn’t like last-minute changes like this. “What happened to Wednesday?”
“I’m not exactly sure,” I answered, re-reading the emails to see if I could find out.
“His assistant sent the first email requesting a change on Friday, early afternoon. I must’ve missed it because we had already left.
As the day went on and throughout the weekend, the emails became more insistent that the meeting happen today. ”
“Do they say why?”
“No, they don’t.”
He ran his hand over his mouth and chin. “So be it. We have to roll with the punches sometimes, right? Please print out the profit-and-loss statements for his company. Two copies of each.”
“I have them all prepared, give me a moment,” I said, opening up the file I had on my desktop. Only, nothing came up. I clicked again, and there was no change. “What the heck?” I muttered as I went to the search tab and typed in the file name.
“What’s the matter, Theresa?”
“They’re gone,” I said as I tried searching for another name.
No matter what I did, nothing came up. It felt like a bowling ball had been dropped inside my stomach. My palms and the back of my neck started to sweat.
“What’s gone?” Caleb asked, his tone sharp as he stood up and walked over to my desk.
“The statements. I had them all saved and organized the way you like them on my computer. I did it before we left, so I wouldn’t have to stress about doing it when we got back.”
Plus, I didn’t want another actual punishment spanking from you, I thought, but didn’t voice out loud. It was one thing to receive a funishment when I knew I hadn’t actually messed up. It was another to actually make a mistake.
“Theresa,” Caleb growled.
He was angry, and rightfully so. The last time he had gotten together with Mr. Amperage, I had very nearly screwed up the meeting. Here I was again, seemingly having made the same mistake.
“Let me check some other places on my computer. I will fix this,” I said, looking up at him and hoping that he believed me. I wasn’t going to let him down.
“We will discuss this later.”
His voice was deadly serious, and I felt like my insides were in knots. What the hell had happened?
“Good morning,” Gretchen called from the doorway as she got into the office.
“Hey,” I murmured, not bothering to look up from my computer screen.
I had to find the reports or find a way to prove that this mistake wasn’t my fault. I could take the physical pain that might come with this, but I couldn’t take the emotional pain of Caleb thinking I didn’t take my job seriously.
I searched everywhere on my computer, but couldn’t find the files. Was I losing my mind? Had I thought about doing them, but actually hadn’t? No. I was certain I got it done because I’d felt so relieved when it was finished.
Why did Mike Amperage have to come first thing this morning? If he had waited until the regularly scheduled meeting, none of this would have happened.
“Everything okay, Theresa?” Gretchen asked, popping her head in the doorway.
“No. There are files missing from my computer. Mr. McDuffie needs them for a meeting that got pushed up to today.”
“With whom?”
“Mike Amperage.”
“I got them,” Caleb said, with clear displeasure.
“Do you want to forward them to me, and I’ll organize and print them for you?” I offered.
“No, I got this,” he said, not bothering to look up at me from his screen.
Gretchen and I exchanged looks. She made a face like she had taken a bite out of a lemon. That’s pretty much how I felt.
“Okay. Um, I’m going back up front. I’ll let you know when your clients arrive,” she said.
“Caleb—" I tried again.
He held his hand up. “Seriously, Theresa. Not now. We will talk after the meeting.”
“Okay,” I said, feeling rejected and angry. Yes, things didn’t look favorable for me right now, but I knew what I knew. Something had happened to those reports. I had never lied to Caleb, and I wasn’t about to start. I just wished that he believed me.
The meeting with Mike Amperage seemed to go well. When he got to the office, he and Caleb went into the conference room to meet. Caleb stated beforehand that he wouldn’t need me in there, which was fine by me. It gave me a chance to catch up with Gretchen.
“What is going on, Theresa?” she asked as I came out and stood by her desk.
“I don’t know exactly. Mike was supposed to come on Wednesday to go over the latest profit-and-loss statements with Caleb.
Before we left, I got them onto my computer, organized them, and saved them so they’d all be ready to print today.
When we got back, I had over a dozen emails from Mr. Amperage’s receptionist, basically demanding that the meeting be moved to today.
Which sucks because it’s a last-minute change, and I didn’t know about it because I didn’t check my email over the weekend.
But it was doable. The thing that got me was when I went to print out the paperwork Caleb wanted, it was all gone. ”
“Are you sure you did it before you left for Galena?”
“Yes,” I answered with absolute certainty. “I didn’t want to have to worry about doing it when we got back, and I had made a similar mistake for their first meeting. I didn’t want to make it again.”
“Could it have gotten deleted by mistake over the weekend, possibly? Did your computer update?”
“No. The only way it could be gone is if I or someone else removed it.”
Gretchen tilted her chin. “Can you think of anyone who’d want to do that to you?”
I shook my head. When I had reached this conclusion earlier, I started to imagine who’d want to do something like this to me, but I couldn’t think of anyone.
“We’ll figure this out, Theresa,” she said as she reached over her desk and gave my hand a squeeze.
“Thank you.” It was comforting to know I had someone who believed me. “I’m going to get back to work. No use pissing the boss off any further.”
She nodded. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
I went back to my desk and resumed checking my email. As much as I wanted to focus all my attention on the issue at hand, there was nothing I could do about it right now. But there were other things I could focus on. I wouldn’t give my boyfriend any more reasons to be disappointed.
Two hours had passed when Caleb strolled into the office. He closed the door behind him and turned to me, his jaw clenched. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“Theresa, this is unacceptable. Amperage is one of our biggest accounts, and this is the second time you’ve made the same mistake.”
“I don’t know what to say. I had the reports saved on my computer and ready to go. I’ve looked everywhere, but I don’t know where they went.”
“Stop lying,” he said, his voice getting slightly louder.
I had never heard him raise his voice before.
He took a deep breath and began again, his tone going back to normal.
“I understand the meeting got changed at the last minute, which we’ll talk about in a second, but just admit that you hadn’t gotten to the files yet. I won’t tolerate lying.”
His words hit me harder than any implement ever could.
“I’m telling you the truth,” I said, my voice quivering as I held back tears. “And what about the last-minute change in the meeting? I had nothing to do with that.”
“Mike’s office got a call from your work line stating that if he didn’t move the meeting up to today, we’d be terminating his contract.”
I was temporarily speechless. This had to be a dream.
“How can you think I’d leave a message like that?” I asked.
“Theresa, it was your phone number. Unless someone had unauthorized access, all fingers point to you.”
It felt like time froze as I stared up at my boss. How could he think I’d lie to him? I never had and never would. He had to know that. Secondly, how could he think I’d call Mike before our vacation and demand the meeting get moved up, then act surprised when we got back?
“I’m very disappointed in you. I thought after last time, you had learned your lesson. Furthermore, I never thought you’d lie to me. This punishment is going to have to be severe.” He undid the belt from his suit pants. “Lie over my desk.”
I stared at him, the man who told me he loved me forty-eight hours ago, and I felt like I didn’t know him.
“Theresa,” he growled.
“No. I’m-I’m going to lunch,” I said, and hurried out of the room.
I didn’t bother waiting to hear his response or even to grab any of my things. I was too hurt to think clearly. When I got onto the elevator, the tears started to flow freely down my face. His words and accusations kept playing in my head.