A Whole Lot of Unexpected

I woke up to a happy anniversary text from Sean and smiled. He told me he was sorry that we couldn’t be together and we sent some flirty texts back and forth until I eventually had to go to work. I had my big meeting today and I felt prepared and determined to get through it as professionally as possible as I walked into my office. Honestly, I didn’t get much work done before lunch because I was so focused on the time. I was meeting Veronica at the restaurant in our building’s lobby (the one she took me to when we first met) and exactly 10 minutes later, the HR station rep and Stormy were supposed to join us.

I think I was sort of nervous about this meeting, to be honest. I kept tapping my foot on the side of my desk and I was restless waiting for the time to pass. The only thing I managed to get done was to go over Stormy’s contract and the conditions he was hired under for the paper. When the clock hands finally got close to the meeting time, I got up and left my office. Steve waved at me as I left and whispered a “good luck!” when I waved back.

The ride down to the lobby on the elevator was the longest experience of my life and I could feel my accelerated heartbeat. I kept thinking about how ridiculous it was that I was so nervous until I realized just what I was risking by planning this sneak attack on Veronica. I could get in serious trouble but when I thought about Stormy and how ragged he’d been; how severely his health was being affected by being overtaxed with work, I knew it was worth the risk. I am responsible for the morale of our employees and it would have been irresponsible for me to ignore this issue.

Veronica was waiting for me and smiled at my arrival. We made small talk until we were sat by the hostess and then chatted over the menus.

“So, Faith, I imagine you want to talk about the summer interns and what they’ll need to do?”

“Actually, no,” I said seeing Stormy and the HR station rep walking toward our table, “We need to talk about Stormy and I’ve invited him and the station HR rep to join us in this meeting today.”

“I see.” Veronica said. Her voice was constricted.

Veronica’s mouth grew very taut but she greeted Stormy and Patricia (the HR station rep) as they sat at the table.

A waiter came by and we all ordered our meals, Veronica also ordered a double gin and tonic. None of us wanted to bring it up but Patricia, Stormy, and I all shared a look that collectively said, “This is not a good sign.” We all made small talk for a bit until the food came, which in hindsight was probably stupid because it allowed Veronica to get pretty buzzed before we even started talking about business.

“So, I’ve looked over Stormy’s requests for less time with the station and I think it’s doable.” Patricia said pulling out a contract with clear edit marks on it, “We can’t give him everything he wants and he’s been very willing to compromise, but we should discuss if there are any things the paper is willing to concede to making things easier for him to work with the station.”

“Sure, such as?” I asked while Veronica looked into her almost empty second gin and tonic glass.

“Well we think it might be easier for Stormy if he covered stories for the station that he would also cover for the paper. It would cut down on his workload quite a bit because he wouldn’t have to prepare for the extra stories the paper and the station have him work for.”

“That sounds like an efficient plan. Stormy how do you feel about this?”

“I would be okay with that, but it might pose a problem since I only cover the crime section for the paper. Is it possible to make it so I cover the wider variety of stories for the paper like I normally do for the station? I know that might mean I write in other people’s categories and leave extra work for Becky (the other crime desk reporter). I don’t know if the other writers will appreciate it if I’m getting stories they expected to write.”

“That’s a good point.” I said, “But I think we’ll be able to work around it and you could co-author some of the bigger stories with the other writers if it starts to cause an issue. Veronica, do you have an opinion about this? Would it be okay with you if Stormy floated around the writer’s floor and didn’t just focus on crime?”

“Whatever.” She said tipping her newly refreshed gin and tonic back. Patricia gave me an “I can’t believe this is actually happening” look.

“Okay,” I said looking over Stormy’s contract, “Patricia would it be possible to also try and limit which stories Stormy is expected to cover. For example, try to keep as many as we can in the crime area so we don’t have him writing too many outside stories?”

“I can look into it. It’ll be a little difficult to try and manage that but I think the producers will be able to do that and with Stormy no longer charging us over time we could probably bring our part-time anchor on more often to cover the stories Stormy won’t be covering. I’ll need to check, but I think it’s doable.”

“Alright!” I said looking over the final edits to Stormy’s contract, “Stormy are you satisfied with these changes? Do you want to discuss anything else?”

“Would it be possible to get more vacation time, either from the studio or the paper?” He asked.

“I think we could probably provide a bit more, at least for the past few weeks where you’ve been working such long hours. I would be prepared to tack on a week of vacation time right now and we could discuss adjusting your vacation time and how it is credited at a later time. Veronica, do you agree?” I asked.

“Whatever.” She said. She was signaling to the waiter to bring her another drink and was quite tipsy at this point. When Veronica looked away, Patricia signaled to the waiter to cut Veronica off.

“Okay, well, I think we’re all on the same page, unless you’d like to add something, Veronica?” Patricia said.

“Nope.” Veronica said.

Stormy shook Patricia’s hand and then mine but when he went to shake Veronica’s she gave him a very limp one that made it really awkward.

“Okay, well, I need to take Stormy to legal so we can get a new contract written up. Thanks for such a…productive lunch.” Patricia said eyeing Veronica. The two of them got up to leave and left me alone with Veronica. Her demeanor changed at once.

“I’m going to have Rose schedule a meeting with you soon about this.” Veronica said angrily, “I’m leaving for the rest of the day, too.”

She grabbed her purse and left through the lobby’s front doors with a bit of difficulty. I sighed with relief and waited for the waiter to come and take the paper’s expense credit card so I could pay and go back upstairs. I have to say I’m kind of surprised just how simple this was to accomplish, although I’m sure Veronica will have much more to say to me later.

As I walked out of the elevator and to my office, Steve bombarded me with questions which I waved off until I got to the hallway leading to my office.

“How’d it go!?” He asked.

“It went really well actually. I think all of us are very happy.” I said.

Steve went to sit at his desk in the alcove next to my office and I went to go relax in my chair for a bit. About 20 minutes later there was a knock on my door. I got up to open it and it was Stormy. He was absolutely beaming.

“I can’t believe you were able to get this all worked out for me. I don’t know how to thank you!” He said pulling me into a hug that was so excited and happy he spun me in a circle that ended with him putting me down and giving me a kiss on the cheek. I started laughing.

“It was-” I stopped and look down the hallway in surprise. Stormy let go of me and followed my eyes.

Sean was standing at the end of the hallway holding a bouquet of flowers. He looked extremely angry.

“Sean!?” I began walking quickly over to him. He didn’t say anything but started walking away from me.

“Sean!” I called again but he was on the elevator and the doors closed before I could get on it. I ran down the stairs to the lobby where Sean was walking out the front doors. I was starting to panic and a sense of dread was coming over me.

“Sean! Wait!” I was practically running to keep up with him. I was finally able to reach his arm and stop him once we were outside.

“Sean? Why are you here?” I asked, “You said you weren’t going to be able to make it.”

“Yeah, I thought I’d surprise you because I had a few hours. Where’s your ring, Faith?” He said hailing a cab and not looking at me.

“What? It’s being sized and cleaned, like you suggested. Why are you leaving already?” I asked trying to get him to look at me. A cab pulled over and he opened the back door but stopped just before getting in and looked at me with a very dark expression.

“I come to surprise you at work and instead I find you and some guy wrapped in a hug with him kissing you and you’re actually asking me why I’m leaving? Let me spell it out for you, Faith: I’m not just leaving; we’re done.” He threw the bouquet of flowers at my feet; it burst apart and was picked up in the wind, “I’d ask for my ring back, but you aren’t wearing it. Some commitment!”

He didn’t wait for me to respond; instead he got in the cab, slammed the door closed, and sped off down the street.

I stood on the sidewalk in shock for awhile. I remember thinking how pretty the flowers were while they blew away. Then I got my phone out and called him. He didn’t answer his phone so I left a message asking him to call me when he’s ready to talk about this and that I loved him and that what he saw was completely innocent. I went back to work and it wasn’t until Steve asked me if I was okay that I realized I was crying. I cleaned myself up in the bathroom and tried calling Sean so many times, each time they were unanswered and eventually it just went straight to voicemail. I left work about an hour early and I’ve felt totally numb ever since.

I’ve been sitting in my apartment hoping my phone will ring and I don’t know what to do. I’ve left Sean so many messages and texts but he won’t listen to me. I’ll try an e-mail next but I think…I think he really meant what he said. I think we really might be over.