Dish

I saw Suzy and Dina at a table near the back of the restaurant. Suzy saw me immediately and waved me over.

“Hey, Faith. I ordered for you, an orange chicken and two eggrolls.” Dina smiled at me as I got settled.

“Thanks, you sounded…harried on the phone earlier, Suzy.”

Dina was laughing at Suzy’s paranoia and I couldn’t help but look at them with confusion.

“We want in.” Suzy finally managed to say.

“In on what?” I asked.

Suzy immediately shushed me and sat straighter in her chair, the waiter had come with our food. He gave Suzy a questioning glare as he left after laying out all of our plates.

“What Suzy is very poorly asking you, Faith, is if there are any openings at your new job…ones that would specifically suit our qualifications.” Dina shot Suzy a warning glance as she popped a spoon full of beef fried rice in her mouth.

I shook my head, “No…we just hired so many people, we won’t be looking to expand for at least a few months.” Their facial expressions, which were full of hope quickly became sullen and sad, “Why are you guys looking for new jobs? Dina you’ve been with the paper forever.”

They both sighed. Something on Dina’s face told me that she had hoped I wouldn’t ask.

“Well…our…boss is kind of the problem. We both want out.” Suzy exchanged a glance with Dina as soon as she’d finished; it’s like they’d rehearsed what to say.

Something about the way Suzy worded that sentence didn’t seem right.

“Alright…spill it. What are you trying not to say?” I crossed my arms against my chest and sat back in my chair; glaring at them.

“Nothing,” Dina said, “We don’t like our boss and just wanted to know if there was an opening at your paper.”

“Well, I can’t help you there, but I’ll be sure to let you know when something opens up.” I said lulling them into a false sense of security.

“That would be great Faith, we hate working for-“

“Yeah thanks Faith.” Dina said interrupting Suzy, I had a feeling she also kicked her under the table.

“Cut the crap. Who’s your new boss? Why are they so awful to work for?”

Suddenly, both of them were shoving food into their mouths, raving about how good it was.

“Guys…it’s me…I thought we were friends.” I was impressed with myself, I didn’t think I was capable of such a convincing guilt trip.

“Aw….Faith…Dina…she has a right to know if she’s going to help us with the getting a job thing.” Suzy turned to Dina who was twisting her napkin around.

A chilly silence fell over the table. I went to get up.

“Okay….” I sat back down as Dina yelped the word out, “Faith…we don’t actually have a new boss.”

“I don’t really understand.” I said trying to make sense of what that meant.

“When you left Kevin was fired, we all saw him packing up his things with his banshee of a fiancée.”

I nodded remembering Dina tell me about Hannah coming to help him clean out his office and the pity I had felt for her shortly thereafter.

Suzy jumped in, “We got George back and everyone missed you, but Scott was taking your place just fine. Things were going really well. But then George left and Kevin came back, a month later. All of us were really confused but it was a permanent decision and no one knew how he’d managed it.”

I was pretty shocked by this news but I smiled at Suzy. She was the gossip columnist at the paper, I just knew she got the dirt.

“How’d you figure it out?”

“I didn’t…Dina broke into Scott’s office, your old office, and looked up Kevin’s personnel file.”

I looked at Dina absolutely shocked.

“Dina…that’s illegal. You could be fired if anyone found out.”

“I had to Faith. I wanted to know what he did to get his job back. He sexually assaulted you in his office, as a woman and a potential victim, I felt I had a right to know why the board was giving him his job back. Besides, everyone hates him, they won’t rat me out.”

I looked at Dina and could feel the waves of anger rolling off of her.

“And?”

“He basically blackmailed them,” she said, “He used his relationship with you as a way to sue the paper for sexual harassment. If he’d won the paper would have gone under and all of us would be out of a job. They negotiated a settlement with him. They agreed to pay him a certain amount of money and give him his job back as long as he agreed to drop the lawsuit completely and attend a 30-day rehab program for his drinking. There were a few other conditions, like he would be terminated immediately if he drank on the premises or showed up to work drunk and a bunch of other stuff.”

“George only came back while Kevin was in rehab. His wife’s been doing a little better, by the way. She opted out of the hospice care at George's request when their youngest daughter got engaged. They think she’ll make it to Christmas.” Suzy said quietly, there was a sense of sadness in her voice.

“That’s nice to hear about George’s wife,” I said momentarily distracted by the news. I loved George and was truly sorry to hear about his wife. It looks like she’ll be able to attend her youngest daughter’s wedding this October. My thoughts quickly moved on to something Dina had said, “Wait…I gave the board a statement about our dating, how is he suing them for sexual harassment?”

“It basically turned into a he-said-she-said thing. Kevin claims that you came into his office to try and get back together. He claims you were trying to seduce him and he was trying to prevent you from taking off anymore of your clothes.” Dina said. It suddenly became crystal clear why they were so reluctant to tell me about Kevin’s re-hiring.

“But that’s a lie! Herb and Wesley saw him trying to take off my shirt. He had me pinned against his desk and had his tongue down my throat!”

“The board asked them both for statements but they couldn’t really remember enough details to be reliable witnesses. Kevin hired a lawyer that would have torn them to shreds. Kevin claimed that they walked in while he was trying to keep you from taking your shirt off and misread the situation.” Suzy said looking down.

I was silent for a minute. It was a lot to take in.

“That’s not even the half of it, Faith,” Dina pounded her fist on the table, “he’s a jerk to everyone. He makes all of our jobs harder and gets away with so much crap because he knows the only thing to get him fired would be alcohol-related. The board is too afraid to do anything about it. It’s awful. Scott doesn't know what to do or how to handle Kevin. Herb and Wesley get the worst of his wrath.”

I looked down. I was sorry that Herb and Wesley were being punished for being decent human beings. Maybe there would be room for them at my job too. I looked up, aware that I had gotten lost in my thoughts. Dina and Suzy were looking at me with concerned eyes.

“I will do whatever I can to help you guys when my paper starts looking for more people. I promise.”

Relief washed over both their faces and after a few minutes our conversation turned to more frivolous topics. I realized how much I missed both of them and immediately felt bad for not keeping in touch. To be fair…the whole situation with Kevin tainted so many things I had previously loved that I think, subconsciously, I didn’t want to be reminded of him ever again. Dina and Suzy were both reminders. Both of them seemed to understand, though.

We said our goodbyes after catching up and I couldn’t help feeling bad as I walked to my apartment. The three of us used to be really close but after I started dating Kevin I kind of separated myself from my co-workers to reduce the gossip pool that had been going around with us. I was a horrible friend to them for not staying in touch after I left and I will make it up to them.

(Author's note: There will be a post every day this week [including weekends] so come back often!)

Scott

Scott started today. I walked him to Kevin’s office after going over the basics and knocked on the door.

“Kevin, your personal secretary is here, I’d like to introduce you to them.”

Kevin nodded and stood up to greet Scott, thinking he’d be a woman. When Scott came into view from the hallway, Kevin’s disposition changed. I couldn’t help but have a beaming smile on my face, even when Kevin gave me a dirty look. This moment was priceless; I wish I’d had a video camera. Scott started asking Kevin questions and I took the opportunity to sidle away with a cutesy little wave to Kevin on the way back to my office.

About an hour later, Kevin walked into my office and closed the door.

“Dudes can’t be secretaries! What is this?”

“Oh yes they can Kevin, and unless you want the paper to have a lawsuit slapped on it I wouldn’t say that too loudly. What is the problem? Did you honestly think I would hire someone, like Hannah, who had no credentials or skills just so you could ogle them all day? Do you even need a personal secretary or was this just a way for you to cheat on Hannah some more?” I said viciously.

Kevin was struck speechless. He started stuttering and I cut him off.

“What? Did you think you were hiding it? You may have used me but I got to know you more than you think especially after breaking up with you. Stop trying to manipulate me Kevin and just do your job. Scott is more than capable when it comes to being your secretary but if you haven’t done any work because you keep trying to screw me over and make it hard to work with you. Why don’t you actually do some work so Scott can assist you?”

There was a pause.

“You can leave now.”

He glared at me and walked out of my office. I rolled my eyes and closed that part of my chapter. I have three job interviews in the next few days and there’s one that I really want. It’s an HR position for a news company, I would hire researchers, reporters, and on-air talent for them and there would be no board of directors directly in control of my decisions. It also pays a lot more than what I make here. I sent an e-mail to George asking him to give me a recommendation for it and I’m picking it up later after work.

Talking to Plants

I went to work on Monday with a new outlook on the Kevin situation: Avoid. After running to my office to avoid being seen, I ate lunch in Dina and Suzy’s office….alone, and when I left for the day I contemplated the merits of leaving through my window rather than the front doors. Apparently the window was the better option because as soon as I started to walk across the lobby, Hannah walked into the doors. My immediate instinct was to hide and I found one of those extremely large lobby plants that hid me completely. She stopped in the middle of the lobby and took out her cell phone.

“Where are you? …. Do I need to go upstairs? …well then how long are you going to be? ….FINE.”

She sighed and angrily shut her phone and shoved it into her designer purse. Then she started walking toward my direction. I started to panic and began looking for an escape route frantically. She sat on a white and gray modern couch right next to the plant and flipped through a magazine. I was hiding for so long that I ended up sitting between the plant and the wall; it must have been at least 45 minutes before Kevin showed up. He came up behind her and gave her a kiss but she wasn’t in a very good mood, I guess that’s expected when you catch your boyfriend cheating.

“What were you doing upstairs?” She asked suspiciously.

“I was working Hannah, I had a meeting with the board, you know, the one about them hiring me.” Kevin grabbed her hand and started walking her towards the exit much to my relief and confusion. The board doesn’t meet on Mondays, which meant Kevin was blatantly lying about what he was doing upstairs. Besides, I schedule those kinds of meetings for the board members and I know for a fact it’s on Friday MORNING. He couldn’t just say that he was working because that wouldn’t be a good enough excuse for Hannah, but if it was an important meeting about getting George’s job….she’d apparently accept an excuse like that.

I waited for them to leave and started to collect my things when I saw a woman’s shadow peak around one of the elevators across from me. I immediately ducked for cover. I couldn’t tell who it was, but I knew Kevin was definitely not telling the truth about having a meeting with the board. Things might have just gone in my direction….

Dilemmas

“What are your options?” Zoey was looking at me across from the table in a small breakfast bistro near her house. We were both skipping work; her reason to skip was more legitimate than mine, though. Her photo shoot was cancelled and I was avoiding Kevin after our disastrous meeting.

I sighed and laid my head on the table dramatically, “throw myself out my office’s window?”

Zoey gave me a “let’s be serious” look and I perked up grudgingly.

“Well, I could try to find a new job. I could try to get Kevin transferred or fired. I could put up with it. Or I could crawl into my bed and never come out.” I said taking a bite of my croissant.

“What would be a reason Kevin would get fired?”

“The paper allows dating between co-workers as long as there is no PDA at work, but if he had a sexual harassment claim on his employee file, the board might choose to not hire him as editor-in-chief permanently once George’s paperwork goes through. But that would require Kevin to hit on a female employee repeatedly or some degree further than that and I’m not sure he’s going to take it that far. Especially since Hannah knows he’s been cheating on her and she’s bound to be checking up on him throughout the day.”

“Do you like your job, Faith?”

I was thrown off by the question. I liked working at the paper but the last year was starting to get to me. A change of environment might be good for me, but I’d need to give more thought into the idea. I brushed off her question with a rebuttal.

“If I quit, he’ll win. A person who treats people the way Kevin does shouldn’t win so easily. I have to at least try to bear the situation, right?”

“I guess-“

“And maybe George will change his mind….maybe I can get him to change his mind!” I was grasping at the smallest hint of hope.

“Faith, do NOT talk to George about changing his mind, the man has enough going on in his life, right now. Remember? His wife is dying of cancer!”

I sighed but realized she was right. We moved on to Anna and how she’s been doing work-wise since her miscarriage.

“She’s doing well at work, you know Anna, she doesn’t let anything affect her work. But….her and Theo are still having problems. They haven’t had sex since.”

My heart broke for Anna, the marriage counseling must not have been going well and I made a mental note to schedule some alone time with her. Eventually we said our goodbyes and I went home to look for some HR jobs listed online…you know, for a rainy day.

World War K

Kevin hasn’t been to work for two days but today he called me about 20 times while I was trying to work. At about the 50th call from him I answered the phone.

“What do you want? I’m at work!” I hissed.

“I want to explain what happened. It’s not –“I cut him off.

“If you want to explain, that’s fine, but I’m at work right now and I will not deal with this while I’m at work.”

“Can I meet you when you get off of work then?”

“You know, I don’t think I really have anything to say to you other than we’re over.”

“Just meet me after work and give 5 minutes, Faith. Please?”

I sighed and relented. When I left at the end of the day he was waiting outside in his car. I refused to get in and we walked to a coffee shop in a cold silence.

“Do you want a coffee?” Kevin asked as he held the door open for me.

“No.” I said harshly.

We sat and I started right away, “Let me get this straight. We are no longer together. You and I will no longer have a personal relationship, I cannot and do not trust you.”

“Let me explain, it’s not what you think.” I sighed and looked at my watch, he took that as a sign to get to the point, “Hannah never moved out. She was in the process of moving and found out about you. When I told you she was moving out, I wasn’t lying, she really was. She still thought we could end up back together and I made it very clear to her that I was with you, that’s when she went crazy and moved back in. There wasn’t anything I could do about it.”

“Why didn’t you move out?”

Kevin was silent.

“She didn’t really know about me did she? I saw her face when she walked in, you’re lying to me. You’ve lied to me the whole time. Hannah never knew, you never broke it off with her, you just told me you did so I would be with you.”

Kevin gave up, “Of course I didn’t tell her. I couldn’t."

“So you decided to lie to me about it. I need a better explanation.”

Kevin relaxed in his chair with an air of arrogance and I saw a hint of malice in his eye.

“You don’t know Hannah, I need to marry her to get everything I want. I wasn’t going to waste that on dumping her to be with you. I mean do you really think you’re all that special? You work a dead-end job at one of the least credible newspapers in the city, why would I dump Hannah for you? I was never going to stay with you. You were something to waste my time while Hannah planned the wedding and nothing more. Luckily, Hannah is understanding and has not called anything off, so my activities with you weren’t even really a risk.”

I was speechless. Kevin saw the shock on my face and started laughing. I looked at him sharply and composed myself almost immediately.

“Well, since it’s the least credible paper in the city I take it you’ll be happy to keep up your end of our bargain?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you remember? Before we got involved we agreed that if we ended things you would leave the paper.” I sat back in my chair and cocked my head.

“Oh, please, like anyone would actually agree to that.” Kevin scoffed, “Not only am I not quitting, but I’m acting editor-in-charge now. George is retiring and that means I have full responsibilities and privileges including being able to fire you.”

George must have contacted Kevin about it after he visited me the other day.

“I’d actually have to do something that would require being fired and I’m an ideal employee.”

“You’re not perfect; you’ll have to slip up sometime.”

With that Kevin stood up, I followed him out of the coffee shop and went to leave. He grabbed my arm to stop me from going and whispered into my ear.

“Thanks for the ride.”

I slapped him across the face, spun on my heel, and hailed a cab. Kevin stood on the sidewalk and watched me go.

K: M.I.A

I went to work today absolutely dreading it. But much to my surprise (and relief!) Kevin was not there, he called in a personal day. I sank into my office chair thankful for small miracles when George walked in.

“Hey George, I thought you were supposed to be in some romantic foreign country right now…” we laughed.

He sat in a chair across from me and said hello. Turns out that his wife’s health has taken a turn for the worse sooner than they expected so they cancelled the last few trips they’d planned. Much to him and his wife’s happiness, though, their daughter got married a couple of weeks ago and Paula (George’s wife) was strong enough to attend the ceremony and reception.

“I’m so sorry George. I can’t imagine how difficult things are for you.” I reached out and grabbed his hand.

“It’s really okay, Faith, Paula has opted to go for the hospice care and I support her decision. We’ve been able to come to terms with things gradually. I’m not quite prepared for Paula’s passing yet, but she’s been so great throughout the whole process and she’s providing me with so much love and support. She wants to make sure I’ll be alright once….” He trailed off, cleared his throat, and then segued into a related topic, “That’s why I’m here Faith.”

“Oh?”

“I need to fill out a form to end my sabbatical.”

I couldn’t believe what George said. He's going to come back, which means that I'm not going to have to see Kevin every day. I nodded and grabbed the form from my filing cabinet. I handed George a pen, when he stopped me.

“No, this isn’t right. I’m ending my sabbatical but I’m not coming back. I want to retire.”

I stopped cold.
“What?”

“Paula has been encouraging me to retire and we didn’t spend nearly as much as we thought travelling so I’ve got plenty of money saved up for it. I think it’s time.”

I grudgingly got George a different form and wished him good luck as he left, promising to throw him a retirement party next week with the whole staff.

“If Paula’s strong enough, I’ll try to bring her.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know the details soon.”

I closed my office door and then sank into my couch between a bookshelf and a filing cabinet wanting to cry. I almost had an out to the whole Kevin situation and it was taken away just as quickly as it came. I’m not really sure how to address the job thing with Kevin. I mean, obviously I have to have the break-up talk with him, but how exactly do you go about telling your ex-boyfriend he has to quit his no-longer-temporary job?

The V-Card

Kevin and I went out on a date yesterday. We decided to go to a museum in the area and then grab lunch at this really cute little bistro about a block from my apartment. The museum had this awesome indoor garden exhibit with all sorts of exotic flowers and there were even butterflies flying around in the atrium. We sat on a bench and started talking when Kevin brought up the subject of Valentine’s Day.

“So…do you celebrate it?”

“Well, not really, I think… If you love and care for someone that you’re in a relationship with, you shouldn’t feel like you need to show especially large amounts of affection with gifts on one specific day of the year. The sentiment is nice, but we don’t need to do the whole Valentine’s Day thing.”

“You’re sure? This isn’t one of those ‘You don’t need to get me a gift, but I’m going to be pissed if you don’t’ thing that girls say all the time?”

“No, I’m not going to be mad if you don’t get me a gift,” I started laughing, “we just started dating, anyway, and besides, my plans for Valentine’s Day seem to be heading in the direction of watching a really bad movie on television and sleeping in late.”

We just kind of sat in the garden quietly taking in the surrounding vegetation. It was really nice. It was kind of the perfect day for me. I just sat there enjoying Kevin’s company while we held hands and I felt really relaxed being around him. We eventually left because we were both starving and Kevin drove to the bistro. I ordered a sandwich wrap with a side of strawberries and glass of water while Kevin ordered an omelet with ham and cheese, a slice of toast, and some coffee.

“What did you do before you came to the paper?” I asked.

“I was an editor for a small magazine that went under, George held an advertisement in our magazine regularly and when he heard about me losing my job, it was right when Paula was diagnosed to be terminal. He thought he’d go to the board with my credentials and talk about resigning or at least taking a sabbatical with me as his replacement. The board understood George’s position and agreed to give him a leave of absence, he still has all of his benefits from the company and he’s actually been working there that he could retire whenever, but the board wanted to make sure that if and when George is ready to come back, the position will be there for him. I just keep his seat warm.”

Kevin laughed and I smiled because his positivity was refreshing. George could decide to come back at any time and Kevin would be out on the street but he was so relaxed about everything.

“You make me less anxious about my life.” I said, touching his hand.
Kevin looked at me and leaned over to give me a kiss. He walked me home a little while later and called Zoey to dish.