Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Janice didn’t say anything.
“Does the whole office know?” I demanded.
She raised an eyebrow at me. “It would appear that they do,” she said.
I felt sick to my stomach. How could Portia, of all people, do something like this?! Portia, who I’d never even let my eyes linger on for more than a few seconds? Meek little Portia, who had always made it overwhelmingly obvious that she wasn’t even good at her fucking job?
“If you’re not going to give me a temp, I’ll need you on my desk for the morning,” I said as smoothly as I could muster.
Janice gave me a look that could have melted an iceberg.
“And I’ll need to speak to the temp agency, immediately,” I said. “Don’t even bother trying to talk to them – just get me the fucking number.”
Janice’s look turned even more venomous and she stalked out of my office, leaving a wake of stale perfume trailing behind her. As soon as she was gone, I went and slammed the door of my office closed, then I got on the phone with the temp agency.
“Has anyone else ever made these allegations?” I asked.
The woman paused. “I can’t disclose that information, Mr. Ulrich,” she said. “At least, not on the record.”
“But off the record,” I wheedled. When she didn’t reply, I continued: “This is the kind of thing that could ruin a life, you know.”
She sighed. “Between you and me, Mr. Ulrich, no, no other former assistants of yours have said anything like this before. Everyone has been happy and content, or at least said that appropriate boundaries were maintained.”
I inwardly groaned.
“Thank you,” I said stiffly. “I appreciate your time.”
When we hung up, my head was still spinning. I had no idea how I was going to handle this – and furthermore, it meant another talk with Harper.
Because of course, I had slept with her.
My head was pounding and my heart was thudding hard in my chest as I dialed Harper’s number and held the phone to my ear. To my surprise, she picked up immediately.
“Hey, you,” she said, almost playfully. “What’s up?” Then, lowering her voice, she added: “I had a really great time last night.”
Any other time, I would have picked that moment to ask her why she’d chosen to throw me out of her bed after having such a great time, but right now, my head was completely out of it.
“Look,” I said. “I have something unpleasant to say, and I apologize.”
Harper didn’t reply, and I sensed that she was holding her breath.
“My assistant, Portia, quit and started spreading a bunch of rumors that I’ve slept with all of my assistants,” I said flatly.
“Oh my god, Nico,” Harper said softly.
“I know,” I said. I groaned and put my face in my free hand. “Something like this could be the end of Ulrich Sports.”
Harper sighed quietly.
“But I have to call a staff meeting to address these ... allegations,” I continued.
“And now my name is going to come out,” Harper said flatly.
I swallowed hard.
“It won’t,” I promised her. “You’ll be safe.”
“Nico, I can’t lose the job I have now,” Harper said. “I just can’t – it would ruin my life!” She sounded almost hysterical and also sad, and listening to her sound like this killed me. All I wanted to do was pull her into my arms and assure her that everything would be okay. Listening to Harper sound this sad was physically painful, and I wished desperately that I’d never had to have this conversation with her.
“I’m so scared,” Harper said. She was breathing fast now, and there was nothing relaxed about her. “If I lose my job, I’ll lose my apartment, and—”
“Hey,” I told her. “It’ll be all right. I promise you, it will.”
I hated this – I hated being the one to make her sound so sad and regretful. I hated making Harper afraid or scared, and I wished I could wave a fucking magic wand and make this all disappear, but right now I knew there was nothing I could do other than to keep her as informed as possible.
“You don’t know that,” Harper said, and now I could really hear the panic coming off of her voice in waves. “Everything could be ruined for me!”
I took a deep breath. “I’ll update you later, okay?”
When she replied, Harper’s voice was as scared and small as a little girl’s.
“Okay,” she said softly. “I guess that’s all you can do.”
We got off the phone and I groaned into my hands, wishing I could scream. I emailed Janice and had her set a company-wide meeting for this afternoon with instructions to order catering and not to alarm anyone if possible. The whole time, Harper was the first thing on my mind. I hated that I’d had to call her and frighten her the way I did – especially because things had been going better between us.