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“I thought so, I better go. I want to call my boss and ask about the CCTV coverage.”
“Call me later if you want to talk. The good thing is that you know you’re in danger so you can step back, put some distance between the two of you, and walk away with your apartment and no hurt feelings.”
Encouraged by my chat with Ariel, I give my boss a call.
“Are you working on your day off?” she asks.
The semi-excitement in her voice gives me pause. “No, not exactly.”
“Then what is it?” Her pleasant voice takes on a sour note.
This should have been my cue to say I have the wrong number and hang up, but stupidly I forge forward. “I wanted to ask if there’s some way I can access the CCTV.”
“The CCTV? Of our office?”
“Yes, a friend of mine said that most places have CCTV of the workspaces for safety reasons, and I remembered that there are cameras in the ceiling.” I had thought they were newfangled sprinklers when I first started working there.
“You can’t access them for no reason. That’s a privacy issue. Why would you want them?”
“Because it’s possible someone used my password and accessed my computer.”
“Is this about the presentation Stacy gave last week? I thought we had put this matter to bed. I’m very disappointed in you, Harlow, and I don’t understand how we can operate as a team when you harbor these unfounded suspicions against your coworkers. I told you before that if you had another strike against you, I’d have to let you go. This is another strike. You’ll get a letter from HR on Monday. Don’t bother to come in.”
She hangs up before I can even respond. I’m too stunned to cry.
Chapter Twelve
CAL
“Ithought you were taking the afternoon off. Did she kick you to the curb already?” Trident seems way too gleeful about the possibility of me suffering heartbreak. He hands me a portfolio.
“We’re officially engaged, but I need a ring. I promised her Grandma’s rock. I’ll have to see Aunt Gia for that. I looked over the financials for the other ad agency that’s on the acquisition list, and I want to pass on that. The corporate governance looks shaky, and while they have a good client list, there seems to be a lot of internal strife with high turnover and their former employees bad-mouthing them openly on social media.” I close the presentation with a snap and hand it back.
“I’ll cross them off.” He checks something off on his notebook. “What about the meeting with Chairman Chen? His team is going to be here next week kicking off his IPO road show.”
“Chen’s company is the AI health care unicorn? The one that supplies in-room twenty-four-hour monitoring based on real-time scans?”
“Yup. The buy-in is going to be around 40 million at the lowest for any pre-IPO investor.”
“I’ll review it tonight. Anything else?”
“No. The Chen meeting is the most important now that we’re kicking the ball on the ad agency, so you’re free to go and try to woo your woman back.”
“Thanks for your nonexistent support, Trident.” I glance at my watch. Aunt Gia should be home about now. “One more thing. Look into Mindy Morton. She’s a resident without voting power but has a stick up her ass about Harlow. Also, find out who owns the land The Grand sits on. The apartments are owned by the residents, but the land might be separate.”
“Are you thinking of buying it?”
“If I have to.”
Trident wrinkles his nose. “It would be pricey.”
“I’ll live.”
“Yes, I suppose you will. Can I get a raise then?”
“When Harlow gets full title to her apartment, yes. Also, I tried to recruit the doorman at The Grand. He’d be great in PR. He knew me on sight. I gave him my personal card, so when his call comes through, help him through the hiring process.”
“I’m going to add another percentage point onto my next raise for that.” He makes another note.
