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He gave me a weak smile. “I know what you mean.”
I came out to hug Roman goodbye, and Austin went to his room to take a much-needed nap. I went back to my office to finish up a few things when I heard him yelling. I jumped up and ran to his room, throwing open the door. He was thrashing about his bed like he was being attacked.
“Austin,” I yelled.
His eyes popped open, and he looked scared. “What happened?”
“You were screaming. I heard you down the hall.”
He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t remember it.”
“Are you okay?”
“I think so. I want to try to go to sleep again.”
“Sure. I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
He laid back down on his pillow, and I shut the door. I wondered what his nightmare was about.
The next day I had to go back to work. I had two meetings and lunch with Charles Amick. I breezed through the morning and Charles met me at my office to take me to lunch. When we were seated at a steakhouse in midtown, he focused on me.
“You look very tired.”
“It’s been a very trying few weeks.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your friend.”
I forced back tears. “She was a wonderful person.”
“I wanted to say that you’ve done a wonderful job getting our management structure back together. We have a problem, though.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Problem with what?”
“Dirk Benson. He’s filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination. He also said you assaulted him.”
“He was getting ready to attack me. I defended myself.”
“I understand that, but you still hit him.”
“I kneed him in the balls. Diane came in just as he went down. The man is almost a foot taller than me.”
“He claims he didn’t provoke you in any way.”
“That’s ridiculous and false.”
“What did you tell him when he came into your office?”
“I had to terminate him due to his behavior of sexual harassment.”
“Do you have proof of his behavior?”
“Not written. I observed him, and my assistant told me he’d approached her several times before. He was a liability for the company. I find it hard to believe that no one filed complaints.”
“I need you to speak with our in-house counsel. We’ll have to hire an outside firm.”
“Is there something I need to do?”
“You need to document everything that occurred in your office when you dealt with Dirk, including what you observed. I doubt he’ll win, but we need to make sure we have everything outlined.”
