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In the bathroom, I duck into the nearest stall and throw everything up. Feeling sweaty and weak in the knees, I sit myself down on the toilet after flushing down the contents. There, I check the recording. The quality is good. Amazingly so for being in my pants pocket, though some of it is distorted by the movement of the fabric around the speakers, but it’s better than nothing.
Satisfied with the quality of my evidence and the pain I had to go through to get it, I spend a couple more minutes in the bathroom trying to get myself together. I splash water on my face, take a few extra deep breaths, and try to come up with what my plan is going to be for the next few days. Until the end of the week, when I plan to bring the evidence to Kane and his crew and put a stop to all this.
After five or so more minutes of taking care of myself and trying to organize my thoughts, I decide that this morning’s work should satisfy her for at least the next couple of days. She’ll probably want one more. If she does, I’ll make sure that my phone is somewhere else besides my pocket. Perhaps even out and recording. That would be best.
But I’m going to have to make it sound like I’m one of those guys. One who doesn’t mind performing on camera, or keeping these kinds of things as salacious trophies. My stomach tightens. Curdles again, and I almost go dashing into the stall again, but it passes almost as quickly as it came, and I leave the safety of the bathroom.
I head back to the office I share with Vanacore, hoping for something to take my mind off of what I just did with my boss. What more she’s going to want with me, now that I’ve finally “give in” to her, her desires.
****
It’s a little after lunchtime (I’ve decided not to go down to the cafeteria for anything to eat after my “breakfast” this morning) that I get anything remotely in the way of good news. Kane calls my phone directly.
He makes this clear the moment I pick up. “Hey there, Tommy,” he says in his normally friendly and energetic way, “It’s Kane! Kane McKenzie!”
Silently, I think to myself, what other Kane could there be? But I don’t bother to say anything of the kind. Instead, I say, “Why hello there, Mr. McKenzie!”
As I say this, I see Vanacore’s eyes bug out. She immediately jumps up from her desk and comes to hover around mine. She whispers at me, “Kane McKenzie? Calling you?” I nod, focusing on trying to hear Kane. He’s begun to tell me something about Melissa. “What could he be calling you about, boy?” Vanacore wants to know, but I don’t have the availability to answer her.
I politely put up my hand, and try to listen to Kane, “I’m sorry, Mr. McKenzie,” I say, “What?” Out of the corner of my eye, I look at Vanacore. “It’s hard to hear you, sir. Say that again?”
“Melissa, my secretary,” he says, “you know her?”
“I know her, yes,” I say, watching Vanacore gesture wildly out of the corner of my eye. She tries to get after me about what’s going on and why she’s being left out of it. So I finally take the phone down from my mouth and say to her, “Something about accounting. Something in regards to payroll.”
Not the most serviceable lie I have ever told, but with being left out of the conversation, Vanacore’s beginning to foam at the mouth. She looks severely disappointed with this news, which is exactly what I wanted.
I put my ear back up to the phone just as Kane says, “Well, she’s looking to have some legal representation, and I thought that while you can’t represent her, I thought maybe you could help her organize her case? Her thoughts, and then present it to Vanacore?”
I have an immediate visceral reaction. Hell no, I’m not doing that. I’m not helping Melissa with her case only to turn around and feed it to this beast. If anyone’s going to represent her, it’s going to be me. I don’t say this to Kane. Both because he is the boss of my boss, and not someone you want to mouth off to, and because my boss is standing right there, waiting for any slip of more information.
“I’d been worried about a conflict of interest thing with her seeking legal representation from our office, but since Vanacore maintains some of her own ‘brand’ within our parent company, as do most of the other mergers, I thought it would be some good practice for you,” Kane explains. “A chance for you to really grow and develop. Vanacore had a lot of good things to say about you, Tommy.”
