by Poppy Flynn
Humiliated beyond belief, Laurel slunk out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her and then squeezed her eyes tightly shut in an effort to try to quell the tears that were suddenly prickling behind her eyelids. She took a deep breath to steady herself before tapping meekly on the door, making sure to wait for a definite reply.
"Come in," Connor boomed out and, taking one final deep breath, Laurel let herself in for the second time.
"It's about time," Connor began as soon as she set foot in the room. "Where the hell have you been?"
Laurel faltered in her stride and blinked in stunned surprise. Really?
"But you told me to—" she began indignantly.
"I told you to report to my office as soon as you had picked up the mess you so clumsily made," Connor interjected. He made a big show of pulling back his sleeve and scrutinising his flashy Rolex watch. "That was almost forty-five minutes ago. I will not tolerate tardiness."
"Tardiness? But I needed to finish collating—"
"And I won't tolerate any back chat, either! You have enough misdemeanours that I really don't think you should choose to add any more infractions."
"Infractions?" Laurel spluttered aghast, eyes wide.
"And stop repeating everything I say," Connor criticised. "You sound like an idiot."
"What the hell, Connor?"
"And that goes for insubordination, too."
"Insubordin—" Laurel barely managed to keep from repeating his words yet again. "You're kidding me, right? This really is some kind of bad joke!"
"Do I look like I'm joking, Miss Stanton?" Connor asked coolly, his eyes narrowed and flinty.
"No, you look like you're being a dick!" Laurel retorted, probably unwisely in Connor's current frame of mind, but she really was struggling to make any kind of sense of whatever the hell he was playing at. She knew him too well to think he was being entirely serious but, on the other hand, he was putting on a damn good show, and there was none of the mischievous playfulness he usually projected.
"That. Is. Enough!" Connor grated out, carefully enunciating each word. "I am going to write you up for your insubordinate attitude and language and last, but by no means least, your unfortunate failure to keep on top of your workload, which has had severe consequences on the productivity of my own day."
"You have got to be kidding me!" Laurel squawked in outrage. "The only reason I dropped those papers—which, incidentally, I worked through my lunch break to get finished for you—is because you came storming, unannounced, into my office and scared me half to death!"
"I am not referring to your unfortunate clumsiness, Miss Stanton," Connor returned. "I am referring to the fact that you failed to tell me about the postponement of my lunch engagement. I have just spent a great deal of time waiting for a meeting that never happened. My time is precious, as I'm sure you know, and this kind of transgression is both unprofessional and incompetent on your part.
"Excuse me?" Laurel exclaimed. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"I believe I have already warned you more than once about your use of language, Laurel. I don't wish to keep repeating myself. And I'm sure you must be quite aware that I'm referring to my 2:00 pm lunch meeting, for which you failed to alert me of the change in plans."
"Oh, no!" Laurel stomped, suddenly seething. "You might have decided to behave like some colossal, pompous, autocratic ass, but even you can't get around the fact that I called you with that message and you told me you didn't have time to speak to me so to memo it to you instead, which I did—straight away. And if you want to push it any further, then I'm pretty sure I can also come up with the time and date stamp for the damn thing, so if you're that insistent on pulling me up in front of HR on some kind of phoney allegation, then you'll have to find another!" Laurel's voice had become more and more high pitched and strident with every word that fell out of her mouth until she found herself panting and short of breath, her eyes just a little wild with the utter indignation.
"Stop screeching, Miss Stanton. That behaviour is quite unbecoming. I am not interested in your excuses. I will be writing you up and reporting your behaviour and it will be up to you to make your defence—with them. Now go and get on with your work and let's try to avoid any more indiscretions for what remains of the afternoon."
Laurel opened her mouth to retaliate, but at the last moment, she thought the better of it. Whatever Connor was playing at, he was still her boss and, as such, he had a lot of influence over her position, even if she wasn't usually accountable to him. He really could make things awkward for her if he ever got it into his mind to do so. Instead, she retreated with as much dignity as she could muster, and taking a quick glance at the clock and seeing it was only fifty minutes before her official quitting time, she decided that discretion was the better part of valour and opted to leave early and take the lunch hour that she'd missed out on by working through. So much for keeping Connor sweet. She'd sort out the rest of the mess tomorrow, when she was in a better frame of mind, herself.
Connor sat back down at his desk after the confrontation with Laurel and rubbed his hands over his gritty eyes. He had gotten precious little sleep last night. After the events of the day and how out of sorts he'd been after the incident yesterday morning, the damn woman he'd had to meet with last night had upset his equilibrium even more. He hadn't been in the best position, mentally, to deal with Maura Murray's advances, and, as such, he had struggled and failed to stave her off with his usual diplomatic finesse. If there was ever a sexual harassment complaint waiting to be filed, then he had everything he ever needed for one right there. The woman had lasered in on his obvious distraction and thrown everything she had at him, from coy and subtle to downright brazen, and Connor hadn't been able to respond with his usual clever diplomacy and charm his way out of the situation. The evening had ended with the woman all but mauling him, having migrated from little touches that could be played off as almost acceptable to blatant feeling and groping, until Connor had finally cut the evening short when she'd had the sheer audacity to try to put her hand inside his fly. If the roles had been reversed, a man would have found himself locked up, but it was almost as if she knew that a man would think twice and stop short of making such allegations. The entire fiasco had left a bitter taste in his mouth and had disturbed him very much more than he had any care to admit. That night, he'd scrubbed himself in the shower to try and rid himself of the feel of her unwanted fingers and the cloying smell of her perfume, but once he'd turned in for the night, every time his eyes drooped, he found himself plagued by nightmare scenarios that, in turn, had involved Maura Murray, then Rayleen, and finally segued into Fluff.
He knew it wasn't fair to take his tiredness and bad mood out on Laurel, and he certainly hadn't planned to, but everything had gone wrong and she was an easy target. Plus, as soon as she had bitten back and started to rage against him, he hadn't been able to prevent himself from taking things even further.
He stretched his legs out in front of him and rested his aching head against the back of his chair, then he sighed and sat up to look for the memo she'd told him had been sent. It was there, just like she had claimed, and Connor felt like an even bigger jerk than she had called him.
He checked his watch and decided that she'd probably had time to finish collating the unfortunate document and maybe calmed down in the process. He'd go and fetch it, since he needed it for a meeting first thing in the morning and apologise to her at the same time. Maybe he should take her to dinner to try to smooth things over again. Or perhaps that was taking things one step too far. Connor didn't want her to get the wrong idea. He liked Laurel—a lot—but he just needed a little bit of time to get his head together from this unexpected turn of events, which had left Rayleen at the forefront of his memory after two decades, and left him struggling to deal with the fallout. And he needed to put a blessed bit of distance between them. Maybe it was his own overactive sense of paranoia, but she just seemed to be pushing at him all the dam
n time, demanding more of him than he was comfortable with giving. He desperately needed for her to back off a little bit, and since it was obvious that she wasn't going to do that, then it was up to him to take a step away, because even if it was just paranoia, the whole situation was leaving him feeling edgy and overly neurotic. He wasn't so arrogant that he wouldn't acknowledge that he wasn't in a good place, mentally, right now. He just needed a bit of distance, so he could get things under control before they got out of hand.
Taking a deep breath to compose himself, Connor buzzed the intercom for her desk but got no answer. Figuring she was in the break room or the bathroom, he buzzed her again ten minutes later, still without any reply. Irritated all over again, he went to look for her.
Finding her office empty, he took in his half-finished paperwork and checked the break room. Without any luck and with the clock ticking away for his postponed early dinner appointment, Connor eventually rang through to reception to ask if anyone had seen her.
He replaced the handset back into the cradle with a deliberate gentleness that belied his utter anger at finding out she'd left early, immediately after the dressing down he'd given her, in fact. So much for being sorry and letting her off the warning he'd threatened her with. Laurel obviously held him in such disdain that she hadn't even bothered to take him seriously!
Well, she'd soon learn that was a mistake. Obviously, the flighty, impulsive girl was letting her true colours show, now that Desi was out of the office, and thought her relationship with Connor was enough that she was excluded from following the protocols that everyone else in the company was governed by. Well, she was about to learn that no one took Connor Griffin for that kind of ride and got away with it. He glanced once more at the pile of paperwork that he was going to have to come in and deal with himself after he'd finished with his evening business meeting, and Connor saw a red haze fizzling in front of his eyes. He could feel the pulse throbbing away in his temple as he struggled to stop his breath from coming out in short sharp pants. He wasn't successful. Feeling like a pressure cooker that was about to blow, Connor brought his white knuckled fist down on Laurel's desk with a resounding thump. The force caused a few stray papers to fly up in the air and flutter down to the floor. The sight was the very last straw, and Connor gave in to the pressure that was squeezing his chest and let out an almighty, enraged roar as he slammed out of the door hard enough to leave a dent in the plaster of the wall behind it. Then he picked up his phone to put in an immediate complaint to the HR department.
Chapter 10
By the following morning, Laurel had pretty much decided to let bygones be bygones and start this new day with a fresh attitude. Hopefully, she and Connor could put all the bad feelings behind them, admit that it was possible that each of them had been in the wrong, and get on with pursuing a mature working relationship. This sort of issue was obviously why office relationships were banned in many workplaces.
In an effort to get things back on the right footing, Laurel stopped at a lovely little delicatessen on her way into work and bought some breakfast for them both as a bit of a peace offering, and by the time she got into Blackwood Universal, she was feeling positive and optimistic.
It didn't last long. Laurel had barely managed to walk through the door of her office before Connor came barrelling down the corridor. She didn't need to look at him twice to see that he had a face like thunder which was about to let loose all over her morning. Clutching the deli bag in front of her, she wondered, bleakly, if it would be enough to swerve things in a different direction.
"You're late!" Connor bellowed, making a big show of looking at his watch, even though Laurel was pretty sure that he had the time memorised right down to the last second. She snuck a quick glance at the wall clock opposite her desk. It showed 8:36 am. A whole six minutes late, just because she had decided to stop and grab him some breakfast. So much for the idea of a peace offering, then. She opened her mouth to defend herself, but she never got the chance before Connor continued with his tirade. And wasn't that getting old, too!
"Not only are you tardy this morning, but you left early yesterday without completing the very necessary work I tasked you with."
Laurel frowned at her desk, noticing that the paperwork she had planned to finish this morning and had left in partially collated piles yesterday afternoon was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm sorry, you never told me it had any kind of deadline," she replied reasonably.
"And yet if you had decided to see out your work day like any other reasonable employee, we might have managed to have that conversation."
"What, in the mood you were in yesterday, yeah, I can see how that might have happened!" Laurel snorted, rolling her eyes.
"It is up to the pair of us to try to maintain a positive working environment, Miss Stanton," Connor criticised. "I warned you several times about your attitude and your language, but it seems like that message has failed to sink in, even under the threat of an official warning. I chose to speak to you about your misdemeanours, and instead of stepping up, you respond by shirking your duties, going home early, and arriving late this morning."
"Jesus, Connor. Are you for real? Listen to yourself! You're behaving like a complete pompous ass!"
"Miss Stanton!" Connor bellowed. "Do you really think that is an acceptable way to speak to your superiors when you are already being reprimanded and right on the tail end of an official warning?"
Laurel's eyes widened as it gradually occurred to her that Connor was stone cold serious. Okay, so maybe she hadn't been the most respectful to him but, despite the rages of the past couple of days, she honestly hadn't thought he was doing anything more than letting off a bit of pent up steam. Now she blinked and backtracked over their conversation, and backing up her thought process, Laurel tried to make amends. No point in winding the man up any more than he already was, after all.
He looked like he might pop a gasket at any second, now that she really looked at him. His face was haggard. He was sporting five o'clock shadow first thing in the morning, which was highly unusual for Connor, who was usually impeccably groomed, and the shadows under his eyes that had started to become noticeable yesterday had turned into bags that he would probably be able to start packing if they got any bigger. He had an overall crumpled kind of look to him, which was also unusual as, if there was one thing Connor was known for, it was his normally very sharp appearance. Taking pity on the man, Laurel sighed and backed down.
"Look, I'm sorry. I think we've just had a bit of a misunderstanding, okay?" Laurel turned and walked to her desk. She opened a drawer to place her handbag inside and then poked around in the deli bag to find his breakfast offering. Big mistake!
"Laurel! I'm speaking to you seriously here. How dare you just make excuses and turn your back on me during this kind of conversation!" She swung around to look at him again and noticed the vein throbbing in Connor's forehead with a vague kind of fascination and the way his hands were fisted, white knuckled at his sides. Jeez! The man really did need to calm down and take it easy.
"Con-nor!" Laurel stretched out his name in emphasis. "You really need to take a step back and get a grip, man, before you pop a cog!"
Okay—not the right thing to say if the deepening, purplish hue his skin tone was suddenly changing to was anything to go by. Damn, how was this conversation getting so out of hand so quickly? This wasn't the way she had expected things to go this morning.
"Breathe?" she whispered, eyeing his face with concern and hoping that didn't come across quite as flippant as it had sounded, since that certainly hadn't been her intension.
As she shook her head, Laurel took the deli bag in both hands and thrust it towards his wide chest.
"I'm sorry, okay?" she said decisively, determined to get this confrontation back on a more even keel. "I went to get breakfast for you as a bit of a peace offering after yesterday, and obviously, that delayed me by a few minutes," Laurel reasoned, hurrying to continue before he interrupt
ed her yet again.
"I missed my lunch yesterday, so I took an early day to make up for it and because I felt we both needed some distance from each other after the blow-up we had."
Connor wasn't looking any more approachable than he had been ten minutes ago, but at least he'd shut up for long enough for her to challenge his misconceptions.
"I didn't know the file you gave me was time sensitive, because you didn't say…" She thought she detected a low growl emanating from him at the reference to the document, but she rushed on before he could butt in again. "Obviously, if I had known, I would have stayed and got it finished for you, but I planned to do that this morning after we'd both had a bit of space."
Laurel looked around again, wondering where the paperwork was for the second time that morning. Perhaps if she dealt with it really quickly, Connor would lighten up a bit and she could prove to him that she could achieve things fast when it was necessary, and he'd stop thinking she was some kind of shirker. Maybe he'd needed to take a look at some of the information in it. She shook her head and bit the bullet. "If you fetch it for me now, I can get it finished off in no time," she offered with her brightest smile.
There was no answering smile or amiable commiseration. In fact, although the worrying purple shade had lifted from Connor's countenance, the stony, unimpressed look was still very much in evidence.
"Unfortunately, Miss Stanton, I needed that file for an early meeting this morning," he bit out. "So, while you were taking your early day, I had my postponed dinner meeting, and when that was done, I had to come back into the office and finish doing your work for you so that it was ready for my 6:30 am start."
