A Heart to Trust

by A. L. Brooks

  Chrissy snorted. “Threatened? By you? Don’t be ridiculous.” The fear in her eyes told otherwise. “I hate the way you look down on me. People like you always have, just because I came from a poor family and had to work my way through school and college.”

  “That is ridiculous!” Olivia threw her hands up. “I don’t know anything about your background, so how the hell could I look down on you? That’s just a convenient excuse for your incompetence.” She took one step closer. “But you know what makes me so angry about all of this?”

  Chrissy took a half-step back, licking her lips. Her gaze darted from Olivia to the door and back again.

  “It’s the way you’ve treated Jenny. Pretending to be her friend, then stabbing her in the back. That’s vile.”

  Chrissy threw out that evil laugh once more. “Oh yeah, poor little Jenny. She was just too easy. You, yeah, you were harder, but I made it work. Because I am smart, bitch.” Chrissy walked to the door. “The best part is, you can’t prove any of it. It’s my word against yours. And, you know what? I’m totally going to have the last laugh. Because with everything I’ve done, I’ve made sure my job is secure. I guess we’ll just see about yours and Jenny’s, huh?”

  She threw Olivia one more nasty grin and left the room.

  “Everything okay?” Jenny asked Chrissy when she returned from her impromptu meeting with Olivia.

  Chrissy was a little red in the face, but she seemed cheerful enough. “Oh yes.” She beamed. “Everything’s good. Wonderful. Oh great, my coffee didn’t go cold.” She picked it up and drank a couple mouthfuls. “So, how was your Christmas?”

  Jenny blinked a couple times. Something was off here, but she didn’t know what. She chatted with Chrissy and Maxwell about the holidays, and all the while kept one eye out for Olivia’s return.

  It took around ten minutes, but eventually Olivia reappeared. Although she smiled at them all as she took her seat, there was a tightness around mouth that told Jenny everything was not okay.

  Before she could come up with a plan for what, if anything, she wanted to say to Olivia, Derek walked up to their desks.

  “Everyone have a good holiday season?” he asked without preamble.

  While Jenny and Maxwell had worked through most of it, Derek, Chrissy, and Olivia had all taken the week as vacation. Jenny didn’t mind; the office was quiet most days and distance from Olivia had definitely helped. Plus, she and Maxwell had managed to get some serious desk basketball practice in. In their ongoing competition, which had run for over a year now, Jenny was top with eighty-eight wins, but Maxwell was close on her tail with seventy-nine.

  Everyone murmured something about all being good, and Derek nodded; it was obvious he wasn’t listening. “Great. So, team meeting at ten in meeting room B, please.” He wandered off again.

  Jenny walked to the coffee station. She took her time, not actually having any work to do this morning. She’d been asked to start on some general run-around work after lunch on a new quiz show C&V was filming in a studio uptown, and that would keep her occupied for the rest of the week. She wondered if Derek was calling them together to talk about Catwalk or about the future of the team. Or both. A sudden thought hit her like truck: if it was about the team, would she even have a job by the end of the day?

  Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try to look busy and needed this morning, just in case. And maybe it would be worth reaching out to Adrienne and other people she knew who were currently, or recently, in the business.

  Just in case.

  Olivia followed everyone into the meeting room at ten o’clock and chose a seat down the table from Chrissy. As long as she didn’t have to look at the woman, she could maintain her calm exterior. She still seethed following her confrontation with Chrissy earlier, and, if she was honest with herself, she was concerned.

  Chrissy seemed far too smug about things. What had she done, as she put it, to secure her future? Who had she sold out?

  Derek appeared a few seconds after they’d all sat and shut the door before he took his usual spot at the top of the table. “Right, thanks for being so prompt. Time to catch up.” He rubbed his hands together. “Firstly, Project Catwalk. Huge success. This team looks very good with the guys upstairs right now.”

  Olivia almost snorted. She doubted “the guys upstairs” knew her name. What Derek meant was he looked very good right now.

  “So, we have two more projects to get started with in the next couple of weeks,” Derek continued. “However, first I need to complete my evaluations of you all and make my recommendations to HR as to who will stay and who, unfortunately, will have to leave us.”

  “So, nothing has changed?” There was a hint of steel in Jenny’s voice. “One of us still has to go, even though Catwalk was that successful?”

  Olivia couldn’t have been more impressed with Jenny’s boldness. She wanted to catch her eye but didn’t dare.

  Derek shifted in his seat; a flush appeared on his neck. “Yes, well, one success doesn’t miraculously change the staff budget, I’m afraid. So, yes, the situation is the same—there are still only three PA jobs available.”

  Jenny frowned but said nothing more.

  The rest of them cast glances at each other and Derek.

  Chrissy, Olivia noted, looked the calmest of them all.

  “I know it’s not fair to drag it out, so I will decide by the end of this week, and you all will know by then too.”

  “Thank you, Derek.” Chrissy came very close to batting her eyelashes at him. “I think that’s very fair.”

  He gave her a big smile.

  Olivia wanted to vomit.

  Two seats down, Jenny made a strange noise that turned into a cough.

  Olivia inwardly chuckled.

  “All right, then, that’s where we are.” Derek stood. “I know each of you has a little work this week but probably not enough to keep you fully busy. So, ask around, see who needs help, make yourselves useful.” He turned to Chrissy. “I have something you could help me with. If you don’t mind?”

  “Not at all.” Chrissy’s voice was so sickly sweet, Olivia cringed.

  “Excellent.”

  Derek and Chrissy left the room.

  Olivia dared a look at Jenny and caught her and Maxwell staring at each other.

  Jenny’s eyebrows were raised, a look that spoke volumes.

  “Just to warn you,” Olivia said before she could stop herself. “I think Chrissy’s done something to give Derek a bad impression of one of us.”

  Jenny and Maxwell turned to her.

  Olivia shrugged. “I know, it sounds absurd. But she as much as admitted it to me in our meeting earlier. I honestly don’t know what she’s up to, but it isn’t good.”

  Maxwell shoved his chair back from the table. “I hate office politics.” The words were spoken with a shocking passion coming from someone normally so balanced.

  “I hear you.” Jenny ran her hands through her hair. “If I didn’t need to pay rent and, you know, eat, I’d be tempted to walk out of here right now. I hate this.”

  Olivia didn’t know what to say to that and neither, it seemed, did Maxwell.

  The three of them simply stared at each other as a heavy silence descended.

  Jenny hurried along the street, dodging office workers and tourists in equal measure. It’s the first week of January and it’s freezing here. Surely there’s way better places to be a tourist?

  She was late but knew everyone would forgive her. It had simply taken longer than she’d anticipated to get away from the quiz show and travel downtown. Plus, she didn’t know where she was going. This far downtown was a mystery to her, despite having lived in New York all these years. But she’d never been part of the Wall Street crowd, so it made sense.

  Solomon, however, was a part of that scene, and he’d suggested everyone meet for
some food after Carl had finished up a meeting at Bloomingdale’s. It was sweet how much Solomon made sure to spend time with Carl’s friends, and it only made her love him more for Carl.

  She stumbled upon their meeting place, almost by accident, and gratefully pushed into the warmth of the bar, leaving the cold street behind. She found Carl and Solomon in a booth halfway down the room; Tamara and Roz were missing, and Jenny sighed in relief at not being last. She walked toward the two men, and they leaped out of their seats to embrace her. “Did you recover from the new year yet?” Jenny smirked at Solomon.

  “Oh, you’re hilarious,” he said, but he laughed. He was dapper in a dark-blue, three-piece suit with a light-blue shirt and a silver tie. His hair, cropped short, looked freshly trimmed and, as usual, his brown skin was flawless. He also smelled delicious, and Jenny made a note to ask him what cologne he wore. She liked to mix it up a little with so-called male fragrances, and his might work for her too.

  “You didn’t have to wake up next to him.” Carl squirmed away when Solomon poked him in the ribs. “He was groaning like he was in labor.”

  “I told all of you earlier in the evening tequila was not my drink,” Solomon said. “But did any of you listen? No. And so, suffer the consequences.” He sipped from his gin and tonic and threw them an “I told you so” look.

  Jenny laughed, then snagged the waiter as he walked by. She ordered a vodka cranberry, then stood. “I need the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

  The washrooms were buried way down the back of the joint. The place styled itself as one of those old-fashioned, wood-lined bars and eating houses. It was filled with bankers, city types, and the odd tourist.

  She took care of business and left the washroom. As she started back along the dimly lit room to their booth, her eye was caught by a swish of blonde hair to her left. Much to Jenny’s surprise, across the room at one of the higher tables sat Chrissy. Jenny was just about to wave to get her attention when her gaze fell on Chrissy’s dinner partner, and she froze.

  Derek.

  And he was—oh my God, seriously?—about to feed Chrissy a mouthful of his pasta from his fork.

  Derek and Chrissy?

  Jenny’s brain connected all the dots, and her stomach roiled.

  Derek was the boyfriend she’d talked up all this time.

  Derek, who was their boss. And married.

  Jenny’s heart hammered as she hurried back to the booth. When she got there, Tamara and Roz were shucking their coats and scarves, beaming at her from across the table. Their smiles fell at whatever was displayed on Jenny’s face. Jenny could only imagine how she looked: shocked, disgusted, disappointed.

  “What?” Tamara asked a millisecond before anyone else.

  Jenny slid into the booth and leaned in. Four faces looked wide-eyed back at her. “You know Chrissy, the woman I work with?”

  “High-maintenance, manipulative one?” Solomon asked.

  Everyone stared at him.

  “What? I listen!”

  “I like him.” Roz winked at Carl.

  “Anyway.” Jenny tapped the table to regain their attention. Everyone fell silent once more. “She’d told me she and Derek, our boss, had known each other before C&V. I didn’t think anything of it, but now they’re at one of those tables over there having dinner and he’s feeding her from his own fork!”

  “Like seductively?” Roz asked.

  “Yes! I think they’re together. You know, together.” Jenny’s hands trembled.

  “Your boss and your colleague, a colleague you are in competition with to get one of those jobs, are currently having a romantic dinner for two?” Tamara’s voice was neutral, but her eyes narrowed and her entire body tensed.

  “This is bad, isn’t it?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Wait, they might just be good friends.” Carl looked around at them all. “I mean, if they go back long enough, it might be something they do.” Even he didn’t sound convinced by his own words.

  Tamara snorted. “Doubtful. I’ve known all you for nearly ten years and I’ve never done that with any of you.”

  “What does she look like?” Roz slid out of her seat.

  “What are you up to?” Tamara asked.

  “She doesn’t know me. I can scope them out and report back.” Roz winked at her girlfriend, who shook her head and motioned for Jenny to speak.

  “Lots of blonde hair. She’s wearing a dark-pink sweater. He’s in a white shirt that doesn’t fit properly.”

  Roz snorted, then scurried away.

  The others said very little while they waited for her return. When she appeared from the opposite direction, they all jumped.

  “If they’re just friends, I’m Hillary Clinton.” Roz placed her phone on the table and pointed at the screen.

  Jenny leaned in first, and what she saw made her stomach churn once more. The photo was perfectly in focus, though Roz had obviously zoomed quite a way in. And what it showed was perfectly clear too: Chrissy and Derek kissing. Not on the cheeks like friends would do but with mouths open, tongues everywhere.

  The confirmation drained all the blood from Jenny’s limbs. “Oh. My. God,” she managed to squeak out.

  “Yup.” Roz cast Jenny a sympathetic look.

  “I don’t even know what to do with this.”

  “I do,” Tamara said grimly.

  Chapter 25

  On Thursday morning, Jenny walked into the office like a zombie; her gaze was directed at the floor and her legs moved on autopilot. She knew she had to do what she planned, but that didn’t mean she had to feel good about it. Tucked safely away in her bag were the notes she’d made when talking to the employment lawyer Tamara had put her in touch with.

  Nia was one of the many contacts Tamara had made through networking at conferences and other events. She’d agreed to meet with Jenny and offer some advice in exchange for an ice cream.

  “You want ice cream in January?” Jenny had asked her when she’d returned Jenny’s call.

  “I want ice cream at any time of year.” Nia laughed. “I’ll meet you at seven tonight at the gelato place on Pier 25.”

  Jenny hadn’t even known there was a gelato place on Pier 25 or that it would be open all year, but she’d found it okay, and her forty minutes spent with Nia was more than useful.

  Nia had asked her to check the company handbook for the official policy on relationships between colleagues and C&Vs official complaints procedure. With those two things on the table between them as they ate their ice cream cups, Nia talked Jenny through what her options were. Nia spoke quickly but succinctly, words leaving her mouth in a staccato beat.

  “I hate that I’m considering being a snitch.” Jenny gazed morosely into her empty ice cream cup at the end of the meeting.

  “I get that.” Nia pursed her lips. “And I know we don’t know the circumstances of this relationship. Is it genuine? Is he putting her under pressure to give him sexual favors so she can get the job? Did she seduce him so that she can get the job? Any of those things are possible. But that’s what your HR department should be looking at, because whichever way this relationship came about, it is breaking company policy. That much is clear.” Nia had looked at her then, her dark-brown eyes softening. “You don’t have to go through with this. I’ve just told you how you can. But if it was me, in the position you’re in, I would do it. I don’t think you can trust Derek’s judgment isn’t impaired in this decision-making process.”

  They’d parted shortly after, with Nia making Jenny promise to update her on what happened. “And if you get any blowback from this and need a lawyer, call me.” She’d held Jenny’s gaze until she nodded her agreement.

  So here Jenny was, about to—potentially—turn everything in the production team on its head. She was nervous about the consequences, but at the same time, a low-burning ange
r still simmered in her stomach.

  Chrissy had suckered her in. She knew that much. Chrissy had pretended to be Jenny’s friend and ally against Olivia while secretly doing all she could to ensure that one of them, or Maxwell, got dropped. It had dawned on Jenny the night before, after she’d got home and called Tamara to talk through all Nia had said, Olivia had probably also been correct when she said Chrissy was scheming against them all along.

  Just when I thought I had found a good work friend, it turns out I shouldn’t have trusted her at all. She felt like an idiot. Always far too trusting, as Tamara had pointed out not so long ago. Well, lesson learned. She was pretty sure she’d never let anyone con her this way again.

  She reached her desk and placed her bag on her chair while she unpacked it. No one else was in yet; she’d come in very early to get up to HR before she changed her mind. She pulled out her laptop and her notes, then sipped at her water bottle while she worked on calming her breathing.

  Okay, let’s do this.

  “Thanks again for coming to talk to me.” Zoey, the senior HR manager, gave Jenny a warm smile. She was a woman in her late forties, Jenny would guess, and had an air of motherliness to her that was kind of soothing. “I know this can’t have been easy for you.”

  Jenny let out an explosive breath. The meeting had, as far as she could tell, gone well.

  Zoey’s eyebrows had almost lifted off her face when Jenny presented the photo at the end of her carefully rehearsed spiel. She seemed genuinely shocked and had taken copious notes on what Jenny had told her.

  “It wasn’t, no.”

  “Well, leave it with me. I will be pursuing this with utmost urgency, given the situation. And trust me, no decisions on jobs will be made while this is ongoing, so rest assured about that, okay?”

  “Great. Thanks.” Jenny’s palms were damp and sweat trickled down her back. This had been beyond stressful, and all she wanted now was to get outside, get some air, be anywhere except in the C&V offices.