I didn’t have that sort of luck, but I wasn’t going to argue with him. “What should I do?”
“For now, play it safe. Talk to my dad about resigning, let him start the process for potentially settling on your pay issues, and give the headhunter a call. If you’re required to go back to that office for any reason, bring an attorney with you. Better safe than sorry. If it wasn’t for Alice, I wouldn’t be as worried. But they did that to Alice in a legal firm, and there hasn’t already been news about it? I’m worried they’ll realize the position they’re in and try to shut her—and you—up.”
Fantastic. The last thing I wanted was to be in the line of fire of any sort. Despite the infestation of assholes at the firm, I liked the challenge involved with managing a bunch of attorneys, puzzling together schedules, and fielding calls. “Your mother gave me several pairs of stilettos. They’re weapons. If anyone tries anything, I’ll beat them with my stilettos. It’ll be self-defense. How much would you charge me?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“If you get a video of you beating your assailant with a stiletto, because honestly, I’d pay good money to watch that.”
I regarded my shoes, which weren’t stilettos. “I’m going to have to go home to get stilettos. And my clothes.”
“Let me worry about the clothes. Should I fail to return you to your apartment tonight due to the weather, I’m fairly confident my mother can handle making sure you have work-appropriate clothing and stilettos for tomorrow.”
“The stilettos won’t survive the incident. That’s how you break a heel, Julian.”
“Should I be concerned you know this? There’s zero doubt in your voice, Chloe.”
“No comment.”
Julian parked in his driveway because another SUV was already parked in his garage. Laughing, he shook his head and killed the engine. “This would be Dad’s method of making sure Mom comes over for her SUV. I’ll call her after I get off the phone with Alice and make sure you have something clean to wear tomorrow.”
“Should I consider this a kidnapping or a hostage situation?”
“Whichever makes you feel better. I have this thing against letting people go home in bad weather, and after watching that bus slide through an intersection, it’s not worth the risk. I’m sure I can represent myself if necessary. Anyway, despite appearances, I do have several guest bedrooms, and they’re even decorated normally.”
I had a hard time envisioning what Julian considered to be normal. “Normally?”
”Not covered wall to wall in board games.”
“What do you decorate with when it’s not board games? I mean, I have to admit, the board games are pretty. It’s like bookshelves, except there’s insufficient reading material. This may break your heart, Julian, but there aren’t enough bookshelves in your home.”
“I have two entire rooms dedicated to books. One is my study, the other is my library. I even have a strict rule against the inclusion of board games in either of those rooms.”
Sliding out of the SUV, I snagged my hot chocolate and hurried into the garage to escape the blowing snow. “That might sound barely tolerable.”
“There’s a bookcase in each guest bedroom. Does that appease your requirement for books? In addition to a bookcase, I’ve included a bed and other things guests might need to successfully sleep at my house. Did I have to put anything else in those rooms?” He grinned and joined me in his garage. “According to my mother, I’m a troglodyte.”
“Cave men do not take anyone to nice restaurants.”
“I’m going to inform her of this, and should she ask, I’ll tell her you told me this.”
“I’ll come up with other evidence you aren’t a cave man, although if you even think about tossing me over your shoulder to keep me from leaving the house tonight, you’re the one getting beaten with a shoe.”
“I see you have issues with being tossed over shoulders.”
“In addition to having a strong aversion to Santa Claus, I have a strong dislike of standing on chairs and doing anything that results in my feet leaving the ground over a height of approximately six inches.”
“You’re afraid of heights.”
“If you want to hear how loudly I can scream, you would throw me over your shoulder.”
Julian’s eyes narrowed. “I’m having problems with this. When you say that, I have this urge to do just that. You’re typically soft-spoken. How loudly can you scream?”
“How many hits does it take to bludgeon someone to death with a shoe?”
“I’m not sure I want to hear you scream enough to risk being bludgeoned to death with a shoe.”
I smiled sweetly and marched to the door. “I reserve my screaming for some damned cabbie trying to run me over.”
“I’m concerned enough I feel a need to offer you a ride to work every day.”
“I live in Parkchester, Julian.” Well, for a few more weeks. I’d hold off on telling him I’d be headed for warmer waters by the end of the month. I’d dealt with enough shit for one day. Telling Kristine would be bad enough.
She’d cry.
I had no idea what Julian would do.
I could handle Kristine crying, and once she finished crying, I’d ask her how to approach Julian about the situation. I’d need to tell him, but when? How?
Inside of Julian’s house, the dining room table had been turned into a war zone of paperwork, and Julian’s parents sifted through my files. “I understand your dad, but your mom, too?”
“She gets bored and likes to think she’s smart enough to be a lawyer.”
“Julian,” his mother warned.
I marveled at his mother’s ability to convey just how much shit he’d stepped into with his single comment. According to her tone, I wouldn’t get a chance to tell him I’d be headed for South Carolina. “I’m really sorry to be a bother, Mrs. Carter, but it seems I’m being held hostage. I need a pair of stilettos sturdy enough to use as a weapon. If Julian has a bathrobe I can borrow, I can wash my clothes for tomorrow.”
As I’d been taken hostage, it seemed fair I’d make myself at home.
“I’ll skip home and bring you something to wear. Dress you up for a resignation they’ll never forget.”
“And if anyone tries a stunt with me like the one resulting in the destruction of a computer and Alice’s face, I will weaponize my shoes.”
“I have the perfect pair of shoes, a purse, and a pair of flats you can hide in the purse should you snap a heel. Slacks, skirt, or dress?”
“Whatever you feel is the most effective.”
“My marketing department might murder me for this, but I have the prototype for my upcoming line at the house, and I had to make the prototypes in all sizes. It can’t be the same exact cut for every size, you see. A good dress adapts to the size of the woman wearing it, so they’re all cut a little different. Curvier girls need more room around the hips and bust, typically—and the cut of the dress needs to match them, you know?”
“I have breasts, Kristine does not,” I acknowledged.
“Breasts are a very important consideration in the cut of a blouse or dress. Darling, I’ll leave you to the paperwork. I will get an outfit ready for her. I’ll also pull out a good suit for you for tomorrow. Julian, how long are you planning on keeping your hostage?”
“Depends on the weather. Also depends on how tomorrow goes.”
“Don’t get mulish. Chloe, dear, if you want to go home, I’ll drive you myself.”
“I don’t want to get squished by a bus sliding through an intersection,” I admitted. “I’m sure I can handle one young attorney on my own should he get uppity.”
“I’ll bring over a few extra pairs of stilettos so you’re properly armed. Behave yourself, Julian. I will lock you in my basement so she can enjoy her evening without you underfoot if needed.”
“I see where your loyalties lie,” he muttered. “I need to make a phone call, so I’ll be in my stu
dy. Try not to light my house on fire, Dad. Chloe, my kitchen is yours to do with as you please. If you need help finding anything, ask Dad. He knows where I keep things.”
Mission: Cookies was go for takeoff, and I marched to his kitchen to begin my sweet, sweet work. Cookies would help ease the pain of reviewing the past six months of my career.
Fortunately for me, I wasn’t needed until after the cookies were in the oven. Julian’s father worked in silence, the rustle of papers and the patter of typing the only sounds indicating the man hadn’t slipped into a catatonic state over my records.
I sat on the other side of the table, clasped my hands on my lap, and waited.
“Obviously, I need to inform my firm we would not be amiss hiring you. Your requests for your overtime payment are professional, your patience is bordering on legendary, and if your work is anywhere near as organized and thorough as your record keeping, they’d be stupid to risk losing you.” Picking up a stack of my papers, he smacked it against the table. “They owe you fifteen hours a week, minimum, of overtime. You have your pay slips showing no overtime hours at forty-hours a week. You even have acknowledgements from HR they owe you those hours but didn’t pay. They’re daft. That’s the only explanation I have for it.”
“Or they just want good work for cheap.”
“While that’s how many businesses operate, it’s a good way to lose skilled employees. They paid Julian jack shit, but they kept his pay straight. Maybe it was a way to drive you out so they could hire someone cheaper without firing you?”
“I don’t see why they would. They can let me go at any time without warning or reason.”
“Just like you can walk without warning or reason. And that’s what you will do. The resignation letter I am drafting will have your termination be immediate, include a request for all the money owed, include a breakdown of the fines that you are likewise owed for their failure to pay you promptly, and the steps we will take if the complete payment isn’t issued in your next paycheck. At that point, I’ll handle most of the work and keep you in the loop on what’s going on. We’ll have to do some interviews to determine if there’s a case for discrimination. If discrimination is the reason you weren’t being paid overtime properly, we might be able to take it to the Department of Labor for damages. It depends on a lot of factors. Ideally, they’ll do the smart thing and roll over.”
“What sort of fines are we looking at for their failure to pay my overtime?”
“At rough estimate, close to forty thousand dollars.”
“What?”
“It’s almost two thousand a week in fines for failure to pay wages. The Department of Labor fines per incident, and they lump incidents per week. It’ll be cheaper to pay out to you, as I’m sure I can find more violations with some research and work. Legal firms try to maintain their reputation on the ethical front, so this going to the Department of Labor would be really bad for them. No one wants to hire a firm known for poor ethics. No legal firm wants to be embroiled in a labor dispute case. They can get a lot of attention, word spreads to clients, and it damages trust in the firm.”
“And your job is to represent legal firms in Department of Labor cases?”
“Not quite. I represent other attorneys in cases against the firms. Essentially, I’m paid to assist the employees of legal firms with labor disputes. Sometimes, I’m hired by firms to go over their employee handbooks and general practices to ensure they avoid labor disputes in the first place. Either way, my job is to help make sure employee and firm walk away with the least amount of damage done to their reputation. Most times, cases are settled because the firms do not want to take a hit to their reputation. Sometimes, employees stay with the firm, sometimes they don’t. In your case, I would strongly recommend you leave. These new terms for your employment are unacceptable, and you’re not given the option to refuse the extra hours. That’s something I can probably take to the Department of Labor. You can willingly agree to extra hours. You can’t be forced into the extra hours.”
“Do you think they’ll settle?”
“If they’re smart, they will. Are they smart? I seriously doubt it. Most companies pay back the owed earnings to avoid higher penalties. If it goes to the Department of Labor, it’ll be interesting. Honestly, I’d rather have clean and simple rather than interesting, but I’m willing to play hardball.”
Julian’s father sounded rather eager to play hardball in my opinion. “What do you need from me?”
“I need you to walk me through your standard work day, and leave nothing out. If you receive comments about your clothes or gender from your employer, tell me. If the associates or other attorneys have been degrading towards you, tell me. I realize some of this is uncomfortable, but discrimination in the workplace is common.”
I thought there hadn’t been anything really wrong with my job beyond my long hours, but I did as told, describing my job responsibilities, when I was allowed to take breaks, what I had to do to take a break, and everything else required to be a receptionist at the firm I worked at. While I talked, Julian’s father took notes, and he didn’t say a word or ask a single question.
I couldn’t tell if that boded well for my case or not.
The cookies interrupted my one-sided discussion of my job, but I finished the tiring monologue before Julian emerged from his study. “Hey, Dad?”
“That call took a long time. What do you have for me?”
“Your second client is currently in hospital undergoing testing to find out if she needs surgical reconstruction around her eye. She instructed her doctor to talk to me, and I’ll be getting a file built for an assault case. I would not be surprised if you’ll be needed to handle issues on the employment front. She refused to attend a private meeting with one of the partners at the firm, and it seems he meant to shove her onto her chair but she fell, hitting the edge of her desk.”
“How’d the monitor and phone get so damaged, then?”
“That’s what she doesn’t know. Neither were broken when she left. She took herself straight to the hospital and called the police on route. She told them she’d been too frightened to stay at the firm. She cleared me to warn you, Chloe. She thinks it would be a really bad idea if you returned to the office. And there were a few things she implied that makes me think sexual harassment is only the tip of the iceberg.”
“Chloe’s descriptions of her work at the firm indicate there might be a problem. Chloe took a great deal of care to dress professionally but present herself as unappealing sexually as possible. Black slacks, white blouse, black jacket, and the jacket would cover most of her blouse, and she was careful never to take it off while at work.”
While I’d done it to look the part of a professional, it bothered me I might’ve unconsciously made a choice to dress myself in that fashion as a method of self-defense. “Alice did dress nicer than me. But I couldn’t afford to dress up for work.”
Julian’s father shook his head. “Well, with so much of your pay missing, that’s no wonder. You’re owed a substantial amount of money. In any case, I’ll have you join me tomorrow, and I’ll be placing a call with a partner at another firm to also be present. Julian, he’s specialized in medical malpractice, and is more than qualified to go over the medical records and help you build Alice’s case. He owes me a favor, so he’ll be eager to consult with you on the issue. I know you’re good, but he’s an expert with medical files, so let him step on your turf enough to make sure her case is as strong as possible.”
“And if they broke things on her desk to make it look like she was at fault, I’ll need all the help I can get. All right.”
“Are you going to go the hospital?”
Julian sighed. “Unfortunately, I need to. She has no way to get home, they have her on painkillers, and she needs someone to help her with the first wave of documentation and the police report. The police are currently at the hospital, and she doesn’t know what to tell them.”
“That seems odd.”
“She’s on some pretty strong painkillers. I told her to ask them to wait for me to arrive. Fortunately, she doesn’t live too far from the hospital, but I’d rather get her home safely than have her test her luck. They might not even release her tonight if there are severe fractures. They don’t know yet.”
“I want to know how she hit her face that hard for there to be a possibility of severe fractures.”
I thought about it. “I think she had help hitting the desk, likely on the corner. I didn’t see any blood on the desk.”
“Could’ve been wiped up,” Julian’s father suggested.
“Damn it. I’ll see if the police can get into the firm and test for blood. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Dad, please try to convince Chloe to stay here.”
“We have another hour or two to put together her resignation letter at the minimum, and she seems like a sensible woman. Drive safe, and give me a call if you’re delayed for any reason.”
“Will do.”
I pointed at the kitchen. “Take a cookie for the road, and take one for Alice, too. It sounds like she could really use a cookie right now.”
“You’re probably right. I’ll do that. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Julian packed some cookies into a plastic baggie before heading out the front door. The snow fell harder, and I worried.
“She probably went to Mount Sinai.”
“Which one?”
“Gustave.”
“That’s a long drive in this weather, isn’t it?”
“He’ll be fine. His mother’s SUV handles like a champ, and he’s cautious. That’s half the reason he’s putting up a fuss. He’ll be careful, and he’ll give me a call when he gets there and leaves so we’re up-to-date on what he’s up to. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s out for a few hours, though. He’ll have a rough day tomorrow. Hell, we all will. Par for the course, unfortunately. Now, back to you. Considering what has happened, I want you to be really careful. Avoid contact with anyone in the firm, do not let anyone from the firm into your apartment complex. Your complex has a buzzer system, right?”
Claustrophobic Page 9
