Touch of Heartache

by Joy Penny

Almost as if on cue, the phone Lilac had tucked into her pants pocket buzzed just then, but Tanya had slipped into a cramped office and looked back at her expectantly.

  Lilac just nodded at Nolan and then made her way into the room.

  “Just put that on the desk,” said Tanya, shutting the door behind them.

  Her palms shaking—her heart had started beating wildly when her eyes had locked with Nolan’s—Lilac slid her hand into her pocket and grasped her phone as she sat opposite Tanya’s desk. Surely he couldn’t have been messaging her at that very moment. That would have been too much of a coincidence.

  “Can I ask you something?” said Tanya, bringing Lilac back to the present.

  “Yes?” said Lilac.

  “It’s about… You and Earl and HR.”

  Of course. Lilac didn’t know when, if ever, she’d be able to escape that shadow over everything she did here, but she supposed it was too early to hope for otherwise.

  “I… I can’t say much while it’s still under investigation,” she said. Her lawyer had even had her file a police report, but that hadn’t gone far—they’d interviewed Earl and he’d protested his innocence, of course—so it was up to HR now. But the lawyer had insisted it would still help having it on record.

  “I figured,” said Tanya, her lips in a thin line. “I just wondered if… Well, would it help if I went to HR, too?”

  Lilac straightened in her chair. “Sorry?” She wasn’t sure if she’d heard her right.

  Leaning back in her own chair, Tanya sighed. “Earl hasn’t touched me—he probably knows what I’d do to him if he did—but he’s made a few inappropriate comments. His eyes have certainly lingered here and there.” She waved her hands around the room, though Lilac knew the “here and there” were probably her legs and behind in those shorts. Even in the lamest of Tildy Scout outfits, Tanya was gorgeous. “If I got enough women who’ve experienced the same to come forward…”

  “Yes!” said Lilac excitedly. “It certainly couldn’t hurt. But my lawyer said few people would probably want to risk their jobs.”

  Tanya snorted, threading her fingers together. “I don’t know if Tildy Corporation wants the kind of lawsuit a dismissal of multiple women could cause,” she said. She frowned. “I’m just sorry I didn’t say anything earlier. I… You’re not the first girl who’s worked with Earl. Three in the past few years alone. And they always get quiet—isolated—and then just up and vanish without so much as a goodbye.”

  There must have been something on Lilac’s face at that—something disturbed—because Tanya chuckled. “They do go on to other work, I mean. I’m friends with two of them on Facebook, though we haven’t really talked much since they left.” She opened a drawer to pull out a phone and started scrolling through it. “I’ll… I’ll reach out to them. Tell them what I do know about what’s going on, ask them if they might help.”

  “That would be amazing,” said Lilac, tears forming in her eyes. She laughed then even as she cried and Tanya jumped up from her chair, swapping her phone for a tissue from a box on her desk and coming around the side to hand it to Lilac.

  “Thank you,” said Lilac, taking the tissue and dotting her eyes.

  “No, thank you for doing what one—or a dozen—of us should have done ages ago.” She sighed and sat on the edge of her desk, picking the phone up again. “I can’t make any promises on behalf of anyone else, but I promise you I’ll see HR. Today.”

  “Thanks,” said Lilac. “That would be more than enough.” She reached a hand out toward Tanya and she took it, squeezing tight.

  Tanya looked over her shoulder at the box of pamphlets. “You leave those here. I’ll take care of it. And then I’ll prep the troops for the big camp sleepover in the Ballroom.”

  Gyu-ri had told Lilac that Tildy’s Tots staff typically worked to ensure the kids’ happiness and safety during the overnight. And that they only sort of looked forward to it, overtime or no.

  Lilac cringed as she stood. “Sorry,” she said.

  Tanya waved a hand. “We’re used to it,” she said. “We’ve got workers of steel in Tildy’s Tots.” She looked Lilac over. “If you ever get tired of planning events and running errands, you’re welcome to join us.”

  “Thank you,” said Lilac, flattered. “I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind.” She turned to exit then, remembering the phone in her hand and turning on the screen to check her messages. There was a text from Nolan amidst all the older notifications from her friends.

  I want to help, it read. Have dinner with me?

  She opened Tanya’s door and there, a little ways down the hallway, he stood, his hair damp against his forehead, his body hidden beneath the furry plush bodysuit that belonged to Silly.

  “I think you’ve lost something, Silly,” said Lilac as she sauntered over toward him.

  Nolan grinned, though his smile faltered somewhat. He took a wing and pointed it over his shoulder. “DeShawn has my head,” he said, and Lilac noticed a handsome, brown-skinned man laughing with someone in the break room, Silly Sandgrouse’s oversized head tucked beneath his arm against his side. “And he’s the boss around here, so I don’t have more than a moment before he snaps that sucker on me, mid-conversation or no.”

  Without thinking, Lilac reached out and took Silly’s plush wing in her hand. It was soft, like her threadbare Tildy plush back at Aunt Frankie’s. “I got your text,” she said. “I can’t believe you want to help—”

  “Why wouldn’t you?” he asked. “I’m sorry I didn’t think to ask earlier.”

  “No, it’s fine.” Lilac shook her head and continued to stare at the plush wing.

  “You know that’s been in two toddlers’ mouths this morning alone. And I might have accidentally rubbed some forehead sweat with it.” He fanned himself with the other wing. “Dang, it’s hot out here.”

  Smirking, Lilac pulled him back inside the break room, where the fans blew. She took note of all the eyes on them immediately, but she kept dragging Nolan toward one of the blowing fans. “Better?” she cooed once they’d come to a stop.

  Nolan looked back and forth at the staring eyes and turned a bright shade of crimson. “Yeah,” he said quietly.

  “I heard about your sister,” said Lilac. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Nolan cocked his head. “How? Oh… Landon?”

  “I ran into him on the way here. He said his sister protected him from a bully.”

  At that, Nolan’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Dad said she got into a fight with some kid and both she and Landon fell, but Landon only got a tooth knocked out.”

  Shrugging, Lilac ran her thumb over the soft wing she refused to let go. “He said she protected him from a bully. Didn’t he tell you that?”

  Nolan shook his head. “It’s been crazy,” he said. “And despite Willow’s injuries, the kids are both still so hyper. But I’m glad. Willow gets a bad rap, but she’s a good kid.”

  Lilac laughed then at the idea of a little girl with a “bad rap,” though she’d likely witnessed some of that at the mall a few weeks ago. A lifetime ago.

  “I want to stand up to a bully, too,” said Nolan. “Can I… What if I told HR what happened that day when I bumped into you in the hall and all those pens and pencils went everywhere? Would that help?”

  That was unexpected. Lilac actually had to strain to think—she remembered that moment clearly, remembered how a jolt of something like magic had ran through her when she’d locked eyes with Nolan, when their hands had brushed each other’s as they’d scrambled to pick the writing utensils up.

  How Earl had said something and Nolan had stood up for her.

  How she’d actually failed to really thank him for it.

  She hadn’t even thought of that day. Hadn’t told her lawyer about it. There’d been so much to discuss about that other day…

  She let go of Silly’s wing and took both of Nolan’s cheeks in hers. “You’d be a hero in sandgrouse armor,” she said, and then she kissed h
im.

  The fans couldn’t drown out the hoots and hollers that echoed around the break room, but Lilac just kept kissing him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Nolan had never spoken to a lawyer before. Even when a ton of pamphlets had arrived in the mail following his mom’s accident, his dad hadn’t wanted to deal with them—ambulance chasers, he’d called them, and he hadn’t had the heart to deal with them with everything else to consider.

  So Nolan had kind of expected it to go like a courtroom scene on TV. Instead, a friendly enough—if a touch robotic—guy asked Nolan to walk through his story with him, then Nolan and Lilac had went out for a bite to eat—just a bite to eat for now—and the next day, Nolan had sat down at HR and told him exactly what the lawyer had told him to say. It was the truth—Nolan wouldn’t have abided otherwise—but the lawyer had had suggestions for how to word it and how to frame the scene that had set Brad the HR rep’s mouth into a grim line. Brad had witnessed at least part of that scene himself.

  He’d even sighed as he’d pulled out a thick file—complaints against Earl, apparently, though he hadn’t said from when—and had Nolan put his signature to page.

  After that, it was just a matter of continuing to wait.

  Cheryl knew what he’d done and apparently, she’d told the others, too. Come Thursday, Angie, who wasn’t even assigned to him this week, she was with Leah Llama, shimmied in between Eddie and Jo—not hard to do, since Jo was barely speaking to Eddie—and wanted to know the details.

  “Rumor is Earl sexually harassed you,” she said. “And you reported it?” She didn’t look as if she were joking.

  Jo rolled her eyes. “How did the truth get spun into that?”

  “Is it impossible to imagine a man could get sexually harassed at work?” spat Eddie, his lips pouting into a frown.

  Jo sat up as fast as a lightning bolt, grabbing her plate and stomping across the room.

  Eddie hesitated, but he sighed and stood.

  “Watch that mouth of yours if you want to get laid,” said DeShawn, chomping on a Twizzler.

  “Or if you ever want any woman to take you seriously,” added Cheryl.

  Eddie looked between Angie and Nolan. “You want to pile it on, too?”

  Angie shrugged. “I think men can get harassed, too.”

  “That’s not the point right now, though,” said Nolan.

  Eddie smirked. “And depending on who’s doing the harassing…” His voice went high-pitched. “Oh, no, Ms. Assistant Manager, please don’t kiss me in front of everyone.” He clapped his hands against his cheeks.

  DeShawn stifled a laugh and Cheryl raised her eyebrows but looked pointedly to Nolan for his reaction. Nolan didn’t remember if Angie was present when it had happened, but the way the rumor mill was going, it was a wonder she didn’t think they’d fornicated in the middle of the resort buffet, Silly suit and all.

  “It wasn’t me who was sexually harassed,” said Nolan, not willing to joke with the guys about something that had really hurt Lilac. “And as to the other matter… We’ve just gone on a couple of dates. That’s all.”

  Eddie was losing interest as he scanned over his shoulder for signs of Jo. He spotted her leaving, probably headed for the locker room, where he couldn’t follow her. He quickly turned back to the table. “Well, nice work scoring that one,” he said. “You’ll have to tell me how that happened sometime.” He rapped his knuckles on the table and then was off after Jo. “Baby…”

  Cheryl scoffed as they disappeared around the corner.

  “Trouble in paradise?” asked Angie. She seemed overly interested in watching Eddie go. Because of course some guys just never seemed to run out of options, crude as they could be.

  Nolan wondered if that was how the Earls of the world were born. Perhaps the man had been handsome once or maybe that didn’t even play a factor. Maybe he just felt powerful and entitled and “grandfathered in.” Nolan imagined if Eddie had done half the things Earl had, HR would have worked a lot faster to give him his pink slip.

  Nolan scrolled through the string of text messages he’d been exchanging with Lilac since the night before.

  My hero, she’d called him in one.

  Which had made Nolan feel a bit sick. He hadn’t done anything that he shouldn’t have thought to do immediately—that he shouldn’t have done immediately, even if Lilac had originally seemed hesitant. Why hadn’t he acted sooner? He might have been able to save her from what had happened in the first place.

  “Well, everyone’s saying a whole slew of women have been in HR the past few days,” said Angie. She shrugged. “Luckily, I never spent more than a second or two with the guy.”

  “Really?” asked Cheryl, incredulous. “But that wasn’t long enough for him to give you the creep vibe?”

  DeShawn grimaced. “Now, hold on. I’m not denying the guy’s a sleaze, especially with so many people coming forward, but you’re saying he never did anything dirty to you, and you just felt he was a creep? That’s biased.”

  Patting her lips with her napkin, Cheryl shook her head. “Sometimes you just know.”

  DeShawn met Nolan’s eyes. “Damn if the odds aren’t stacked against us.”

  “Oh, you have no bad vibes coming off you, D,” said Angie, leaning forward across the table. Nolan wasn’t sure if she meant to show off the barest bit of her cleavage—from an undone button on her Tildy Scout shirt—as she did, but he wasn’t the only one who noticed.

  DeShawn pointed toward the spot. “Every button fastened,” he said, clearing his throat. “Costume regulations.”

  Oh-so-innocent, Angie smiled as she leaned back, slowly and methodically fastening her button.

  “Oh, please,” said Cheryl, crumpling up her napkin. “Get a room.”

  Angie stood, still taking an obnoxiously long time to fasten that button. “He can call me anytime he wants one,” she said, sashaying back toward her llama across the room.

  “Was that sexual harassment?” DeShawn asked, his face as stricken as if he’d seen a ghost.

  Nolan opened his mouth and then shut it. “I… I don’t know.”

  Cheryl cocked her head. “Did it make you uncomfortable?”

  “Well,” said DeShawn, tugging at the Tildy Scout scarf around his neck, “yes, but probably not in the way you’re asking…”

  “Does she have a position of power over you?” continued Cheryl. “Like, could she get you fired if you said no?”

  “No,” said DeShawn, “but she could if—”

  Cheryl held up a finger. “Don’t say she could if she made up the fact that you did something to her when you didn’t. I’m positive it happens, but not as often as men seem to think.” She stood, turning to Nolan this time. “I’m glad you helped out. I didn’t realize you were seeing her on top of everything else—”

  “But that’s not why,” Nolan said. “Not the only reason why, anyway.”

  “I know,” said Cheryl. “But you’d be surprised how much farther a man’s account can often go.”

  “But HR is pretty much eighty percent women,” said DeShawn. “I’m calling b.s.”

  “And I’m telling you how it is.” She tsked. “What are they teaching you boys in school, I wonder?”

  “Definitely not Sexual Harassment 101,” said DeShawn.

  Yet so many guys seemed to pick that up anyway, thought Nolan.

  “Heading to the ladies’,” said Cheryl. “See you around.”

  Nolan nodded, his eyes back on his vibrating phone. A new message had just popped up.

  “It’s enough to almost make a man vow to be celibate,” said DeShawn, letting out a deep breath. “Hey, five minutes, okay? Then you suit up.”

  Nolan grabbed DeShawn’s arm as he stood, stopping him in place.

  “Lilac’s in trouble,” he said. “I know you said five minutes…”

  His lips pinched, DeShawn nodded as he shrugged himself free of Nolan’s grasp. “Go,” he said, but this time he grabbed Nolan’s arm. �
�But you owe me.”

  Nolan ran toward the table where Silly’s head rested beside the rest of the suit and grabbed it, shoving it at his Tildy Scout caretaker for the day. “Keep it prepped and ready,” he said. “I’ll be here as soon as I can.”

  If I still have a job when it’s all over, he didn’t say aloud.

  It took far too long for Nolan to get to the parking lot, where Lilac had told him she was texting from inside her car.

  I’ve been told to go home early, she’d written. Earl is being let go and they figure it’s better if I’m not on site when he has to clear his office.

  Then… He’s here, the text wrote. He’s in the parking lot. He saw me.

  Lilac apparently had had the misfortune of parking just two cars down from Earl, Nolan could see as he approached. The man’s trunk was open, a box half sticking out, but he was over at Lilac’s sleek new hybrid, his face red, his hands flailing as he walked back and forth behind her car.

  Basically, it looked as if he were daring her to run him over to try to escape.

  “Hey!” shouted Nolan, bolting into a run. “What the hell is your problem?” He held his phone up to the man as he came up beside him. “I’m going to call the cops.”

  “The hell you are,” said Earl, lunging for the phone and successfully knocking it to the ground. It cracked and went scattering under Lilac’s car.

  The door to Lilac’s car opened as Earl and Nolan locked hands, Nolan pushing as hard as—harder than—he got but not wanting to resort to punches. The guy deserved more than a few, but he didn’t exactly want blood on his hands, even if it was shitty blood. The guy was older than his dad.

  “Stop it,” said Lilac, her hands out toward Nolan’s arms.

  “Stay back,” said Nolan through clenched teeth. “Call the cops.”

  “Don’t you fucking dare,” said Earl. “Do you want to get fired, too, bitch? Huh?” He turned and spat on the back of her car. The loogie dripped down her license plate. “Bringing cops to a Tent Tildy parking lot, that’ll look good on your performance review.”

  “Do it,” said Nolan. “I’ll take responsibility.”