Where Loyalties Lie

by Ramsower, Jill

  I had never seen the man before. I’d come to recognize many of the building’s occupants, but there was no chance I would have forgotten this man. My eyes were glued to him as he strode a dozen paces between the escalators and passed the man on the phone. I was so enthralled in his sight, I didn’t notice the end of my ride and stumbled forward as my foot hit the solid floor at the end of the escalator. I would have been mortified if he had noticed, so I didn’t dare look back. Instead, I lifted my chin and continued on, hoping to exude the same sense of poise and control I had just witnessed in him.

  Once I was out on the sidewalk, I shook my head, unable to stifle a laugh at my own expense. I might as well have been a child gawking at the toys on display in the window of an FAO Schwarz. I hadn’t been that captivated by a man in … I wasn’t sure I’d ever been so entranced by a man. It was a shame, too. So many eligible options in the city, and so few were of interest.

  I walked the block over to where I had plans with my cousin, Giada, for lunch. She’d been my best friend for as long as I could remember. Our mothers were sisters-in-law, and we were born one month apart. Where she was the oldest of three girls, I was the middle, but our personalities had always been perfectly suited.

  It was as if we were born to be close friends—soul sisters.

  We ate lunch together at least once a week, often at the same deli where I was currently headed. It was close to my office and had the best Kaiser rolls around. I reached the place first after moving up our lunch so unexpectedly. Grabbing one of the four tiny tables inside, I played a game on my phone while I waited.

  I’d never been big on social media. My parents didn’t let us girls get on Myspace or Facebook when we were younger, and now that I was on my own, it had never felt all that necessary. Outside of Giada, I didn’t have a ton of friends, which was fine with me. I had two sisters and three female cousins—that was plenty of girl drama in my life.

  “Hey cuz, what’s going on? Hope you didn’t have to wait long. I got here as quickly as I could.” Giada plopped down in the seat across from me, impeccably dressed, as always, long auburn hair falling in thick waves down her back.

  “Hey G! Not long at all. Sorry to spring the time change on you.”

  “Not a problem. I hope everything’s okay.”

  “Yes and no. Let’s grab our sandwiches, and I’ll tell you about it over lunch.”

  “Please tell me it’s not your dickhead of a boss again.”

  I rolled my eyes and grabbed her hand. “Food first, then talk.”

  We ordered and took our food back to the table as the deli slowly began to fill with people on their lunch hour. I quietly relayed the events of the morning, attempting to keep the conversation just between us in a restaurant the size of a shoebox.

  Giada was fuming by the time I finished. She was the only person I had told about my lascivious boss and knew about each of his disgusting antics. “Al, I know you want to be respected at work, but you can’t let that man keep doing this shit.”

  “I know. I realize it’s not going to stop if I don’t do something about it. You know how hard I’ve worked to make a name for myself at Triton. Even then, there are still people who whisper that I’ve gotten where I am because I’m the boss’s daughter. I wanted to handle the situation on my own and not have to raise a stink, but I’m out of options.”

  “You don’t have to raise a stink, just tell your dad. He’ll fire that guy’s ass in a heartbeat—no one has to know why.” In theory, her suggestion seemed like the easy answer; however, life was rarely so simple.

  “You remember in high school when Mindy Jenkins kept trying to fight me and bullied me every chance she could get?”

  “That bitch made your life hell—of course, I remember!”

  “Then you should remember that not long after it started, I tried to get my dad to help me. There was a planning meeting after school for an upcoming dance, and I tried to avoid going so I could stay away from Mindy. Not only did my dad refuse to help, he insisted I go to the meeting. He told me there were always going to be hard situations in life, and if he went around fixing things for me, I’d never learn how to handle them on my own. I know he’d want me to deal with Roger myself, so that’s what I’ve been trying to do. Clearly, not effectively, but I was trying. Plus, if I run to daddy for help, everyone in the office will see me as a spoiled kid.”

  “What does it matter what those people think?”

  “It matters because they’ll never respect me if they think I didn’t earn my job.”

  “They don’t have to respect you.” Her bright red lips lifted in a smirk. “They just have to work for you.”

  “Says the woman who’s never worked a day in her life,” I smiled back teasingly, knowing the comment wouldn’t bother her in the slightest.

  “You should be so lucky … oh, wait—you are! You have plenty of money; you don’t need to deal with this bullshit.”

  “What am I supposed to do, go shopping and host parties all my life? I’m not my mother, that’s not enough for me.”

  “Too bad,” she mused. “I’ll have to find someone else to accompany me on my shopping runs and spa treatments.”

  “Whatever. That’s not you either, and you know it.” I narrowed my eyes and tossed one of my chips at her.

  She laughed, her vibrant green eyes shining. “I know no such thing. What I do know is if you don’t do something about that boss of yours, I’m going to come up there and raise holy hell. Got it?”

  “I get it,” I smiled at my best friend. “And I promise I’ll file a complaint with HR. In the meantime, he’s gone for the rest of the week!”

  “Fabulous! We should take a long lunch break and hit Saks later this week.”

  “You’re incorrigible.”

  “So, is that a yes?”

  I threw my head back and laughed. “Yes, I think that could be arranged.”

  “Boom! Now, get your ass back to work and file that damn complaint,” she ordered with every ounce of moxie in her five-foot frame.

  “Yes, sir, Colonel, sir.” I saluted her as I stood, then hugged my amazing friend. Not every girl was lucky enough to have a Giada in their life. I thanked my lucky stars on a daily basis that I’d somehow managed to score the best cousin ever.

  I walked back into work feeling optimistic and empowered. I would file the dreaded HR complaint and finally get Roger out of my life. There would be interviews and an inter-office investigation, but it would be worth it in the long run. Inappropriate comments were one thing, openly assaulting me was an entirely different can of worms. Not to say the comments were acceptable, but they hadn’t seemed nearly as threatening when his assaults were purely verbal.

  When I rounded the corner toward our offices, my eyes found Roger’s assistant, Beverly. She was a middle-aged woman who was pleasant enough, but I’d never spent all that much time talking to her. Roger preferred to work directly with me, of course, and Beverly mostly kept to herself. She peered up at me from her desk and gave me a tight smile that was laden with pity.

  She knew.

  It was there, etched in each of her features, leaving no room for question. She had called into the office as a distraction, knowing exactly what Roger had been doing.

  A blur of emotions turned the lunch in my stomach into a heavy lump—gratitude to the older woman for helping me and excruciating embarrassment. We both knew I wasn’t to blame, but that didn’t stop the waves of shame from bringing a heated glow to my skin as I scurried into my office.

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