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“You’ve spent all morning trying to fix something that seems to be making your life better. Maybe this wish going wrong is not a curse but a gift.” He held her eyes for emphasis as he crunched the final bite of his apple.
She blinked in startled clarity.
A gift?
She didn’t have time to get another thought in before her phone exploded with notifications. It chirped and rang and buzzed all at once with every form of alert she had: email, text, voicemail. Even an Instagram DM.
“Looks like someone wants your attention,” Adam said.
“Um... sorry,” she muttered, distracted, as she tried to triage the flood.
At the top of her email inbox was a message from HR that sent her heart to her toes and her lunch almost up her throat. She quickly scanned the message preview and noted that it was sent to the whole company.
Dear All, Allegations of misconduct have been brought to our attention, and we aim to take prompt action...
And then below that, an email from Annie Ferguson, Jonathan’s assistant, also sent to the whole company.
In my ten months with J&J I have experienced mistreatment at the hands of Jonathan Jenkins...
And then below that, another email from Annie, sent only to her.
Hi Lucy, I thought about what we talked about and wanted to give you a heads-up...
In the ten seconds she spent reading the message previews, Oliver sent her not one, but five text messages.
Holy shit. Check your email.
OMG.
Annie is burning this place down.
Come back to the office RIGHT NOW!
911 911 911
Panicked thoughts rushed in Lucy’s head, crashing together and making her dizzy. What has Annie done? Did she throw me under the bus too? Was this what Joanna got a call about at lunch? What is going to happen?
She didn’t have any answers, and the only thing that came out of her mouth was “Oh fuck.”
Adam quietly laughed. She’d forgotten he was standing right in front of her. “You all right?”
“No. No, I have to go. Shit.”
She spun around like she’d parked her car somewhere close, then remembered she came with Joanna and was on her own for getting back to the office.
“Oh no oh no oh no. I have to get back to my office now, and I don’t have a car.” Panic spewed from her mouth. What had she done? She tried to remind herself she didn’t have the full picture because she hadn’t read the whole emails, but she knew. She’d set something serious in motion when she talked to Annie in the bathroom. And then she had gone and confessed to Joanna. Something she’d kept quiet for years was quickly becoming very loud.
“Do you need a ride?” Adam asked. He pointed over his shoulder with a thumb. “I’m parked right here, and I don’t mind at all.”
“Yes!” she screamed at him without a moment’s hesitation.
A woman loaded down with reusable grocery bags jumped sideways as she passed on the sidewalk.
Adam wasn’t fazed by the screaming or the shopper looking at them like they were insane. “Okay, come on.” He waved her toward the parking garage.
She hurried after him, nearly running to keep up with his long strides. They’d hardly made it into the shade of the parking garage when he slowed at the motorcycle parking section.
Lucy almost ran into his back when he stopped at a shiny black-and-chrome bike that looked like death on wheels.
