AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chad nodded. He knew Jennie was referring to the tension around the office since Jill and Andrew had called off their engagement.
“Well, the entire finance team is walking around on eggshells. Everyone’s miserable. EveryoneexceptTheresa. She’s been on cloud nine. I found her humming in the copy room today. She’s probably ecstatic he split up with Jill.”
“Damn. We need something concrete to fire her. ‘Gives us the creeps’ and ‘happy over breakup’ are frowned upon in human resources.” Chad leaned back in his chair, arms behind his head.
“I could have sworn I saw her coming out of Andrew’s office the other day when almost everyone had left for the day. But, it was one of those things where I walked around the corner and she was in front of his office, not in it. It just looked as though she might have just come from there.”
Chad sat up. “All right. I’ll stay late tonight and put a camera on the door to Andrew’s office to log who’s entering and when. I don’t want to put anything in his office because he holds a lot of meetings with confidential material in there. But one on the door should be okay. I’ll let him and Jack know about this.”
“I have another idea,” Jennie said, but then she hesitated.
He nodded at her expectantly.
“I’d like to log onto her computer and see if I can find anything more incriminating. I don’t like the idea of just sitting around waiting to see what she might do if she really is as crazy as I think she is,” she said.
He just watched her for a long minute weighing all of their options – the dangers, the pros and cons. Technically, his team or HR were allowed to access any of their employees’ computers at any time but it was something they rarely did.
“Let me talk to Jack this weekend and clear it with him. I’ll let you know after the weekend if he approves.”
“You got it, Herc.” Herc was another pet name Jennie reserved just for him. Short for ‘Hercules,’ it drove him crazy.
He knew that was the allure of the nickname for Jennie. She lived to get a rise out of him.
He glared. “Go.”
“Oh, and Jennie,” he said as she reached the door to his office, “if we do any snooping on Theresa’s computer or desk, we’ll do it together. I don’t want to take a chance on Theresa catching you alone, peeking through her stuff.”
Chad caught Andrew and Jack just as they were leaving.
“Are you serious? Theresa?” Andrew sounded incredulous as he looked from Jack to Chad and back again.
“Jennie was the first one to notice Theresa’s odd behavior, but I’ve seen it since then, too. I’m going to put a camera facing the outside of your door so we can see if she really is going in and out of your office. And, Jack, I want permission to search her desk and computer,” Chad said.
“I’ll document everything with human resources and get approval as soon as we dot our i’s and cross our t’s,” Jack said, then turned his attention back to Andrew who was still sitting in a chair looking stunned.
“You okay with this?” Jack asked.
“Hmmm? What? Oh, yeah. Fine.” His head clearly wasn’t on the conversation. Jack threw a quick look to Chad.
“So, Chad’ll take care of everything. You just let us know if you see anything unusual going on with Theresa, okay?” Jack asked.
Andrew nodded.
“You okay, Andrew?” Chad asked. “You don’t need to worry about this. Jennie and I will take care of Theresa and get her out of here as soon as we can document something that justifies firing her.”
Andrew waved off the concerned looks on his friends’ faces. “Yeah, sure. I’m just surprised, that’s all. Guess I didn’t notice anything was going on.” He pushed to his feet. “I’m heading out for the rest of the day, guys. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He walked out of the office, ignoring the worried looks Chad and Jack exchanged as he left.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Andrew looked around the carriage house and shoved a hand through his hair. It was time for him to pack up and go back to his condo downtown. Lydia and Nora didn’t need him here anymore and being so close to Jill was killing him.
Most nights, he couldn’t resist watching her as she let Rev out in the backyard to run. He watched from the shadows and stewed and let his anger build.
It was time to put some distance between them. Nora and Lydia had insisted he and Jill would likely work things out before the wedding date. They were plowing ahead with the wedding plans regardless of what he told them.
But that wasn’t what he needed. He needed to try to move on and forget that Jill had ever happened.
