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After that, it was just a matter of continuing towait.
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 thedetails.
“Rumor is Earl sexually harassed you,” she said. “And you reported it?” She didn’t look as if she werejoking.
Jo rolled her eyes. “How did the truth get spun intothat?”
“Is it impossible to imagine amancould get sexually harassed at work?” spat Eddie, his lips pouting into afrown.
Jo sat up as fast as a lightning bolt, grabbing her plate and stomping across theroom.
Eddie hesitated, but he sighed andstood.
“Watch that mouth of yours if you want to get laid,” said DeShawn, chomping on aTwizzler.
“Or if you ever want any woman to take you seriously,” addedCheryl.
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,” saidNolan.
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 hischeeks.
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 andall.
“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’sall.”
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 scoringthatone,” 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 thecorner.
“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 couldbe.
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 pinkslip.
Nolan scrolled through the string of text messages he’d been exchanging with Lilac since the nightbefore.
My hero, she’d called him inone.
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 firstplace.
“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 theguy.”
“Really?” asked Cheryl, incredulous. “But that wasn’t long enough for him to give you the creepvibe?”
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 justfelthe was a creep? That’sbiased.”
Patting her lips with her napkin, Cheryl shook her head. “Sometimes you justknow.”
DeShawn met Nolan’s eyes. “Damn if the odds aren’t stacked againstus.”
“Oh, you have no badvibescoming 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 whonoticed.
DeShawn pointed toward the spot. “Every button fastened,” he said, clearing his throat. “Costumeregulations.”
Oh-so-innocent, Angie smiled as she leaned back, slowly and methodically fastening herbutton.
