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“There’s a…um, code.” He rubbed his neck and looked at the floor. “We’ve just been keeping track of…well, stuff about you.”
The cold inside Rory spread to her blood and bones. “What kind of stuff?”
“Just guy stuff, that’s all. Like how many times one of us got close enough to touch you, or who could look down the front of your shirt. Honestly, it was harmless.”
Rory stared at the paper. The column contained at least half-a-dozen initials, all of which she now recognized as the members of her team, plus another project manager.
She pointed a shaking finger at all the numbers. “What do these mean?”
A dull flush rose to his face. “Uh, that first one is the total number of points. Whoever earned the most by the end of the year would, uh, be the first to try and…you know.”
“What?”
“Get in your pan…um, sleep with you.”
Nausea roiled in the pit of her stomach. “And the others?”
Douglas squinted at the paper. “Those are related to touching you or catching a mistake in your code. The blue one is when you…uh, bent over, and the orange one is…we just kind of made up some fantasies about you and rated them on a scale of one to ten for hotness. Mine was rated a ten. That letter H in red next to John’s name…well, I told him not to do that, but he did.”
“What?”
“He said he was going to cut off a piece of your hair and keep it.” Douglas winced and took a step back. “I’m sorry about that. I thought it was kind of creepy and told him not to.”
Rory used every ounce of strength to control her rising panic. “He cut my hair?”
“When he was passing behind your chair one day. I guess a couple of weeks ago? He had a pair of scissors, and your hair is always hanging over the back of your chair, and he just…snipped off a piece. You didn’t even notice.”
No, she hadn’t. She scoured her brain for a memory of the violation, but couldn’t pinpoint anything. The open office space meant people were constantly walking behind her. She’d learned to ignore the nonstop movement, and if she’d had her headphones on, it was entirely possible that she’d not have noticed John slithering behind her chair and slicing off a piece of her hair.
The sick feeling intensified. She grabbed her ponytail and tugged it around to peer at the ends. Sure enough, a strip of about four inches was gone from the thickest part. She hadn’t even noticed it was missing. She hadn’t been looking.
“We really didn’t mean anything by it.” Douglas twisted his coffee mug around in his hands. “We taped it to the cabinet just so all the players would have access to it.”
Players?“I can’t fucking believe this.”
“It’s not, like, personal.” He tugged at his earlobe. “Um, it’s just that you’re the first girl who’s been hired in a while and, you know, you’re hot and all, so it was meant to be fun.”
“Fun foryou.” Alongside her bitter disgust and anger, a deep, black sorrow began to flood Rory’s heart. No, she hadn’t been buddies with her team members and, yes, she’d kept her guard up, but…this?Fun?
“Excuse me.” Still gripping the paper, she gestured sharply for Douglas to get out of her way.
“Come on, Rory. Can’t you take a joke?”
Suppressing the urge to slam her fist into his nose, she stalked past him and headed for the elevators.
Though she was sorely tempted to storm into the office and publicly confront her team members head-on with the disgusting paper, the rational part of her knew exactly how that would be perceived. She could almost hear the laughter and condescending remarks that she needed to “calm down.”
After stepping into the elevator, she punched the second-floor button. She hadn’t always had the best experiences with HR, but there was no way they could deny the evidence of this sick little “game.”
As the elevator descended to the next floor, she pulled in a gulping breath and tried to calm the racing of her heart. The doors opened again, and Brenda stepped into the elevator.
“Is something wrong?” Her sharp gaze pierced through Rory.
“I…I need to talk to Human Resources.” Rory struggled to keep her voice even. “I found out that my team members have been using me as the subject of a demeaning game. I’m going to report them and file complaints.”
Brenda’s eyes narrowed. She stepped out at the second floor and nodded toward the corridor. “Come with me.”
Rory followed her to the women’s restroom, where Brenda closed and locked the door behind them. She snapped her fingers and extended her hand.
