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Lauren
I was in the middle of something when Tash came over to my desk.
“Let’s go for lunch,” she said. “Come on.”
I checked my watch; it was almost lunch time.
“I should really work,” I said, keeping one eye on my screen. Work was so busy at the moment, it seemed like I’d just finished one deadline when another one came in.
“Yeah, about that,” she said, looking at me pointedly. “Let’s go!”
I looked over at Diaz’s office, but he was engrossed in reading a report and didn’t seem to notice. He wasn’t that kind of a boss anyway and never said anything when we went out. I was feeling a bit jumpy about being away from my desk, though. Over the past two weeks, I’d been getting more assignments and I had a feeling it was coming from Matthew. It was a suspicion more than anything as Diaz was always the one to brief me and he would say it was a new communication strategy or that an idea had come from someone on the executive team.
“I heard something,” Tash said, leaning over to me. “But let’s not talk here. Let’s go grab something?”
We went out into the street and Tash hooked her arm through mine. “We should do this more often, don’t you think? Go for lunch?”
“Absolutely,” I said with a smile. I liked Tash and enjoyed working with her. We were about the same age and similar in a lot of ways. She shared an apartment with her sister and was still single, dating several guys but not seeing anyone seriously. We sometimes went for coffee in the staff kitchen where she’d entertain me about her latest date, but this felt like something else.
We ended up getting sandwiches and walking to the park. It was lovely being out of the office, away from the glaring computer screen for a moment and I was enjoying the break. We found a bench and sat down to eat.
“I heard something yesterday,” Tash finally said.
“I was under my desk, sorting out some of the cables. I think Diaz thought I wasn’t in yet, because it was early, and I’d come in to beat the traffic. Anyway, I overheard him talking on the phone to Carol in Communications. He’d put her on speakerphone, so I heard both of them speaking.”
I leaned in closer, Tash was speaking in a low voice even though there was no danger of anyone overhearing us.
“Carol said to Diaz that Waterstone was giving her such a hard time at the moment, she said he was all over the strategy documents and wanted presentations on every one of the products and brands and company lines!”
“Really?”
“She said she didn’t know what was going on, because Waterstone apparently never cared about Communications or social media before.”
I felt myself sitting up straight, taking a deep breath.
“What do you mean?”
“All of us have noticed it,” Tasha said. “You’ve suddenly been given all this work. Why?”
“I… I … assumed it’s stuff that needs doing,” I said lamely.
“You should have seen Melissa when she still had this job! She was always taking two-hour lunches, leaving early to go shopping! She put up a few tweets a day and that was it! There were no daily campaigns and Facebook pages and what not?!”
“Are you serious?”
I had been sure that Matthew was behind all the work coming my way, but I couldn’t prove it. In the beginning, I’d enjoyed the fast pace and the sense that my job was deemed important to the company. But I’d barely finish one project when a new request fell in my lap. When I’d asked Diaz about it, he could only tell me it came from up top.
“Diaz asked Carol what was going on, he was worried that maybe Sweet Cheeks wanted to jack up Communications for some reason.” Ever since the night I’d grabbed his ass, Tash had called Matthew Sweet Cheeks. It was a harmless nickname, but I hated it. It reminded me of the whole stupid episode at the bar.
“But Carol said, no, it’s all social media with him now,” she looked meaningfully at me. “You know what that means… you!”
“I don’t know,” I said, uncomfortable.
“I think he likes you,” Tash said, sitting back with a smug grin. “This is like in kindergarten, when a boy likes you and keeps trying to push you over or pull your pigtails. Sweet Cheeks is your garden variety toddler. Underneath that suit, and fancy haircut, he’s still a five-year-old.”
I had to smile.
I thought about telling Tash about my history with Matthew, but I was embarrassed about it. She would never believe that I hadn’t known about his being the boss here when I’d applied for the job.
