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Carter could tell she wasn't taking the news well. He couldn't blame her; the thought that her best friend had made up an elaborate story and fooled her into giving up her savings would be enough to destroy most people. “I can come with you if you’d like.”
But Kaitlyn shook her head no and put a hand on his chest before standing up. “No, it’s okay. I think I need some time to myself.” With that, she stood up and walked toward his bedroom. Carter watched her go, his heart aching for her as he worried about how she was handling this stressful news and loss of friendship. He knew all too well the feeling of having the rug ripped out from under him, especially with people he thought he could trust.
He would have done anything to shield her from this heartbreaking situation. After a few moments, he followed her back toward the bathroom, intent on not disrupting her privacy but also worried about her. He stopped at the mostly closed bathroom door, aware that she'd left it open a crack. Inside, he could hear her crying softly.
Every bit of him wanted to break the door down and rush to her side, pull her close and try to kiss away her tears. But she told him that she needed time alone and he wasn't going to go against what she'd asked for. Instead, he quietly backed away, aching inside, and wishing that he could solve all of her problems and take away her pain.
Carter walked back to the couch, settling in and trying to relax in spite of everything that seemed to be going wrong in his life. Before he could truly get comfortable, his phone rang and he took the device out of his pocket, answering the call.
“Carter.” Phil's no-nonsense voice had a bright edge to it that makes Carter sit up and take notice.
“Hello, Phil. What's going on today?”
But Phil didn’t seem to be in the mood for small talk and cut right to the heart of the matter. “Sally dropped her harassment complaint. We received a statement from her in writing that says that she lied about everything and that you didn't do anything wrong. She claimed that she was pursuing you and that she made her complaint because she was angry and wanted to get even with you for choosing a stripper over her.” Something cold took over Phil’s tone and left Carter worried.
“You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?” For the first time ever, Phil sounded suspicious.
“This is the first I've heard of it. I haven't talked to her at all and I haven’t seen her since that day in your office.” Carter internally reeled from the news. She'd dropped the complaint. She'd admitted the truth. What had happened? Had she had a sudden change of heart and realized that she was being an awful human being? Carter wasn't buying that.
“And just so you know, there's going to be a further investigation and if anyone finds out that you swayed her in any way, there will be legal proceedings. I would highly recommend you talk to your lawyer.” Phil seemed to lighten up for a moment. “In any event, congratulations, you're off the hook.”
“Well, thank you. I'm just hoping that nothing bad comes of this, because I have no idea what's going on.” Carter sat back in his chair, struggling to process this sudden turn around.
“We're still discussing exactly when you'll be coming back to work, so I hope you don't mind being patient there.” Phil sounded completely relaxed, and Carter wished he had half his calm attitude.
“That's fine. I can come back when you guys are ready. Don't hurry on my account.” Could this really be the good news and the break that he'd been hoping for? Would this be news that Kaitlyn wanted to hear? What exactly had made her drop her complaint? With so many questions swirling around his head, Carter wasn't sure what to do next, so he just focused on the moment and Phil’s words.
“It's not exactly what we'd hoped from all of this, but it still seems like a positive outcome provided nothing else comes out. I just wanted to fill you in on the news. I'm going to let you go, have a lovely day.”
“Thank you. You too, Phil.” Carter ended the call, then stared at his phone, thinking about how much things had changed over the course of a few moments.
She dropped the complaint. She admitted she lied. But why? What prompted her to come clean? In Carter's experience, people didn't just decide to tell the truth after lying, especially not when they were so deep. This lie put her whole job at risk; there was no way she wouldn't be fired. So, what made her decide to tell the truth now?
Carter could understand why they might be suspicious of him. He was familiar with people bullying or bribing others to get them to drop complaints. Of course, he hadn't done anything like that, because he hadn't done anything wrong in the first place. He'd trusted that the system would ferret out her lies and that he'd eventually be let off the hook. Still, this wasn't how he expected that to all come about.
Feeling uneasy, he shifted in his seat, wondering what he should do next. He couldn't help but wonder if something bad was going to happen now, if she had some awful plan to get even with him, or something else.
As he sat trying to puzzle through the strangeness in his life, he heard a knock at the door. That uneasy feeling grew, and instead of getting up to answer it, he used his phone to check the camera outside the door to see who was standing there. To his utter surprise, it was Sally on the other side.
There was no way in hell he was going to go anywhere near that door. Instead, he let the camera record everything.
She seemed to see the camera and bent over, smiling into it and waving. “Hi Carter, I'm sure you can see me. I'm sorry for lying. I withdrew my complaint, so you should be okay now.” She exhaled, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling, as if searching for the words for the next part of what she wanted to share. “I know this sounds stupid, but I swear I'm in love with you. You make me really happy, Carter, and it hurt my feelings when I found out that you chose a stripper over me. I think that's why I lied. I wanted you to get in trouble. That way you’d regret picking her over me. I really hope we can get past this at some point.”
She stopped talking for a moment and tucked her hands behind her back, swaying back and forth in an almost childlike gesture that left him even more uncomfortable. “Maybe when you two break up, you and I can go do something together? I've really been wanting to adopt another cat, so maybe you could come with me and we could pick one out together. I'd keep it in my house, of course.” As a smile crossed her face, Carter found himself wanting nothing more to do with her.
Maybe she had just realized she messed up. Maybe she realized that she'd never get to him if she continued lying and making false complaints about sexual harassment. Maybe this was just her way of trying to worm her way back into his life because she didn't see a future for him and Kaitlyn. After all, how could he fall in love with a stripper? She'd said the term ‘stripper’ so derogatorily that he knew how she felt about Kaitlyn.
The difference was Kaitlyn would never do something so ugly and disgusting to him. She'd never lie, try to get him in trouble, try to hurt him, or keep anything important from him.
He could trust Kaitlyn.
He would never trust Sally. So even if she was trying to reopen that door between them, there was absolutely no way he'd ever unlock it or allow her to open it. He hadn't been interested in her from the start, and now he was somehow less interested based on knowing who she was and what she was capable of, and the way she'd react if he did something she didn't like or agree with.
Carter could appreciate that he dodged a bullet.
“Well, I guess I should go.” Sally blew him a kiss, via the camera and Carter instinctively dodged the gesture as if she was casting some spell on him that would ruin his life like she had already tried to do.
She turned and walked away, and he stared at the wall, watching her go, not satisfied to stop watching the camera until she was completely gone and a few moments had passed with her nowhere in sight. Only then did he take a deep breath, relax his shoulders, roll his neck and unclench his jaw.
