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Chapter Nine
Thursday morning hadHarrison sitting in Keith Davidson’s office, getting a lecture on proper office conduct. Yes, from a man who had gotten not one but three secretaries pregnant over the years. Two he married, and one has not been seen since but is rumored to still have a relationship with her former boss.
Harrison had let the older man’s words roll off his back until Seraphina’s name crossed his lips. “Sera Lovely is performing a small in-house investigation. She will be talking to you and others. I want this taken care of yesterday.”
“There’s nothing for a report, Keith. I didn’t sleep with her in the office or out of it, and I never suggested I wanted to,” Harrison stated. At this point, he was tired of the entire thing, and it hadn’t even been a week since he had learned about it.
“I hope not, Harrison. Women these days.” Keith’s words betrayed his feelings about the subject, even after a lecture that said the opposite.
“If that’s everything, I have work to do.” He wanted out of this office. Keith had never been his friend, and they were never going to be.
“Go. Sera will tell me when she finds out anything,” Keith replied.
Leaving his boss’s office, he wondered how his life had come to the moment when Keith Davidson seemed like a good guy, and he looked like the jerk. At this point, he was in limbo about the entire thing. Nobody would believe him until the results came back, but that was going to take weeks—weeks he didn’t want to waste convincing people he didn’t have sex with a twenty-year-old at work.
But he still had no idea how he was going to prove it didn’t happen. The only proof would be his constant denial, and he had messed that up by bragging to the one woman who mattered in this: the one doing the investigating.
Stopping in her office last night had not been reassuring. Even with the report, she was skeptical that the kid wasn’t his. He could have sent her five of those same reports that all said the same thing. It was a fact he had learned to accept years before. Now everyone in the company would know; that stuff always seemed to leak out.
Deciding he had better just talk to Seraphina about the investigation instead of it distracting him all day, he headed towards her office again. For almost a week now, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. But it was the investigation that was taking him to her office now, not the woman herself. Or the constant urge to talk to her suddenly.
Today she was hard at work and not looking out the window. No toes peeking out from under her butt on her chair. Just a smile and dedication on her face today.
“So, you’re heading up my investigation?” he questioned her from the doorway.
Her blonde head snapped up, and her blue eyes locked on him. “I tried to tell Keith that we shouldn’t be investigating it ourselves. We need outside council for that, but Keith isn’t exactly known for his good judgment.”
Smiling at her words, he walked into the office, wondering if she was barefoot under the desk like Friday night. “Are we talking about the same Keith I know? The one with four ex-wives and two baby mamas?”
“One and the same. Can you shut the door? I need to talk to you.” Her words surprised him. He wasn’t expecting her to have any information yet. Maybe he shouldn’t have stopped if it was going to be this quick.
Shutting the door, he stayed by it, “What do you need?”
“Harrison …” She leaned back in her chair, pen now resting on the desk. “I do not want to conduct an investigation into your conduct. The lawsuit into the paternity part of the case is off my desk; the test will be the answer. I’m looking into the harassment part of the claim.”
“Okay, what does that mean?” Harrison walked to the chair across from her desk. He could tell she wasn’t excited to do this task.
“It means that I’ll have to ask you some probably embarrassing questions and that you need to be truthful, even if it is embarrassing. Did you want a man present for an interview? Another woman?” She leaned forward again.
“No one else is needed. If you can’t handle what I say, that’s on you.” He sank into the chair, not taking his eyes off her.
“I can handle anything that comes my way, Harrison.”
“Good. Did you want to do it now or later?” she asked, starting to gather up the papers on her desk.
“Now works. Get it done with.” His eyes were on her as she organized and filed the papers in her desk, bringing out a green file.
“Okay, let’s start with the basics. How long have you been with the company?”
“Ten years, and you?” Harrison asked. Had she been there when he had been hired?
“This isn’t about me,” she shot back.
“It might be easier if we can make it more of a chat than an interview.” Harrison countered. He really didn’t think she would answer.
“Twelve next summer. How long were you married, and when did you get a divorce?”
“Married since I was twenty and divorced for four years. And you?” He liked this so far.
