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“Not being on my team will make it harder,” she said. Tazeem opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off before he could get a word in. “I know what you want to say. You want to say that that won’t make it impossible for him to sabotage us again. I know. I know. But I just can’t find it in me to go full throttle after him. Besides, this just makes him one of the many people who are trying to bring me down. You know how Synovent is. Everyone is after everyone.”
“That’s another thing we need to talk about.” Tazeem stared her right in the eyes and said, “Your company sucks.”
Chess snorted. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Huskle is really out here running his company like a gladiator arena.” Tazeem shook his head in disappointment. “It isn’t healthy.”
“That’s why I’m working so hard to get out of there.” She explained, “If I become VP, in two years I can move to another company.”
“Another one ofhiscompanies,” Tazeem emphasized. “Something tells me you’ll just be moving from one frying pan to another one.”
Jay chose that moment to emerge from his room. He was having some problems with his Math homework. While Tazeem helped him out, Chess started on dinner. By the time Jay was done with his homework and evening shower, dinner was on the table.
Senia was too busy dealing with their ‘little problem’ to come to the table, so it was just three of them at the table. Three wasn’t a big number but it was more than what Tazeem had had for most of his life. Even before his parents ditched him for crack, they’d never been family dinner people. Afterward, it was just him and his grandfather. And after his grandfather died, it was just him.
Dinners had always been a lonely affair for him. Perhaps that was why he’d never bothered to learn how to cook anything other than the basics. Cooking for one person only was a reminder that he was all alone in the world, and it intensified his loneliness. It was easier to just order in and shorten his torture. Or better yet, eat in restaurants surrounded by people to fool him into thinking that he wasn’t alone… even if it was just for an hour or so.
He’d learned to tolerate his loneliness and assumed that this would be how it was for the rest of his life. But apparently, life had a few unexpected gifts in store for him.
As he watched Chess and Jay as they ate, he marveled at how his life had changed.
He loved that they were at the table with him. He loved that they were eating with him. He loved how noisy dinners with them were, and how they kept chattering and laughing in between bites while drawing him into their conversations. They made him feel like he was their family.
Because of them, his condo seemed so much colder these days. He hated having to leave at the end of the night. It hurt to go back to that condo where they didn’t live, where he was alone. Lately, he’d frequently found himself wishing that he didn’t live away from them… that they all lived together.
Unfortunately, his and Chess’s relationship was still undefined. But he’d change that soon, he decided. He’d make her his again.
When dinner was over, he cleaned the dishes while Chess put their son to bed. He stopped by Jay’s room to say goodnight before following Chess into her bedroom.
She watched him in surprise as he closed her door. “Aren’t you going home?”
“I am.” He closed the distance between them. “Later.”
Before she could ask how much later, he sealed his lips over hers in a fierce kiss. He spent the rest of the night making sure that she couldn’t even utter a complete sentence.
TAZEEM SPENT THE NIGHT IN Chess’s bed. In the morning, he brought in a fresh suit and a duffle bag that had everything he needed to prepare for work from his car. It was almost as if sleeping over had always been his plan.
“It wasn’t,” he denied when she confronted him while they were making breakfast. “I just put it there in case an unexpected work trip happened or something.”
“I see.” Chess didn’t believe him, but she’d loved spending all night in his arms, so she chose not to question him further. “Could you check on Jay? See if he’s done with his shower.”
“No problem.” He left the kitchen.
A few minutes later, Senia entered the kitchen. The lady looked like she hadn’t slept a wink; her eyes were hooded and her movements were painfully sluggish.
“Here you are.” Senia held out a USB stick. “The footage you were looking for.”
Chess immediately went to her bedroom in search of her tablet. By the time she found it, Tazeem had joined her and was just as eager to see what Senia had found.
There was only one video in the stick. It was a two-minute video of Derrick sitting in front of a computer at the library. The angle of the camera was so great that they could see his screen, and Senia had gone the extra mile of zooming in for them so they could see the pictures that were on the screen. They were the pictures Miller had taken. The rest of the video showed Derrick posting those same pictures on the forum. Senia had also helpfully added a clip of Derrick sauntering back to Synovent after his despicable act of espionage.
“Red-handed!” Tazeem exclaimed in delight. “Got him.”
Chess couldn’t find it in herself to be as delighted as Tazeem. Even though she’d been certain that Derrick was guilty, part of her still hoped she was wrong. Part of her still wanted him to be the honest, loyal man she’d always thought him to be. But he was not.
“So what’s next?” Tazeem asked. “HR?”
“Only as the last option.” She explained, “I’m going to confront Derrick directly. I’m hoping that once he knows what I have, he’ll make the right choice and leave the team on his own. Hopefully, knowing that I have this proof will also be enough to make him behave from now on.”
