Wild Man Creek

“What?” she said, automatically shooting to her feet. “What the hell …?” She stared at Kurt. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Please, sit down, Jillian,” Harry said. Then he looked at Kurt and said, “Take the rest of the day off, Kurt. I’ll be in touch later.”

Without a word, without a backward glance, Kurt rose and left the office of the president, quietly closing the door behind him.

Jill looked at Harry. “Is this some kind of sick joke?”

“I wish,” Harry said. “I can’t wait to hear your take on this, Jill.”

She gave a short laugh of disbelief. “My take? I thought I had a boyfriend! Harry, Kurt and I have been seeing each other for months! It was completely consensual and only became—” she struggled for the right word “—serious … very recently! He pursued me! And trust me, our private relationship had nothing to do with work! He had been promoted long before I ever went out with him.”

“You were seeing him secretly?” he asked.

“I’d prefer to describe it as ‘discreetly.’ I helped Human Resources put together the corporate policy years ago, when the company was so young. No problem with dating or marrying inside the company, but not within the same department. According to that policy, one of us would have had to change departments. Obviously Kurt would have to make the change, since he’s the subordinate. But his only experience is in PR and my department was the only place he had a good fit. We worked well together! Or so I thought …”

Harry shook his head. “You were instrumental in putting that policy in place, Jillian. In fact, if I remember, it was your idea in the first place.”

She scooted to the edge of her seat. “Yes, but it wasn’t developed because of the threat of sexual harassment! Sexual harassment is never consensual, and it’s never confused with dating—it’s always extortion of some kind. We—I mean the Human Resources team—were concerned about complaints inside departments from employees alleging promotion based on favoritism. That’s why dating within a department was a bad idea. We also created a policy saying employees shouldn’t be late, shouldn’t dress inappropriately and shouldn’t park in the president’s spot!”

She got a smile out of Harry for that. It was a small smile.

“I thought, given time and training, Kurt might be a good successor to me. And before you ask, my opinion is not because I liked him but because there was no one else more qualified. I know how you hate to go outside the company to fill positions if there’s opportunity internally for our employees.” The seriousness of this situation was becoming brutally apparent and Jill took a moment to pass her hand across her brow and then gaze across the room.

“Well, that’s a coincidence,” Harry said, passing her a folder. “Kurt sees himself as your successor, as well. Have a look at this.”

Jill’s hands actually trembled a bit as she lifted the cover of the folder and looked at a collection of memos, emails, printouts of text messages and miscellaneous notes. The first email she looked at came from her and it said, How am I doing? I could use shoulder rub! “Harry, this had nothing to do with a relationship! After a grueling meeting, he emailed me and asked me how I was holding up! In fact …” She looked closely at the date. She shook her head. “I wasn’t even dating him then!” She would have to plow through months of old emails. Months of deleted emails. Months of inane, trivial messages.

Then there was a page of text exchanges and, highlighted in yellow, from her cell phone, was the message I miss you! “But this is completely innocent,” she said, turning it toward Harry. “I’d have to check my calendar, but I think I was out of town. And I did. I did miss him!” And in that instant she knew what he’d done—he’d set her up.

“God,” she muttered. “Playful messages between two people who worked for the same company. How did I never smell this coming? How could I have been so wrong?”

A glance through some of the pages revealed similar brief, affectionate comments that any woman might have made to the man in her life, and there was no way of knowing if they were sent during work hours or at other times. In her mind these were innocent romantic gestures that were nonthreatening. But among them all she couldn’t find a single thing that came from Kurt.

He had been the seducer; most likely all his responses had been verbal … and untraceable.

“Harry, he said flirtatious and seductive things to me, but the difference is, he has no paper trail! I was never afraid to send an email or text like this—I trusted him.” She shook her head. “Do you see how slim this file is, Harry? You’d think in months of dating there would be a lot more, wouldn’t you? But we were very professional around the office. I’ll have to go through my records of emails and texts, but surely I’ll find what I need to reveal that he was his sexy, flirtatious self and I responded because I believed we were a couple!”

“I don’t suppose you can remember anything significant off the top of your head?” Harry asked with a lift of his bushy, graying eyebrow.

“Well, there’s a jewelry store manager who’d probably be happy to testify that Kurt was just as attentive and romantic as could be when he talked me into looking at rings after dinner one evening, but that wouldn’t be in print, would it,” she said with an unhappy laugh. “We had agreed to keep our relationship private until one of us had identified a part of the company to which we could move. I was the more likely candidate to make a move even though Kurt was subordinate to me. You’ve been tempting me with VP of Marketing for a year now and I warned Kurt that if that came through for me, he might not be ready to take on Corporate Communications, or that you might not be ready to give it to him. He told me our relationship was far more important than his next promotion.” She dropped her chin and fought back the tears. “I can’t believe this is happening.” She looked up. “I believed him, Harry!”

“He also has office mates who have witnessed inappropriate touching and … and he’s kept a log. A very detailed log of events.”

Thinking back over the past several months Jillian had to admit that he had charmed a lot of people—all the women in the office loved him; he was funny and cute and oh so helpful. Jillian thought she had behaved perfectly in the office; she had been very conscious of the need for that level of professionalism. But had she given his shoulder a loving pat? Touched his back in a quick caress? Smiled into his eyes? Kurt was a couple of years younger than she, handsome, sexy and bright—she’d had no idea just how bright! To orchestrate something as complex as this took planning and brainpower. He should have used those skills on his job!

Oh how she wished her denial could hang on a bit tighter, a bit longer. As the tears welled she bit down on her lower lip to keep her chin from quivering. “Does it say in his log that he had to ask me a dozen times to even meet him for a drink after work, something which is completely appropriate between coworkers? Or how about a few nights ago, when he drew a bath for me and—”

Harry held up a hand. “Stop. I’m not an idiot and I’m not angry with you. I know what’s happening here. You’ve been with me from the beginning, Jill. You helped build this company. I know you wouldn’t do something like this. But unless you have some compelling evidence to the contrary, we have ourselves a problem. And keep this in mind, please—if an accusation like this was his objective, dating his boss probably wasn’t necessary in the first place. He could have singled you out as his victim without your cooperation.”

“But why?” she asked desperately.

“I don’t know,” Harry said earnestly. “Maybe an investigation will reveal that.”

Jill had to grit her teeth to keep from crying. She’d never cried in front of Harry. She was his right arm, his sidekick, his protégé. One of the things she was most proud of was that, young as she’d been when she’d started with Harry and a brand-new company, she’d never wimped out. Their products were in the category of wealth management software—everything from customized accounting systems for businesses, to budget and bill-pay software for the average home computer. Some of their clients were huge, bringing a lot of money and challenges to the company; but she was tough and she faced everything with courage and ingenuity. Awful things could happen on the job—like failed software or the threat of losing a big client to a competitor. In PR, Jill’s job was to keep a positive face on the product and on customer service. They’d been in tight spots from time to time when the future of the company hung in the balance, but Jill didn’t cry. She fought!

Her boss saying he still believed in her almost put her over the edge. It almost made her cry. She stiffened her spine. “What does he want?” she asked weakly.

“A settlement of some kind. And your resignation.”

She lifted the folder of incriminating evidence. “Is stuff like this even admissible?”

“In civil court, very probably. In the newspapers, absolutely.”

“Harry, I thought he cared about me. He flirted first, for a long, long time! Are we going to let him win?”

Harry leaned forward, clasping his hands on the top of his desk. “I’d like nothing better than to stand and fight, Jill. Never once in ten years have I seen any indication that you were less than professional, loyal or honest. I never had an employee put in longer hours, work harder or give me more of her personal life. You’ve become a member of my family! If there’s some part of you that would take advange of a junior employee, I never saw it. Either I’m no judge of character, or the little bastard conned us all. And if I’m no judge of character, I managed to build a real successful software manufacturing company in spite of it.

“So, this is our reality—it looks like he’s stacked the deck pretty good. We’ve faced issues like this before and we’ve always managed them in-house wherever possible. HR and our attorneys will look at the complaint and evidence and meet with him. If they find it’s potentially damaging, I will do everything in my power to keep you and the company out of court. Bear in mind we have twenty-five hundred employees who shouldn’t have to take this risk with us. Much as it galls me, we might have to cut our losses.”

“And that means?” Jill asked.

“At the moment, I want you to take the rest of the week off. I want you to go home knowing that I’ll do everything I can to protect the company and you in the clinches. If I have to make a sacrifice, Jill, I won’t let you down. I’m not going to throw you to the sharks. At the very least, I’ll make sure a confidentiality agreement is a priority in any settlement so your future prospects won’t hear about this mess. Half my competitors have been after you for the past five years anyway.”

“But I made my choice a long time ago. I chose BSS.”

“I know this,” he said. “Get yourself a lawyer, Jill. Just in case you need one. Don’t go through this alone, and don’t rely on me when I have a whole company to protect.”

“Will you give him a ton of money?”

“Not if I can help it.”

She laughed ruefully and wiped a hand under her nose. “You’ve made me rich,” she said. “He’d have been better off marrying me. He’s not that good in PR. He was coming along, but he had a lot to learn. You’re getting the worst end of the deal.”

“Even if he wins, no way he’ll stay here,” Harry said confidently. “We’re a stepping stone. My bet is he would flaunt his title, take credit for some work he didn’t do and land himself a bigger job with Microsoft or Intel. Where he would promptly fall on his face.”

“Unless he finds a woman to seduce,” she said quietly.

“I know you don’t see this now, but you’re going to survive this. You’re smart, you’re good and you’re going to land on your feet. Try to be patient while we work this out. Just keep your head.”

And your heart, she thought.

“Take the week for now,” Harry said. “If there’s any way out of this, believe me, we’ll take it. I just want you to be prepared for the worst. In case. And, obviously, you can’t discuss this with anyone—litigation pending.” Harry stood. The meeting was over. He stuck out his hand. “I’m sorry this happened. I wish you’d have come to me about the relationship a long time ago. Dating someone isn’t that big a deal. We could’ve worked with that. You’re not the first office romance. You’ll hardly be the last. But by keeping him secret for professional reasons, you gave him opportunity.”

“I thought I was covering for you,” she said. “I just didn’t want to put you in a difficult position because of a choice I made.”

When she clasped her mentor’s hand, he held on. “This is so unlike you. My biggest worry about you was that you had no life—this job took everything you had and more! What was it about him, Jill?” Harry asked softly. “How did he get you to take chances like this?”

She laughed without humor. Kurt had had obvious flaws, but she overlooked them because no one’s perfect. He was cute and seemed thoughtful, but he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. If he hadn’t pursued her, she might not have noticed him! She just shook her head pathetically. Was it because he was the only man she’d had time for? No wonder office romances flourished. They were convenient! “You might not believe this, Harry, but he had to invest a lot of time to get me to take a chance on him. And maybe it all boiled down to that—he was relentless and I was lonely. If he wins this battle, you’ll be getting one lousy Corporate Communications exec. He can barely tie his shoes or make a phone call without leadership. You’re going to have to fire him.”