“I didn’t write this,” Fredrick said. “But I know who did.”
“Who?”
“Lana,” Fredrick said.
She ground her teeth. That just meant that his affair with his coworker had been going on longer than he’d admitted because that incident was almost a year ago that was mentioned.
“Why would she know about that date we had and what happened? And why the hell would your new girlfriend care enough to send me this?”
“We aren’t together anymore,” Fredrick said. “She’s pissed off.”
“Not my problem,” she shouted.
Then she took a deep breath.
She prided herself on not losing her patience because she never wanted to let it happen around her students.
“Yeah, well, if you didn’t act like a raving lunatic when we broke up, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Are you seriously blaming me? Let me get this straight. You cheated on me, and now you and your girlfriend are saying it’s my fault for reacting that way when I was hurt?”
“Lana told some people at work what you did. Like she thought they’d side with me or her on what a whack job you were. She should have kept her mouth shut because all it did was cause a fight with us.”
Fredrick hated attention on him at his job. Maybe he should have thought of that before he slept with a coworker.
“What does that have to do with her sending me this letter?”
“Because once our boss found out we were dating, they moved her to another department. She didn’t want to go and said we were done.”
Meredith laughed. “She chose her job over you?”
“No. Not at that time. We told everyone it was a passing thing and was over, but we kept it going.”
“Guess no one bought it. Or you know, you’d shown your character once and they might not have believed you.”
“I don’t know why I’m explaining this to you,” Fredrick shouted.
“Because your actions caused all of this and I should get an explanation. Do I have to worry about her coming after me now too?”
“No,” Fredrick said. “I’ll deal with it. She was annoyed she had to switch departments. HR said that they didn’t want to deal with any conflict or drama with our split, it was for the best.”
“So lying caused her to be moved anyway.”
“She was going to have to be moved and didn’t know why it had to be her over me.”
Because Fredrick had been there longer and he would have whined, she knew that.
“Make her stop,” she said. “There is no reason for this. I’m the victim, not you or her. If I get anything else or something happens again, I’m going to take legal action. Your employers might not like that either.”
She hung the phone up and tossed it on the coffee table, then picked up a couch pillow and screamed into it a few more times.
She should take it as a sign that she needed a break from men because she wasn’t sure if he was being honest or lying when she used to be able to gauge those things so much clearer.
“Now,now, Meredith. You really shouldn’t get yourself so worked up.”
His voice was a whisper meant only for the empty room, though his eyes were glued to the feed on his laptop. He zoomed in, the camera focusing on her hand as she snapped a picture of a piece of paper, then resumed pacing, her phone pressed tight to her ear.
What was she talking about? Who was she talking to?
