Worth every penny.
“So, I want to know what you know,” Brit said.
I sipped my drink. “Come again?”
She leaned forward. “Something’s going on between you and Mr. Ryker, isn’t there?”
I furrowed my brow. “Why would you think that?”
She snickered as she leaned back in her chair. “It’s kind of obvious. You know, the way he railroads you without doing it to us. The way he stacks you with work even though he doesn’t do it to us. The way he always calls you up to his office to talk and shit like that. It’s like the adult equivalent of a boy pulling your pigtails on the playground.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I hate it when parents tell their daughters that. My parents used to tell me that and now I have a Bad Boy Complex.”
She giggled. “All the more reason to pursue things with the Bossman, don’t you think?”
I scoffed. “Hell, no. He’s an asshole of the utmost proportions. One minute, you think he’s got the hots for you, and another minute he’s stacking me with so much work that I can’t get it done. And then he punishes me for it.”
She blinked. “Wait, is that what he’s really doing?”
I rolled my eyes. “You know he and I have a past. Well, not me and him. I mean, we went to high school together, but my sister and him dated for a few months.”
“Uh huh. Did she break his heart?”
“To be honest? I don’t know what the fuck she did to him. But she did a number on him, nonetheless. Remember that long weekend I took?”
She downed her drink. “The weekend you went home?”
I nodded. “I tried to get my sister to talk about it, but she wouldn’t. Both of them are being so tight-lipped about it and I’m the one paying for it.”
“Wait, wait, wait. He’s taking out his anger on you because of what your sister did to him? Eleven years ago?”
“Isn’t it insane? But I think I’ve got enough dirt on him to--.”
“Becca, why the fuck haven’t you reported him to H.R. yet?”
I paused. “I mean, I threatened him with it. I made him believe this morning that I had, and it seemed to shut him up.”
She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “You need to tell Human Resources. If he’s harassing you for something you didn’t even do, they need to know. They could probably get you out from beneath him so that you report to someone else.”
“Or it could get him fired.”
She scoffed. “And he shouldn’t be? Is that what you’re telling me?”
I sighed heavily. “Look, Brit, I don’t want to do anything that’s going to make him angrier at me. I just want him to believe that I have an upper hand. You know, to keep him at bay.”
“And the best upper hand is filing a complaint with H.R. I mean, even he has to follow his own rules before someone reports him to the B.B.B. You could really turn things around for yourself and for your sanity if you just went and talked to them. You don’t even have to file anything!”
I shook my head. “That man already hates me for the fact that my sister cheated on him. I’m not pissing him off and adding more fuel to the fire.”
She plucked a grape from our charcuterie board. “Girl, cheating in high school is par for the course. I mean, how bad was it?”
I shrugged. “She got caught in the back stairwell giving head to the quarterback of our football team.”
She cackled with laughter. “That’s a serious move right there. Was she at least good at it?”
I smirked. “Good enough that she made her rounds.”
“Jesus fuck, yeah that would make me pretty pissed. But still, it’s not “eleven years later” kind of pissed.”
