“He called me in to ask me something about the presentation deck, then Cecil and the other managers had to leave.”
Her office also has floor-to-ceiling glass windows looking onto gorgeous views of the Hudson and the sprawling Chelsea rooftops.Sometimes I catch her staring at me.It’s most unnerving.I prefer it when she’s staring out of her windows, but she often looks lost and lonely.She doesn’t give much away about her private life, and I still don’t know if she’s single, or dating.She’s a closed book when it comes to her personal life.I guess we’re both similar in that respect.
“Don’t fuck with me, Maya.What game are you playing?”she hisses in a low voice so no one else will hear.I jolt.She’s never sworn at me like that before.She’s sworn occasionally, but it’s rare.She usually just gets heated and makes nasty comments, or belittles me, making me feel small, like something she should tread beneath her feet, but swearing?No.It tells me she’s more than a little worked up.
“I’m not playing at anything.I was getting on with the work you set me.”I tell her what happened, and how I ended up being in that room with Zach.I want to reassure her it wasn’t what it seems like.She glances at me, while also peering at her screen.
“The son of a bitch,” she mumbles, eyes widening.“The meeting hasn’t been diarized.”She’s wondering if Cecil did this knowing she wouldn’t be here.
I rush to reassure her.“I wouldn’t get paranoid, Katherine.I can’t see why Cecil would do that.They weren’t having a secret meeting.You only had to step out of your office and you would have seen them.”
“But I wasn’t here,” she grinds out.
“If they wanted to keep it a secret from you, they would have held it on another floor.”
She seems suitably reassured by this.Then, “What were they talking about?”
“I don’t know.Cecil summoned me in because they had questions about the presentation deck.”
“What questions?”
“Zach wanted to know about the performance overview slide, and about the year-on-year growth.”
Her eyes narrow.“What did you say?”
“That he needed to speak to you.”
She lets out a visible sigh of relief.I use this opportunity to say what’s been needling me.“I noticed that we have some unpaid bills.”
“Have you been snooping around?”Her tone is accusatory.
“I’ve just been doing my job, and I noticed a few things.”
“Stay in your lane, Maya,” she warns.I sit quietly, sensing that she hasn’t finished.She’s so tightly wound up, her quietly contained fury festers underneath.“I’d be careful if I were you.Try not to be alone in a locked conference room with Mr.Knight.People will make assumptions and talk.”
“It wasn’t locked!”
She shoots me a pointed glare.“Why did Cecil leave?”
“He and the other managers had to go to another meeting.”The small flex along her jawline tells me she’s still stewing about something.“May I be excused?You’ve given me a lot of work to do and I need to get on with it.”
“I want it done by noon.I want that report on my desk.”
She can’t be serious.Even for her, this demand is ludicrous.“But that report will take me two hours to put together!”
“Get it to me within the next hour.”Her voice is drop-dead quiet.Underneath that calm but hard exterior, she’s seething.“If you’ve got time to talk to Zach Knight then—”
“He asked to see me.”
“I don’t know what’s gotten into your head and given you these delusions of grandeur.Zach Knight is out of your league.You’re mistaken if you think he wants to talk to you about the stupid little presentation deck you put together.”
I’m taken aback.She’s not wrong, because I do think Zach had an ulterior motive for wanting to talk to me.But Katherine’s face is flushed, and that, along with her swearing, makes me feel like a pawn in a game where I’m not even sure what the rules are.
***
I got the report done in the hour.It wasn’t as polished as I’d have liked it to be, but I did what my boss demanded.
Later as I head home, I get a text from Zach just as I’m about to open the door to my apartment.I pause to read it.
