“If you don’t mind heading down to my office, Mrs. Price and I would like to see you.”
I hit the button to respond. “Of course. I’ll be right down.”
My stomach curls within itself. The pain of it coming instantly. Nervousness has taken over my body, and my hands start to tremble. Mrs. Price is the head of Human Resources. Why the hell is she in there with him and why does she want to talk to me? Why are we being so formal?
Just then a text pings from my phone. I detach it from the charger and see it’s from Casen.
Casen: Have a good day beautiful. I love you.
I should smile but right now I can’t. I’m so fucking anxious.
Me: I love you too. Headed to Derrick’s office. He has the head of HR in there.
I leave my phone on my desk and walk down the carpeted hallway to Derrick’s office. A few others have arrived but none of them will look at me as I pass. They say a woman’s intuition is usually correct. I’m pretty sure mine is telling me I don’t want to go in there, but right now I don’t have a choice.
His door is closed so I push it open slowly, the hinges creaking as I do. Both Derrick and Sasha, Mrs. Price, are behind his desk looking at something on his computer screen. When they hear me enter, both sets of eyes look up.
Sasha walks around the desk, extending a hand toward one of the two chairs. “Have a seat, Ms. Quinn.”
Slowly, I lower myself into it as she takes the other. Derrick, who only looked at me briefly when I entered, is looking directly at Sasha, avoiding my gaze like the plague.
I glance between the two of them. “What’s going on?”
Sasha stares at me with pity in her eyes and grabs a hold of my hand. “I want you to know that I’m here in this office as an HR representative, but once we leave this office I am more than happy to talk to you on a personal level.”
I look at our hands, my brows furrow in confusion. “Okay?” I ask, elongating the word. “Does someone want to tell me why I was called in early to speak with the two of you? I have to say I’m feeling very nervous right now.”
“Embyr,” Derrick finally speaks. “Yesterday, after you left, the entire staff at the hotel received an email. I thought maybe it was just to me, but then I had others come in and let me know they had, in fact, received it as well.”
I shake my head, getting frustrated with how long it’s taking for them to tell me what the fuck is going on. “What email? Can you please just spit it out?”
Sasha taps my hands. “Ms. Quinn, the email he is referring to had a video file attached to it. It was something that I’m sure you had nothing to do with but it did involve you.”
My heart races. “A video?”
She nods, and I see out of the corner of my eye Derrick turning the screen around so I can see. He sits back in the chair. “I want you to know I only saw a minute, and I have not watched more than that. I wasn’t sure it was you at first.”
A familiar image is blown up onto my boss’ screen. Me, standing in Reece’s parent’s garage. Ian Smith with his hand on my back. Derrick doesn’t have to press play for me to know what happens next. I know that Ian brings me over to the couch and sticks his hands down my pants. I know he places me on my back and proceeds to convince me to have sex with him. To lose my virginity right there on videotape, where over a year later would be shared with everyone I knew. Now, ten years later it’s being shared with everyone I work with.
“No!” I stand up, pushing the screen away. Tears prickle the sides of my eyes. “No! That didn’t happen. No!”
Sasha stands up, pulling me into a hug. “I’m so sorry, Embyr. I don’t know why he would do that to you, why he would email that to your coworkers.”
I sniffle and pull back, rage consuming me. I grab the edge of the screen and turn it back my way. Grabbing the mouse, I clear out of the video and look for the sender of the damn email, fully expecting it to be from Reece. He couldn’t have me, so he ruined my life…twice. My eyes scan to the top. I close them, rub them, hoping like hell that I misread the sending email address. It can’t be.
“Casen sent this to you?” I whisper but neither has to answer because it’s right there. Clear as day. Casen Parker. I feel the walls crumble around me but I stand firm. Wiping a stray tear from my eyes, I face Sasha. “I’m sorry you had to see this. What’s the next step? Am I fired?”
I would be devastated if I got fired from this job, but right now I don’t think I can face my coworkers again. They’ve all seen me. Naked me – losing my virginity and the man who showed it to them told me he loved me this morning. Fuck, five minutes ago in a text.
“Embyr,” Sasha speaks up. “I’m not sure how to proceed but I don’t think this is grounds for termination. I just wanted to talk to you and head you off before everyone else gets to work. I think the best idea right now is for you to take the rest of the day off, paid of course, and allow us to have tech erase it from all computers. They’ll be up here in fifteen minutes.”
“Okay.” I look around the room, unsure of what I want to do, and ultimately walk toward the door. “Okay, I’m going to go home.”
“I’m so sorry,” Derrick says to my back.
“I’m here if you need to talk.” Sasha adds.
Quickly, I walk back down the hallway, keeping my head down so that I don’t have to see the pity or possibly disgust in the eyes of my coworkers. I’ve become friends with most of them since being here and now I can’t even look their way.
