Mike greeted us with a smile as he stood up. “Keeley, Miller, how are you?” He shook hands with both of us and held his hand out to Spencer. They shook and he added, “I believe we’ve only informally met, Mr. Clay.”
“Spencer, and yeah, ah, sorry for telling you to fuck off,” he mumbled. “Hannah wasn’t well.”
“It’s okay. I have kids myself, and there’s nothing worse than when they’re sick. I would have done the same thing, just perhaps with a little less-colorful language.” Mike smirked, and Spencer chuckled awkwardly.
“Take a seat,” Mike directed, and when we were all comfortable, he asked, “So, what can I do for you?”
“Keeley said yes to our asking her on a date,” Brayden cut in before I had a chance to start my prepared speech. I’d gone over every scenario in my head, trying to explain how our relationship had morphed from a professional one into more and begging for the team not to fire me.
“Congratulations,” he said with a smile. “We’d better get some paperwork filled out then.”
“Paperwork?” I asked, my brows furrowed. My mind screeched to a halt. Was it as simple as that? The employee handbook was clear that relationships between staff and managers were prohibited.
“Absolutely. The organization has clear policies in place for when relationships occur.” Mike smiled warmly and pulled a binder off the bookshelf next to his desk.
He busied himself taking out a few pieces of paper while my mind worked overtime just to get back on track to form a coherent thought. “But the employee handbook prohibits relationships between management and subordinates.”
“That’s right,” Mike agreed with a nod. He removed a few more sheafs of paper from the folder and set them down. “But you’re not in a supervisor-subordinate position, so that mitigates most of the problems the handbook was designed to protect against. The team has clear policies regarding the disclosure of relationships, conflicts of interest, and sexual harassment.” He set the forms out on the desk between us, every one of them in duplicate, and started with the brochure sitting atop the two piles. “This is the complaints process that’s available to all employees should a problem arise.”
“That’s it? A few forms?” I choked out, relief welling up in me and coming out as an unhinged laugh. “I’ve been panicking this whole time that I’m going to lose my job, and we just needed to sign some forms?” I struggled to keep my emotions in check. I blinked furiously, trying to stop the tears from welling up, and I swallowed hard, fighting the lump forming in my throat. Why wouldn’t the handbook just say that?
Spencer wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pressed a kiss to my temple.
“I feel like an idiot,” I huffed, burying my face in my hands and cuddling into him. He squeezed my nape and pulled me closer. I exhaled, the adrenaline flooding my system making me shake harder than the fear.
Mike steepled his fingers in front of him, his elbows perched on the armrests of his chair, and looked at me thoughtfully. “The employee manual is intentionally strict on the subject. We need to protect our staff from unethical practices.”
I nodded, understanding dawning—they were trying to protect the Amandas of our staff against the Simons.
He continued, “You can appreciate that there would be issues with fairness and transparency in relation to promotions and other opportunities should a relationship between supervisor and subordinate occur. More importantly, though, our main concern was the misuse of any imbalances in power.”
“That sounds fair,” Brayden said.
“There is no imbalance of power here, though,” Spencer protested.
“Agreed,” Mike said. “Keeley only has minimal interaction with Miller from an organizational perspective. Miller’s PR and social media management can easily be assigned to Tim.”
Brayden shook his head and insisted adamantly, “No, I want Keeley. Thanks to her, my reputation has been turned around. People have been blowing up my socials with get well messages, and I’m getting tagged in thousands of posts of people wearing my jersey and holding up signs encouraging me to get back on the ice.”
I smiled at Brayden. It was about time he had some positive experiences with fans and the media. My heart was full knowing I’d helped in a small way.
“Y’all, our whole foods grocer has my jersey in the window. That’s never happened to me before. Keeley’s genius was whatdid it. All her plans and the times she’s told me to follow the script were worth it. I want her.”
“Okay,” Mike agreed with a nod of his head and a small shrug of his shoulders. “I’ll need you to sign the conflict of interest acknowledgement—” he tapped the second form “—and if you ever change your mind, you just need to let me know and I’ll reassign you.”
We went through the forms—an acknowledgement of relationship form, professional conduct guidelines which mandated professionalism and prohibited PDAs in the office and at official events, the Seals’ sexual harassment policy, and the conflict of interest disclosure form. Mike included Brayden’s preference that I continue to manage media and public relations for him, and we both signed everything.
My head was spinning. I’d come in here ready to beg if I had to. I’d been convinced I was going to be sanctioned, demoted, or even lose my job despite Brayden and Spencer insisting otherwise. I still couldn’t believe I’d put it all on the line, but they were worth it. They were also right—everythingwasokay.
“That’s it?” I asked, still in disbelief.
“That’s it,” Mike said happily. “Enjoy getting back to training, Miller. Looking forward to seeing you on the ice soon.” He stood and shook hands with all of us, wished me a good day, and told Spencer his wife and son were big fans.
I walked out of his office in a daze, so very grateful that I’d catastrophized and it was all okay rather than the other way around. I laughed, jubilation lifting me higher until I was floating among the clouds. I wanted to pull them both into my arms and kiss the heck out of them, but there was no way I was breaching a single one of the rules set out in the professional conduct guidelines.
The boys followed me into my office and Brayden shut the door behind him, then leaned against it. Spencer took my hand in his and asked, “You okay?”
“More than okay.” I grinned and gestured with my chin to the door. “Get out of here before I break all the rules I just agreed to.”
