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Nope. In fact things escalated rapidly. Both Fiona and Angela were hurling insults, calling each other out as sluts and whores. Truer words were never spokern, but I call it like I see it.
With all the staff from the marketing department standing around and listening to the two women ranting at each other it soon became apparent to everyone that Adam had been ‘dipping his wick‘ where it didn’t belong. Bonnie and Jenny, the two other women Adam had been having an affair with entered the fray.
“You’te lying, Angela. There is no way Adam would have anything to do with you. Why would you even say that. He told me he was breaking up with Anna when she get back from this trip. Jenny screamed. “He’s my boyfriend. You keep your filthy hands off of him!”
Bonnie didn’t hesitate to to chime in with her own verbal claim to Adam as her boyfriend. Another three security men showed up and made their presence known. I could hear one of them on the phone to HR requesting a couple of reps report to Adam’s office immediately.
At this point I paused the videos and stared at Bradley. The two of us burst out laughing at the high drama being played out in Fredericks Design.
“No wonder he is trying to get hold of me so desparately. No doubt he wants to do whatever damage control he can before I get back. Thinks that he can get ahead of the game and make it seem like all four women are lying, and trying to break us up.” At least that is what I think he wants to do. I could be wrong.
“No matter what he has to say now, how is this going to impact your plans going forward? Adam and Fiona will probably break up over this, especially with Angela being pregnant.” Bradley’s questions were valid. But I knew something he didn’t.
“Angela
when I was at the office, Angela was in the washroom the n’t pregnant. Last Friday same time I was. She asked if I happened to have an extra tampon as she had just started her period. She was in a bit of a mess, and I had to loan her my long sweater to hide the evidence. I sent her home for the rest of the day. Looks like Adam isn’t the only one who wants to try and baby trap someone.” Who knew that type of thing was so common?
“So what does this mean for your plans? Now everyone knows about his office exploits?” Bradley asked once again.
“Well, everyone knows there are security cameras in the building, but no one really knows where they are. They probably don’t realize there is a camera in all the executive offices. And
I’m the only one that has access to the executive office camera video feed. So unless I show
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them the videos, everything will be a ‘he said, she said‘ situation. Without concrete proof, HR can’t just fire anyone. However, they can and will put a warning in the employee file, and they will be on probation for up to a year.”
“Let’s watch the rest of the security video, before I decide anything.” And that’s what we did. I
am proud of the way HR handled everything. They calmed the situation, separated the four women, sent everyone else back to work with instructions not to talk about or engage in
speculation regarding the incident. Each of the women were interviewed, with the interviews
being video recorded. Then they were sent home for the rest of the week, and told to report to HR on Monday morning at ten.
The senior HR manager was waiting in the lobby of the building for Adam. He was escorted directly to an interview room and spent over an hour answering questions. In the end he too, was sent home with clear instructions not to show up until Monday at ten. He was red faced and angry when he left the building. It was just after then that he had left the abrasive voice
mail on my phone.
I quickly switched the video feed back to the house. I didn’t want him going back there. I fast. forwarded the footage to three just to make sure he didn’t show up to take refuge in the house. I turned my phone back on long enough to call Jenna and ask her to go to the house and disable the electronic entry keypad. Since Adam didn’t have a key to the house he wouldn’t be able to gain access. She was already in the area so she was able to do as I requested without any hesitation.
Bradley and I were able to see her drive up, park in the driveway, and hurry to the front door and key in the disable code. Then she looked directly into the ring doorbell and grinned. “All done, chickie. The house is safe, and dickwad can’t get back in. I’ll call you later this evening.” She walked away with a wave of her hand, got in her car and drove away.. I turned my phone off again, as I didn’t want to hear it’s incessant ringing and received text notifications.
“Bradley, that lady is Jenna. My very best friend who I met during my first year of university. You two will no doubt get along quite well. I have no doubt you will meet her this Saturday.”
“Is she married, engaged, dating?” he asked, a thoughtful look upon his face.
That brought me up short. “Why, are you interested?” I tried to keep it light, but I have to admit,
I I felt a flare of jealousy. An emotion I have only felt when it concerned Bradley.
“You are the only woman I’m interested in, Red.” He leaned forward and kissed me on my nose. “I was thinking she would be a perfect match for Victor.”
“Victor? Who exactly is Victor?” I giggled to myself as I thought about Bradley playing
matchmaker.
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“Victor is my personal assistant. He offered to pick me up at the airport this morning, but he had a rather important matter I needed him to attend to. You heard me on the phone with him. this morning. Or at least I think you did. I’m thinking, if there’s room on the jet tomorrow, we could take him with us. I could use his help handling online meeetings and such, and we could introduce him to your friend on Saturday.”
I had to laugh. “Are you playing matchmaker,
y any chance?”
“Maybe.” He gave me a wink. “Now that I’ve found you and you’ve agreed to marry me, I know Victor is going to be lamenting his single state. Never hurts to help a friend out, right?”
“You’re serious about getting married? Are you sure?” I was half waiting for him to holler ‘psych‘ and tell me he was joking.
“Red, I am very serious about marrying you. Neither one of us can deny how we connect on
every level. And it’s no secret that I am incredibly attracted to you. Like you, I know this is fast, but I don’t want to chance losing you. I don’t want to hold back and then regret it for the rest of my life.” His very earnest confession sent waves of happiness to my heart. “Are you regretting.
saying yes?”
I
“Not in the least. Do I think this is crazy fast? Yes. Am I worried about what your parents are
going to think? Yep. Though I really don’t care about all of that. I should, I know I should. But
for some reason this all seems and feels right. Like it was meant to be.” I truly do believe this
was meant to be. Yeah, I know. I’m crazy.
We sat side by side staring into each others eyes. Tenderness and caring shone out of his
eyes and bathed me in the glow of contentment. If it’s possible for two people to fall for each other this fast, the look in his eyes says he has fallen for me. Good. Because now that I’ve
decided to trust him and myself, I’m falling fast and hard for him. Knowing neither of us want
to back out of our spontaneous wedding, I can now focus on the Fredericks Design fiasco in
the making.
“Bradley, I have to check my work email. I want to see if HR sent me a report on what
happened today.”
I quickly closed down the program for the security cameras, and opened my work email. My
mailbox was full to overflowing. A dozen emails from Adam, three from Fiona, and one from
- HR.
I ignored the ones from Adam and Fiona as I knew they would be full of nothing but
self–serving drivel. The one from HR was long, contained attachments of the interview
statements, and a request as how I wished to proceed.
I replied: a full work performance audit done on the five under investigation. I instructed HR to
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treat Adam and Fiona just as any other employee, no special treatment.
I also asked HR to send an official email to each of the five employees to notify them that I had been advised of the incident, and that during the formal investigation of the allegations, none of the five employees were to initiate any form of contact with me. Doing so would be considered a breach of their employment contract and would result in immediate termination,
That shoud give me a bit of a respite over the weekend.
