Everyone Knew She'd Leave Me but Me novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Farewell Cake

A coworker badges Warner into his own farewell party, and he takes the microphone to prove the resignation was forged. Dean answers by announcing that the wedding goes on with a new groom.

The man from accounting had followed me down the corridor.

He didn't say sorry. He held his own badge to the reader, and the light went green.

"You're my plus-one," he said to the guard. "Write it down."

The guard looked at the floor and opened the door.

The ballroom was warm and loud, with two hundred people holding champagne.

A banner hung over the stage in the company's blue letters.

"Farewell and Good Luck, Warner!"

Beside the podium stood a sheet cake with my name piped across it in white icing.

Somebody had even drawn a little briefcase.

Nobody had told me about my own going-away party.

A woman from marketing saw me first. Her smile slid off her face and she nudged the man next to her.

The nudge traveled across the room.

By the time I reached the stage, the music had stopped.

The CEO was at the podium with her speech cards. She looked down at me, and then at her phone, and her mouth opened a little.

Dean came in through the side door behind me.

He had Brooke on his arm, and Marlene a step behind them with my gift bag.

He took the stairs two at a time, patted the CEO's shoulder, and lifted the microphone off the stand.

"Let's hear it for Warner, everybody!" he said. "Eight years! Our man made it after all."

A few people clapped.

Most of them looked at their shoes.

I walked up the steps and held out my hand for the microphone.

Dean laughed. He didn't let go. He didn't pull, either, because two hundred people were watching.

I took it from his fingers.

"Hi," I said.

My voice sounded smaller than I wanted it to.

I cleared my throat and started over.

"I'm Warner Stancliffe, and I didn't resign."

Nobody made a sound.

"At noon today, a letter went out from my email. I didn't write it. At 11:42, when the time stamp says it was sent, I was in the glass conference room on a video call with our Denver client."

Someone in the third row said, "That's true. I was in there."

"My laptop was in my bag in that room," I said. "The email came from the computer at my desk."

I turned to the CEO.

"Our badge system logs every swipe onto the product floor. Check who went in at 11:38."

She didn't answer me. She gave a quiet instruction to the man standing at her elbow, and he started typing on his phone.

Dean tapped the side of his tie and smiled at the crowd.

"Come on, Warner. This isn't the place."

"You picked it," I said. "It's your party."

The man at the CEO's elbow held up his phone and murmured to her.

I watched her read the screen.

Then she looked at Dean, and she didn't look away.

"Mr. Clanton," she said, "you swiped onto the product floor at 11:38 and left at 11:51."

"I dropped off some contracts."

"At Warner's desk?"

"Where else would I leave them?"

"Whose password opens that computer?" she asked.

He opened his mouth.

I answered for him, quietly, into the microphone.

"Mine. He's known it for eleven years. He helped me pick it."

A sound went through the room, low and wide.

Dean's smile held a moment longer.

Then he let it go, and he shrugged, a big easy shrug that made him look like the victim.

"Fine," he said. "I sent it. You were leaving anyway, buddy."

"I wasn't."

"You were leaving her." He nodded at Brooke. "You just hadn't noticed yet."

Brooke stood at the foot of the stairs with her hand over her mouth.

She didn't say it wasn't true.

Marlene said it for her, loud enough to carry.

"Don't stand there acting wounded, Warner. A grown man who loves a woman doesn't leave her alone in a house for eight hours a day."

"That house is mine, Marlene."

"Not for long."

Somebody laughed nervously and stopped.

The CEO lifted a hand.

"Mr. Clanton, my office, Monday morning, nine o'clock. Warner, your badge will work tomorrow. We'll talk then. Everyone, the cake is paid for, so please eat it."

She didn't sound amused.

I started to hand the microphone back to the stand.

Dean's hand came out and closed over mine.

His eyes were friendly. His voice was low.

"You want an audience, buddy? Fine. Give them the whole show."

He took the microphone, turned to the room, and put his other arm around Brooke.

"Since everybody's here," he said, "I'll save us all a speech. Brooke and I are getting married on the fourteenth, same place, same guests, same cake."

His grin was enormous.

"The contract with the Marlowe Hotel is in Brooke's name, so Warner, I'm afraid your forty-one thousand dollars is a gift."

Marlene began to clap.

She was the only one.

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