Chapter 9: Her Version

By Saturday morning, there was a new story about me.

My boss called me into her office with an email open on her screen.

It was from Carson's mother, copied to the general manager.

She wrote that she was very sorry to raise this, but her son's former girlfriend had been carrying on with a contractor on the property.

She wrote that it had apparently been going on for some time.

She wrote that this explained why Vicki had never noticed what was happening in her own relationship.

My boss turned the monitor so I could see the last line.

"She has a photograph," she said.

The event photographer had taken it in the second-floor corridor.

In the photo my hand was in Elias's, and the elevator doors were open behind us.

"Is it true?" my boss asked.

"I held a man's hand in a blackout," I said. "I've known him nine years."

"Vicki."

"The elevator was stuck for forty minutes. The speaker told us so. You can pull the log."

"I believe you," she said. "I'm asking for the other thing. The story is that you cheated first."

"On what? Four years of him lying to me?"

She looked at the email, then at me.

"Keep it off the property," she said. "Whatever it is. Keep it off the property."

"Yes."

"And Vicki, I'm giving you the send-off. Don't make me regret that."

"You won't."

I walked out, past the front desk, where the supervisor held up a fist without looking up from her screen.

By lunchtime I had heard the new version four times.

Cass had been telling it in the lobby café, tearfully, to the head of catering.

She hadn't wanted to say. She loved us both. She had just thought someone should know why Vicki had been so distracted for so long.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Matching Game. Everyone Knew The Answer. Except Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.