One Fateful Night with My Boss novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Badge

Brooke locks Francine out in front of the staff, Nelson comes down and claims them both, and Brooke calls a board meeting for Friday.

Eugene Holloway sat on the couch beside Percy and did not say a word for almost a minute.

He just looked, with both hands folded on the head of his cane.

My son looked back, because he has never in his life been shy about being looked at.

"Are you a grandpa?" Percy asked.

"I am your father's grandfather," the old man said. "That makes me something older and more irritating."

"Great," Percy said. "I have a great-grandpa."

"Is that a good thing to have?"

"It's a very long word," Percy said. "I'll tell you tomorrow."

Eugene's mouth twitched, and I understood at once where Nelson's dimple had come from.

He stood, with some effort, and turned to his grandson.

"Whatever this is, we will discuss it at the house tonight," he said.

"And Brooke told the board an hour ago that you had hired a stranger with a flair for theater."

"I'd like to know what she meant."

"She meant me," I said.

Both men looked at me.

"I'm the stranger, Mr. Holloway. I'm sorry about the theater. My son has a loud voice."

"Don't apologize for a child's voice," Eugene said. "Apologize for something you did."

"I haven't done anything yet," I said.

"Good," he said. "Keep it that way until the board meets."

He took his cane and left, and Nelson's shoulders dropped after ten minutes of silence.

"He likes you," he said.

"He barely spoke to me."

"That's how I know."

I took Percy down to the lower floor, where a kind woman in HR had found a vacant playroom the company used for client families.

I told Percy to color and not to leave, and I walked back to the elevator with my hands shaking.

At nine sharp, I went down to the lobby to collect my permanent badge.

The guard handed it over, and I tapped it on the turnstile to go back up.

The light went red.

I tried it again, and the light stayed red.

The security guard behind the desk, a big man with a tired face, would not look at me.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," he said. "Your access was cancelled at 8:55."

"Cancelled by whom?"

"I can't say."

He didn't have to.

Brooke Ellison came across the marble from the executive elevator with her tablet and her smooth blonde hair, and she stopped three feet from me.

A knot of staff had gathered with their coffees, pretending to read their phones.

"Miss Kessing," she said, pleasantly. "There's been a mistake with your hiring."

"The mistake was not mine."

"Human resources found something in your file."

"What?"

"Your file shows no references from Columbus and a six-year gap in your local work history."

"It also shows a child nobody mentioned in your interviews."

"The interviews didn't ask about my son."

"They shouldn't have to."

She turned to the room, easily.

"Executive assistants at this company handle sensitive documents," she said.

"We can't have someone here who stages a scene for the CEO on her first day."

"I didn't stage anything."

"Then it's an unlucky coincidence," Brooke said. "The kind that follows a certain type of woman."

She did not say what type.

She let the lobby fill in the blank for her.

I felt every pair of eyes on my back, and for one second I wanted to cry.

Then I thought of Percy coloring a giraffe in a room downstairs, and I stopped.

"I have a signed offer letter," I said. "It says my start date is today."

"And my badge has my name on it."

"I'll stand here until somebody with the authority to fire me comes down and does it to my face."

"You'll be standing a while," Brooke said, and smiled.

"Then I'll stand."

I folded my arms and planted my feet, and I did not move.

A minute went by, and then two.

Somebody near the coffee cart whispered, and someone else shushed them.

I heard the executive elevator ding behind Brooke.

Nelson walked out of it without his jacket, his sleeves pushed up, moving fast.

He crossed the lobby the way he had crossed it that morning, with every head turning, and he stopped beside me at the turnstile.

He took my badge from my hand.

He swiped it himself, and the light went green.

"Brooke," he said, loud enough for the whole floor. "Who deactivated my assistant's access?"

"I did, Nelson, because HR..."

"Reactivate it. Now."

He handed me the badge back and turned to face the lobby.

"This is Francine Kessing," he said. "She works for me."

"The boy in the playroom is her son, and he is also mine."

The silence that followed was the loudest sound I'd ever heard.

Brooke went white under her makeup, and then she went very still.

"Then you won't mind," she said softly, "if the board hears that on Friday."

"Bring her. Bring the boy."

"Let them see exactly what you're asking them to accept."

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