effects.
Asher looked right at me. “Jill is NOT hot.”
Nolan Fucking MacKenzie piped up for the first time. “Hey now, that’s not cool to say.”
I shot him a piercing look. I can fight my own battles, intern, thank you very much.
Mariners guy chimed in. “Well, from where I’m sitting, Jill looks pretty hot to me.”
“Some people here would definitely feel that way,” Asher growled, looking directly at Nolan.
Charles interjected, “Well, everyone, I hate to say it, but it looks like we are out of time!” He had already begun packing up his materials and closed his briefcase, ready to flee in mere seconds. He handed each of us a certificate and a course satisfaction survey.
Certificate of Sexual Harassment Training
Participant’s name: Melania Joo
I, Melania Joo, acknowledge the completion of Seventeen Studios’ sexual harassment training session.
By signing this statement, I acknowledge that I:
Understand the company’s policies regarding sexual harassment,
Understand my responsibility as an employee to not engage in behavior that could be perceived as sexual harassment,
If harassed, I understand my right to request the behavior be stopped, and
Understand it is my responsibility to bring sexually offensive behavior to my organization’s attention.
Signed,
______________
(Melania Joo)
The course certificate had been printed with my misspelled name on expensive, heavy stock with gold-and-black embossed lettering. I tossed it into the trash along with the survey.
“Hey, Melody, wait up.” Nolan huffed and puffed next to me.
Staring straight ahead, I continued marching to my office, pretending I didn’t see him in my peripheral view.
“Please? I just wanna talk.”
I sped up and he stayed in lockstep with me. By the time I got to my office, we were both panting.
“I just . . .” Breath. “Wanted to say . . .” Breath. “That those guys were so out of line,” he wheezed. “I thought. Training. Would be a good thing. For inclusivity.”
I slammed my MacBook on my desk. “You didn’t have to say anything in there, you know. I deal with this shit all the time, I can handle myself.” Opening my laptop, I checked for damage. I didn’t want the IT guy to yell at me.
His eyes widened. “Oh, I didn’t mean you couldn’t handle yourself. I just meant—” He took another breath. “It’s just that, those guys are idiots and I didn’t think what happened in there was appropriate.”
“Look, you don’t need to jump in to save me. I’m fine!” I hissed the last two words through gritted teeth and tapped my password so hard on my keyboard that the keys could have broken from the pressure. The intern’s like-to-hate ratio had nose-dived to negative since our conference room meeting. Wait, could ratios be negative?
“If you’re fine, then okay, I just felt bad is all, since it was one of my inclusivity initiatives and it bombed, at your expense.” His shoulders slumped and head hanging low, he shuffled out of the office, passing Asher as he entered. My gut twisted tight as Nolan disappeared from my view. My anger and pride had gotten the best of me. The last thing I wanted was to make enemies with one of the nicer guys here. Especially the CEO’s nephew.
“Another lovers’ quarrel?” Asher smirked as he sat in his chair.
“Can you do your job, please?” I muttered back.
On Messenger, I found Nolan MacKenzie and sent him a quick message. I’m sorry I snapped. No sleep and too much going on here, as you witnessed in that meeting. Can I make it up with dinner? My treat. Actually, Ian’s treat, cashing in my dining dollars for working late so many nights.
In case he got the wrong idea, I added, Nothing fancy.
His immediate reply. Cool. I’m game.
I smiled and closed the chat window.
THANKS TO MY unplanned computer outage and useless sexual misconduct training, I stayed at work later than planned. My Messenger app bleeped around 7:30 P.M.
Nolan: Ready for dinner yet?
Oh damn, dinnertime already. Maybe I could take my computer home, assign tasks to our overseas developers in China and Poland, and then a lot of work could get done overnight and I’d be on schedule in the morning. I threw my computer into my black leather satchel. My newly inherited work MacBook weighed more than my other laptop. Those MacBooks looked slender and light, but I swear those computers were made out of the same materials as fishing sinkers.
Nolan wasn’t at his desk but his computer screen was on, spreadsheets were up, and of course I had to sneak a look. Using fancy macros and pivot tables, he was in the middle of building