Natural Consequences (3 page)

“Stephanie left her cell phone out on a countertop in the copy room with a message to you showing. Susan decided that wasn’t okay with her.”

“
But I didn’t fool around with Stephanie. Nothing actually happened.”

“Hm. Well, I told Susan that what she saw didn’t sound like conclusive evidence to me, but in the end it doesn’t matter. What
does matter is what Susan believes and what I’m left to deal with.”

“
Susan filed a complaint?”

“
She talked to me as a first step, yes. Next step if I don’t resolve it is to take it to the partners. Can’t have that, can we?”

He didn’t even know what to say. “Then this—what is this? This here? You and me and… what the hell, Olivia?”

“
This
is nothing anyone will ever be able to prove, because I’m not careless enough to leave evidence lying around,” shrugged the office manager. “Now, I know you’ve got a girlfriend. I don’t expect what happens here to leave this office. The real question is whether or not you’d like me to fix this for you.”

“For me?” he blinked. “Is Stephanie in trouble, too?”

“She’s gone. Talked to her just before you went out to lunch. She’s already packed up and out of here.”

Suddenly he felt awful. “
Olivia, why did you do that?” he demanded.

“Because Susan has a lot of
loyal clients, Alex. Business contacts. Wealthy people. If she leaves the firm, she’ll take them with her.” She got off him and retrieved her blazer from the floor, putting it on as she sat behind her desk and straightened her hair. She seemed shockingly calm about all this. “And I think I can see where this is going. I’m sorry, Alex, but the firm can’t tolerate this sort of behavior.”

“What?” he burst.

“You’ve been a good worker and everyone likes you, Alex. But this sort of sexual harassment is unacceptable.”

His jaw ha
dn’t closed yet, so it had no farther to drop. He stood from the couch. “You’re
firing
me?”

Olivia looked him over and gestured absently at the impressive tent formed by the crotch of his slacks. “Unless you can give me some reason I shouldn’t?”

His response didn’t come out right away, jammed up as it was by a dozen other shocked and disgusted replies all trying to escape his mouth. “Go to hell!”

The office manager
sighed. “I was afraid you’d get self-righteous about this.”

“Self-righteous?” Alex sputtered as she reached for the phone. “You—“

“I’m calling building security now,” Olivia said flatly. “They’ll have someone up to watch you collect your belongings and escort you to the parking garage.”

There was nothing more to say. Nothing to debate. No defense he could muster. Alex
stormed out of Olivia’s office without another word. He headed back into the file room, buttoning his shirt back up as if it mattered.

“Wow,” said an amused female voice, “that
shit did
not
go the way I expected.” Alex found her lying atop the long counter that made up his and Kat’s desk, lounging with her head propped up on one arm. The radiance of Rachel’s halo seemed a bit toned down, perhaps for his benefit. The slender, youthful beauty’s broad white wings mostly faded into the wall behind her.

Usually, Rachel’s mere
appearance gave him an immediate thrill. He saw her almost daily, but never at predictable moments. Given her responsibilities, the angel could not spend as much time with her lovers as any of them might wish.

Alex had responsibilities, too. Fewer of them now. It didn’t feel good.

“Were you watching?” he asked, keeping his voice low. He could still count the number of people who’d ever seen her on his fingers. Fired or not, Alex didn’t want anyone walking in to see him talking to the wall. Somewhere out there was a security guard on the way.

“Yeah, most of it
. I felt her coming onto you. Figured as long as I was gonna get vicariously boned, I’d come get the visuals to match.” she grinned.

“Sorry about that,” he muttered.
“I feel like such an asshole.”

“
Why? Your boss is the asshole here,” Rachel shrugged. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Between you and me, Olivia’s guardian angel says she’s always been like this. You’re not the first guy she’s hit with the fuck-me-or-you’re-fired bit.”

“So you don’t think this I brought this on myself?” he fumed.

“Oh, sure, ‘cause you come to work dressed like a slut, right?” the angel deadpanned. “Doesn’t matter how hot you are or if you flirted with her or not. If the genders were reversed, you wouldn’t even question who was in the wrong.”

“
Still. Women never even hit on me before Lorelei came along.”

“Hah! You mean you didn’t notice.
Alex, your
eau de succubus
just advertises what a great lay you are,” she said with a melodramatic gesture. “It doesn’t turn anyone into a slobbering drone. There are four other chicks in this office who’ve fantasized about fucking you into the dirt, but they handle attraction like rational adults. You don’t see them tying you up and stuffing their panties in your mouth.”

Alex blinked. “Freudian slip much?”

“Maybe,” Rachel replied with her sweet, naturally innocent grin. “But still. As much as Stephanie wanted to jump you, she kept it under control, didn’t she?”

“
Ugh. Yes, and I feel awful for her. I don’t even have her phone number or her email. Can’t even apologize.”

“
It’s not on you to apologize. I’m telling you, this is about Olivia being a crazy bitch. Shit happens. You can’t make it all about you.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad.”

“Fair. Hey, I’ll talk with Stephanie’s guardian. Maybe we’ll bend a couple rules about interventions to make it up to her.”

Alex
nodded and slumped down into his chair. He knew he should set to clearing out his desk, but fuck it. He was entitled to a few minutes for this to sink in.

“Anyway,
screw this job,” Rachel said. “You don’t actually need it. You can’t tell me filing all day long was a thrill a minute.”

“I liked having this job,” he scowled.

Rachel made a face. She looked at the file racks and the pile of papers in his in box. “For fuck’s sake, why?”

“
Because after the way all my other opportunities coming out of high school fell apart, it felt good to at least have an adult job. This might not be exciting, but it beats working a register or standing behind a deep fryer. That’s all most people my age can find.” He paused and added, “It felt good to have a job to go to after all the other craziness in my life, too. Helped keep me grounded. Made it feel like I wasn’t just sponging off Lorelei.”

“
You don’t
need
to stay grounded, love. What you need is a long, sustained stretch of party time. No, seriously,” she said as she saw the objection rise to his mouth. “You’ve had life after life of hard knocks and sacrifice. I know you don’t remember any details anymore, but it weighs on your soul. I see it.”

“Other lives. They weren’t
me
.”

“Yes, they were, dork-ass,” Rachel sighed, reaching out to nudge at his heart. “It’s all the same soul. It’s
who you are
.” The thought gave her a bit of a frown. “Nobody should have that kind of consistency, but there it is. You made all those choices. You carried all those burdens. It’s time to dump ‘em. Relax. Have some fun with this life.”

His eyebrow rose. “You don’t think I have enough fun with you and Lorelei?” he asked, his lips hinting at a grin despite his stress.

She mimicked his expression. “You could have more,” she suggested. “I’m kind of surprised life isn’t all strippers and sex clubs for you and Lorelei yet. You’re under a succubus curse. If you try to deny it, you’ll go nuts. You’ve gotta manage it, and that means letting your freak flag fly sometimes.”

“That’s what I’m saying, though,” he said as his grin faded. “You and Lorelei are incredible. Shouldn’t that be good enough? More than enough?”

“It’s not a question of ‘good enough,’ lover,” Rachel answered patiently. “For either of you. It’s a curse. It’s not supposed to be fair.”

“No, but
I
should be.”

Rachel
let his statement hang in the air before she spoke again. “Y’know, this isn’t the only open relationship in the world. We didn’t invent the term. The others don’t come from demonic curses, either. The
healthy
ones just get there through a whole lot of honesty.”

“Yeah,” he
nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been working on that.”

“I know,” she said. Rachel
sat up on the counter, gracefully sliding over to put both her feet on the arms of Alex’s desk chair. “I should probably get back on the job. Still got things to deal with in the bay. All kinds of nasty tentacled shits trying to move in down there. Ugh. So fucking gross. I’ll come back to you when I’m free again. You gonna turn into a mopey emo bastard on me?”

“This happened like two minutes ago
. Give it a chance to sink in, okay?”

“It’s just a job,” she reminded him evenly.

“It is,” Alex sighed. “I’ll get over it.”

“
Go home. Talk it out with Lorelei,” the angel nodded. “She loves you. So do I.” She leaned in to kiss him softly. Then she was gone.

Alex opened his eyes to
find a scowling security guard looming over him. His nametag read “Lambert.” The man pushed an empty trash bag in his hands. “Two minutes, creep,” said Lambert. “Get your shit and get out of my building.”

*   *   *

Gathering his belongings didn’t take long. Alex wasn’t one for pictures or trinkets, but like anyone in an office for almost two years, there were a few things he wanted to save. He had a good pocket knife, a coffee mug, an iPod dock with speakers and a few holiday cards. His daily LolCat calendar. The small blue police box pencil sharpener that Kat gave him last Christmas.

Frustratingly,
the guard hounded him out the door before Kat got back. He didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her or anyone else, though he caught a vengeful glare from Susan on his way out.

“You don’t plan to keep that roll of tape, do you?” asked Lambert. The guard watched as Alex secured the trash bag of belongings to the back seat of his motorcycle in the parking garage. Sadly, he had neither saddlebags nor a backpack today. This was as good as it would get. But it would’ve been easier to make sure he didn’t leave tape residue on the leather seat without Lambert pressuring him.

“Is that why you followed me out here?” Alex asked. “Seriously? The roll of packing tape?” He kept working, eager to just make his exit.

“Yeah. That and making sure you don’t find any other women to harass on the way out.” Lambert had a few years on Alex, along with a f
ew more pounds—both muscle and otherwise. With a blond buzzcut, thick black-rimmed glasses, a torso spreading slightly over his Sam Brown utility belt and a canister of pepper spray on his hip, Lambert was somewhere between mildly intimidating and sadly comical. Alex couldn’t decide which.

“Dude. This is the fifth floor of the parking building. I’m not gonna harass anyone out here.”

“No, you’re not,” Lambert glowered. “Because I’m gonna watch you ride your little scooter out of here and never come back.”

Alex bristled. He understood Lambert’s hostility. The guy thought Alex was a creepy, woman-groping bastard, and Alex had no chance of convincing him otherwise. It wasn’t even worth the attempt. But willfully calling his motorcycle a scooter wasn’t so forgivable.

He tossed the roll of tape down on the ground behind Lambert. “I’d ask what kind of self-respecting hipster gets a job as a security guard,” Alex scowled, “but self-respecting hipster is an oxymoron anyway, so the hell with it.”

“Least I’ve got a job,” Lambert countered.

He had a point there. Alex didn’t have a comeback for that.

“Alex,” said a woman’s voice behind him.
He didn’t recognize it and didn’t want to stay and talk to anyone anyway. Alex retrieved the helmet off its hook on the side of his bike. “I’ve been looking for you.”

That earned more of his attention. Alex turned around. She stood only a few feet away, dressed a long tie-dyed skirt and what Alex subconsciously labeled as a hippie hoodie. Her brown hair was tied back into a ponytail, revealing bright blue eyes and a strong, lovely face. She stood to his same height, perhaps even slightly taller. He didn’t recognize her immediately.

And then he did.

Oh no
, he thought.
Seriously?

“We had a terrible first meeting,” said Diana, “and an even worse parting.”

“Ma’am, this guy’s being escorted off the premises,” said Lambert. “Turns out he doesn’t conduct himself well around women.”

Diana ignored the security guard. So did Alex
. “That was a pretty shitty night for me,” Alex frowned.