The Only Shark In The Sea (The Date Shark Series Book 3) (6 page)

Chapter 8

The Altercation

Vance ended his call with Stephanie and sighed. He knew this would probably happen eventually. Even though the painting dinner had gone well, he still felt unprepared to deal with the situation. Or more accurately, he worried Natalie would be unprepared to handle this last minute change of plans. He didn’t have much time before his next patient, so he quickly made the call.

Natalie picked up on the third ring. “Hello, Vance.” He couldn’t help noticing the drastic change from her timid greeting the first time he had called.

“Hey, Natalie. Steph can’t make it to lunch today. She has to meet with a parent about one of her students.”

“Oh.”

Vance could hear the reticence echoing over the line. “I’m going to leave this one up to you,” he said. “We can either still meet, or reschedule for when Stephanie can join us. You tell me what you’re comfortable with.”

Vance held his breath and waited. Even after weeks of sessions, the attempted break-in, and painting over the weekend, Vance knew asking her to meet with him alone was so far outside of her comfort zone she’d likely never even consider it, but still he hoped. It took a very long time before he heard Natalie release her own held breath.

“Could you come here?” The request was so quiet, Vance barely heard it. When he did finally process her words, shock made him slow to respond.

Normally, a request to meet a patient at their workplace would never even be considered. Natalie was a special case, a friend. More than that, Vance was so proud and amazed she had even agreed to meeting with him alone that he could hardly tell her no. He wasn’t entirely sure what Stephanie would think of the arrangement. After the success of the painting trip and Steph’s honest pleasure that Natalie would go with her another time, he felt confident she would understand. He was about to say so when Natalie broke in.

“It’s just that it’s been a rough morning and I don’t think I can handle having to leave the office today, especially knowing Stephanie won’t be there. If you’re not comfortable with that, we can just reschedule.”

“No,” Vance said, “we don’t need to reschedule. I’ll be by as soon as I finish with my next patient.”

Natalie breathed out a long sigh filled with relief and fear. “I’m on the third floor. Just ask the receptionist to show you to my office.” Anxious tapping echoed over the phone. “Thank you, Vance.”

“Thank you for trusting me,” he replied.

The tapping stopped. “I have it on good authority that trusting you is worth the risk.”

She didn’t give him a chance to respond. The line went dead immediately after her last word, leaving Vance shocked all over again and wondering where on earth that had come from.

***

They had discussed Natalie’s job on several occasions. Those brief mentions had not prepared Vance for his arrival outside her office. Her general terror at interacting with others and the way she claimed to have almost no interaction with the general workforce contradicted the real office—not the cubicle he had been expecting—and brass nameplate next to her door identifying her as a senior auditor.

Given that the information Guy had collected from her for his assessment pegged her at only twenty-five years old, she had somehow managed to move into a very respected position in the company despite her social disabilities. Three years out of college and she was already doing very well for herself, as far as her career was concerned. Perhaps that was part of why she now wanted to address her personal life.

Vance knocked on the door and waited. The blinds were closed, which didn’t surprise him. The sound of a lock sliding open probably shouldn’t have surprised him either, but it did. It was no secret that Natalie constantly felt threatened, but he didn’t realize she felt the need to barricade herself inside her office all day. Or was it just today? He wondered what had caused her comment about it being a rough morning as the door cracked open a few inches.

Sighing in relief, Natalie’s strained expression softened. “Thank goodness. I was worried it was someone else.”

“Anyone in particular?” Vance asked.

Natalie shook her head. “I just don’t want to be bothered after this morning.”

Gesturing at the door, Vance asked, “Would you like to let me in, or would you be more comfortable in the open?” He was concerned about her privacy, but he knew being in an enclosed space with him would be difficult. Or perhaps she meant to have this discussion through the door? That honestly wouldn’t have surprised him.

The force with which Natalie bit her bottom lip was nearly enough to draw blood. The only thing that kept her hand from trembling was the fierce grip she had on the door. “Not in the open,” she whispered. “Too many people eat lunch in the break room.” Her eyes darted toward the interior of her office. “Come in, please.”

Even with her invitation, it took her a few seconds to step back and open the door wide enough for Vance to enter. She hid behind the door as he stepped through, waiting until he was several feet away from her before quickly pushing the door closed and flipping the dead bolt.

“Do all the offices have deadbolt locks?” Vance asked. He took a seat in the only available chair aside from the one behind Natalie’s desk. The stiffness of its cushion suggested it wasn’t used often.

“Yes,” Natalie whispered. She had her back against the door, eyes closed against seeing Vance inside her office. “The information…it’s sensitive…upcoming projects that…they could be stolen…sold to another company.”

Vance’s fingers tightened around the arms of his chair as he recognized the warnings signs of hyperventilation. Knowing addressing her fear would only make it worse, he opted for distraction instead. “I hadn’t considered that you would have to deal with theft of that nature. That must add a whole other level of stress to your job.”

“I guess…it could.” Natalie squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could. “I’ve never had an issue.”

“I suppose that’s one way your social difficulties help you in your job,” Vance said. He paused, waiting for her reaction. He got it when her breathing slowed but her eyes remained closed.

A good ten seconds passed in silence before she asked, “How?”

“Well,” Vance said slowly, “if anyone was going to try to weasel information out of someone in the company, you’d probably be the last person they’d go after, right?”

The barest hint of a smile turned the corners of Natalie’s mouth up. A few seconds later she even managed to open her eyes. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Vance didn’t say anything else. He waited for Natalie to collect herself and cautiously make her way to her chair. Thankfully, her office was large enough to give her the space she needed. When she finally reached her chair, she pulled it back from the desk before sitting down. It was obvious that she was still very uncomfortable with this arrangement, but she was handling it better than Vance had hoped.

Pushing her just a little bit further out of her comfort zone, Vance asked, “Would you mind if I asked a question this time?” When her face lit up with panic, he continued. “I know this goes against our agreement, but I only wanted to ask about your morning. Is everything okay?”

Her shoulders dropped in relief. “That’s fine. That’s okay.”

“Thank you.” He didn’t press her to answer the question.

After a while, Natalie said, “As usual, if I were someone else, it would have been nothing.”

“No,” Vance corrected, “not if you were someone else. There’s nothing wrong with who you are. If you had better coping skills, this morning may not have bothered you as much. That’s all.”

It was a message Vance tried to relay to many of his patients trying to overcome traumatic events. Whatever they experienced, it didn’t define them. It was never an easy lesson for his patients to learn, but Vance was caught off guard by the tears that sprung to Natalie’s eyes at his words.

“Do you mean that?” she asked, her voice thick with emotion.

Not entirely sure why his words had affected her so much, he said, “Of course I do. Natalie, the fears you have are a result of what you’ve experienced in life. They aren’t you. Beneath your fears is a beautiful young woman who is kind and intelligent, and clearly very good at assessing risks, judging by your office. Your fears are a barrier you’ve put up to protect yourself. Nothing more. Eventually, you won’t need them anymore.”

“Nobody has ever seen me the way you do,” Natalie whispered. Her words affected him deeply and it became a struggle not to show it.

“What do you mean?” Vance eventually asked. He suspected whatever trauma she had suffered was in her childhood judging by the severity and how well she had already trained herself to get through day to day life despite her limitations. Even still, he struggled with the idea that she had never in her life felt like she was a person valued for who she was and not judged by her disability. It made him want to be the person who could truly make her believe that about herself more than ever, to the point he began to wonder if Natalie remaining his patient was the best thing for either of them.

Every time he thought about what she’d said that night to Sabine, he ached to reach across the distance between them and give her a hug just so she knew being touched wouldn’t break her and that kindness was something she deserved. Vance pressed his hands to the arm rests.

Natalie wiped away a tear as it rolled across the ridge of her cheekbone, swift and well-practiced. “Being me has never been enough. For anyone.”

It took tremendous effort not to follow up that comment with delving questions aimed at discovering her secrets. He knew without a doubt that doing so would cause her to retreat and put up more walls. Her trust in him was growing, but still so fragile he dared not test its strength just yet. Tucking away her words, reactions, and emotions for a later conversation, he forced himself to return to the original subject.

“What happened this morning to upset you?”

Raising her eyes from her lap, Natalie met his gaze with more confidence than he had ever seen her possess. It was still quite tenuous, but it was something. “Recently,” Natalie said, “I recommended against a project that was proposed. The concept was bound to attract investors, but if it failed, it would do so quite spectacularly. There was potential for a great deal of money being lost. I didn’t blacklist the idea entirely, but I suggested they needed more research, more planning, and something more substantial to shore it up against failure.”

“I take it your recommendation wasn’t taken well,” Vance said.

“My boss agreed with me,” Natalie said. She crossed her arms over her chest, though, barring herself against whatever she was going to say next. “The team leader who proposed the idea, he was clearly upset after the meeting, but seemed to accept the decision to hold off. I thought it was over.”

Tensing, Vance had to take a minute to calm his voice and restrain the anxiety and concern he was feeling. “It wasn’t?”

Natalie shook her head, her arms tightening around her slender frame. She looked as if she were trying to shrink into nothing. Her breathing picked up noticeably. “No.” That was all she could manage to say.

Fearing her control was slipping, Vance put aside his own worries and spoke firmly. “Natalie, I need you to breathe. In for five, out for five. Keeping breathing until I tell you to stop.”

She listened, though it was obviously difficult for her to concentrate on his instructions. Five full minutes later, Vance finally felt she was calm enough to resume. He knew bringing the subject back up might send her into a panic again, but he couldn’t back down from this. Natalie felt threatened by everyone, but this instance could very well be dangerous, and he had no doubt that Natalie would fail to take it seriously enough if she thought she was overreacting or felt someone else would think her childish for drawing attention to it.

“Natalie, what happened this morning with the man from the meeting?”

Immediately, Natalie’s eyes pinched shut. Her head started shaking, but she said, “I got an email late last night saying the project had been put on hold long-term. Samuel got the same email. He was waiting by my office when I got to work. He grabbed my arm when I tried to turn around. He scared me so badly, I tried to pull my arm away, but he pulled back and I hit the wall. That was it. I started crying and he let go, then I ran away and hid in the restroom for almost an hour.”

“He grabbed your arm and pushed you into the wall?” Vance asked. The steel in his voice snapped Natalie’s eyes open. He could see from her expression that she thought he was angry with her. Vance was angry, but not with her. “Natalie, he had no right to do that. No matter what grievance he had against you, there is no excuse for him touching you without your permission or using force against you. This needs to be reported.”

Natalie’s eyes doubled in size. “What?”

Her strangled voice matched the expression on her face, but Vance wouldn’t back down. Not only had this guy crossed a line, Vance feared that if Natalie didn’t do something about it right away, he would do it again. Natalie was a perfect target for that kind of behavior. No doubt every bully in the office knew it too.