Chapter 17 - Harper

The days are flying by this week. It’s already Wednesday and I feel like I haven’t looked up from my desk. Most of the office will be on vacation from tomorrow onwards but I’ll be staying in. I look at the team list of people scheduled to work overtime with me. It’s pathetically short. We can’t force people to work over Christmas, and it looks like most people have lives of families. Lucky them.

“Harper,” Rosie says quickly as she slips into my office. Her eyes are wide and I can tell she’s about to tell me some juicy office gossip. She looks at me and her expression changes to bemused amusement. “Harper are you eating pickles at 8:30am?”

“What’s wrong with that?!” I say before crunching into my fourth pickle of the day.

“That’s disgusting,” she says with a laugh.

“These are the best fucking pickles I’ve ever tasted in my life,” I reply as I bite down. I don’t know why I’m eating pickles at 8:30 but I had this almost insatiable craving for them and I had to stop at a grocery store on the way in to work. And you know what? I’m an adult. I’ll eat pickles whenever I want to eat pickles. If that means 8:30am on a Wednesday morning in December, so be it.

Rosie shakes her head. “Whatever. Did you hear about Greg Chesney?”

Even his name makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m thoroughly sick of talking about him.

“No, what about him?”

“Apparently on Monday morning he took his stuff and left and he hasn’t been back in the office since. HR had a fake phone and address so no one knows where he is! He’s just fallen off the face of the earth.”

I can feel the blood draining from my face. For once I’m not blushing. My heart starts beating hard and it feels like my chest is hollow. My eyes struggle to focus as I process what Rosie’s just told me.

“What do you mean, fake address and phone number?”

“I mean, we have no idea where this guy is. The information we have on him is all bogus. They’ve been looking for him and he’s just… gone!”

“Since Monday?”

“Since Monday!”

“What time on Monday?” I ask. I think about my conversation with him, and how angry he was afterwards. What if he left after speaking to me and being turned down from the holiday team? My blood runs cold as I think of Greg Chesney being angry at me. I have no idea what he’s capable of.

“I don’t know what time he left. In the morning.” Rosie pauses. “Harper, I think that you should come stay at my place.” I glance up at her and see the deep concern in her eyes. “If you want,” she adds. “I… I don’t know. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

I look down at my desk and take a deep breath. If Rosie doesn’t have a good feeling about it then I know I should be worried.

I almost say yes to Rosie right away, but then something happens inside me. I take a deep breath and think about the past year of my life. I feel a deep anger well up inside. It’s not anger, not exactly. It’s outrage. I look up at Rosie and I know that I have fire in my eyes.

“You know what? Fuck him. I’m DONE letting him control my life. Good fucking riddance. If he wants to walk out on this job then be my guest. I’m not going to rearrange my entire life because he’s a fucking creep and no one would listen to me about it. I’m DONE being scared. I’m DONE being paranoid and looking over my shoulder!”

I’m shaking. I take a few ragged breaths and Rosie stares at me. Her eyes soften and I feel a tear fall onto my cheek. I’m crying. God I hate when I cry! Anytime I get angry or offended I start crying!! I wipe at the tears angrily and look at Rosie again. She’s wringing her hands and her face is full of worry.

“Thank you, Rosie. Honestly. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. But I have to be able to stand on my own two feet. I can’t let this guy control my life anymore!”

She nods and sits down across from me, reaching her hands across my desk. She grabs my hand in both of hers and looks me right in the eye.

“I get that and I admire you for it. I just want you to be safe.”

I nod. “I’ll be fine. I have pepper spray,” I grin. She’s the one who bought it for me last year.

Rosie laughs. “Good. Remember to spray downwind.”

She stands up and walks out of my office. I take a deep breath and wipe my eyes. I won’t cry over this, not again. If Greg Chesney walked out and never came back, it should be a good thing. I won’t let fear control my life, not anymore.

I look at the short list of names in front of me and take a deep breath. If that’s all the people that are working, then so be it. I’ll work longer hours starting today. Nothing will stand in the way of me delivering this project, not deadlines or holidays or understaffed teams. And definitely, definitely not Greg Fucking Chesney.