Botched Information

“Hello, Megan.” I greeted an empty desk.

The front desk was empty. Her name tag wasn’t even there anymore. I looked behind the desk. None of her stuff was there.

Did Megan get fired?

I remember the beginning of the week she got in trouble with that one guy that had interviewed me. I walked toward my desk and took a deep breath. Everyone was staring at me.

Did I have something on my face?

I took a deep breath and sat down at my chair. Jasmine came around the corner heading my way.

“Happy Friday, Lily.” Jasmine snuck up behind me.

“Hey, Jasmine.” I was still looking over at Megan’s front desk.

She hovered around my desk as if she wanted to ask me something. She pulled an empty chair from behind me and rolled next to me.

“Did you know the girl at the front desk?” She asked me.

“Kind of? I just know her name is Megan.”

“So you don’t know her as a friend? Like outside of work?”

“No. Met her when I had my interview and then again this week.”

She nodded. I had a feeling she thought I was lying. But why would I lie about knowing the receptionist?

“I just wanted to make sure.” There was a moment of silence. She was starting to play with a pencil on my desk. “Did you hear the office gossip today?”

I shook my head. “I just got in.” I mumbled.

“They think that girl who worked at the front desk sabotaged the interview contacts,” she looked up at me. “Except for yours.”

“What?”

Sabotage?

“Well, apparently the front desk girl-“

“Megan.” I corrected her.

She nodded. “Yeah, well they think that Megan altered the documents that Mr. Keen gave her.”

“Who?”

“He’s the guy that does all the interviews.” She paused again. She seemed nervous to bring it up.

“What do you mean altered?” I was really confused at what was happening.

My heart started to race. I felt like I was in trouble.

“Well, the documents that Mr. Keen emailed Megan where different from the ones that were saved in her download folder. Mr. Keen thinks that she changed the emails and numbers so that you would get the job.”

“What?”

My heart started rumbling inside my chest.

“She said that the documents she got were the ones Mr. Keen emailed her. B-but the evidence is clear.” She stopped playing with the pencil. “The email addresses had random periods and dashes in them and the phone numbers had one or two numbers switched. Her files on her computer were different from the ones that Mr. Keen emailed her.”

So, all the peoples contacts information me were altered and changed? Everyone except for my number and email.

Is this for real?

“I just wanted to know if you were a part of this.” She finally asked.

“No. No.” I began to panic. “I didn’t-”

“Lily.” Mr. Prime called from the stairs leading to his office. “Can I see you?”

Everyone in the office stared at me as I headed upstairs.

“Mr. Prime-”

“Sit down.” He said. He wasn’t angry, but he wasn’t happy either.

“So I take it that you heard the office news by now.”

I nodded. “But I swear I didn’t do anything. I didn’t tell her to manipulate the information to give me a job-”

“Lily. Don’t worry about it.” He gave me his grandfather looking smile.

My heart slowed down a little bit, but I was still worried I was going to get fired.

“I swear I didn’t do anything- I understand if you want to fire me so that you can hire someone else on the list with better credentials.”

He arched his eyebrows. He was confused.

He broke out in a laugh. “You’re not getting fired.” His laugh became heartier. “What has been done. Has been done.” He clapped his hands.

He took a seat.

“Listen. Mr. Keen is upset at the fact that is spoiled nephew, Kevin, didn’t get your job. He wouldn’t have cared who we hired if his nephew wasn’t on that list. When his nephew didn’t get the job, he took out his anger at Megan and blamed her. He didn’t even think to investigate the virus infected computer. Plus, Mr. Keen does NOT have the authority to fire anyone, which is why he no longer has a place at this company. Megan will be back on Monday.”

“Wait; there was a virus on her computer?” My heart beat faster.

“Yeah, there was. I guess Megan downloaded something in her email that gave her a virus. Most of the files in her download folder were different from the ones in her email. It was the computer's fault not hers.”

My heart felt one hundred times heavier. No. It can’t be.

He started laughing. “I guess it was meant to be that your information wasn’t botched by the computer. I knew I had good feeling about you.”

He smiled at me, but I was still thinking about the virus on the computer.

It can’t be. He couldn’t have done this.

“Well anyway. I’ll stop nagging you so you can get back to work.” Mr. Prime said.

“Thank you, Mr. Prime, for everything. It means a lot to me.”

He smiled again and I headed back towards my desk. Everyone was still watching me. I looked at my desk, Jasmine was still sitting there.

“So what happened?” Jasmine asked.

“There was a virus on Megan’s computer. I guess, I just got lucky.”

“Wait, what?”

I told her what Mr. Prime told me.

“OMG. This is amazing. I thought you cheated the system.” She laughed.

I smiled nervously.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you. Listen. I’m sorry if I accused you of anything. I just wanted to get to the bottom of this.” She took a deep breath. “At least Megan is coming back.”

“Yeah.”

“So remember. Next Friday we get to party.” Jasmine yelled as she walked around the corner.

My phone lit up. It was Nate.

We NEED to talk today. No excuses! -Nate.

My heart started to feel heavier. He couldn’t have done it.

Could he?