Karl gives me this awful, pitying smile, though there’s a hunger behind his expression. I smile back and keep my head down as I walk back to my desk.

It’s been a few days since I told him about Jacob and me, though nothing’s happened. Jacob keeps telling me to wait, but I’m so sick of waiting. Now he’s on some business trip, left yesterday morning, and I’m all alone.

Sitting at my computer, I’ve never felt so alone in my life. It’s irrational, because I do have people on my side: Jacob and Darlene, for starters, though Darlene doesn’t know much about what’s going on. Still, Darlene is my friend and I trust that she’s at least on my side.

I can feel Karl plotting something in his office. People keep coming in and out, people I don’t really recognize. I think some of them are board members, white-haired and wearing expensive suits, but I have no clue. Some of them glance in my direction as they leave, but I can’t tell if that’s just my imagination or not.

Karl hasn’t said a word about what I told him, and I have no clue what he’s doing about it. Jacob seems to think it’s okay, but I’m worried. I’m afraid that if I’m pressed at the wrong time, everything I told Karl will unravel, and he’ll know I’m a liar. That would ruin what Jacob’s trying to do.

“Hope you’re having a good trip,” I text him.

To my surprise, he responds right away. “Utah is boring. Coming back ASAP.”

“Good,” I type. “Thinking about you.”

“I bet you are.” He sends me a winking emoji and I smile to myself. Jacob doesn’t strike me as the emoji kind of guy.

Work crawls along. My load is actually pretty light, and most of what I have to do is simple. I suspect Karl is going easy on me and only sending me the best tasks, but I can’t be sure, and I’m definitely not about to ask him. When lunch comes, Darlene and I sit outside in the sunshine, watching the people in their suits walk past.

“Isn’t it strange,” she says to me. “Just a floor or two up or down and we’d be in a totally different company doing a totally different thing.”

“We’d have different lives,” I say, shrugging.

She picks at her salad. “Not that I’m complaining. I mean, Karl’s a creeper and a weirdo, but this job’s actually pretty decent. And I hear your load’s been light lately.”

“The guys talking again?” I ask. The guys are all our other employees. We typically talk about them collectively.

“Yep, complaining like always,” she says. “You know how they are.”

I sigh. “First Karl’s burying me in work and everyone feels bad. Now he’s taking it easy on me and everyone’s pissed. The guys’ll complain no matter what Karl does.”

“Pretty much,” Darlene agrees. “Though I don’t know what you did to turn things around.”

“No clue,” I say. “Maybe Karl has a conscience after all.”

We both laugh at that. It feels good to have simple, normal moments with another person, moments I can pretend that all this craziness isn’t happening around me.

I get back to my desk and log back into the network. I screw around for a little bit, and just as I’m about to dive back into my work, my desk phone starts to ring.

I frown at it. Nobody ever calls me. Tentatively, I pick it up. “Yes?”

“Hello, is this Sofia Wolf?”

“Yes it is,” I say.

“Hi, Sofia, I’m Kreyshawn from Human Resources.”

My heart basically stops. Fear spikes through me like a knife, and I don’t know what to do.

This is it. Karl went to HR with my story and now they’re going to call me down and grill me. They’re going to make a whole paper trail about what I said and it’s going to bury Jacob. This is exactly what I was afraid of. Karl went to HR with the tapes once before, and I thought he’d do it again, although Jacob disagreed. He insisted that Karl would keep it to himself and go over HR’s head.

“Karl’s a control freak,” he said. “He’s going to use this himself, not risk getting anyone else involved.”

And now here I am with HR on the phone, and I’m totally screwed. If I admit to lying, it’s going to destroy my reputation and potentially my career. But if I keep up the lie, it might destroy Jacob, and I don’t know if I could live with that.

“Ah, hello,” I say. “What can I do for you?” I feel overly formal, constrained. I’m sweating already.

“So I was looking over some paperwork and I noticed a little discrepancy,” Kreyshawn says.

I pause. “Paperwork?”

“Yes, for your benefits. I was processing you, getting it all finished, and I realized that you hadn’t signed form three, the eligibility release.”

I blink, head reeling. “I didn’t sign it?”

“No,” she says. “Not a big deal. I can bring the papers over for you, if that’s okay?”

“For my benefits?” I ask. “I just have to sign something?”

“That’s right,” she says, laughing. “It’ll just take a second.”

“Okay, great,” I say. “Bring it on over.”

“See you soon.”

We hang up and relief washes over me. I feel shaky and sick but so incredibly happy.

Kreyshawn shows up not long later, a pleasant woman in her thirties. We chat for a second, I sign the form, and off she goes. When she’s gone, I go into the bathroom and lean against the sink, water running full blast.

I think I might throw up. My heart is racing and terror arcs through me. That was so close, it could have ruined everything, but it was just about my benefits. Karl didn’t go to HR, or at least that I know of.

But I know I’m on edge. I can feel it deep down inside of me.

I splash my face with cold water. I need to get ahold of myself. I head back to my desk and check my phone. No messages from Jacob. I turn it off and shove it in my bag before forcing myself to turn back to my computer.

I work the rest of the day. I don’t mess around or take any breaks. I actually get through my queue completely, and by the time five thirty rolls around, I’m all done. Most of the floor is gone or heading out, and I stand up to stretch.

“Good day?”

I turn around and Karl’s standing there, smiling at me. It looks like he just learned how to smile yesterday.

“Uh, yes, thanks,” I say.

“Good. I saw HR here earlier. What did they want?”

“Benefits,” I say. “Forgot to sign a paper.”

“Ah,” he says, that smile still plastered to his face though it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Bureaucratic paperwork. Always a nuisance. Have a nice night.” He walks off without another word.

I let out a breath and slowly gather my things. I don’t want to get stuck on the elevator with him.

As I head down a few minutes later, I replay that short conversation with Karl and I realize something. He was worried.

He didn’t want me to tell HR. He was checking to make sure that I wasn’t talking to them for that reason. Which means he doesn’t plan on telling them himself.

When I get down to the bottom floor, I feel relieved. A little weight lifts from my shoulders. I hate all this lying and sneaking around but maybe it’s actually going to work out.

As I walk out front, I grab my phone from my bag and turn it on. As I get near the fountain, it boots up and starts to buzz. I have missed calls from Jacob.

I call him back right away, and he answers on the second ring. “Everything okay?” I ask, worried.

“Everything’s great,” he says. “I’m back.”

“You’re back?” I’m surprised. I didn’t expect him until tomorrow.

“I grabbed the first flight after my meeting, got lucky actually. My driver’s waiting for you around the block.”

“He’s waiting for me?”

“I want to see you.”

I hesitate, but only for a second. Even though I’m stressed as hell still, I want to see him too. No, I need to see him.

“I’ll be there,” I answer, and I hang up the phone.

Heart beating fast, I head around the block.