- Lucy -
knew time was of the essence. Chuck was getting bolder which meant every woman in the salon was becoming increasingly vulnerable.
And now that Fiona had lost her job, I felt like all the pressure was on me to do something. For Fiona, for me, for the other girls, for my Mom.
Chuck was a bully and he had to be stopped.
But I was out of my depth.
I’d never dealt with this kind of bullying. Standing up for myself was one thing. I could knee someone in the crotch and cuss them out as well as anyone, but this was different. He needed to be punished. As far as I was concerned, he needed to be permanently kept away from working with women, and I couldn’t stop him on my own.
I did enough research online to know I needed a strategic plan. A few complaints wouldn’t cut it so Fiona and I couldn’t do it alone. Many of the sites I read said to go to the manager or cite the employee handbook. Neither of these things was an option for me.
And I didn’t want to run to the police and tattle with my fingers crossed. I was a grown woman and when it was time to get the police involved, I wanted to make sure I had the information I needed to be taken seriously the first time around.
After all, even though I knew I should’ve done something about it a long time ago, that was no reason to be reactionary now, when it counted most.
Plus, I didn’t have the money to experiment with a bunch of dead ends, and I didn’t want to run to my Dad or Aiden and get them all freaked out and make this their problem. They had their own shit going on, and I didn’t need rescued.
I needed to educate myself.
Fiona was still a mess. She’d managed to pull herself together a little bit after the shock of the whole thing wore off, but I could tell she was still shaken up.
And on top of Chuck’s assault, she was freaked out about our financial situation. But I wasn’t. Sure, I’d saved hard for a salon of my own, but if I’d done it once, I was confident that I could do it again.
In the meantime, I had enough money to keep us afloat for a while until she could find a new job. Of course, depending on what happened with the Chuck disaster, I might be looking for one sooner than I thought, too.
And while I promised myself the next time I changed jobs it would be to work for myself, I knew better than to think life could always go to plan. And sometimes, as Aiden’s recent interest in me proved, that wasn’t the worst thing that could happen.
But it was going to break my heart to throw my salon money away on rent and bills. As a result, I was determined to cut corners any way I could. So when I found a directory for volunteers offering legal services, I was thrilled.
After I posted my concern in one of the forums, a man named Nathan agreed to meet me after work at a nearby coffee shop.
I was only a few blocks away, power walking my ass off, when my phone rang.
“Hey you,” I said, slowing down so I wouldn’t breathe too hard into the phone.
“Hey yourself,” Aiden said.
I felt a smile stretch across my face. “What’s up?”
“I have good news.”
“Oh?” I almost wished I’d let him leave a message so I could hear him give me good news over and over.
“I told Claire that after some sufficient begging, you agreed to be my date for the wedding.”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t exactly make you beg.”
“Oh right. My bad. Begging is what I’m going to have you doing tonight.”
I was so glad he couldn’t see how flushed my cheeks were. If they were as pink as they felt, he would’ve laughed at me for sure. “What makes you think I want to see you tonight?”
“I asked my crystal ball.”
“Oh really?”
“Yep.”
“And it told you I would go out with you tonight?”
“It told me you’d do a lot more than go out with me.”
Now I was breathing hard for entirely different reasons. “What exactly did it tell you I was up for?”
“Ask again later.”
“Ha ha.”
“You really want to know?”
“Yeah.”
“Well,” he said. “First I asked if you were thinking about me.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And it said most likely.”
“Okay.”
“And then I asked if you were free tonight.”
“Yeah.”
“And it said, it is decidedly so.”
“So far so good.”
“Then I asked if you were up for dinner,” he said. “And it said outlook good.”
“Well, no surprise there. I could have told you that.”
He laughed. “Then I asked if you wanted to have me for dessert.”
I swallowed.
“And it said signs point to yes.”
“What signs?”
“Does it matter?”
“I suppose not, but you know those things aren’t always accurate.”
“This one is. It’s the others that are faulty.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Cause I asked whether it was telling the truth, and it said you can count on it.”
“Oh jeez.”
“So, seeing as how it would be foolish to mess with fate, how soon can I pick you up?”
“Well, I’m not even home yet, and I have to run an errand first.”
“Like a stopping for gas errand or a swinging by Target errand?”
“You mean how long will it take?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe like stopping by Target with a list.”
“Oh god, forget it then. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Wait!” I said. “I swear it won’t take too long.”
“Can you give me a time?”
“Can I just call you when I’m done?”
“No. Not because I care how long I have to wait, but because that doesn’t answer the question of whether or not I should have a snack now.”
“Have a snack.”
“So more than an hour?”
“You must be really excited to see me.”
“So much for playing it cool.”
“No, I’m flattered,” I said, pulling my phone away to check the time. “How about I meet you at my place in an hour-ish, and if you beat me, Fiona can let you in?”
“Sounds good.”
“Cool. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Not as much as I am,” he said.
“Hey, why don’t you surprise me by wearing my panties?”
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
“I am.”
“Thank god.”
“You could return them to me though.”
“Not a chance.”
I sighed. “Okay.”
“Why don’t you just not wear any tonight?”
“Why would I-”
“Then you can wear them home tomorrow.”
“Yeah right.”
“It was just an idea,” he said.
“A terrible one.”
“If you think that was terrible, just wait until I tell you the one I had last night in bed when I was-”
“I have to go now, Aiden. See you in an hour.” I hung up the phone and took a deep breath.
I needed to shake the happy off before I went inside. It seemed horribly inappropriate to be blushing and aroused at a meeting concerning how to charge my boss with sexual harassment. I pushed the door open and looked around. A middle aged man with designer stubble in a white button up and jeans was sitting in the corner. He gave me a little wave when he saw me.
I walked over to him. “Nathan?”
He stood up and extended his hand. “You must be Lucy.”
I nodded.
“I didn’t know what you wanted or I would’ve gotten you something,” he said.
“That’s okay,” I said, deciding I could trust him based on his kind eyes and his clean fingernails.
“Back in the day people were happy with regular or decaf, but now it’s impossible to guess.”
“I’m good actually, and I really appreciate you meeting with me so I won’t waste your time.”
He held his palm out towards my chair and sat back down across from me.
I placed my purse in my lap so it would be easy to dig out a pen and paper. “I’d first like to thank you for answering my post.”
“Thank you for seeking justice.”
“Did you seriously just say that?”
He shrugged. “I know it sounds cheesy, but you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t speak up about this kind of thing.”
“Well, I should’ve sooner.”
“The important thing is that you did, and I’m going to do everything I can to help you get this guy.”
“Thanks.”
“I have sisters and daughters and if any guy, especially their boss, made them uncomfortable at work the way you described in your note-” He shook his head. “Let’s put it this way, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to put a stop to it.”
“So where do we start?” I asked, pulling out my pen and paper.
Nathan pulled a thin pair of glasses out of his pocket and slipped them on. “How about at the beginning?”