His and Her Circumstances

Chapter 3 - We are adults

Chapter 3 - We are adults

Monday.

I don’t want to work.

Monday only means one thing for all adults - it is going back to reality. The endless traffic and stereotypical weekday are now brought back to us just after a heavenly weekend.

I am always excited when Monday comes, since it only means that I will get to see Lucas for five days straight, but it is completely different now.

I already hate Mondays since I will be seeing Lucas and Marianne without any rest for the next five business days. Just thinking about it makes the fatigue accumulate right after I wake up today. All I am hoping now is that they will at least act civil when we face each other.

It is much easier to deal with Lucas since we are working in different departments. The problem is with Marianne. How should I treat my secretary, who is currently pregnant with my ex's child?

Marianne is a bright child. She is a little clumsy, but she is at least honest and hard working. Her pretty blond hair, blue eyes, and flawless white skin made me think of an angel sent by God to save my boorish days.

Falling in love with such a beautiful woman is not a very questionable action to do. I can’t somehow blame Lucas for saying such a sorry excuse when he broke up with me. I would even think twice if someone this perfect showed up in front of me.

I don’t know how the two formed that kind of relationship or when things went awry between us, but my secretary might be struggling for a while now because of that secret.

Just imagine working with the real girlfriend of the man that you are having a forbidden relationship with. They are still the guilty party, but life must go on, and accepting the fact it was over between Lucas and me is the first step to starting a new life without him.

I am not a fool to start a stupid nerve war against the two of them. I just need to talk to Marianne and get this over with. I still love Lucas, but forgetting will be easier if we all have a clean conscience. This is not the first time that I broke up with a man anyway.

To think that past relationships could make a person this strong.

I must thank my exes for all of the lessons they taught me back then.

* * *

The always busy office became dead silent when I entered the automatic door. I may not be the friendliest person here, but everyone greets me with at least a good morning if we happen to cross each other's path.

What I’m experiencing right now is completely different. All the employees are pretending to be busy with their own work while taking a sneaky peek at me.

I can’t help but be nervous about where things are going from the beginning. Marianne, who I am planning to have a deep talk with, is not even at her desk. She is not the earliest bird in the office, but her punctuality is quite commendable.

I hurriedly opened my laptop to check if she sent any sick leave or emergency email, but what I found was a message from the human resource manager stating that he would like to talk to me about certain allegations.

I see. So the two want to play it like this. Why do they have to make things complicated if I am more than willing to settle things peacefully?

We are all adults here. This is an office! Goodness sake. I am starting to think that their brains are still in high school because of how stupidly they set up things.

I closed my laptop and went straight to the human resource department. Even this place became deadly silent when I went in. I would no longer be surprised if the whole company is already aware of this issue.

The two sure work fast. I must praise them for their efficiency. Just too bad that their plan is comparable to that of a child’s play. I did not silently reach my current position as well, and this typical libelous way of digging someone else’s grave is not a new thing in an adult world where one must bring down the other for them to climb up the ladder.

It was only exciting at first but became extremely annoying since I have to deal with it together with my usual workload.

Not only once or twice did I cut those dirty maneuvers back then. Also, those men who did those things offered much better schemes than these two.

I am truly disappointed with Lucas. Marianne aside, I never doubted Lucas’ capacity as a person to make an intelligent plan, so I was and still am bewildered by this stupid choice of action. What could they be trying to achieve by doing these things?

“Come in.”

Anthony, the human resource manager and a long acquaintance of mine, answered without even asking who the person is on the other side of the door.

He is a very meticulous man, so I bet that he must have cleared his schedule to accommodate this foolish problem that has been ruining the atmosphere in the company right now.

“It has been a while, Anthony.”

“Yeah. You have the same old problem, Victoria. I could already compile a book about the fancy rumors you had in this company for the last seven years.”

“I can’t help it. Being perfect really comes with a lot of burdens.”

I really like how this man handles everything. My first impression of him was a stoic bachelor, but everyone could say that Anthony is just naturally expressionless. I can still remember how scared I was when I first encountered him. I thought that he would be my executioner and a chance to explain wouldn’t even be given to me.

It was an already hopeless situation back then, but Anthony’s process of doing things revealed the true root of the problem. His help was one of the reasons that I managed to survive in the corporate world.

I would have fallen in love with him if not for a certain reason.

“So I think that you are already aware that you have three counts of improper employee behavior?”

“Three? I am only aware of one.”

Curse those two. Since when did they become fanatics of addition to keep adding stupid things to the list? If this was politics, then I am more than sure that the way they do things will lead to my impeachment.

“Battery, illicit relationship with the company director, and company theft. These are pretty serious crimes if you will ask me. The company could even sue you if these are true.”

Wow.

Just wow.

Peace is no longer an option. If they want things to get nasty, so be it.

“I am not guilty of any of those.”

“They have proof.”

Now we are talking sense. I need to change my first thought that those two were foolish enough to cross swords with me. I wonder why they are doing this, but if they want to turn things into a mess, then I’m more than willing to play with them as much as they want.

“Are those sufficient to bind me?”

“Hahaha, I see. Direct as ever. So, you are not really at fault here.”

“You shouldn’t be biased towards the people working here. It could be real and I’m just a great pretender. Are they suing outside of the company as well?”

Anthony smiled as if acknowledging that I was only teasing him despite the situation. The accusations are severe, but I will only fight a losing battle if I fall for their provocations.

“No, they said that they want to settle everything inside the company and all they want is to have you removed. The meeting to discuss this will be on Friday. You are not allowed to talk or even approach Ms. Carnette and Mr. Smith. Ms. Carnette is on leave until Friday.”

“What a vicious cheating couple…”

“Huh. Anyway, I can’t give you any more information or show you the proof that they presented. You’re on your own now until Friday. If you did not really do it, then you don’t have to worry since my team will be investigating this anyway.”

“Thank you as always, Anthony. See you on Friday.”

My voice is still soft but I can’t help to seethe with anger. I am the victim here, so why do they have to make things worse for me?

I walked out of Anthony’s office with a face that was ready to devour any human that would mess with me that day.

* * *

Battery, illicit relationship with the company director, and company theft. Only the illicit relationship makes sense to me since Lucas already mentioned it, but I don’t have any clue where the other two came from.

It is easy to dispel the illicit relationship claim since they can’t drag or even name an innocent director just to make it a strong accusation. It will be a boomerang that will hunt them back if they stupidly make a ludicrous remark.

I could just throw out some questions and survive the battle of wit between us.

As for the illicit relationship and company theft, I never attempted to inflict any offensive physical contact on any of them. I did not even slap Lucas the night that we separated. The theft claim was even more absurd, even the idea of stealing a single cheap clip or pen never crossed my mind.

I am more than willing to let them see my bank account if that will solve the third claim, making the first one the hardest to defend for me and, as well, the hardest to push for them.

This whole fiasco is starting to sound more and more inane the more I think about it.

The proof that Anthony mentioned is surely false, since they do not want this issue to be brought outside of the company.

Lucas and Marianne must have thought that they would be ostracized if their cheating spread out to the company. It was the effect of their actions, so they are the only ones to be blamed for it. I have no intention of adding oil to the fire so things could settle down even if they just left it be. A drama is not needed for this kind of thing!

I can’t wait for Friday to come and roast those two in their hot seats.