Chapter 11

The next day seemed pretty normal, at first. About 30 minutes before lunch, Joe was called into Ms. Gary's office. No one thought much of it until they heard him start shouting. Everyone froze and started to listen. They couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, but then he burst out of her office, went angrily to his desk and grabbed an armful of his things. He started stomping past them all and when he got to Christie's desk he stopped, with a look of pure anger on his face he shouted

"I hope you're happy!" Then continued on his way out. Christie looked after him in shock and confusion. Meg looked over at Christie.

"Did you tell them what he did at the party? I don't blame you if you did…" She asked.
"No, I haven't said anything to anyone…" Ms. Gary came out of her office and walked up to Christie. When everyone saw her come over, they got back to work pretty quickly.

"Come with me." Ms. Gary told Christie. She got up and looked back at Meg quickly and then went to her office. Mr. Andrews and Mr. Farmer were there. They told her to take a seat. Christie wiped her sweaty palms on her pants and took a deep breath.

"We became aware of Joe's behavior through an anonymous source and we want you to know that if anything like this happens in the future, you can come directly to either of us, or Ms. Gary." Said Mr. Farmer. Christie blinked in confusion. What happened at the party was awkward, but Joe hadn't actually done anything other than put his arm around her shoulder. They were looking at her, waiting for a response.

"Umm… well, the thing at the party wasn't that big of a deal… I mean, nothing happened, really." She said, feeling very embarrassed. Ms. Gary leaned towards her, looking concerned.

"You mean Ralph's party? What happened there?" She asked, and from her tone, Christie could tell that they weren't talking about what happened there.

"Wait… what are you guys talking about?" Christie asked, looking between the three of them. Mr. Farmer cleared his throat and picked up a piece of paper off of Ms. Gary's desk and handed it to her. It appeared to be a printed off email from Joe to… her. The general gist of it was Joe blatantly propositioning her for sex. She read it and her eyes went wide.

"Due to this, and other complaints we have had about Joe in the past, we had to let him go." Ms. Gary said consolingly. Christie felt like a weight was pressing down on her. She had never even gotten an email from Joe at all. Mr. Andrews put his hand on her shoulder.

"When we got the tip to search through Joe's emails and found this, we weren't really surprised." Christie nodded. She stood up, smiled at them all weakly and asked if she could go. They excused her and she left. She headed for the girl's bathroom. The mirror showed her looked pale and disturbed.

"He wouldn't have… he couldn't have… He must have guessed about Joe somehow…" she said aloud to herself and tugged nervously on the ends of her hair. When she composed herself and went back to her desk, Meg asked her what happened. "I guess they didn't know about the party, it was… something else that got him fired." Meg's eyes went wide.

"Did he do something else to you?!" She asked Christie.

"No, well… I'm not really sure what it was." She couldn't tell Meg what she suspected had gotten Joe fired, or rather… who.

As soon as Christie's shift was over, she rode the elevator down to the basement. When the doors opened and Erik was standing there waiting for her, she smiled thinly at him. He stepped in and they rode up in silence. When they finally got out into the street, Erik looked down at her.

"Anything interesting happen at work today?" He asked innocently, the beginnings of a small grin playing across his lips.

"Oh… umm… well… Joe got fired." Christie responded with narrowed eyes.

"Really? That's too bad." He said, his smile now bordering on triumphant. Christie stopped; Erik took two steps and turned around to face her, his smile fading.

"I know it was you." Christie said accusingly. "I saw the email… I think it was you who faked it." He stepped closer to her, his mouth a grim line now.

"I found out what happened at the party, I read it in some emails between a few of your co-workers… and I just couldn't allow him to be near you anymore." His voice had become an urgent plea. He needed her to understand why he had done it. It frightened Christie that he would go to such lengths for her. "You should have told me what happened." He said softly. Christie blushed and looked down.

"I didn't want to cause any trouble." She said quietly. He reached down and pulled her face up, forcing her to look at him. Her breath caught and she thought he was finally going to kiss her. Her heart began to race and she couldn't feel the cold on her cheeks anymore. She was so close to him that she could see the dark dusting of stubble on his hard jawline. Suddenly, he stepped away from her.

"We should get you home." He mumbled quickly and turned to continue walking. Christie felt utterly rejected, how could he care enough to go to such lengths for her, and then keep brushing her off. She felt her throat catch and her eyes began to sting with tears. She quickly wiped them and followed him down the street, her head down. He didn't say another word and his silence was cruel to her. When they got in sight of her building, she couldn't take it anymore, she took off running, finally letting the tears fall.

"Christie! Wait!" He called after her. She pulled out her keys and opened the door faster than she ever had before. She turned to slam it shut, but he was right there and he reached in and caught her arm. He forced the door open and pulled her to him, crushing her in a hug. She fought him and tried to push him away.

"Let go of me!" she said through her tears. He did as she asked and let go. He looked down at her.

"Christie... don't run away from me." He whispered with a strange stillness.

She turned and ran up to her apartment. She threw herself on her bed and hugged her pillow tightly, sobbing into it. 'He doesn't want you; he never did.' She thought miserably to herself. She heard a knock at the door, she wasn't going to let him in, but she had forgotten to lock it and he opened the door cautiously. He came over to her bed and sat down next to her. She was trying to stop crying but she only succeeded in making herself gasp and hiccup loudly. He placed his hand lightly on her back and then when she didn't pull away, he pulled her into his lap and cradled her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and bawled into his shoulder, too sad to be embarrassed. She tried to stop, but couldn't, she cried for almost ten minutes and then eventually quieted down.

When she did, he laid them both down on her bed and cuddled her. Her face was still buried in his chest, he started rubbing her back and humming softly. Christie had never cried in front of anyone except her dad before and she felt slightly ashamed of herself, but he felt so comforting to her that she couldn't bring herself to let him go. And she knew that he didn't care if his shirt was soaked in her tears. She felt his chest rise and fall steadily and was lulled to sleep by its rhythm.