Page 77 of The Fallback

‘Just get down here now.’

Three minutes later, an out of breath Nadia appeared in Rosie’s office doorway. In those three minutes Rosie had not moved, in fact she had barely breathed and was staring at her computer as if it was a poisonous snake that was ready to strike should she make one false move.

‘Show me,’ demanded Nadia.

‘Shut the door!’ barked Rosie. ‘Is Rachel still here?’

‘I don’t know. Why?’

‘Just shut it and then come look at this.’

Rosie nudged her mouse and then shut her eyes, allowing Nadia to revel in the full glory of their boss’s extracurricular activities. It took some time, the emails were extensive.

There was a long silence as Nadia digested all the information.

‘Wow,’ she said eventually. ‘So, I guess they are still at it then?’

Rosie gazed up at Nadia who was still bent over Rosie’s desk.

‘That’s it? That’s all you’ve got to say?’

‘Well, yeah,’ Nadia said looking back at Rosie in confusion. ‘What do you want me to say? They’re consenting adults, neither of them are married. I mean, I guess I would prefer not to know how the VC gets his kicks, but each to their own. Everyone has their little quirks.’

‘Nadia,’ Rosie said with a quiver of panic in her voice. ‘Are you not going to ask me why this is on my computer?’

‘Oh, right!’ Realisation dawned on Nadia. ‘Yeah, what’s the deal there?’

‘It’s attached to the BioChem press release that Rachel just sent me,’ Rosie said in a panicked voice.

‘That’s weird,’ Nadia scrunched her nose up. ‘Firstly, why would you save your filthy emails as a PDF? And second, why would she have attacheditand sent it toyou?’ she asked as she wandered over to one of Rosie’s office chairs and flung herself into it.

‘Well, Nadia,’ Rosie said scathingly, ‘I am guessing it was an accident and she didn’t mean to send it.’

Nadia started laughing, ‘Yeah, I suppose so. I mean, would you want your students knowing that what you really like in bed is––’

‘Nadia!’ screamed Rosie, closing her eyes and holding her hands up. ‘Please. There are things in there that I now can’t get out of my head, I do not need you repeating them, thank you.’

Nadia carried on sniggering. 'Still doesn't explain why she saved them in the first place.’

'Oh, I don't know Nadia.' Rosie tried to stem her irritation that Nadia seemed to be completely missing the point here. 'Maybe she keeps a stash of them? Maybe she saves all her dirty messages?’

Nadia's face brightened with understanding. 'Like a personal porn collection?’

‘Yes. Just like that. But what do I do?’ Rosie asked.

‘Do? What do you mean?’

‘Well, do I tell Rachel she sent this to me by accident?’

‘Good god, no!’ exclaimed Nadia sitting bolt upright. ‘Are you mad? Rachel might fire you out of embarrassment when she finds out that you’ve read she gets turned on by––’

‘Enough!’ screeched Rosie again and she glared at Nadia who simply grinned back at her, seemingly unperturbed by this new, unexpected and unpleasant insight they now had into their boss’s sex life.

‘Don’t you think it will be worse when she realises she’s sent it to me and I never said anything?’ asked Rosie.

‘Rosie,’ Nadia said levelly, ‘how often do you go back and look at your sent emails?’

Rosie considered whether Nadia wanted the real answer, which was actually quite often because she liked to file them away by date and subject matter should she need to refer to them at a later date. She decided that Nadia might think that was strange so opted for a white lie instead.

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