Page 24 of Dear Grumpy Boss

Rebecca and Simon exchanged angry looks with each other. Simon fisted his knife. Rebecca’s cute face was glowing red.

“That asshole. You should tell Weston,” Rebecca said.

Simon nodded. “Put that little shite on blast. No one deserves to be harassed at work—and that’s what that is.”

I cupped my forehead, looking up at them from under my lashes. “I don’t want him to be fired, I just want him to leave me alone. And if I don’t react, maybe he will. He eventually stopped in high school, so maybe…”

“I get that.” Rebecca reached across the table to squeeze my forearm. “The situation has all kinds of layers that make it complicated. The bottom line is: you should be safe and comfortable at work. If Miles isn’t capable of allowing you that, his stupid ass needs to get the boot.”

Simon nodded. “I’ll back you up, whatever you decide to do. If you want me to go with you to talk to HR, I’m there.”

“Me too,” chimed Rebecca.

Feeling ten times lighter, I grasped some of the optimism I’d started the week with. But the moment I arrived back at my desk and spotted the small yellow square stuck to the front of my drawer, all of it evaporated.

Done.

I was done.

This was not how professionals behaved.

I wasn’t going to tattle on Miles. We were going to have a long-overdue conversation.

Yanking open the drawer, I plucked out the other Post-its and strode to Miles’s desk, the stack clutched in my hand. When I approached, his brows lifted.

“Hey, Lisie.” His grin faltered at my expression. “What’s up?”

I waved the Post-its. “Can we speak in private, please?”

I’d let him get away with this behavior in school. Never once had I confronted him, fearing I’d only add fuel to his inexplicable fire. But I was an adult. Letting things like this slide wasn’t something I could do.

“Uh”—he pushed back from his desk, rising to his feet—“sure. There aren’t a lot of places that are private around here.”

I nodded toward the stairwell. “There will do. This won’t take long.”

“Oh. Okay.” He seemed perplexed, but he shouldn’t have been. He was being a deliberate asshole to me. He should have expected to be confronted.

When we were both on the stairwell landing, the door firmly shut behind us, I held up the stack of Post-its.

“This stops now or I’m going to HR.”

Any trace of humor slipped from Miles’s expression. He held his hands up, palms out. “Whoa, whoa. What’s going on?”

“Don’t, Miles. We both know what you’ve been doing. It’s insulting for you to play dumb.”

He scratched the side of his head. “I’m not playing dumb, Elise. In this case, I’m actually dumb. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

I stared hard at him. “Ellie the Elephant.” Then I picked up his hand and slapped the notes on his palm.

He frowned, looking from me to the Post-its, reading the elephant facts one by one. When he finished, he handed them back to me.

“I can see why you would think these are from me, but they’re not.”

My fingers curled around the slips of paper. “I don’t believe you, Miles, but whether you admit it doesn’t matter. I’m asking you to stop so I don’t have to escalate this. This isn’t high school. I won’t put up with this treatment.”

He reached for me then seemed to think better of it at the last moment and dropped his hand.

“Elise, come on. I barely even remember the whole elephant thing from when we were kids. Do you honestly think I’m going to be looking up elephant facts to…what? Torment you? I’m happy you’re here. I have no reason to torment you.”

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