Page 40 of Reverse Perspective

“Nah, girl. I’m okay. I live with four other guys who like to party on the weekend. I see shit like that all of the time,” shesays. “Way hotter with you four than my roommate's drunk friends though.”

“Right,” I say, laughing. “Well… want to come to the meeting? We will probably need help keeping notes.”

“I got you,” she says with a smile as she picks up her laptop. I step into my office and set my stuff down before grabbing what I need. The guys go to their office and do the same thing. When I come out, everyone is waiting on me.

“Ready?” I ask.

“Are you?” Lance returns my question.

“No, but I’d like to just get this day over with. Hiding in my office won’t help anything.”

Satisfied with my answer, we walk to the conference room. When I open the door, everyone turns and looks at me. “Good morning,” I say kindly. No one returns my greeting but a few greet the guys.

“Good morning, gentlemen,” Mitch says flatly. The guys in turn do not greet him, but they do glare at him.

“Mary, just have a seat anywhere,” I say.

“I’ll sit beside you,” she says with a smile as she sits beside where I have my laptop sitting. Dean and Lance stay standing. Dean is leaning against the wall behind me while Lance is still by the door. Mason sits to my other side and points for me to sit. Todd takes a seat beside Mary and sits back to observe.

“Okay,” I say. “This is not a normal meeting, so I don’t have anything for you all. Mary has our day clear so we have as much time as you all need. We just need to have an all-staff meeting at some point.”

“Who is he?” Mitch asks Mason, talking about Todd.

“Todd Richards. He is a friend of ours and a lawyer,” I answer.

“He’s a criminal defense lawyer,” Lewis adds.

“That’s not all I do,” Todd says. “I have also been working with Ms. Graves and her business partners since the day theynamed the business. I handle all legal issues professionally and privately.”

“So first of all, I want to clear up some confusion that is being spun by the media,” I say.

“We’d prefer to hear it from them,” Mitch says, interrupting me.

“Everything she has to say is coming from us,” Mason says. “She is running the meeting today.”

“First, understand that we are under no obligation to explain anything to anyone. Our private lives have nothing to do with this company. We are explaining because we think it’s important that you be able to trust the person you are investing in,” I say. “I have known Dean, Lance, and Mason my entire life. We have lived together for almost a decade now. No part of that was forced or coerced.”

“We are in contact with the hotel manager and we are taking the proper steps to find out who placed the camera. When they are found, they will be charged.”

“Being charged doesn’t change what almost ten million people have seen them do to you,” Mitch says. I narrow my eyes at him and I can feel Todd looking at me.

“What exactly did they do, Mr. Jones?” I ask.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“You are talking about this video, but do you know what the content was? You haven’t even said anything other than everyone saw it while also blatantly ignoring me multiple times. So, I am assuming you have seen it entirely if you are forming an opinion,” I say. “Raise your hand if you’ve seen the entire video.”

Of the fifteen people in the room, all but three raise their hands. Mitch is among the ones who watched it entirely. “What is your point?” Mitch asks.

“How long was the video?” I ask Todd as I stand up. I’m getting angry and the longer I sit here the more likely I am going to boil over.

“A little over two hours. This includes conversation at the beginning and about ten minutes of you off relaxing before you fall asleep.”

“You all watched two hours of… that… and you have theaudacityto come into this building demanding an answer from us?” I ask.

“We are investing money into this company and morally…”

“Morally?” I ask, raising my voice. Mason stands but he doesn’t stop me. “You watched two hours worth of a private moment of me with my partners from an angle that it was obvious that none of us knew the camera was there. Two whole hours and you want to talk about morals? What morals are you talking about because if it’s immoral for me to have sex with my partners in private then I’d think jerking off to revenge porn is pretty fucking immoral.”

---