Page 54 of Hate Notes

25

ORION

"Sir? The quarterly projections you asked for."

I looked up to find my assistant hovering nervously in my doorway, clutching a folder. Behind him, I could see Ember at her desk, laughing at something on her phone. Her head was tilted back, exposing the elegant line of her throat. An irrational, stupid part of me wanted to kiss her there—to know if she would moan softly and arch into the gesture, or if she would thread her fingers through my hair, pulling me in.

I forced my attention back to the nervous man before me. "Thank you, Daniel."

"You remembered my name, Sir," he said, smiling brightly.

"Uh, of course I did... You've been my assistant for weeks."

"Right," he said, still looking immensely pleased with himself as he slipped out of my office.

I had a nearly photographic memory and never forgot a name or a face, but I may have been guilty of making employees believe I didn't know who they were. It was a tactic to make them want toearn my approval and also let them know they were on thin ice to start.

The practice had never struck me as immoral or cruel, but now…

I closed my desk drawer a little harder than necessary and straightened my tie.

Now I found myself thinking about how Daniel had photos of three cats on his desk or how happy it seemed to make him when he thought I had finally learned his name. I couldn’t help wondering if this was all part of the virus of…feelingsEmber seemed to be infecting me with. As soon as I admitted to myself I may have enjoyed aspects of our relationship—if that was the right word—it was like the floodgates had opened.

Things I wouldn’t have batted an eye at were standing out to me as mean or unfair. Most inconvenient of all, perhaps, was that my employees had started to seem more like people to me. Tools were easy to manipulate, use, abuse, or forget about entirely if necessary. People, though?

Not so much.

This was all Ember’s doing, and I couldn’t even fully convince myself the changes were negative. Yes, it was harder to be objective about what was purely best for the bottom line with this kind of thinking, but it wasn’t entirely without benefit. Just the other day, I had made a comment to a woman named Lilian. I noticed she seemed frustrated on my way to my office.

Instead of mentally noting the negative mental state and subsequent lack of productivity, I stopped by her desk and saw she was struggling with a simple feature in our custom spreadsheet software. I was able to show her how to fix her problem in less than a minute, and I had to admit it hadfelt…good.What was more, she had gone on to have a highly productive day. I even noticed her brightening other people’s moods throughout the day.

In other words, Ember’s mind virus of compassion or whatever this was may feel strange and new, but maybe it wasn’t an entirely bad thing.For the company, of course.

I realized Daniel had popped back in my door. He looked nervous. "Mr. Foster?"

"Yes?" I asked.

"I don't want to speak out of turn or overstep, but I did think you would want to know. You've asked me before to keep you posted on office chatter if it was relevant, and I?—"

"Spit it out, Daniel."Alright. I was still working on compassion and being nice. That didn’t mean my patience was unlimited.

"Some people are talking about you and Ember Hartwell." His voice dropped to barely a whisper. "There have been some rumors spreading. It seems some people drew conclusions after seeing you and Ember at the charity gala."

"Conclusions?" I said coldly.

"About the nature of your relationship, Sir."

"That will be enough, Daniel. Get back to work." I paused, once again feeling haunted by Ember's influence. "Wait."

Daniel froze mid-escape attempt. "Sir?"

"Good work. Let me know if you hear any further rumors."

The young man brightened with a smile and an eager nod. "Yes, Sir. Of course. Thank you."

"Now go," I said, waving him off when it was clear he planned to stand there and bask in the praise.

He practically sprinted from my office. Through the glass walls, I saw him exchange meaningful looks with two other employees who had clearly been watching our interaction.

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