Page 41 of Fierce-Hyde

“Then you should be fine. Did you apologize for what you did?”

“I did,” her mother said. “I told them I didn’t think it was a big deal. It’s not as if I listed anyone’s name or details.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said.

“They said that too. And that was the only reason I just got a warning.”

“Now you know, and even though you removed your employer, don’t do it again.”

“I won’t,” her mother said. “But sometimes you need to vent. Can I just call you and say it?”

“I’m not always available,” she said. Physically or emotionally.

“But I could text it anyway, right?”

“Sure,” she said. “Just don’t expect me to always reply.”

“That’s fine,” her mother said. “This is nothing more than writing out your feelings like you’ve told me to do before.”

Which meant her mother listened to her. She was surprised.

“You could just draft me an email,” she said. “Then once you’ve vented it out, you can delete it or let it sit in draft until you’ve calmed down. You might feel better after that and not worry about it coming back up if I try to respond.”

“I didn’t think of that,” her mother said. “Thanks, Tori. I’ll try that next time.”

“You do that,” she said. “I’ve got to run now. Do you feel better?”

“A little,” her mother said. “I’m still not happy I’ve got to go to work and everyone is talking about me.”

“Then it will be a reminder not to do something like that again.”

She hung up and put her head on the back of her chair, looked up at the ceiling and silently screamed.

These were lectures she’d done a million times with her mother that would be more appropriate for a teenager or someone in their first job.

But some things were just never going to change.

“Slow down, Diane,”Grant said.

She turned and shut her husband’s door, then opened it back up and ran next door to her brother-in-law’s office and waved him into Grant’s.

“What’s going on?” Garrett asked when she closed the door after him.

“I decided to help you two out with Hyde.”

“What did you do?” Grant asked.

“Improvised. I was coming to see you and noticed Tori walking down the hall. We were just a few feet away from Hyde’s office and I knew he was in there. The door was open. I told Tori I knew a civil rights attorney that would be perfect for her if I could pass on her information.”

“Who is that?” Grant asked.

“I don’t know,” she said, throwing her hands in the air. “I made him up. You know, working on the fly. It’s not like I expected her to say yes. No one ever says yes to it.”

At least she hoped not. She had her fingers crossed that Tori didn’t reach out after she’d thought about it.

After she’d heard about the conversation her husband witnessed between Hyde and Tori, the more she thought of it, the more she realized they’d be perfect for each other.

They just needed to push over the major hump in their lives. Not that she knew what mountain she had to help them climb, but they could do it if they all put their heads together.

---