Page 49 of Together at Ruby's

Aurora narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?” she asked. Liza handed Marty the phone, and Marty quickly pulled up the voice app to push play. Aurora and Tate’s voices were crystal clear and so was the fact Tate was being harassed against her will. “I am going to go now.” Aurora slipped from the booth, pushing past Liza and her line of friends.

“Yeah, you do that,” Liza said. “Get out, and not just out of Ruby’s, but out of Portland altogether.”

32

Tate marched up to Chad’s executive assistant’s desk and saw her boss’s door was closed. Considering it was early in the morning, he might be still out, yet his assistant was there. Historically, he started when Chad started, which let Tate know the man was in his office. “I need to see Chad,” she said firmly. “Immediately.”

The assistant gave her a cold look. “He’s in a meeting,” he said. “You’ll need to set up something on his calendar.”

Putting her hands on his desk, Tate leaned in to speak directly into the assistant’s face. “I’m going to see him now,” she said finally sick of the runaround and getting attitude from someone who was beneath her on the org chart. “Please let him know I’m coming in. Now.”

“Wait a minute,” the assistant said, and his face flushed. “You can’t just barge in—”

“That’s exactly what I intend to do,” Tate said and without another word opened the door and walked into Chad’s office. The man looked from his desk surprised but not as surprised as Tate was to see the auburn-haired woman sitting in a chair in front of his desk. Aurora Price was the one Chad was meeting with and she felt her stomach clench.This cannot be good for me, she thought.She knew what I would be doing first thing this morning.

Chad leaned back in his chair. “That was some entrance,” Chad said. “You didn’t even bother to knock?”

Tate walked toward him. “This is important,” she said not bothering to apologize. “Something that can’t wait.”

“What good timing,” Aurora said with the lift of her chin. “We were just talking about you.”

“I’m sure you were,” Tate said, unable to keep the contempt out of her voice. “Just like I’m sure you’re putting a spin on what happened.” She reached into her pants pocket and held up a small recording device. “But proof is proof.”

Chad shook his head. “I’m not so sure I believe in your proof,” he said. “From what it sounds like, you manipulated her and led her on. Entirely inappropriate.”

“That is not what happened,” Tate said, her hand clenched into a fist. “She has been sexually harassing me since the first day she started at the firm.”

“And you’re going to tell me this has nothing to do with her getting your promotion?” Chad asked with a sneer. Finally, the truth was out there. The man had admitted Aurora Price had gotten what should’ve been Tate’s promotion.

She lifted her chin. “Is that what happened?” she asked. “You gave it to her for some reason after all but promising it to me?”

“Nothing was promised you,” Chad snapped. “And Aurora and I go back a long way. We went to college together.”

Suddenly the pieces of the puzzle fell into place for Tate. Chad had known Aurora from the past. That was the reason she was able to make the move from Chicago so seamlessly. Clearly, Aurora called in a favor when she was in a pinch.

“Regardless,” Tate said. “I’m taking my evidence to HR and letting them know what has been happening here at the firm.”

Aurora sat up in her chair. “You wouldn’t dare.”

With a wry smile, Tate put the recorder in her pocket. “Oh, I definitely dare,” she said. “I only came in to tell Chad in advance to give him warning.”

“You’re making a mistake,” Chad added. “If you go to HR with that, nothing good will come of it.”

Starting to back up, Tate had heard enough. “Really?” she asked. “That almost sounds like a threat.”

“It’s not a threat,” Chad said. “It is a promise. This is your last warning. It appears you have been incompetent for a long time. Somehow hiding it from all of us.”

The word incompetent made Tate feel sick. She knew in an instant she was burning bridges that would be hard to recover from. But one thing was clear, her time at the firm working with Chad was over.

“In that case,” Tate said. “After my trip to HR, I won’t be coming back. I quit.”

While keeping Nikki company,Liza’s phone buzzed. When she looked at it, there was a text from Tate. “Where are you?” was all it said.

She quickly wrote back that she was at the hospital until noon, and then she would be going to work. “How did it go with Chad?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute,” Tate wrote back.

Not sure what Tate meant, Liza looked at Nikki. “Well, I don’t think her conversation with Chad went very well,” she said. “The text she just sent is confusing.”

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