Page 10 of Secret Desire
She nodded. “Yeah. The first time he asked me out I told him in no uncertain terms that I don’t date coworkers.”
She doesn’t date coworkers,I told myself helpfully.
“But then he started joking he was going to fire me so we could date, although it didn’t feel like a joke. It felt like a threat. I wasn’t out at work – mostly because it’s a pretty conservative firm and also because it’s no one’s business what I do in my personal life – but finally I told him I was a lesbian, thinking that would make him realize I wasn’t kidding when I said I wasn’t interested in him. Unfortunately that only seemed to turn himon more. He kept asking me to pick another female coworker so we could have a threesome.”
“Did you go to HR?” I asked, trying to tamp down the fury I was feeling on her behalf.
“No. I thought it would go away, like he’d get tired of bugging me when he wasn’t getting the response he wanted, you know? And I didn’t want to be that woman who was labeled oversensitive, some Millennial snowflake.”
She paused, her eyes stormy as she gathered her thoughts.
“But Johan’s harassment just kept getting worse and worse. Then one day I was in a conference room with him, and he stepped right up to me, grabbed my ass, and tried to pull me in for a kiss. So I kneed him in the balls just like my father taught me,” she said proudly. “He dropped like a rock and just laid on the floor whining like the man baby he was.”
“Good for you,” I said. “I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself.”
“Fortunately some of our coworkers were outside and saw the whole thing through the window. They corroborated my story and Johan was fired,” she continued, “But I was soured on working there by then. Senior management was tiptoeing around me, waiting for a lawsuit, so when I told them I was quitting, they offered me a generous sum of money in exchange for me signing a non-disclosure and giving them a promise not to sue.”
“You accepted that offer, I assume?” I asked.
I was pretty sure Ariel didn’t know this part of the story, because all she’d told us was that Ash had quit due to sexual harassment.
“I had my lawyer negotiate a much more generous sum,” she said proudly. “I know my value, and I know better than to accept the first offer.”
“You are really something,” I said admiringly. “You’ve grown into quite a woman.”
“I’m not just someone’s little sister,” she said, and I sensed there was some emotion behind it, but I couldn’t say why.
“Well I’m looking forward to working with you,” I said. “I think we make a good team.”
There it was again, that brief flash of disappointment on her face, before she summoned up a smile.
“Everyone at AGM has been great. I really like working there.”
We spent the rest of our lunch chatting about hobbies and interests, avoiding the fraught topic of our dating lives. Despite our seven year age gap, we had quite a few things in common, much to my surprise. Our taste in movies, TV shows, and books was very similar, and we both liked to run and swim and do yoga.
“It’s funny, when you were a kid, your being seven years younger seemed like such a big age gap, like I was an entire generation older than you or something. But now that we’re adults, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal,” I noted.
“Well, I’ve always liked older women,” she said.
Then she clapped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide, as she realized how that sounded. I could tell by the flush on her face that she’d meant it exactly like it sounded.
“I’ve never worried too much about people’s ages,” I said. “I’ve been with older and younger woman. But I also haven’t dated that much since I got out of college, to be honest. With building the company and the way people get intimidated by who I am, dating is tough. People either want me because I’m a billionaire and they think they can get something from me, or they assume that because I’m a billionaire I must be a selfish asshole.”
“I know that you and Ariel and Grace give away a significant portion of your income to charity,” she said.
“Yeah, and since we’ve had Sadie around we’ve all committed to do more. She opened our eyes to how easy it can be to fall into a bad situation that’s not of your own making,” I explained. “We’ve all been fortunate, and while we like our limos and fancy restaurants and designer clothes, we also all feel a strong responsibility to give back, especially to other women.”
“I think that’s admirable,” she said. “Truly.”
Her praise meant a lot to me. Our eyes met and held for a long, pregnant moment and I had to hold myself back from dragging Ashley across the table and kissing her.
She was sexually harassed by her last boss,I reminded myself.She literally just told you the story.
“I guess we should head back to the office,” I said instead, gesturing for the waiter.
They’d charge our meal to my account, but I wanted to give him a tip. I handed him a hundred dollar bill, ignoring the wide-eyed look from Ashley, thanked him and stood up from the table.
“The driver should be here any minute.”
