Page 78 of Love & Other Disasters

“Jordan,” she called, head spinning.

“Yeah,” he appeared in the doorway, fresh from the shower, towel wrapped around his waist.

“Did you send out the press release about Melvin?”

“It’s going out later today…why?”

Violet was shaking her head before he finished the sentence. “Someone beat you to it.” She pointed to the screen where the same banner scrolled again.

J.P. let out a rough swear and disappeared back the way he came. A few minutes later he reemerged, tucking in his shirt with one hand; clutching his tie with the hand holding his pants and screaming into his earbuds at whoever he was talking to. It was a study to watch. She’d never seen him this angry, even when Geoff assaulted him. Sure, he’d been mad when he found out about her giving him a fake name, but this was beyond even that.

He tapped the Bluetooth headset ending the call and worked his tie. “You’re not planning on going in today are you?” he asked, glancing over at her.

“I could if needed.”

“No. Stay here and get some rest. It’s a nightmare, and you don’t need to deal with it.”

“Are you sure…” her phone buzzed next to her leg; she glanced at the screen. “Oh look, Monique’s calling.”

“I need to go,” he said. “And if she’s still calling me white bread, please tell her to stop.”

J.P. walked toward the building and a woman thrust a microphone in his face. Then, a camera appeared while people shouted questions from far too close. He shielded his eyes from the lights and pushed through without a word. Where did they come from and would they follow him? Building security rescued him at the door and forced the journalists to retreat to the street.

He headed straight to the fourth floor and when the elevator doors opened, Bob’s executive assistant was waiting.

“They’re expecting you in the Ryman Conference Room, Mr. Harper.”

“Thank you, Brenda.”

“Would you like coffee?”

“I’d love some, two creams no sugar, please.”

She hurried away, and J.P. took a deep breath before pushing open the conference room door. He dreaded today, and that feeling didn’t dissipate when he entered and Bob, Deanna from Human Resources, and Margo Thompson, the company senior legal counsel, looked at him.

“The board of directors will be here soon,” Bob said.

“How did this get out?” J.P. asked.

“That’s what we were hoping to speak to you about before everyone gets here,” Deanna said.

Brenda knocked and brought in J.P.’s coffee and asked if anyone needed anything.

“Are you having a personal relationship with Violet Murphy?” Bob asked after Brenda left.

“Violet didn’t leak this,” he said.

“That doesn’t answer the question Jordan,” Bob said. “Agent Morales asked me if I thought your relationship with Violet was suspicious. And I don’t like being blindsided.”

“We knew each other before, and I was not aware she worked here,” he said.

“You cannot carry on a romantic relationship with your subordinate,” Deanna said. “With everything else going on, this doesn’t look good. Any perception of impropriety—”

“Deanna,” Bob cut in before J.P. could lose his mind, “I’m not worried about this. We have bigger things to deal with.”

“It opens us up to legal action if something were to go wrong in the relationship,” Margo added.

“Can you draw up one of those workplace relationship contracts to protect us? Get Violet and Jordan to sign it. We can worry about moving Violet to another role later. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this,” he turned to J.P. “Can you say for certain she isn’t the leak?”

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