Page 53 of The Inmate
After a while, I’m just searching for my name. For the most part, whoever leaked the story about Dawn has kept my name out of it. Thank God. But a few people have chosen to criticize me as an employee of Vixed.
Natalie from Vixed is the worst lying snake you will ever meet. She will say anything to get you to buy their crap. #VixedSucks
It’s hard not to take it personally.
“Nat?”
Seth is standing over me, hovering at the entrance to my cubicle, wearing his trench coat. I was so absorbed in looking at my Twitter feed that I didn’t even see him approach. His eyebrows are scrunched together.
“Hi,” I mumble.
“You okay, Nat?”
I drag my gaze away from my phone. “We’re getting trashed on the internet, you know.”
“I know.” He seems unperturbed, given that his name got mentioned quite a bit as well.Manager Seth Hoffman did nothing to stop the bullying. “You should stop looking at it.”
“How can I?” Even as I’m talking to him, I’m looking back down again to read the next comment. There’s a new one popping up every few seconds.
“It’s easy.” He reaches out and snatches my phone off the desk. “Just stop. It’s not going to help find who did this to Dawn.”
“Hey!”
“It’s for your own good, Nat.”
“Everyone thinks I bullied Dawn. That I’m a terrible person.”
“That’s bullshit.” Seth says the words so vehemently, I almost want to hug him. Even Kim seemed to believe that I had been bullying Dawn, and she’s my best friend. “You wereniceto Dawn. You didn’t do anything wrong. These people on the internet are just speculating. They’re just looking for somebody to blame. They don’t know you like I do.”
I tug at a lock of my hair. “Aren’t you freaking out though? Corporate is not going to be happy about this.”
“It’s fine. They know it’s just a rumor and it will blow over. What happened to Dawn is terrible, but it wasn’t our fault.”
“What if they fire you?”
He grins crookedly. “Then my income drops precipitously, which will be great for my divorce proceedings. Relax, Nat. This is going to be okay.”
“Give me back my phone.”
“I’m going to walk you to your car, then I’ll give it back to you.”
Seth seems intent on holding my phone hostage, so I snatch my jacket off the back of my chair and wrap it around myself. There’s a chance he could be right. I’m pretty sure nothing good can come from reading these posts. It is what it is.
At least nobody has called me a murderer. So there’s that.
I follow Seth down the hall to the elevators. He’s still got my phone shoved into his own coat pocket. I still don’t understand all the hate directed at us. We didn’t bully Dawn, although God knows, we could have, because she blatantly disregarded so many social conventions. But we were nice to her—I mean,mostly. Were there a few times I got irritated and snapped at her? Sure, I’m only human. But I really did try to be patient with her, in general. I even made an effort to include her in work events. Like even though she wasn’t friends with Kim and was sometimes outright rude to her, I made a point of inviting her to the bridal shower we threw for her—even though she didn’t end up coming.
And even if we did bully her, what does that have to do with her murder, for God’s sake? Do they think we bullied her to death?
“You’re still thinking about it,” he notes.
“I can’t help it!” I tug at my pantyhose, which rip slightly under my fingernail. Damn it. “I’m not used to people hating me.” Well, except for his wife. But even she seems to have lost interest in harassing me.
“Nobody hates you, Nat.” His light brown eyes meet mine across the elevator. “I sure don’t.”
I look away from him. This is not going to lead to anything good.
The sun has already gone down when we get out of the building. The weather is brisk and it’s almost drizzling. November just started, and it’s promising to be a wet, cold month. Soon it will start snowing. Saturday is supposed to be nice at least.
