Chapter 9

“What? Me? Why?”

“Somehow a large order of office supplies for one of our biggest clients just…up and vanished? No one seems to know what happened to it. The client is pissed, the higher ups are pissed. This was our biggest order of the quarter, we are losing a ton on this,” Maria explained.

“They think I did it?”

“I think that’s what they’re looking into now, nobody knows for sure yet who’s to blame,” she said. “Everyone’s nervous though, those orders go through a lot of hands before they’re processed. But I heard some whispers about who they’ve narrowed it down to, and you’re on the list.”

Bob, our immediate supervisor, stepped into the center of the room. Everyone in the office went completely silent.

“Can I please see Elena, Hazel, and Janice in the conference room?” He said solemnly. He turned and headed that direction.

“Oh my god,” I said. “I didn’t mess up this order, you know how careful I am!”

“It’s okay,” Maria said, She placed a hand on my shoulder. “There’s always a huge paper trail for these things. They’ll be able to tell it wasn’t you.”

Maria’s words soothed my nerves some, and I walked towards the conference room behind Janice and Elena. Bob stood in the front of the room, and he gestured at the seats in front of him when we entered. We sat.

He cleared his throat. “I’m sure by now you’ve heard the news that we’ve lost a large shipment that was to go out to one of our biggest clients, Office Surplus.”

The three of us nodded.

Bob continued. “We’ve been hard at work trying to resolve the issue. We’re hoping we don’t lose our client over this, as they’ve threatened to end their contract with us over it.”

My eyes grew wide. That would really hurt our company if they took their business elsewhere. They were responsible for at least 50% of our profit every quarter.

“We’ve also been looking into who may be responsible for the mistake,” Bob said. “Whoever is responsible will receive a demotion, and will be in serious danger of losing their job here altogether. We don’t know who is to blame yet, but we have narrowed it down to the three of you.”

“Bob,” I jumped up. “I handed this order over to Elena at Logan’s request, so I could focus on a task for him.”

Elena jumped up. “Then it is your fault! Neglecting your work because you’re playing teacher’s pet with Logan just to get that promotion.”

“Ladies, please,” Bob said. “Hazel, if it is found that you’re to blame, you’ll no longer be a candidate for that position.”

“I can prove to you that I’m not,” I snapped, mostly at Elena. “I have the emails to back me up.”

I stormed out of the room to my computer to pull up my work email. I typed in any search word I could think of: Office Surplus, orders, Logan, Elena. But my searches didn’t return any of the emails about that particular order. Somehow they had all just disappeared.

Bob and Elena walked over to my desk. “Well?” He asked.

I grew flustered. “I…I can’t seem to find…”

“Because they don’t exist!” Elena said.

“But they do! I’m sure they’re in here somewhere, I just need a little more time to…” I quickly began scrolling through my email.

“I’m sorry Hazel,” Bob said quietly. “But I need you to pack up your things. You’ll report to the first floor for your new assignment.”

He started to walk away. I jumped out of my chair. “Bob, wait! This isn’t fair, I didn’t…”

Logan suddenly appeared, stopping Bob in his tracks. “Excuse me, Bob. Is is your decision who is or is not a candidate for the position of my assistant?”

Bob, Elena, and I were all taken aback. Logan had only been there one week, and sure, he technically was over Bob, but up until this point he had kept his nose out of our department. Why was he sticking up for me? So far our only interactions had revolved around planning things for his wife. He barely knew me or anything about me.

Logan stared Bob down. Logan already normally had a domineering presence, but in this moment, it was even more so.

“Hazel, leave your things. You aren’t going anywhere,” Logan said, his eyes still on Bob.

Bob shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He was looking anywhere but at Logan’s face. Finally, Logan released him from his gaze. Bob let out an audible sigh.

“Hazel, my office?” Logan walked towards his office and I followed without a word to Bob or Elena.

I shut the door behind me once I entered his office. “Sir, I cannot thank you enough for…”

Logan waved me off. “There’s no need to thank me. You’re a good, hard worker. You don’t deserve to be sent to the first floor.”

My mind was racing. I wasn’t used to people standing up for me. I was also nervous about the lack of evidence there was in the matter. If I couldn’t find proof that I had be given direction to pass along that order to Elena, I wasn’t sure that Logan would still be able to protect me, despite him being CEO.

But something else was bothering me too…Bob was pretty well-known for being a slimy little weasel. He would do anything to protect himself. His goal was to move as high up as he could in the company, but he had done some pretty questionable things on his climb to the top.

Bob’s quick judgment about me being to blame for the missing order left me feeling uneasy. Was this whole thing a cover up on his part? I thought if Logan was going to try and protect me in this, he should know who he was up against.

I also had some sneaking suspicions about Logan as well.

“Sir, if I may have a word with you on this matter,” I said nervously.

“Yes?”

“I apologize if any of this is out of line. But…I know you are new here, and you may not have yet picked up on all the dynamics and personalities of all your employees yet.”

Logan nodded, prompting me to continue.

“I also feel like you’ve maybe put on a facade yourself, as a devoted husband, to perhaps lower everyone’s guards around you, so they feel unthreatened by you.”

Logan smirked. “You’re too smart for your own good.”

“I hate to speak poorly of anyone here, especially a superior. But I am concerned about Bob’s actions regarding this failed order he’s trying to demote me over. Bob tends to only look out for Bob. He was so quick to blame me for the mistake, it makes me wonder what he’s trying to hide. He has one goal, which is to rise to the top, no matter what it takes, and no matter who he may hurt along the way.”

“I have started picking up on that myself, yes.”

I was nervous to say the next part. I took a deep breath. “I think he’s trying to cover something up. Can I have your permission to dig a little deeper into the matter, in order to save my job? I may need to…lie some in order to get to the truth.”

“As long as it doesn’t interfere with your assignments,” Logan said. “I think perhaps you need to. Now. Please grab your planner and come back in, I’d like to discuss my schedule for the week.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, jumping up to walk as fast as I could to my desk.

My phone rang as I walked. I didn’t recognize the number but answered anyway.

“This is Hazel,” I said.

“Hello Hazel. My name is Sean, I’m calling from Legacy Apartments in regards to your recent application,” the voice on the other end said.

“Oh, yes!” My heart leapt. Freedom from my family was just what I needed after the morning I’d had.

“I regret to inform you that your application has been denied,” Sean said.

“Wha…why?” I said, shocked.

“Ma’am, this is an apartment complex for singles only.”

“Yes, I know. That’s why I applied.”

“According to our research, you are married.”