…my cousin,” Dave finished. “So it’ll be private. Just the three of us.” Then he hung up. I sat on my kitchen floor for an hour. Then I did the one thing he told me not to do. I called the only person at work I trusted completely: Janet from IT, who has been at the company for twenty-two years and trusts nobody.
Janet didn’t laugh. She didn’t tell me I was overreacting. She said, “Bring your phone in tomorrow at seven, before anyone else gets here.” At seven, she plugged it into a laptop and ran something I didn’t understand. Twenty minutes later, she turned the screen toward me. The “harassing” texts had been sent from an app that disguises your number. The app was registered to a work email. Dave’s.
Janet printed everything and walked with me to the Head of HR, not the mediator, the head. I played her the recording of last night’s call. I’d started recording the moment I saw “blocked number.” Her face changed when Dave said, “Wear the blue sweater.”
Thursday came. Dave walked into room 4B at ten sharp with a coffee in each hand. His cousin, the mediator, was not there. Two security officers and the Head of HR were. I watched it from the glass hallway. He set the lattes down very carefully, like he was still being polite. Then he looked at the empty chair where I was supposed to be, and for the first time, he stopped smiling.
He was fired that morning. His cousin resigned a week later. I got a restraining order, and the company paid for my lawyer. HR found three earlier complaints from women in two other departments, all “resolved” through mediation. All with the same mediator.
Janet bought me a latte on Friday. Exactly how I order it. “From someone who isn’t weird,” she said, and I laughed for the first time in a month. I wear the blue sweater whenever I want now. It’s my favorite again.
