I Want Candy (54 page)

Eric slowly walked into the room, making his way closer to the front.

“You have Candy’s diary there, and quite frankly, I never knew that a diary existed, but knowing Candy the way I do, it isn’t surprising. As Mr. Evans, and now even Candy have shown us, evidence is crucial in substantiating fact. I’m about to make a few points myself.”

A large projector screen lowered from behind the stage curtains. Gabriel waved at Samantha. Everyone watched anxiously.

“I’ll narrate to make this go a bit faster. Thank you, Samantha.” Samantha nodded and smiled as she pushed “Start.”

“We’re running short on time due to Mr. Evans’ monopolizing so much of the evening detailing intimate details about a matter that is none of his business, so I’m not going to give a long introduction. I’ll just jump right into it. Here we have a camera capturing Mr. Evans stealing company emails. This was over the course of say, three months. He tapped into the security privacy database that even he wasn’t allowed access to, and was reading very confidential information. After this was discovered by a local IT Manager, we were alerted. We immediately began to surveil Mr. Evans. Here’s footage of Mr. Evans driving over to one of our competitors. He parked his car and walked inside with a large envelope. We later determined that it contained confidential company documents regarding our new product lines.”

Everyone gasped. Quentin’s mouth dropped. He looked at the screen wide-eyed as he watched himself on the footage.

“Now, I could’ve easily accused Quentin of lying here tonight. I could’ve said he’s just trying to save his job. I could’ve even found a clever way to explain away the diary, but no, that would be wrong. It would be wrong because I’d be lying. What’s ironic is that all this time, I was fighting on Quentin’s behalf. You know those two men you saw me with at the hotel?” Gabriel smiled as he looked Quentin squarely in the eyes. “Those men were investigating your very serious crimes. They were from Columbus, and not only were you going be fired that following morning, you were going be arrested, because what you did is felonious. I asked them to please let me speak to you first, to see if you could just be allowed to leave the company with a fine. Even after I saw you with Candy that night, even after all the pain and hurt I had seeing you two together, I tried to help you. Because Candy apparently didn’t put her latest whereabouts in her diary, Mr. Evans’ plan came undone in the end, people, and that’s why he’s here. Now, Samantha, let’s continue with our little presentation, shall we?”

Quentin began to back away. Three police officers and a security guard blocked his path.

“I was visiting my family and received a troubling call from one of Candy’s dear friends.” Eric looked down at the ground and smirked, then back up at Gabriel. “Candy’s ex-husband, Eric, called me from his hospital bed. He warned me that Mr. Evans had been blackmailing Candy about our relationship. Now, I knew of Mr. Evans’s interest in Candy. I also knew he was in town before running into him at the restaurant. What I didn’t know is that he’d forced Candy to leave me. I didn’t know that he was making her do things against her will, and since Mr. Evans here gets some sort of enjoyment out of exposing my private sex life with everyone, let it be known that Mr. Evans here even went as far as to plan to sexually assault Candy.”

There were audible gasps in the room.

“He had the audacity to taunt her about it in advance. All this time, I thought she was dating him again willingly. Let me direct you to some footage that was caught today. Here’s footage of Mr. Evans breaking into Candy’s house. That man yelling at him upon his return to the front yard is Candy’s ex-husband, Eric. I’m very sorry that all of Ms. Benet’s business is now available for everyone to see, thanks to me in part. I’m really sorry about that because we all deserve a private life, but Mr. Evans here left me no choice after he exposed me, not realizing he was also exposing himself. Now, Samantha, please fast forward.” Samantha nodded.

“Here’s Quentin returning to the house later this afternoon. By this point, he didn’t know I had already contacted the police and explained the situation. This is where having some officers as friends come in very handy. My college buddy, Bruce, is a Cincinnati cop. He’s one of the good guys.” Bruce was standing behind Quentin and smiled and waved to everyone. “Bruce was alerted two months ago that there was an investigation regarding Mr. Evans. Once I got word from Eric about his stalking Ms. Benet, we put surveillance on her house immediately. I’m sorry, Eric. I couldn’t tell you why I didn’t want you to call the police. I was told to not inform anyone of their presence.”

Eric waved and laughed. “No apology needed. I’m glad it all worked out.” He crossed his arms over his chest and continued to listen.

“So, not only has Mr. Evans been stealing company information to sell to competitors, he’s been harassing Ms. Benet, a fellow employee who no longer showed romantic interest in him.” Gabriel sighed and breathed deeply, trying to gain his composure. “I’m sorry Ms. Benet loved me so much that she was willing to allow this
person
to do these things to her in order to keep my life private and safe from public scrutiny. She made a huge sacrifice. All of you who know Ms. Benet personally know her as ‘Candy.’ She’s one of the few managers you can call anytime to ask a business question or even just chat and won’t have an attitude. Candy is – spectacular, and it was hard for me not to fall in love with her.” Gabriel paused and reflected before continuing. “I know what will happen after I leave here tonight. Many of you’ll never look at me the same. I can’t change that and I really don’t care. There will be a big corporate meeting about what to do with me. I’m not going to apologize for being in love with an employee. You all are people just like me. Why am I not allowed to date someone I work with, even if I’m in a higher position than her? I’m the CEO, everyone is in a lower position than me. I care about each and every one of you. You’re Blue Sun as much as I am. Please remember to always be true to yourselves. Tell the truth, even when it hurts. Find a way to do the right thing, and do it as quickly as you can because when you waste time, you may not ever get a second chance.” Gabriel brushed past Mandy as he made his way down the steps. Several people clapped. Eric grabbed his arm and leaned in close to him.

“Gabriel, I know where she is. She’s in Cairo with Jasmine and Dallas with some book club. She did it to get away from Quentin.” Eric held up his cell phone and showed a text message from Candy. “She still has no idea what’s happened here. I’ll leave that up to you.”

“When is she coming back?” Gabriel asked nervously.

“In two weeks.”

Gabriel grimaced. “Two weeks! That’s too long! Thank you for everything, Eric.”

Eric laughed. “Seems like you had it under control, but you’re welcome!”

The police officers shoved Quentin’s hands behind his back and cuffed him as they walked him outside. As he was escorted by, Gabriel grabbed Quentin’s arm and whispered in his ear, “I’m gonna find my baby, Quentin.”

Gabriel fought the urge to say, “While you’re rotting in a cell, I’ll be holding Candy.” He was too much of a man to stoop to Quentin’s level. Quentin lunged at him but was promptly whisked away.

As Gabriel walked away, some people yelled out, “We love you, Mr. Justice!” while others looked at him in disgust. Gabriel went out to his car. He buttoned his coat and shuddered in the cold air.

“Mr. Justice!” Mandy called out as she chased him, her thick, chunky platform shoes hitting the pavement.

“What?” he snapped as he got into his car.

“We need to have a meeting right now!”

Gabriel sighed and closed his eyes as four other Human Resource Managers approached him. “Fine. Let the trial begin.”

* * *

CHAPTER 18

Gabriel sat down at one end of the long, wooden table. The plush, black leather chairs molded to his body. Justin lightly patted his shoulder as he walked past him, taking his seat next to the other managers and officers.

Justin pulled out a file and began to speak. “
Now
I know why we had that recent conversation,” Justin said with a faint smile. Gabriel nodded. “OK, let’s get down to business. Gabriel, is it OK if I call you by your first name?”

“Of course, we’re friends,” Gabriel said calmly, “but let me get this straight first. All of you are sitting down there, and I’m over here. It seems like it’s six against one.”

“Gabriel, please don’t make this harder than it has to be,” Mandy sighed.

“Mandy, you need to call me ‘Mr. Justice.’” He winced then turned back towards Justin. Mandy’s eyes popped in disbelief.

“OK,” Justin quickly steered the conversation. “You’ve admitted that the allegations Mr. Evans cited are accurate. We have the journal in question. You understand the severity of this issue. You knew full well that this sort of relationship is strongly discouraged, especially for officers and managers. We’re in the public eye, Gabriel. At any time, Candy could’ve filed sexual harassment charges, and she still can. You’ve put the company in a terrible position.”

“I understand, but that doesn’t change how I feel about these unfair rules,” Gabriel said as he looked across the room.

“I understand that you and Ms. Benet are no longer dating each other,” Mandy chimed in. “Did you have sexual relations with her in the workplace?” she asked, cocking her head slightly to the side.

Gabriel looked at Mandy and smiled before crossing his ankles. “Mandy, I already addressed this,” he sighed impatiently.

“We need to do it again for the record,” she stated, her tone shifting to annoyance.

“I think you just want to know the sordid details. Didn’t Mr. Evans already give you enough? Why don’t you crack open Candy’s diary. I’m sure she gave great particulars as to what we did, how we did it, and when we did it.”

“Gabriel, I mean, Mr. Justice, you’re the one we’re questioning right now, not Ms. Benet. She’ll be interviewed upon her return,” Mandy snapped.

“Gabriel,” Justin chimed in, “we need to hear it from you. I know that this is painful and embarrassing, but we must do it.”

“OK. What do you want to know?” Gabriel asked as he let his head fall onto the back of the seat. He looked up at the ceiling, blinking occasionally, then closing his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“When did the affair with Ms. Benet begin?” Justin asked as he pushed the recorder in the middle of the table.

“What do you mean? When did we first go out, like on a date?” Gabriel asked.

“When was it clear that you and she were more than employer and employee?” Justin clarified.

“About six months ago,” Gabriel answered.

“How many times did Ms. Benet and you engage in more than business such as dating and romantic activity, and did any romantic activity take place on company grounds?”

“I don’t have an exact number, Justin. We had a fulfilling sex life but, that has nothing to do with this. We
never
engaged in any sexual activity in the workplace – ever.”

“What about kissing?” Mandy piped in.

Gabriel looked at her and rolled his eyes. “You know what, Mandy? You shouldn’t even be here. During our investigation of Mr. Evans, we discovered your emails as well, the ones regarding
me.
I’ll just leave it at that.”

Mandy looked away quickly.

“Mandy, I’ll do the rest of the questioning, thank you.” Justin said with agitation.

“Gabriel, we’re just trying to get an understanding of whether anything inappropriate happened while at work,” Justin explained.

“It only took place outside the office. I’d never do something like that. I’ve answered this question three times.”

“Did you kiss or hug her on company property?” Justin asked.