Monahan 01 Options (15 page)

“The fuck just fired me,” he stated.

“I beg your pardon?” I was in shock. “What the hell happened?”

“Rick called me at home at nine-thirty and told me to get in here. I thought it was about the stock option report I was supposed to be preparing. I wish I never answered the phone.”

Getting called into the office on short notice on evenings and weekends wasn’t an unusual thing around here. Jay was a poor lamb heading for the slaughter when he agreed to come in.

When he didn’t continue, I prompted him, “And?”

“Rick was calm. No ranting. No raving. I was surprised at how mellow he was. I figured he’d been drinking.”

“What’d he say? Why’d he fire you?” I asked.

“He said that he was about to be fired by the board because of that information on the stock option system. You know, the different numbers I showed you yesterday.” I nodded. Oh yeah, I knew. Rick Cox obviously had an ally on the board who had let him know what happened at the meeting.

“He said that Grace O’Grady had proof that the numbers had been changed by him on the system.”

“Right,” I agreed. Seen it with my own two eyes.

“But he said that both he and I knew that he never used the system so it must have been me. I asked him why he thought I would do something like that.”

“What’d he say?” I asked.

“He said to benefit me. His numbers, mine and two others were changed. I’d benefit he said.”

“But Jay, Grace said she had proof it was him,” I said. I wasn’t letting on that I knew everything. “If Grace had proof, it must be pretty solid. The proof must’ve shown that he was on the system,” I prompted.

“He said it was me using his password. He’s never used the system,” Jay said.

“How would you know his password?”

“When I first transferred into finance Ray was away a couple of days and wasn’t able to set me up with access to the stock option system. Rick gave me his password to log in.”

“Right, but the system requires a password change every month, doesn’t it?” I asked.

“Yeah, and that’s where he thinks he’s got me.”

“How?”

“He told me to change his password every month. I change it to the name of the month. In March I changed his password to March. Same for April.” Jay was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and he hung his head.

“Can’t you take the Nuremberg defence on this one?” I asked him.

“The what?”

“The Nuremberg defence. You were just following orders. That’s the excuse all the Nazis used at the end of the war,” I said.

Jay stood up and started pacing in my small office like a caged animal. “But I didn’t do it,” he yelled. “He can’t just fire me. He’s got no proof.”

I felt helpless. Rick felt he was being falsely accused. So he fired the person who he logically thought was guilty.

“What the hell am I going to do?” Jay asked me. I didn’t know what to say to him. He turned his back to me and slammed his fist against the door. “Fuck. Fucking cocksucker.” I heard him take a deep breath. “I’m screwed. This isn’t fair.”

He turned around and smiled weakly at me. “He gave me thirty minutes to clear the premises. I was on my way out when I saw you sleeping in here so I just thought I’d let you know. I’m going to get drunk. You coming?” he asked me.

“I can’t. Cleveland Johnston’s here meeting with Oakes and he asked me to hang around. He needs me to help with some agreements. At least I think he’s still here. Let me check. If he’s gone, I’ll go with you. Wait here.”

I hurried out of my office and down the hall to Oakes’. With the amount of walking I do in these halls each day, you’d think I’d wear off my excess pounds. The door to Rick Cox’s office was open and I could see that he wasn’t there. I could hear voices inside Chris’ office and I put my ear up to the door to listen. I tried to decipher the voices but couldn’t make out anything. I opened the door a crack and peeked in. Cleve was standing with his back to me looking out the windows. Oakes was talking. Shit. This could go on all night. I closed the door quietly and walked back to my office. This was going to be hard. I didn’t want to have to make a choice between a good friend and this thankless job. In fact, there should be no choice. Fuck ‘em. Jay was more important. Cleve could call his own secretary. I wasn’t getting paid overtime.

Jay was gone when I got back to my office and there was a yellow post-it note on my computer screen where I wouldn’t miss it. “Nose to nose” it said. “I’ll call you later. Jay.”

I shoved my cigarettes and lighter in my purse and headed out the door. I stopped and turned around to grab the note off the computer screen. I put in my shirt pocket. Fuck ‘em all, I thought. They won’t engrave on my tombstone, “She should have spent more time at the office.” I pulled the door shut behind me.

chapter twenty

I hurried to the elevator to see if I could catch Jay. He wasn’t in the main lobby of the building and had already signed out at security. The man moves fast. In typical fashion my car choked and coughed a few times before starting and I gunned the engine impatiently when it finally caught.

I could see Jay’s car going up the ramp out of the building as I waited behind two other cars at the exit. The idiot at the head of the line had to get out of his car to put his pass in the machine and he turned and grinned sheepishly at us. Moron. I wanted to lean on my horn but better judgment prevailed. I wasn’t sure what the statistics were on drive-by shootings in underground garages.

When I finally cleared the garage and came up to the street the only car I could see was the one that had been in front of me in the garage. Traffic was light, and it was twenty minutes later when I pulled up in front of Jay’s place where he lived in a multi-storied apartment building. I rang his doorbell a few times and when I didn’t get any answer, I hurried back to my car and lit a cigarette. I left the car idling while I thought about what to do. I could go home. The thought of sinking into bed and feeling the duvet settle around me was definitely an option. I could leave a note for Jay letting him know I tried. But that was wimping out. I had to at least make an effort to find him so I put the car in gear and pulled back into the street. He said he was going to get drunk so I thought I’d try the bars in the neighbourhood.

Luck was with me because I saw his car parked in the lot at Murphy’s.

The sour smell of beer hit me as soon as I opened the door to the tavern. The cigarette smoke was thick and I felt right at home. It was relatively quiet for a Saturday night and there was a country song playing in the background. Most of the round tables were occupied with couples talking quietly and the dance floor was empty. All of the barstools were taken and I saw Jay sitting at the far end of the bar staring straight ahead. He was running his hand repeatedly through his hair.

I walked down the length of the bar and came up behind him. “You’re brushing,” I said into his back.

He turned around with a sad grin on his face. “Let me be,” he said. He got down off his barstool and took my elbow. “Let’s get a table.” We found a small table near one of the front windows.

“What do you want to drink?” Jay asked me.

“Soda water with lime, please.” Jay waved at the bartender who was leaning on the bar reading a newspaper. When the bartender didn’t respond Jay got up and went to the bar to get me a drink. I lit a cigarette and waited.

When Jay returned and was settled in his chair I asked him, “So, why didn’t you wait for me?”

He shrugged and took a deep drink of his beer, straight from the bottle. “My 30 minutes were up and I had to get out of the office,” he said. “I thought you were too busy to join me.” I listened for sarcasm in the remark but didn’t hear any.

My turn to shrug. I picked up my drink and saw that it had a slice of lemon instead of lime. Not the time to get picky, I thought. I sipped my drink and smoked my cigarette and Jay stared out the window. Silence engulfed both of us. I didn’t want to patronize Jay and I didn’t want to mouth trite words. My hand reached for his across the table and his thumb lightly caressed the side of my hand.

“You want another drink?” he asked abruptly.

I shook my head. He came back from the bar with two bottles of beer and I wondered if he was serious about getting drunk because I certainly wasn’t looking forward to it. I have a low tolerance for people when they get drunk. Not that I have anything against people drinking, I just totally lose interest when they reach that ‘other’ place. Drunks speak another language and think like aliens as far as I’m concerned. I had never seen Jay drunk and wasn’t looking forward to it.

“You planning on getting drunk?” I asked him.

“Who’re you? My mother?” he snapped back.

“Nope. Just asking. Just making conversation.”

“Well just mind your own business,” he said.

I gathered my cigarettes and lighter, and reached for my purse on the back of my chair. I stood up. I kept my expression neutral and refused to show him how hurt I was by that comment. I took a step around the table and leaned over and put my nose against his.

“Call me if you need me,” I whispered into his face. He stood up abruptly and took my purse off my shoulder

“I do need you. Let’s dance.” He steered me toward the empty dance floor.

Oh yeah, this should be cute. I think the last time I danced was in the seventh grade when we learned folk dancing. The music from the jukebox was country and the singer was crooning softly. When we reached the middle of the dance floor Jay put his arms around me and started to sway to the music. I guessed we weren’t going to polka.

When the song finally finished, Jay stopped moving but he didn’t take his arms away. We stood like that for a moment and I looked up at him. He was looking down at me and I felt my throat tighten. He lowered his head and put his lips on mine. I didn’t react to his kiss because I didn’t think I should. He was upset and vulnerable. Just like I had felt the night before.

The music started up again and Jay put his hand on the side of my face. He shook his head and said, “I shouldn’t have done that. Sorry.”

I took his hand in mine and led him off the dance floor back to our table. I retrieved my cigarettes and lit one, dragging deeply. Jay was chugging his beer from the bottle. We were both uncomfortable with what had just happened.

I looked at him sitting across from me. His eyes stared back at me and I tried to figure out why I felt so uncomfortable. The man was like a brother to me and that was why this felt wrong. There was six years difference in our ages and we had known each other forever. The last couple of days had definitely changed things. I was changing the way I felt about him.

I tried to put the age issue aside. Six years. Big deal. He was 28 and I was 34. At least no one would say I was old enough to be his mother. I decided to take the bull by the horns.

“What just happened out there?” I asked him softly.

“I’m sorry,” he said back. “I shouldn’t have done that. Look, can we just forget it?” Forget it? I could still feel his lips on mine.

“You caught me off guard, Jay. I didn’t know how to react.”

He pulled his chair closer to the edge of the table and leaned forward.

“Kate, I’m pissed off about being fired. I’m scared shitless. I don’t know if I can get another job in this city after being fired. I don’t know what to do. I shouldn’t have kissed you. I was way out of line. I apologize.” He was rambling. “I’m sorry about this morning too. I don’t know what got into me.”

I took his hand. “Jay, you’ll get another job. TechniGroup isn’t such a great place. Besides, Rick Cox is getting fired. I think you should call Tom James and let him know what happened. If the board fires Cox for the stock option fiasco, then that’ll prove that you didn’t do it. Call James and explain what happened. Maybe he’ll let you resign if they don’t rescind the dismissal.”

Jay slumped back in his chair and sighed. “This is so bogus. I’ve been set up. What the fuck is going on at that place anyway? Why can’t everyone just get to work and forget about the shit that’s constantly flying around? Oakes and Cox are such assholes. In a forty hour week, I’m lucky if I spend four hours producing meaningful work. Maybe I’m better off.”

The fight was going out of him quickly. Probably the beers.

“You hungry?” I asked. My stomach was protesting. I hadn’t eaten since lunch. Jay looked at his watch.

“It’s one o’clock. Nothing’s open. Come on back to my place and I’ll cook you something,” he invited.

His place? Good girls don’t go to a man’s place at one in the morning to be cooked for. I saw my mother shaking her finger in my face. I threw caution to the wind.

“Sure.” It wasn’t like I hadn’t been there before. I’d spent many evenings at Jay’s place watching Monday Night Football or the Maple Leafs on TV. I doubted though that there was anything on TSN at this time of night except drag racing or bass fishing. I followed Jay to the parking lot.

“I’ll drive. You’ve been drinking and you can walk over in the morning and get your car,” I said.

Jay looked fondly at his Saab. “I’m okay to drive and I don’t want to leave it in this parking lot overnight. I’ll be careful,” he said. “You follow me.”

My car started on the first try and I followed Jay the couple of blocks to his place. I grabbed the first parking spot I saw close to his apartment and waited in the outside lobby of his building for him to come up from the underground parking garage. We didn’t speak in the elevator and I was starting to feel uncomfortable again. I stared at his back as he fit the key in the door to his apartment. My knees felt weak and there were butterflies in my stomach. I felt like I was sixteen again and about to receive my first kiss. Jay flicked on the light switch in the hall and reached over me to set the dead bolt lock on the apartment door.