TWENTY ONE
It wasn’t a surprise at all when Brett was called into work. He had actually been counting on it. And even as tired as he was, he would have been disappointed if he hadn’t been, because anything that distracted him from the weirdness going on right now was a good thing.
He should be with John.
So what if John had seemingly only asked him as an afterthought? It didn’t matter, except that it did. Brett had nothing to offer, no practical experience with childbirth, no real ability to soothe anyone, least of all John.
Work was fine. He saw a couple of the regulars for other massage therapists who had called in, and they were both grateful to him for coming and seeing them when their own therapist couldn’t see them. He had the idea that they would be back, and this time, they would book with him directly.
“Why are you working here?” Alice, a woman in her 70’s whom he had seen before once or twice when her own therapist wasn’t available, commented at the end of the treatment. “You’re the only one who’s reliable here. If you opened your own place, I would follow you in a heartbeat. At least I’d know I was going to get good service.”
Funny that she should say that. Funny, and a little sad, given that it reminded him uncomfortably of what John had said.
“Oh, yes, Brett is a treasure,” came a slightly snide voice from behind him, one that Brett recognized immediately as his boss. His shoulders clenched tightly, and he swallowed because he recognized that tone of voice, and when Alice left with one last smile, he turned around to face the music. “At least, when he’s not storming off in the middle of a treatment. That was so unprofessional, by the way.”
Brett sighed. Hadn’t he known, on some level, that this would come back to haunt him? At the time, it hadn’t mattered much, but then his boss only had Alessandro’s side of the story.
“He made inappropriate comments and then touched me in a way that was unwelcome,” Brett told her, his voice dispassionate, even though the thought of it still made him want to throw up. “I had no obligation to continue the treatment after that.”
“Oh, grow up. Do you think you’re the first person to get hit on by a client? And that particular client just so happens to be a lawyer. If you want to avoid a lawsuit, I would suggest that you make yourself available to see him when he comes in today.”
Brett’s eyes narrowed as he looked at her, his head tilted to the side as he tried to figure out if she could possibly be serious. Was she really telling him that he had to put up with sexual harassment? And from the look in her eyes, there was a very real threat that she might just fire him if he didn’t do it.
Sidney had, for once, come into work, and she came out of her room, client in tow, which at least gave Brett a chance to think. But what was there to think about? He would never, ever see Alessandro again, if he had any say in the matter, and as it turned out, he did.
“So let’s just set things straight,” Brett told her, and his voice, while calm and quiet, had an undertone of steel to it that made Sidney, still standing nearby, turn and give him a curious look. “If I refuse to see that man, then what happens to me?”
“Let’s just say I don’t think I would want to be you,” his boss said, smugly sure, as always, that Brett would do as she wanted. After all, Brett had had a long habit of doing just that.
Everyone, it seemed, had a limit.
“For years, I have come in every time you called me. I have worked overtime, coming in early and staying late.” Brett took a breath, and his boss tried to interrupt, probably to point out the one and only time that Brett had refused to come in on his day off when John had encouraged him to. John. John was a huge reason, Brett knew, that he was standing up for himself, and John gave him the strength to face her down, to speak over her when she tried to speak.
“If that man so much as steps a foot in this office, I will quit,” Brett said, laying it all on the line, flat and uncompromising. “You should be supporting your employees, not trying to put them back in the room with someone who has behaved completely inappropriately.”
“I don’t think he did anything at all to you, you whiny little brat,” his boss snarled, no hint of her usual suave, urbane manner about her anymore. “You won’t quit. Stop being a drama queen and get ready to apologize to this man, like we both know that you will.”
Brett considered that. Not her words, not exactly. More like what his reaction to them should be. It only took him a few seconds to figure it out.
“In that case, maybe you should be looking forward to a lawsuit of your very own,” Brett informed her. He turned around abruptly and walked to the door, his hand on the doorknob. “In case that isn’t clear enough for you, I quit.”
He didn’t even turn around to see the effect that his words had on her. He could imagine the surprised look because there was no way that she had actually expected him to stand up to her. But what did it matter? Even if she came after him and apologized for everything, he wasn’t going to ever work for her, or anyone like her, again.
“Brett!”
The voice was familiar, but it wasn’t that of his boss. His ex-boss, he supposed he should now say. It was Sidney, and he frowned a little bit but turned around, more curious than anything else. He didn’t particularly like this woman, who had put a lot of extra work on him over the years, not to mention the whole thing with John. What could she possibly have to say to him?
“If she sent you to bring me back, she’s wasting her time, and yours,” Brett told her, just to make that perfectly clear. But to his surprise, when he turned around to meet her eyes, he saw that she was crying.
“I stopped coming in so much because the same thing happened to me,” Sidney told him bluntly, her voice low like she was worried that she might be overheard. “And she told me the same thing. Only I didn’t leave. And I’m sorry because I think I’ve ended up putting a lot more work on you because I was a coward.”
Never, not even in a thousand years, would Brett have expected to see Sidney, strong, tough Sidney, who didn’t seem to take anything seriously, cry. There were so many depths in any person that remained largely unexplored, that they mostly kept private, to themselves.
“I’m sorry,” he told her, feeling the words painfully inadequate, but she reached out and took his hand, squeezing it as the tears kept on rolling down her cheeks, unchecked.
“I came to tell you to go,” she told him firmly. “Don’t let her bully you, too. Find someplace good to work. I’ll send your clients, anyone who asks for you, over your way.”
“John thinks that I should start my own business,” Brett admitted, stunned into honesty by her raw, unguarded confession. By her extraordinary offer, which could definitely get her into trouble.
