Mr. Larken walked into Meg's office with a file in his hand. He dropped it on her desk and then perched on the corner. He knew that annoyed Meg, and did it anyway. Meg looked up, saw what Larken was doing and braced for whatever was headed her way.
"So, do you think you can get your new boyfriend to cut us some slack on that bill of his?" he asked in a rather sarcastic tone.
"Gee, I don't know. Would taking your insurance agent to bed get us retroactive flood insurance?" she asked. Larken had decided to go cheap and not take out all the little extras on insurance when they opened the new office. Flooding that was not nature related wasn't covered. Therefore the company was paying for all the damages out of pocket.
"Hey, I didn't know," he lied. "Besides, your boyfriend sure spends a lot of time here, and I don't want him adding his social calls to his bill," he said and pointed to the folder.
Meg picked up the folder. Looking over the invoices, she didn't see one item out of line. In fact, she noticed that Luc hadn't billed for at least two office calls that she knew of and had given them a discount on the Cat 5e. "You know, you aught to read before you open your mouth Larken. Better yet, quit talking to your sorry assed cronies down at Sheldon Electrics and spreading their bullshit," she said, getting more and more pissed.
"Hey Meg, I'm not the one who's fucking their lead tech," said Larken.
"No, and my love life is none of your business. Besides, take a good look at this invoice. He cut us a shitload of slack already. The savings on the cable runs alone was better than Sheldon's entire offer. We'd still be down and probably out of business by now if we'd gone with them," she said. Looking further into the file, she saw that the check had already been written, so it was a moot point. Larken was being an ass. She looked up and smiled. "You know, you ought to watch out. Never know who or what is behind you," she said.
"Oh shut up!" said Larken as he stood up. Meg wasn't getting as upset as he thought she might and it wasn't as much fun. "There is no one behind me!" he said and turned.
"Hello Mr. Larken," said Luc from about two feet inside the door.
"Jesus!" Larken squeaked and ran for the door.
Meg and Luc waited until he got through the door to break into laughter.
"I'm glad I came a bit early to pick you up for lunch," said Luc.
"Me too. However, his personal style of harassment is driving me nuts," said Meg.
"Well, from what I heard, he's working up to a rather good case of sexual harassment. Question is, who is the HR rep for your firm?" asked Luc.
"Me. That's why he figures he can get away with it, because the only people that I can report to are him and Davis, the senior partner," said Meg.
Luc stood there for a second. He was turning something over in his head. "Meg, you realize that if you stay and don't say anything, it will only get worse," he said.
"Yeah, I know. Right now, I'm too pissed to think straight, so can we go to lunch?" she asked.
"Certainly," he said and headed out of the office.
Lunch was quiet as Meg ran the events of the morning through her head. Luc gave her the head space to do just that, because he knew the correct course of action. At least from his perspective.
"Luc, will you come in after we get back to my office?" Meg asked, breaking the silence at long last.
"Yes," he said.
"Aren't you going to ask why?" she asked.
"Well, to be honest, you want me as a witness. First to Larken's behavior this morning, and second, because I'm one of the victims of Larken's temper tantrum," he said.
"Yeah. I'm going to talk to the senior partner. I know he will be in the offices this afternoon, because he has a meeting later on," she said.
""Okay, shall we go?" he asked.
Meg nodded, and they caught the eye of their waitress. Ten minutes later, they were pulling into the parking lot at Meg's office. Sure enough, the big black Lexus was parked out back. The Senior partner was in the office.
Angie was standing next to her desk when they came in the building. "What did you say to Larken?" she asked in a whisper.
"I told him to shut up, why?" asked Meg.
"His wife had to bring him a new suit! Something about spilling coffee on himself in your office," said Angie.
Meg blinked in astonishment, and Luc started to snigger.
"Luc?" she asked puzzled.
"I really did scare him! He must have peed himself!" said Luc, having a terrible time not laughing.
Angie and Meg started laughing. Meg turned to Angie after a moment. "I need you to do me a favor," she said.
"Okay," said Angie.
"Call George, and tell him I'd like to see him in five minutes," said Meg.
"You got it," said Angie as she picked up the phone. "Yes sir, I'll tell her," said Angie as the conversation ended. "He'll see you in two minutes."
Meg gave Angie a quick hug and trotted back to her office. She picked up the file left there earlier, made sure it still had all the information in it and headed down the hall with Luc in tow.
Meg went in first, while Luc cooled his heels in the suite's outer office. He could hear most of the conversation. He sat back and waited for Larken to appear. When Larken came into the office he was wearing a different suit than he had that morning. He also startled when he saw Luc. Before he had a chance to say anything to Luc, the secretary showed him into the office.
Luc could hear the shouting through the door. So could the secretary. She quietly put a set of headphones in her ears. Luc smiled at her. She smiled back. Then the door to the office opened.
"Mr. Moreau, would you step in here please?" asked Meg.
Luc stood and went into the office. Larken was beet red in the face, and the senior partner didn't look happy.
"Now, what is this I hear about you scaring Mr. Larken here this morning," asked George Davis.
"I walked into Ms. Stewart's office for a lunch engagement to find Mr. Larken hear speaking rudely about our relationship, and violating just about every rule in most people's HR handbook. When Ms. Stewart said that he should hold his tongue, Larken continued to be abusive, and I said hello. He jumped like a scalded cat and left the office. Ms. Stewart and I left for lunch," said Luc.
George looked down at the folder Meg had brought in and then up at Larken. "You have certainly put the company in a bad position David," he said to Larken. "You know the rules. Hell, did I ever say anything about you having that affair with that blonde in Denver? No. So what is your issue with two unmarried people having a relationship?"
"It's unprofessional! She called him in here to wring money out of us because they were lovers! They decided that raking us over the coals to fix our office was a good idea!" Larken said nearly frothing at the mouth.
"Excuse me," said Luc with a subvocal rumble in his voice. "Your office called mine. How Ms. Stewart and I came to date is none of your business, especially as it had nothing to do with the job that my company did for your business," Luc said. "Furthermore, my bid was lower than Sheldon Electrics. The work was done on time and within the quote. In fact, due to a change in cost for the Cat5e cable, I saved your company over $500. I'd hardly call that 'raking you over the coals' considering all the work that was needed," he said. "I believe that Mr. Larken here owes Ms. Stewart and myself an apology."
George nodded. He looked at Larken and didn't say a thing. Larken got red in the face and stormed out of the office.
"Sorry about that Margaret. Is there any chance you will reconsider?" George asked.
Meg thought for a moment. "No, I want my share of the company in a cashier's check along with payment for vacation time unspent. In exchange, I want Larken canned, and Waters and Harlson promoted. In return for that, I won't sue you for HR violations, and believe me at this point, you are so deep into the abyss, that I don't see a way out."
"Anything else?" George asked realizing that there was no way to change Meg's mind.
"Oh yeah, a permanent statement in Larken's portfolio on why he was fired. In exchange, I won't take my client list," she said.
George thought for a moment, and then called his secretary into the office. "I'll talk to you later Margaret," he said.
Meg and Luc walked out of the office and into Meg's. Angie was already there with boxes.
"How did you know?" asked Meg.
"Offices have intercoms, and Betsy is a bitch when she wants to be. When she realized that Larken was getting canned, she let all of us in on the happy news," said Angie.
Meg smiled. "So nice to know that Larken was universally loved," she said.
"Oh yeah. I'm just sorry you're going. What are you going to do?" asked Angie.
