“Good morning, Judy, what’s up?”
Alex and his friends all enjoyed their long weekend in Kansas City but returned home early enough on Monday so they would be settled and ready to go on Tuesday morning for an abbreviated work week. Alex was glad he was able to get to bed early, as his week was going to be full. He’d risen early and was at his desk by 6 am. Most of his co-workers generally filtered into the office around 8 am, so he’d managed to make the two hours he was there alone into two very productive ones. He was surprised when, around 8:15 am, Judy, the new branch manager, had summoned him. He grabbed a pen and a writing tablet and headed into her office.
“Alex,” she said in a stern tone. “Close the door.”
“Sure.” He closed the door, then sat on one of the two chairs on the opposite side of the desk from her. He set his pad of paper on her desk, directly in front of him.
“Alex, yesterday a co-worker of yours brought a very serious concern to me. ‘Okay,’ he thought to himself. ‘What could this possibly have to do with me?’
He waited for Judy to continue, but she remained silent for several seconds. The silence became so overwhelming that Alex finally encouraged her to speak. “Please, continue.”
“Jennifer came to me yesterday morning and told me what has been going on.”
‘Jenny, of course,’ thought Alex. ‘There’s a problem in the office and Jenny’s involved. That’s no surprise. But what has it got to do with me?’
Once more, Judy fell silent. After waiting for her to continue, Alex was again forced to encourage her. “And what has been going on?” he asked.
“Alex, I can’t believe someone with as much experience as you have, as well liked as you are with the head honcho up in Minneapolis, would do such a thing.”
What?
Alex gave Judy a strange look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
This time, rather than allow silence to hang between the two, Judy pounced. “No idea, hmm? No idea at all? Somehow, I would think you’d remember propositioning Jenny.”
Alex was silent for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.
Once he’d managed to control his laughter, he said, “Oh, my God, Judy, I know that’s the funniest thing I’m going to hear all day.”
“Alex!” she said loudly. “Sexual harassment of a coworker isn’t funny!”
“Oh, I agree, Judy,” Alex replied. “Except there’s zero chance I’d proposition Jenny, seeing that I’m gay and all.”
“What?” exclaimed Judy. “But you were married.” She then added, “I guess I need to clarify these days. You were married to a woman.”
“Don’t you believe me?” he asked, then quickly held up one finger. “Hold on.” Alex pulled out his mobile phone and began to scroll through photographs. He found the one he was looking for in a matter of seconds. It had been taken by Rhys two days prior. He held the phone out for Judy to see. “That’s my boyfriend Jesse and me. We’re kissing. On the lips. That was taken on Sunday. So, I don’t know what scam Jenny’s trying to pull, but…Now, since you know I’m not interested in women, you can see this allegation is hogwash. Mind you, if women did it for me, she’d probably be the last woman alive I’d be interested in, so that’s just one more reason this is all baloney.” As he put his phone back in his pocket, he added, “I really do need to get back to work.”
Alex had grabbed his legal pad and begun to rise from his seat when Judy yelled, “I never said you could leave. Sit down!”
A shocked Alex did as he was told. Judy then threw two sheets of paper at him.
“Not interested in Jenny, huh?” she asked, sarcasm evident in her voice. “Not interested? If you’re ‘not interested,’ then why did you send her these emails?”
Alex picked up the sheets of paper. Sure enough, they were two emails that appeared to have been sent from Alex’s work email account to Jenny’s. Alex was horrified to discover the words that were being attributed to him. Ewww. Alex knew damned well he’d never talk to a woman this way. Any woman. But Jenny? Double ewww.
When Alex looked up from the emails, Judy threw a folded piece of paper at him. Folded into a triangle like a note you’d pass to a friend during class in high school, at least in the days before texting was a thing. This was getting weirder by the minute. As he began to unfold the note, Judy said, “Then Jenny found this on her desk yesterday morning. You are a sick man, Alex! Sick!”
Alex quickly glanced at the note. It did look like his printing…and Judy was right about something. The note was pretty sick.
“Now, come on, Judy. You can’t possibly believe that I wrote this, can you? I mean, I know you haven’t been here that long, but you still must know me well enough to know that I’d never write something like this.”
While Judy simply glared at him, he looked back down at the note. After a few seconds, he said, “this looks a lot like my printing, but I can see that it’s not. That’s not how I print the letter ‘t.’” He held the note up for Judy to look at. “And I don’t dot the lower-case ‘i’ and ‘j,’ either.”
Judy was uninterested in Alex’s handwriting analysis, however. As Alex set the two emails and the note back on the desk, Judy’s glare turned into a sneer. “You are one depraved individual, Alex,” she spat.
By now, Alex was completely unsure of what was going on. Judy was right about one thing, though. This was definitely not funny. He again began to stand up, picking his writing pad back up off the desktop.
“I don’t understand what’s going on here, Judy, but I need to get back to work.”
“I’m afraid, Alex, that I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Yes, that’s what I’m doing, Judy. I’m leaving to go back to my office, so I can get back to work.”
“No, you’re not, Alex,” she replied with a sneer. “You’re going to leave the building.”
Again, Alex set his tablet back on the desktop and returned to the chair. “You’re kidding, right?” he asked.
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
“Well, no, but…”
“Alex, I want you to get out of my office, pack up your things, and leave.”
“Well, okay, but you’ll need to give me a couple of minutes to get everything together. I’ll need to pack up my laptop and the files I’m working on…”
“No, Alex. God, I didn’t know you were so dense. You will leave work product and equipment in the building. You will be packing up your personal items and leaving for good. You’re fired.”
“What? Now, come on…”
“Come on, nothing. You’re done.”
“Let’s just call Mr. Scribner and talk…”
“No, we’re not! This came from the very top, Alex. This came from Mr. Scribner himself. He wants you gone and to never hear your name spoken again.”
Alex’s emotions had run the gamut over the previous five minutes. His laughter had turned into confusion, and confusion to disbelief. Alex’s disposition shifted again, this time to defiance.
“So,” he commented, “what are you going to tell Mr. Scribner when you lose the Blue Mountain account?”
Judy’s response was smug. “Don’t be silly. We won’t be losing any account just because you’re no longer here.”
“Let’s see if you feel that way next week. I am the only one Blue Mountain Group wants working on their account.”
“We have plenty of staff who can take care of them just as well as you do.”
“Actually, no, you don’t. I am the only one in this office who knows how to do property condition surveys. They don’t even get reviewed by anyone in this office. So, yeah, good luck with that.”
Alex thought he detected a sudden glimmer of nervousness in Judy’s eyes, though the glimmer only lasted for a second.
“Don’t worry about us,” she responded. “Worry about your own sorry, jobless ass. Now, get out of my office, get your shit packed up, and get out.”
Alex picked his tablet up from Judy’s desk. He rose, turned, and opened the door, only to be greeted by Jenny, a huge, victorious, gloating smile on her face, as she shoved an empty, cardboard box in his direction. Alex took the box from her, then tossed it to the floor. He then stepped up to Jenny, so his face was directly in front of hers. Alex’s disposition had once again changed, this time from defiance to fury.
“You picked the wrong man to fuck with.”
Jenny’s smile faded noticeably as Alex continued. “By the time I’m done with you, you will curse the day you were born. You will curse your mother for having borne you.”
Jenny turned, but not before she swallowed. Hard. Alex watched her as she walked away. He then picked up the box and headed to his office. He was greeted by Carrie, two more empty cardboard boxes in her hands and a look of disbelief on her face.
“Oh, God, Alex! I just can’t believe this is happening.”
“You and me both. Let me guess. You’re supposed to watch me pack so I don’t take off with anything I shouldn’t.” Carrie simply nodded.
Alex dropped the box on his chair, then stuffed his writing tablet into his workbag. Carrie watched silently as Alex began to take down photographs of his children, then pulled personal books off the shelves. He’d managed to accumulate quite a bit of bric-a-brac after more than three decades in the same office.
“So, do you know why I’m being fired, Carrie?”
Once again, Carrie nodded her answer.
“You don’t believe it, do you?” Alex asked as he took the antique postal route map of Iowa down from the wall and began to carefully roll it up.
“Not for a second, Alex,” Carrie responded softly. “I wouldn’t believe you’d have done that with any woman. But Jenny? I thought they were joking when I first heard about it.”
“Okay, so it’s not just me that feels like I’m being railroaded.” Alex then fished his car keys out of his pocket. “Would you mind taking a load out to my car? There’s more than one load, and if I walk out the door I don’t know if they’ll let me back in.”
Carrie nodded but otherwise remained silent as she took the keys from Alex and handed him a replacement cardboard box. “You don’t even need to push the button on the fob. Just put your hand on the trunk handle and the car will unlock automatically.”
Alex had nearly finished packing when Carrie returned to his office. As he placed a globe atop other items in the last of the cardboard boxes to be filled, he turned to Carrie and said quietly, “I was supposed to be issuing several reports this week for Blue Mountain Group. They expect the reports to be coming from me. Please keep an eye out and let me know if they send out the reports, passing them off as my work.”
Carrie nodded, a sad expression on her face.
Once Alex had finished packing, he slung his messenger bag over his shoulder, then he and Carrie each picked up a box. With sadness, Alex took one last look at his office before turning off the light for a final time.
-----
“Hey, Jesse, how’s it going?” said Cameron as Jesse opened the screen door and entered Alex’s house.
“Good, good…how’s it feel to be back home for the summer?”
“Great! I’m back to working as summer help at a packaging plant again. Boring work, but the pay’s not too bad. Better than McDonald’s, anyway.”
“I thought you were working second shift, though,” commented Jesse.
“My schedule varies from week to week. I’m working first shift this week. I’ll probably be back to second shift next week.”
“So,” replied Jesse, “Is your dad around?”
“I think maybe he’s upstairs taking a nap. I thought it weird when I saw his car in the driveway when I got home, since he’s never home this early. I called for him when I got inside but got no response. And the bedroom door is closed, which is pretty unusual.”
“Taking a nap?” questioned Jesse. “That’s unlike him.”
“I know, right?”
“Well,” replied Jesse, “it would explain why he hasn’t answered my calls or responded to my texts this afternoon.”
Cameron simply nodded in reply.
“I’ll go up and check on him. Maybe he’s feeling ill.”
Jesse opened the bedroom door and saw Alex sitting on the bed, facing the window on the opposite wall.
“Hey, Alex. Are you just waking up?”
Alex sat still, unresponsive, staring out the window that overlooked the backyard.
“You’re not feeling sick, are you?”
Again, no response. Jesse suddenly became concerned. ‘This is totally not in Alex’s character. Something serious must be up,’ he thought to himself as he rounded the bed. He sat down on the bed next to Alex and put his left arm around Alex’s shoulders. Alex continued to stare forward, seemingly unaware of Jesse’s presence.
“Alex, you’re starting to scare me,” said Jesse. “What’s wrong?”
After a continued brief silence, Alex finally spoke, still staring out the window as he did so. “I don’t have a job,” he said, completely without emotion or inflection.
“What?” was Jesse’s simple response. ‘I must not have understood what he meant,’ he thought to himself.
“I no longer have a job,” was Alex’s emotionless, detached reply.
‘Okay,’ thought Jesse, ‘I guess I did understand the first time. It still makes no sense to me, though.’
“You’re kidding, right?” Jesse said, nervously.
“That’s not something I’d kid about. I’m unemployed, Jesse.”
Alex finally turned his head to face Jesse. Jesse noticed Alex’s puffy, bloodshot eyes, and tear streaks down his face. Clearly, Alex had been crying. Crying a lot.
“Oh, Alex. What happened? Why did they let you go?” Jesse said softly, trying to sound loving and reassuring.
Suddenly, Alex’s emotionless manner of speaking disappeared. Alex had shifted from detached to angry. “I didn’t get let go, Jesse. I got fired. Me! Fired!” Then, significantly quieter, he again said, “Fired.”
Jesse leaned over and kissed Alex’s forehead, then pulled him closer. “It’s going to be all right.”
“I don’t exactly see how,” replied Alex. “I have worked there more than thirty years, Jesse. Thirty years! That was my first job after college, Jesse. Where the hell else am I going to work? How am I going to even find a job? I don’t even know how to look for a job anymore!”
Jesse squeezed Alex more tightly. He really didn’t know what he could say to help Alex. He had no idea how else to respond. The two sat like that for several minutes, each staring out at the back yard, unsure of what to say or do.
Finally, Jesse said, “Why don’t you come downstairs. I can whip up something for dinner, and you can explain what happened. How does that sound?”
As Jesse stood, Alex muttered, “No need for dinner. I’m not hungry.” He was back to that detached, emotionless way of speaking that Jesse found so disconcerting.
Jesse rose. “Look,” he said as he extended his hand to Alex. “Sitting in here isn’t going to make anything better. Putting our two heads together to figure out your next steps is what’s going to make things better. So, let’s go downstairs and talk.”
Alex acquiesced. He reached for Jesse’s hand, then allowed himself to be pulled to standing. Jesse then turned to exit the bedroom, Alex following behind.
When they reached the stairs, they saw Cameron looking up at them, the concern evident on his face. Clearly, he’d heard Alex’s outburst. Jesse quickly motioned for Cam to move, then put his finger to his mouth, signaling that he should not speak. Cameron nodded and moved aside, then sat on the loveseat, as Jesse guided Alex to the couch.
Once they’d sat down on the couch, Jesse again put his arm around Alex’s shoulders, then said, “Alex, I know this is hard, but can you tell me everything that happened today? That way I can understand a little better what’s going on.”
Alex nodded in reply but remained silent for several seconds before beginning his story. By the time he’d finished, both Cameron and Jesse were stunned by the accusation. What on earth could’ve precipitated the false allegation of sexual harassment? The three sat silently for several minutes, Alex both physically and emotionally drained, and Cam and Jesse unsure of what they could say that would be helpful.
Jesse felt his phone vibrate. He pulled his mobile phone from his pocket to look at the text.
Rhys> “Where RU guys? Thought U were going to the Y tonight”
Jesse quickly responded, “Something came up. Maybe tomorrow”
Rhys> “K Later”
When Jesse looked up from his phone, he saw Alex looking at him. Alex said, “You should go to the Y. I’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, not gonna happen, Alex, and you know it.”
“Yeah, I know.”
After a few more minutes of silence, Jesse again spoke. “I think you need to talk to a lawyer.”
Alex glanced at Jesse. “You think so?”
“Yes, I do think so. Jenny blindsided you. What she accused you of is obviously not true. Her allegations were pretty serious, and she backed it up with evidence. Two emails that were purported to have been sent by you to her. And then she produced a handwritten note. I mean, if I were the manager of your branch office, and I was given that sort of stuff as evidence, I think I’d fire you straightaway as well.”
“That’s the thing, though, Jesse,” replied Alex. “It wasn’t Judy who decided to fire me. It came from the top. The founder and president of the company, Peter Scribner. I’d have thought that Peter would’ve given me a chance to explain. I mean, he’s known me for years. Hell, he’s the one who hired me. He knows my work product, and how I’ve bent over backwards for the company.”
“Yeah, maybe so,” commented Jesse, “but like I said, what you were accused of was serious. This stuff has lawsuit written all over it, so I can see why he might’ve responded the way he did. He may’ve thought you were the best thing since sliced bread, but you were going to cost him a lot of money. You were a liability. I’m sure he didn’t want to lose his company over this.”
“I still find it hard to believe that he didn’t give me a chance to explain.”
“You know,” said Jesse, “I think it’s odd that you were fired by this Judy person.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Alex. “She’s in charge of the whole office.”
“Your company is big enough that I’d have thought they’d have had an HR person to do the dirty work for them. Or at least had them involved.”
“HR is up in Minneapolis. They wouldn’t have sent someone down to Des Moines for something that Judy was obviously up to doing herself.”
“Maybe so,” replied Jesse, “but something still seems a little off to me.”
“Well, of course something is off, Jesse,” responded Alex. “I’m not interested in a relationship with any woman, but especially not the spawn of Satan.”
After another brief silence, Jesse again spoke. “I still think you need to contact a lawyer.”
“Maybe. I’ll see if I can find one in the morning,” Alex replied.
“I don’t think we need to wait that long to get the ball rolling,” responded Jesse. “Call Sean. He’s a lawyer, you know.”
“Oh, that’s right,” said Alex in reply. “I didn’t even think of that.”
“It’s understandable under the circumstances,” said Jesse. “You know, I think I’ll give him a call myself, so you don’t even need to worry about it.”
Jesse found Sean’s number in his mobile phone and hit ‘send.’ Jesse chatted with Sean for a few minutes, giving a brief synopsis of Alex’s situation. Once they’d finished the call, Jesse turned to Alex and said, “He’ll be over in about 20 minutes. He wants to get all the details from you. He said he’s not an employment lawyer, but thinks he knows enough to advise you on your situation, at least what your next steps should be. The law firm he works for does have an expert on employment law on staff, though, so he may end up referring you to her.”
True to his word, Sean pulled into Alex’s driveway within a half-hour of Jesse’s call. When he came in the door, he said ‘hi’ to Cam, then hugged both Jesse and Alex. He then listened to Alex’s story, asking for clarification several times.
“I wish you had a copy of the emails and the handwritten note,” said Sean. “Those might’ve been helpful.”
“I didn’t even think about getting copies of those this morning, but I guess Judy never gave me the chance to ask, either.”
“Here’s my take on your situation, Alex. Unfortunately, it’s not what you’re going to want to hear.”
Alex shook his head in disgust before Sean again spoke.
“Here’s the deal,” said Sean. “You’re not working on contract or under a union. That means that your boss can fire you for pretty much any reason. If you’re falsely accused of something, they don’t have to give you a chance to explain or prove your innocence. Now, there are a few exceptions to that, primarily for discrimination. If you were fired for being gay, or because of your race, sex, religion, or political leanings, you’d have every right to sue. But it doesn’t sound like you were the victim of discrimination.”
“I just don’t see how that can be right,” complained Alex.
“I know, it isn’t fair, but that’s the law in Iowa and most everywhere else, for that matter, at least in the United States.”
Alex could only shake his head in response.
“Do you have something to write with?” asked Sean. “I’ll give you the name of the employment lawyer at our office. I’d still like you to talk to her, just in case she can think of something else to help you. Unfortunately, she just left on an extended vacation. I think she’s going to be gone until late June. Her husband is from Romania, I think, and they’re going to visit his family.”
Alex rose and walked into the kitchen where he’d dropped his messenger bag when he’d gotten home. He pulled his writing tablet from his bag, then noticed a few pieces of paper that fell on the floor. He picked them up and walked into the living room before realizing what they were.
“Uh, hey, Sean?” said Alex. “I guess I grabbed the two emails and the handwritten note by accident when I picked my tablet up off Judy’s desk this morning.”
“Oh, really?” replied Sean. “May I see them?”
Alex handed the emails and the note to Sean, who looked them over. He then handed them back to Alex.
“Put those somewhere where you won’t lose them, Alex. I don’t know if they’ll come in handy or not but having them and not needing them is better than needing them and not having them.” He then added, “I think I’d like to show those emails to Robbie. The computer guru might have a way to prove they weren’t sent by you.”
Alex nodded, then turned around to place the emails and the note on the kitchen counter. He then returned to the living room and sat back down.
Sean gave Alex the contact information. Alex then commented, “Here I’ve been thinking only about myself. I hope Josh doesn’t receive any fallout.”
“Josh?” asked Sean. “Who’s Josh?”
Alex quickly explained who Josh was, and how he’d gotten a summer internship with Alex’s former employer. “So, yeah, I really hope they don’t treat him poorly because of what I was accused of doing. I was worried a little before today that Jenny and Judy might make life difficult for Josh just because he got the internship rather than Jenny’s daughter.”
“Wait, what did you say?” asked Sean.
Alex briefly explained how Jenny had been pissed that her daughter didn’t get the internship, even though she wasn’t qualified, and how Judy had tried to take the internship back from Josh.
“Oh, my God, Alex!” said Sean excitedly. “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”
“Why? Is it relevant?”
“Uh, yeah. I think you might have a case after all.”
“Really? How so?”
“Alex, it’s illegal for an employer to retaliate against an employee.”
“How’s that going to help me?” asked Alex.
“Alex, do you think it’s possible that Jenny wanted to retaliate against you because Josh got the internship and not her daughter? Do you think that might be why she tried to pin the sexual harassment charge on you?”
“Oh, my God, Sean, do you really think so?”
“Yes, and like I said, retaliation is a reason you could sue your employer. Generally, it’s retaliation over something like, say, you called OSHA and complained about safety violations at your place of employment, or your boss was illegally dumping chemicals down the drain, and you called the EPA. But I think we could easily make the case that this happened as retaliation. When was that first email sent? Was it after Josh had been awarded the internship?”
Alex went back to the kitchen to retrieve the emails. He looked at the headings on the emails, then said, “Yes! The first one was sent early last week, the last one on Friday. Both were after hours, so Jenny would’ve been able to access my computer. I almost always leave it at the office if I’m not heading out of town for work, and I never turn it off at night.”
Jesse, who’d been sitting quietly, suddenly said, “You weren’t even in town on Friday night! We were in Kansas City! There’s no way you could’ve sent that email from your own computer, since you left it at work!”
“True, Jesse,” replied Alex, “but I can get and send work emails on my phone.”
“I think we need to talk to Robbie about that, too,” said Sean. “He may know a way to prove if the email was sent from your work computer.”
“I’ll call him in the morning, then.”
“And I’m going to check with some of the other lawyers in my office in the morning and see if they can think of anything else we should do,” replied Sean. “Since I think you may have a case, I don’t think we can wait until our employment lawyer returns from Romania. We’re going to have to get things rolling quickly. I’ll give you a call tomorrow, either late morning or in the afternoon.”
Shortly thereafter, Jesse and Alex thanked Sean for his help and support, then watched Sean pull out of the driveway to head home. Cam, who’d been quiet since Sean had set foot in the house, finally spoke. “It’s late, and I’m hungry. Do you think we can go get something to eat?”
As if on cue, Jesse’s stomach growled. He laughed. “I guess my tummy thinks that’s a good idea, too.”
Alex said, “I couldn’t agree more. I didn’t feel like lunch today, so I could definitely go for some grub.”
Posted 22 February 2025