“Everyone’s talking about it,” Michelle gasped. “Charles. God, I don’t
have any idea what he was thinking. Porn. On his work computer. It’s
wrecked. Totally. Wrecked. His laptop too. All that expensive equipment.
Our software. Months and months of accounting. It’s bad. He’s in real
trouble. Obviously, he’s been fired, but the damage is done. We can’t
control the fire here. Everyone’s talking. I can’t stop thinking about how
word is going to get out. It’s only going to be a matter of time before
everyone is saying that our company is founded on creeps and abusers. Our
company’s name is going to be worth nothing. Nothing! Who’s going to
invest with a company that condones that kind of behaviour? It doesn’t
matter that we don’t approve of it, obviously. People won’t see that. They’ll
just see the story about the massive porn scandal and the perverted
accountant.”
“Wow.” Christina shifted in her chair. “That is bad.”
Michelle moaned. Christina bit down on her tongue. She probably
should have softened the blow instead of blurting out the first honest thing
that came to her mind.
“This could ruin the entire branch. All of us. Everyone who has worked
so hard putting this place together. It could ruin every single one of our
branches.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad. Everything will die down—”
“It’s bad!” Michelle cried, cutting Christina off in her attempted
platitude. “It’s so, so, SO bad. We are seriously pooched if we can’t figure
out how to get some good press and fast. Think beyond benefit nights and
dinners. Beyond kid’s camps. Beyond any of that!”
It must be bad if she’s using words like pooched.
Christina could see how stressed Michelle was. She thought about the
branch going down because of one creepy dude’s selfish actions. Charles.
Of course it was Charles. Christina always felt so uncomfortable around the
guy. It was probably bad porn. The really nasty kind too. Michelle didn’t