“I get it now,” Monica says quietly. She discreetly wipes her eyes while the rest of the board murmurs in agreement.
But Steven’s a fucking hardass.
“This is a huge risk,” he says. His voice is hoarse. “But if we don’t publish this, someone else will pick it up and it’s going to be a giant hit.” He turns to me. “Is she worth the risk, Robert?”
“Yes,” Pattie and I say at the same time. Some of the board members laugh.
“All those in favor of publishing Elisa Morgan’s book, say ‘Aye.’”
All the voting members of the board chorus “aye.” I can’t believe it. Elisa’s in! My heart races because I can’t wait to tell her that everything’s okay and that her book is going to be published by Cameron Publishing. But there’s something else we have to deal with.
“If that’s everything on the agenda, I hereby call this meeting of the board ….” But before Steven can adjourn the meeting, I interrupt him.
“There’s something else I’d like to propose,” I say, standing up. I hand out the packet I’ve prepared with statistics on why dating in the workplace isn’t harmful and a proposed new rule to add to the handbook. “I think the workplace intraoffice dating guideline needs to be overturned.”
“Robert,” Steven starts.
“Hear me out, guys. I know why the rule is in place. Hell, I was a champion for the rule when we first formed the board. It helps protect everyone from sexual assault allegations. But the thing is, sometimes when you work with people, you fall for them. Putting a rule in place to stop true love from prospering is unfair.”
“You have power over authors, Robert,” says Monica reasonably. “It’s inherently an imbalanced relationship. We can’t just have you dating a bunch of women willy-nilly. They could sue us. Think of the #MeToo movement, and the revolution that’s caused. Public opinion isn’t in your favor.”
I shake my head. “I don’t want to date a bunch of women. I want her, specifically. And there’s no power dynamic. I am willing to sign an addendum to her contract that says I will be completely hands-off in any books Elisa does for us. I won’t have any say in her work.”
Steven contemplates this. “We can arrange for that, but we don’t have to change the entire policy for you.”
“Actually, Steven,” Monica pipes up, idly twisting her pen, “Robert has a point. Look at his updated policy. It says that relationships within departments have to be reported to HR. No relationships with your direct supervisor. And relationships between departments are fine and don’t need to be reported. It makes sense. Allowing people to date isn’t going to cause rampant assault. Hell, half the employees are already dating under the table,” she adds wryly. “They’re just terrified of being caught.”
I laugh. She’s right. There’s at least one couple in my office that I know of. I’ve kept their secret because I care about them. If this new policy passes the board, then they won’t have to hide their relationship anymore.
“Exactly,” I say smoothly. “It’s not just about me. We want to foster a safe and open workplace. If we change the policy and it goes haywire, we can revisit the issue. I think we should give it a shot though.”
Steven sighs. “Okay fine. Everyone take a look at Robert’s proposed policy change.”
The group flips to the page containing my proposal. Pattie and I put a lot of thought into it. We also talked with legal to make sure it wasn’t against any of our current policies.
“I don’t see anything wrong with this,” Monica says reasonably, glancing at the rest of the group. “It’s well thought out and seems on par with the usual policies you’d find in a workplace like ours.”
Steven reads the whole thing through. “It looks good. We’ll have to get legal to sign off on it officially though,” he says, before staring at me pointedly. “Although it looks like you’ve already run it by them?”
I shrug, not wanting to show my hand. “Maybe a little. What do you say?”
Steven sighs again.
“All those in favor of Robert’s proposed change to the dating rule, say ‘aye.’”
All of the board members say ‘aye.’
I can barely contain my excitement. This meeting went better than I expected. Of course, I’d hoped the board would go for it, but I wasn’t sure. Immediately, I want out of there. I need to go to her. Pattie and I excuse ourselves, and as soon as the door closes, my editor turns to me with excitement.
“OMG I’m going to go call Elisa and tell her she’s in!” Pattie says.
“Wait,” I say, grabbing her arm before she can run off. “Can I tell her?”
Pattie smiles knowingly. “Sure boss. I’ll call her agent. You can tell Elisa yourself.”
“Hold on a sec. I need her address.”