“What’s up?” Melissa asks me.
“Oh, I’ve just been thinking,” I say.
Melissa hums happily, though I can tell she doesn’t quite buy that that’s the only thing I’ve been thinking about, and she’d be right.
“About you,” I add, “and about other…things…”
On the other end of the phone, I hear a fridge opening, then something clinking, and the sound something glugging in a glass. “Those other things being Monday?” Over this, I hear her sipping on something.
“Am I really that obvious?” I ask. Or does she just know me that well are ready? Or does she just know what a threat Vanacore really is?
“Not really,” she says, “but I know what you’re doing is risky. And, if I were you, I’d be nervous. I’d be going back and forth about it a lot.”
Great. Maybe this isn’t a good idea, then? But if I’m not going to do something like this, what am I going to do? I can’t avoid her forever. Someday, Vanacore’s going to force our relationship to go sexual. And then what? Just submit to it? Without it doing any further good for anyone else? Just become another silent victim? Like Huckleberry? Like God knows how many others?
“Tommy?” Melissa reaches out to me from my thoughts, as if she can read them along with me.
“I’m here, Melissa.” Just barely.
“If you’re worried about the situation, just remember I’m here for you. I’m going to be looking out for you the best I can, even from behind my secretary’s desk. I’m going to be finding ways to check up on you. To disrupt her.” I nod, even though I know Melissa can’t see me. “And I’m going to be checking in with you. With the situation. If it gets too bad, too risky, just tell me. I’ll help get you out before she finds anything out.” I nod again. “Remember too: her weakness around you, even though she does a bewitching thing with you, how much she desires you —that’s going to be her downfall. You’re going to make sure of that.”
“Yeah,” I say. “But is it really up to me, though?” I feel stupid asking it. Like a knight in shining armor asking if it’s really his job to rescue the princess in the tower, but I can’t help it. That’s a bit of how I feel. Like it shouldn’t and couldn’t be my job to take this woman down, even though I know it is. It must be, considering Vanacore’s gotten to do her manipulation and abuse of her power for decades now, and no one else has stopped her.
Melissa agrees with me without hearing my thoughts. “Sometimes it’s the least expected of us who gets given the most important tasks, Tommy. I know you didn’t want this when you got the promotion but think of it this way: by doing what you’re doing, you’re not only going to be helping yourself, and other young men abused and manipulated by Vanacore, but you’re doing the company as a whole a huge favor. This woman is really bad news, Tommy. She can’t be allowed to thrive or infect this company. If you don’t start shining some light on her, who will?”
I wish the answer were otherwise, but it isn’t. No one else is in my position, nor do they have the strength or hold over Vanacore that I do. If they did, I wouldn’t be working for her. I wouldn’t be the man she’s trying to add to her list of latest and greatest conquests.
Besides, strong, capable men don’t ask, “Why me?” They ask, “Who is going to stop me?” And I’m going to be one of those guys. I’m going to become one for Melissa. I’m going to be the kind of boyfriend material she deserves. And if that means going through with my dangerous and risky plan of trying to lure Vanacore and her sexual harassment into the daylight, then I have to do it.
Lawyers shouldn’t do what is comfortable; if they really want to protect the innocent and be a force of good in the world, they have to be willing to be brave. To take risks. And this is just one of them that’s on my shoulders.
The only person who’s going to stop me is myself, and I stopped allowing that to happen the moment I applied for this job. So, I can’t start now.
“You’re right,” I say, just as I sense Melissa is about to call out for me again to see if I’m still with her. “I’m just scared. I hope it goes well. Has the intended result in the end, not something else.” Not me ending up being unemployable everywhere and anywhere, because Vanacore’s dragged my name through the dirt. My reputation through the mulcher.
“Goodhearted people always win out in the end, Tommy,” says Melissa. “Cruel people win in the short term, but not in the long term. They have control, but only in a limited sense. Truth and goodness will always win out. You represent that truth and goodness, just in a package that no one expects.” She pauses, taking another sip of her wine. “Which is something I find irresistibly fascinating and adorable about you, honey.”