Taste of Reality (3 page)

“And?” I said, anxious to hear what she was getting at.

“He came on to me immediately, and when he found out that I wasn’t interested in him, he started harassing me in other ways. Like the time I arrived at work ten minutes late, and he told me that if I couldn’t get to work on time, then I should look for another place of employment. And, Anise, it was the first time I’d ever been late for work since I started here. Then he sat in on a training session that I did on time management, and contradicted every point I made to the class. But the worst part of all . . .” she said, pausing and swallowing hard. Then she took a deep breath. “The worst thing of all was when I worked late one evening compiling the new training manual. You know our offices are at opposite ends of the department, but he came down to my office when he realized I was still working. He made a couple of sexual comments as soon as he walked in, but I ignored him. But then he walked behind my desk and caressed my hair. He kept saying how beautiful my blond
hair was, and then he started stroking it. I was so terrified, but I didn’t move. I just kept praying that he would go back to his office and leave me alone. But he didn’t. And . . .”

Lorna burst into tears, and I walked around and sat in the chair next to her. I pulled some tissue from the Kleenex box, handed it to her and then placed my arm around her shoulders. I couldn’t believe
what I was hearing. She and I had been close for a good while, but she’d never hinted at anything like this before. It bothered me that she was so shaken up, and I was afraid to hear the rest of the story.

She sniffled a few times and wiped her eyes. “This is so hard, Anise, but I can’t keep this to myself any longer.”

“And you don’t have to. You know you can trust me with your life,” I promised her.

“He went from stroking my hair to stroking the side of my face. Then he said he’d been more than patient with me, but that now it was time for me to stop playing games with him. He said he didn’t like being teased, and that it was time for me to stop pretending I didn’t want to be fucked. Tears rolled down my cheeks, so I closed my eyes. But when I did, I heard him opening the zipper to his pants. I begged him to stop, but he pulled his dick out and rubbed it across my lips. I tried to leave my seat, but he forced me back down in it. He told me that if I didn’t open my mouth and do what I was told, that I wouldn’t have a job to come to the next morning. But right when he finished telling me that, we both heard a door slamming shut on the opposite end, and he zipped his pants back up and left my office.”

“Oh my God, Lorna. When was this?”

“Right before his wife moved here.”

“Has he approached you again?”

“No, but he pretty much told me that since I wasn’t willing to cooperate, I could forget about ever getting any promotions, and that if I tried to leave and go work for another company, he would make sure they knew how incompetent I was as an employee. And, Anise, I have a daughter to take care of. I don’t have a master’s degree like you, and it’s not that easy being a single parent when your ex-husband deliberately misses child support payments just to punish you.”

I was flabbergasted. Rarely was I speechless, but Lorna had told me something I never would have expected even from Jim. I’d heard how ruthless and conniving he could be, but I never would have pictured him harassing anyone sexually. The man was vice president of human resources, for God’s sake.

“I can’t believe he would stoop this low,” I finally offered. “I am so sorry that you had to go through this, and I wish there was something I could do to help you.”

“You can. I’m not as strong as you, Anise. But if you go forward with filing a discrimination lawsuit, I’ll find the courage to tell EEOC and whoever else what Jim did to me. There’s no way I can afford to lose my job, but if there is more than one of us making a complaint, they’ll be afraid to fire either one of us.”

Lorna had obviously analyzed this whole lawsuit situation very carefully, and while I heard what she was saying and believed wholeheartedly that she should go to the police and have Jim arrested, I was still hoping they’d give me my promotion. I didn’t want to drive over to Chicago to visit EEOC or any other equal opportunity enforcement agency unless I absolutely had to. I was hoping that I’d get my job and be able to push all of this anger, frustration and humiliation behind me. I wanted Lorna to do the same, but I wasn’t so sure she’d be able to forget about any of this until Jim had gotten what he had coming to him.

“That’s probably true, although I think it’ll be best to wait and see what happens with my situation first,” I said. “But regardless of how things turn out, I think you still have to go to the police. And maybe you should even think about telling Lyle or Tom, too.”

“If I go to the police, it’ll be my word against his, and on top of that, they’ll want to know why it took me four years to file charges. And if I go to Lyle or Tom, what difference is it going to make with both of them being friends with Jim? No, that’s not the way to go. And while I know you won’t want to hear this, I have to say what I honestly feel. There’s no question that you are the most qualified person for that management position, but I really doubt that you’re going to get it. I’m not trying to be negative or trying to undermine your confidence, but I know these men all too well. We can bring them down, though, Anise. You’re a black woman who’s being discriminated against because of her skin color and gender, and I’m a
white woman who has been sexually harassed by an executive of this company. So it’s not like they can say we’re both screaming racial and gender discrimination or that we’re both claiming that we’ve
been sexually harassed and are being forced to work in a hostile working environment. We both have separate claims, and I’m willing to bet that if we both come forward, there will be others who’ll find the courage to tell what has happened to them, too.”

She had a point. Actually, a few good points, and I had to admit that she was right about what we were obligated to do. I’d already experienced discrimination at Bradford, the company I worked for prior to joining Reed Meyers, so if this was the same case here, I knew I’d have to help break the cycle. The evidence would be as obvious as Alaskan icicles if they denied me a second time, and now I knew I would have no choice but to file a complaint against the company if I wasn’t promoted.

But how was David going to react to something like this? We hadn’t spoken to each other this morning before leaving for work, but I was hoping that this latest blowup of ours would quickly pass. I couldn’t deal with all the frustration here at work and at the same time participate in angry debates with him. What I needed was someone to talk to, someone to help me through these very trying times. I needed someone to be there for me tonight, and since I knew David wouldn’t be home until late, I decided to call my girl Monica to see what she was up to. I was hoping she and her husband Marc didn’t have anything important planned for the evening, which was a possibility, since their daughter had already finished finals at the private school she attended and had gone to Houston to spend part of the summer with Monica’s parents.

But if Monica wasn’t available, I would go visit Mom instead.

Mom was one of the few people who knew exactly what to say when times were tough.

It would be a blessing to spend time with either one of them.

M
ONICA HAD ANSWERED
my phone call on the second ring and told me that Marc would be teaching a continuing education course at one of the community centers this evening. So I’d driven straight home from work and changed into a pair of stonewashed jeans and a black T-shirt. Now, I was walking up her classic brick walkway, preparing to ring the doorbell. She must have seen me pull up, though, because she opened the door without delay.

“Hey, girl,” she said, reaching out to hug me. We hadn’t seen each other in maybe a couple of weeks, so I was elated to see her as well.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I asked, embracing her.

“You know, things really couldn’t be better, Anise,” she said with no hesitation, because she really was experiencing a very joyous time in her life. She’d married Marc about a year ago, and he’d proven to be the most caring husband and stepfather I knew. She was truly living her life to the fullest, and it filled my heart to see her so happy. Life hadn’t been the greatest when she was married
to her first husband, so this made her even more appreciative of Marc.

“I’m so glad to hear that everything is going so well for you,” I told her. “I wish I could say the same.”

I hated always having such a woe-is-me sort of attitude whenever I spent time with Monica, but I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t seem to find a positive way toward dealing with my problems.

“Why? What’s going on?” she asked, giving me her full attention.

“What isn’t? My marriage is still falling apart, and I’m pretty sure there’s going to be extreme drama at work in the near future.”

“Don’t tell me they’re trying to keep you from making manager again?”

“That’s exactly what they’re trying to do, and I’m worried about it because I’m not going to sit back and take it this time.”

“Wait a minute. I want to hear the details regarding this, so let’s go sit out on the patio,” Monica said.

“That’s fine.”

“Do you want something to drink?” she asked, opening the refrigerator.

“I’ll take some lemonade if you have it.”

“We don’t have any that’s fresh-squeezed, but we do have some cans of Country Time.”

“That’s fine with me.”

Monica grabbed two cans of pink lemonade, pulled two glass mugs from one of the cupboards and filled them with ice from the refrigerator’s built-in ice dispenser. I scanned the recently remodeled kitchen, which was beautiful, but I couldn’t help but wonder how we could be such close friends, see eye to eye on almost every social and personal issue, but have vastly different tastes in decorating. I was modern with a flair for anything that was contemporary, but she was strictly traditional. I loved exquisite leather, but she loved cloth of almost any texture. She purchased a ton of cherry wood pieces, but each of my wooden pieces showcased the new-washed look.

But no two people were the same, and that’s what made the world a lot more interesting.

We strolled through the double-glass patio doors, sat our drinks down on a small table, and positioned our bodies on two matching chaises.

“So now. What exactly is Reed Meyers up to this time?” Monica asked.

“You remember that HR manager’s position they didn’t give me six months ago, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Jason has already given his notice and is leaving the company.”

“You’ve got to be kidding? After only being a manager for six months?”

“Yep. So I took yesterday and today thinking about it, and figured I would go in and talk to Jim about applying for it again.”

“And what did he say?”

“Girl, he was so discouraging and had the audacity to say that the reason I work so well with the shop people is because my parents worked in a factory environment. He actually said that’s why I can relate to them.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Don’t I know it.”

“Well, it’s either the fact that he doesn’t know any better or that he flat out believes he can make whatever racist comment he wants to. But either way, he has no right talking to you like that, nor does he have the right to deny you a promotion that you clearly do deserve.”

“Oh, he knows better, but just doesn’t care. They think I’m overstepping my boundary by trying to get into management. I’m good enough to work with factory employees, but not corporate managers or executives. And I’m telling you, Monica, I’m so sick of it I don’t know what to do.”

“I know and rightfully so.”

“It’s all so disturbing, and, girl, I actually lost sleep over this last night. Not to mention my issues with David.”

“So I take it things still aren’t better with him either?” Monica asked, because I’d been telling her about our marital problems for quite a few months now. She always looked at the bright side of most everything and kept insisting that things would eventually get better between us.

I wasn’t so sure about any of that.

“No, they’re not better at all, and when I got home from work yesterday, we ended up arguing like enemies. He just doesn’t think my work issues are a big deal, and he made it pretty clear that he wants me to quit work, become the wife of some boring executive and have a baby.”

Monica laughed quietly. “So you
did
tell him that you’re never going to do that, right?

I couldn’t help but laugh with her.

“No, and I don’t think I will for a while, because not only does he want me to have a baby, but two years ago I heard him telling his brother that it’s a wife’s duty to have a child. He’s so old school when it comes to marriage. But I’m not the type who could ever be happy sitting at home watching the housekeeper clean the house and wash our clothing every other day while he’s gone, and then spend the rest of my day watching soap operas, talk shows or playing a game of bridge with the type of women he thinks I should mingle with. That’s just not me, and there’s no sense in me trying to pretend like it is.”

“I hear what you’re saying, but I think you need to be honest with him.”

“I always have until this getting-pregnant business came up again. And really, having a baby wouldn’t be that bad if we were still happily married the way we used to be. But all I keep thinking is how I’ll give up my career, have a child or two, and then shortly thereafter he’ll decide that he doesn’t want to be with me any longer. Monthly child support payments just ain’t somethin’ I
could learn to live with, and I think all children deserve much more than a part-time relationship with their father.”

“But look at Tamia. She sees her father all the time, and Marc treats her like she’s his own daughter.”

“I know and that’s wonderful. But you and I both know that Xavier and Marc are not the norm. They’re like best friends, and that’s why Tamia is such a happy child. She doesn’t ever have to feel like she’s without any of you. So if somebody could guarantee me that David would be there all the time for our children even if we divorced and would get along with my new husband, then that would be different.”