"You wanted to see me?" Eddie asked nervously when he finally entered Bobby's office. She was typing away furiously, not bothering to look up at him.
"Close the door." She said, continuing with the email. Bobby had so many thoughts racing through her mind that the only thing she could do to feel normal was work.
"What's going on?" He asked, taking a seat across from her. She continued to type for a few more minutes before hitting send, then finally turning to face him.
"I need you to tell me everything, EVERYTHING about what's been going on." She said. Eddie raised a brow.
"What do you mean?" He asked and Bobby shook her head.
"No, we're not playing dumb. You know exactly what I mean." She said.
"This is probably not the best place, we can talk after work." He said but again she shook her head.
"Matt says you're the reason Nick left Ryan. As you can imagine, this is becoming problematic or I wouldn't bring it up." She said, noting how he turned dead white as she spoke. "The truth."
Eddie looked down at his hands, clasping them together tightly before letting out a sigh.
"Is Nick the guy?" Bobby asked, making Eddie shake his head. Bobby nodded.
"Then it's Ryan." She said but he again shook his head.
"No." Eddie said, "It's not but... But Nick is convinced that we're involved."
"And what makes him think that?" Bobby asked, raising her brow.
"It's so stupid, Bobby." Eddie said and Bobby sighed.
"Start at the beginning, okay?" She said.
"I met Ryan at the holiday party through Nick, of course." Eddie said, "And it turns out that Ryan is a very smart guy, we got along great and after the party, I went with them to have a drink with some friends of theirs."
"Go on." Bobby said.
"Of course, Ryan and Nick are a couple of homebodies- they went home early and I stayed behind with some of their friends... one in particular who I hit it off with." Eddie continued.
"That's the guy?" Bobby asked with a raised brow. "and Ryan didn't warn you he was taken?"
"Ryan wasn't there when he showed up, neither was Nick. The rest is simple, we started going out and one day we ran into Ryan." Eddie said. "When Ryan realized who I was going out with, he told me and that's when I ended it, I swear."
"Okay, Eddie. I get that but I still don't understand how this put Nick and Ryan's relationship in jeopardy." Bobby said.
"I was depressed and upset, Ryan is such a fucking nice guy. He invited me over for dinner thinking he and Nick could cheer me up." Eddie said.
"But..." Bobby said.
"But Nick was running late and Ryan and were talking. When I realized how late it was getting and how long it would take me to get out of Manhattan I decided it was time to leave. I got up, leaned in to hug Ryan and Nick walked in." Eddie said.
"That's it?" Bobby asked.
"Well Nick swears up and down he saw us kissing which is absolutely impossible because we weren't." Eddie said.
"This doesn't make sense- Nick is a lot more sensible than that." Bobby said, "I can't imagine Nick being so insecure... I mean, look at him!" Eddie sighed.
"I know but... look at Ryan." Eddie said, "We're all insecure sometimes."
"So why doesn't Ryan just explain?" Bobby asked.
"Nick won't let him." Eddie replied.
"So why don't you?" She asked.
"Ryan told me not to. He said that if Nick wants the truth, he will have to go to him directly." Eddie said.
"This is so... dumb. Nick needs to grow up and go talk to his partner and Ryan needs to put his pride aside and go find Nick. If they both continue to ignore each other, how is this ever going to be cleared up?" Bobby said.
"I know, but there's nothing I can do. Ryan's been a good friend. He asked me not to say anything and I want to respect that." Eddie said and Bobby nodded.
"Well, then there's nothing we can do but hope that one of the two will wise up." Bobby said.
"I was hoping the same for another couple I know." Eddie said, looking at Bobby.
"Eddie, there's no way this is ever going to work. Things keep taking one complicated turn after another." Bobby said, making him raise his brow.
"What do you mean?" Eddie asked. Bobby sighed and Eddie realized that the story was not that simple.
"Well..." Bobby said.
---
"Everyone's attention please."
Bobby was standing with Kevin, going over some information when Brian and Nora walked out of their office and tried to get everyone to settle in. It had been a couple of days since Michael had last made an appearance at the office and the Carltons along with Emma had been locked in that office from morning to night.
"Would someone grab Matt?" Brian asked, making Kevin get up quickly to do so. It was only a few minutes later that everyone was finally crowded around them.
"We know the last month has been particularly difficult. There has been a lot of changes, introduction of a new CEO and we are still looking for a new Marketing director. There is a lot of work to be done and our challenges don't stop there. As of today, Michael will no longer be working with us." Brian said. There was silence. Every single person in the room stared at Brian, letting his words sink in slow.
"We want to assure everyone that we will pull through this. But what does this mean? It means we're going to have to get creative, we're going to need to rely on each other and we're going to have to ask each other to step up to the task until we can rebuild the leadership team. We'll be releasing a company wide email with more information soon." He continued. When he was done and everyone started their way back to their desks, Bobby could only think about the chaos at Lida and Volstak.
In the last month alone- they'd lost their Marketing Director and their CFO and Bobby couldn't help but think that in a way, she'd caused it. She had indirectly caused the rift between Matt and Lisa, and she had become the reason Michael was let go. It wasn't like she thought any of it was her fault, she knew better than that but she also couldn't help but think about how complicated it had all become.
"Bobby." She looked up to find Nora looking at her with a smile.
"Yes?" Bobby said, realizing she had completely zoned out.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yes." Bobby answered simply.
"We have a lot to talk about. Can you set up a time on the calendar for you to meet with us tomorrow?" She asked. "I'm sorry we haven't gotten much time to talk yet."
"It's fine." Bobby said with a nod, "I'll send you the invite."
"Great. We're going to be in meetings all day- please feel free to pull us out if you need anything." Nora said.
"Thank you and don't worry, we'll manage." Bobby said, walking towards her office. Nora stared after her for several minutes. She was worried and she had good reason to be. The moment they spoke to Emma, Brian and Nora called Michael but he not only didn't answer the phone, he texted a quick resignation. So much for the highly recommended CFO... You'd think a company like Lida and Volstak would have been more thorough in their vetting process.
She walked back to her and Brian's office, where Matt, Nick, Emma and Brian were already waiting.
"So- we need to talk about what our next steps are." Brian said, as Nora closed the door behind her.
"All of his references, his background check- all clean. We investigate every employee thoroughly." Emma said, "But I've reached out to a few other people and will let you know once they respond."
"This was certainly an expected snag but we'll manage. In the meantime, I'll be starting an audit immediately." Nora said. "And I'll be stepping back in as CFO."
"You just announced your retirement." Matt said but she shrugged.
"We did but we're hiring a new Marketing director and we are just not comfortable with having this many new hands on deck at this time. Brian and I are okay with postponing another six months." Nora said.
"Not that this will affect your position, Matt. You're CEO." Brian said, "But I'm going to step in and cover for Nick in Ops while he helps us with Marketing. Are you okay with that Nick?"
"Yeah." He said with a nod. They'd spent most of the week trying to locate Michael but at this point, it was impossible.
"Okay. Then we're settled." Brian said. "Matt- we'll let you take point from here."
"I will talk development and get a message together for our stakeholders." He said as he and Emma stood.
"Do you guys need me to do anything else?" Emma asked.
"Get the report we asked you for from Bobby. We need to do things by the book." Brian said. Matt raised his brow, wondering what they were referring too.
"On it." Emma said, walking out.
"How bad are the numbers?" Matt asked, aware that it had to be significant for Nora to be concerned.
"It's a loss if I'm right, in which case we'll press charges but we're not doing anything until we have all our I's dotted and our Ts crossed." Nora said, it took Brian and her all of three days to get back into the system and realize that numbers didn't seem right.
"How in the world did he get access to the passcodes? I thought you guys and Matt were the only ones that have them?" Nick asked.
"We are but I keep them stored in a wallet that stays locked in my desk." Nora said, walking over and unlocking the top drawer. "And it's not here."
"We talked to Emma and Bobby- It turns out Bobby can't find her key." Brian said, making them both go white.
"Bobby would have never let him in here and she definitely wouldn't have lent him her key." Matt said defensively.
"We know that. The poor thing has been worked up about how he must have taken it from her." Nora said.
"Either way we've had his access card deactivated and all the locks are being changed." Brian said.
"I can't believe this is happening." Matt said.
"Us either- in all our years... this never happened. We've always been so careful." Nora said. "I shouldn't have left that here."
"It's not your fault, "Brian said, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. "We WILL sort it out."
"It's getting late... we should call it a day." Nora said with a sigh.
"Yeah, I'm heading out." Nick said, standing and walking towards the door. "See you tomorrow."
"Is that what the report is for? The lost key?" Matt asked after Nick left the room.
"No." Nora said, "that's for the more delicate matter."
Matt raised a brow as Nora walked back to her desk and began to grab her things.
"What delicate matter?" Matt asked. Nora looked up at him and then back to Brian.
"She didn't tell you?" Nora asked.
"Bobby and I haven't had much of a time to talk." Matt said.
"It's confidential. Bobby filed a complaint with HR regarding Michael." Brian said. "It seems like there was a few incidents that could be considered... inappropriate."
"Harassment is more than inappropriate." Nora said angrily, making Matt frown.
"Harassment?" Matt repeated.
"Like I said, it's confidential but yes, Bobby filed a complaint." Brian said. "and as much as I hate it- we have to do our due diligence."
"She wouldn't make something like that up." Nora said angrily.
"No... she wouldn't." Matt agreed.