The clerk had stayed quiet about what he’d heard for as long as he could stand it, but he’d eventually told the new secretary up on the fifth floor. She’d spread the word almost immediately. The clerk didn’t get the date with her that he’d wanted, but at least she’d actually spoken to him this time.
Peggy didn’t hear at first. Most everyone on her floor knew before she did. She’d wondered why people were smiling a little more oddly than they usually did but she didn’t wonder very long. Few of her coworkers were worth her attention.
It wasn’t until Roger Compton stopped by her desk that she knew anything about the rumors. Roger came by to tell her he wasn’t interested in her and that he had no intention of ever getting together with her. Furthermore, he said he and his girlfriend had agreed to be exclusive and that meant everything to him. Peggy could just back off.
Peggy listened with a gaping mouth to the man’s tirade until he was done. Then she went off on him for presuming she was interested in him at all and how dare he imply she was. Roger had sniffed and swung away without bothering to answer. That had made Peggy even more furious.
Linda, she of the undelivered condoms, brought Peggy up to date at lunch concerning the stories flying around the office. The three men originally scheduled for the travel had gotten together when they heard the first gossip and compared notes. Roger was the only one of the trio that Peggy had even smiled at and the obvious conclusion had been quickly reached. Only Peggy could confirm their assumptions, and she never would, but workers on all three floors leased by Bruckmeister and Son believed the gossip implicitly.
When Peggy got home, the anger that had been simmering all afternoon long broke free and she let Kyle have it with both barrels.
“You son of a bitch,” she said, greeting him at the door. He’d picked up the kids at the daycare center and he’d come in grinning and chuckling at something Todd said on the way in. The smile on his face dropped away as if it had never been. Mandy and Todd looked at their mother in shock.
“What the hell is your problem?” Kyle snapped.
“You did something to make sure I didn’t go to Chicago!” Peggy said hotly. Kyle’s face was impassive. He stared at Peggy without answering for a long moment.
“I sure did,” he said calmly. “I knew what you were planning and I did what I had to do to keep this marriage alive.”
Peggy’s eyes widened in shock at the admission. She’d expected a protest of innocence. Nonplussed, she couldn’t continue for a bit.
“I talked to Roger this afternoon,” Kyle said before she found the words she wanted to throw at him. “He called me. He wanted to assure me he had no intention of doing anything with you and he never would.”
The revelation took her breath away. She began to tremble with rage. The two men had no business talking behind her back.
“You had no right to talk to him,” she said furiously. “Who do you think you are? You think you can figure out between the two of you how to make me come to you when you snap your fingers? You think you can control me like some kind of chattel slave?”