Thirty three

EVE'S POV 

As the week wore on, I realised that the man I should be worried about avoiding was not Morgan. 

Everything at home had gone back to normal, as if my drunken antics had never happened. It was a big relief, because I had no idea how I would have reacted had he brought it up again.

At this point, I think the man I needed to avoid at all costs was unfortunately one who was around me all day long, my department director, Mr Gray. 

After he had called me to his office on Monday morning to offer his help, he had been more and more direct with his advances towards me. He showed me way too much attention in the disguise of work, but he never passed up a chance to make hints about what his true intentions were.

I took every precaution I could to avoid running into him, but there was no so much hiding I could do when I worked under him.

If only there was a way to put his advances to an end once and for all, I would not hesitate to do it.

One day, while I was making use of the restroom at work, I found out that the situation had escalated way beyond my grasp.

 Two women were talking outside, and the moment my name came up, i became alert and started paying attention to their conversation.

"Have you heard about the new girl and Mr Gray?" one asked the other.

"About how she is hooking up with him?, Yeah."

"She doesn't look that bad, but clearly, it's the innocent-looking ones who are the worst",

"I know, right? You would think she is classy with the way she carries herself",

"Some women have no shame. She hasn't even been here for a month and yet she's already sleeping with her senior. That's probably how she got the job in the first place",

I kept quiet and didn't leave my stall not until after the two women left. That was how I found out that rumours were swirling around the office aboutme and Mr Gray. 

It didn't take long to figure out where they were coming from. Claire.

I didn't confront her right away, instead biding my time for the perfect chance to shut her up once and for all.

A chance presented itself soon enough when a few days later, I walked into the break room only to find Claire in the company of two of our coworkers, talking about me.

 Staying out of sight outside the door, I listened to what she was saying.

"Are you sure she was with the director last night?" one of the women asked.

Claire nodded.

 "I saw them with my own eyes going into the hotel. Haven't you heard? She had the same behaviour of seducing men in college,.including her professors. Who knows who else she is sleeping with besides Mr Gray?",

I inhaled deeply to calm myself. It seemed that this woman was hell-bent on creating rumours about me the same way Ella had. But in the same way I had shut down Ella, I was going to make sure this one think twice before creating more rumours about me.

Leaving my hiding spot, I marched into the room, my phone in hand. The group that was gossiping about me broke up the moment they saw me, acting like they weren't just talking about me. But I wasn't about to let them get away with it.

Making my way to Claire, I stopped in front of her and showed her the phone I held. 

"I have recorded everything you just said about me, and I'll not think twice about reporting you to the police if you don't stop slandering me”,

My voice was loud enough and everybody in the room heard me, including those in the office.

Claire looked at my phone and then at me, and then crossed her arms across her chest.

 "I haven't said anything that was not true," she claimed arrogantly. 

She had probably figured that if I had recorded her, there was no need to deny doing so. Instead, she could act like she hadn't spread fake rumours about me.

"Oh, really? Were you with me in the same college to see me seducing my professors?", i demanded.

"People talk. It's a common knowledge, everybody knows”, she claimed.

"Everybody knows? From where, your mouth? You didn't even know me before I started working here, yet here you are, talking about me to everyone as if you've known me all my life. Can you show us the proof of everything you are saying I've done?",

Claire huffed.

 "Proof? I saw you go to the hotel with Mr Gray, and that's all the proof I need",

"With Mr Gray, you say? Okay, we'll see about that. But first, let's see what my schoolmate from college has to say about your claims of the kind of person I was in college. Since we went to the same school as me, he should know better than you, right?",

 Taking my phone out, I sent Daniel a message, asking him to come to my department.

Claire scoffed and looked around, trying to influence the others who were watching. 

"We are not going to wait around for your little witness to get here, we have work to do",

l looked up at her and gave her a flat smile.

"Don't worry, he works here too. He'll be here in a minute”,

Her smug expression fell at my announcement, while a murmur rose among the on lookers. It was the moment of truth, I mean everything was about to be revealed, and I had no intention to back off until Claire was put in her place.

Claire attempted to regain the upper hand. 

"If he is your friend, he is probably going to lie to help you. Who knows, maybe he is one of the men you seduced while in college",

"Why don't we wait until he gets here and hear what he has to say?" I told her. 

I was confident that once Daniel vouched for me, nobody would believe Claire anymore. Daniel was popular in the company, and everybody respected him.

Nobody would doubt a man of his character. Besides, Daniel wasn't the only one I was looking to clear my name. It was time to kill two birds with the same stone, i mean silencing Claire and getting Mr Gray to back off.

Stuffing my phone in my pocket, I reached for Claire's arm and tugged her towards the door.

"Let's go and meet the department director and you can tell us about exactly where you saw us two together”,

"What?" Claire shrieked, trying to release her arm from her grip. 

"Let me go!”

“You keep saying that you saw us, so why don't we go and ask him about his whereabouts last night? Let's see if your stories match”,

The murmurs around us had turned into excited chatter as our colleagues watched us.

I was not fazed. Clearly, this was the only way to make a statement. It was also the most effective way to shut down whatever rumours Claire had started. 

In the same way the rumours about me had spread quickly throughout the Company, so would the truth.

Claire looked around, hoping for someone to step forward and stop me, but nobody did. Instead, everybody was looking on as I dragged her towards the director's office. 

She never could have expected me to make such a scene in public, whereas she couldn't let me get my way!