Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 196

Joy didn't say anything, which made the whole thing with her even more unnerving. She went to her seat with that frustrating, slightly-crazed grin and sat down, pulling out a tissue from her back to wipe under her eyes. She didn't even bother heading out to the washroom or anything, she just sat there grinning.

Gemma broke the silence, looking down the table at her. "Are you OK?"

"Oh, fine," Joy said. Then she laughed. Or cackled. Much more of a cackle.

You made eye contact with Sabrina across the table and did a little mind-reading where both of you were definitely in agreement that Joy might be going crazy.

It was right around 11:30, when Joy usually - or used - to leave for lunch when Mr Vega showed up at the conference room door with a knock. He was another of the Partners, though you'd only seen him a couple of times when he dropped off work for all of you.

"John," he said gravely. "Come with me."

"Yes, sir," you said, standing and shutting your laptop again.

Gemma gave you a concerned look as you passed her, and glanced down at Joy, guessing this had something to do with her. You just tried to give Gemma a reassuring nod since Vega was waiting right at the door.

He didn't say anything as he started escorting you down the hall, but you could tell he was tense from the way he was flexing his hands down by his side. Vega led you down to the same conference room you had played 'dumb intern' in against Sabrina's uncle for Garrison. You followed Vega inside and stopped in your tracks as you came face to face with the entire group of the Senior Partners. There were seven of them in all, each of them looking at you with tense expressions. Cheryl from earlier, and Carol, were both in attendance as well with their laptops open.

Despite the very intense vibe in the room, your brain made the weird connection that the two HR ladies for the firm were named Cheryl and Carol, and that seemed a little silly for some reason.

"John, you should sit," Garrison said, directing you to the open chair at the head of the conference table. You weren't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but you did it. Just like in the elevator you felt like you had a thousand things you could say or ask to try and fill the silence, or cut it. But silence felt like the right choice at this point.

The reason for that was that, even though most of the partners were giving you something of a stonewall of poker faces, three people weren't. Carol and Cheryl looked downright disgusted whenever they looked down the table at you, and Bellagamba looked like she was barely managing to keep in some sort of remark.

"John, allegations of sexual harassment within the intern pool have come forward," Vega said once he was sitting and situated. "We take these allegations extremely seriously, which is why we are all here at the moment along with Human Resources. I need you to know that nothing but the absolute truth will be beneficial to you here as we investigate the allegations. Do you understand?"

You blew out a long breath and nodded. Very quickly the puzzle pieces were falling into place. The crazed look that Joy had been holding. Her missing from the conference room. Her likely having backup plans after getting shut down earlier.

There were a few ways you could play this, but going as close to straight as possible seemed like the best bet.

"Really?" you asked. "Damn, that's actually a huge relief. I haven't been able to get any actual evidence so I wasn't sure how to handle it."

Several of the partners looked at each other in mild confusion, though they all had good enough poker faces to give away much more than morbid curiosity.

Vega glanced at Garrison, then down the table to Bellagamba, before turning back to you. "Why don't we start from the beginning, then. What was the first incident?"

"Well, all of us Interns had been working pretty smoothly so far this summer. At least, I like to think we were. Then Mrs Bellagamba returned to the office and Joy arrived. As soon as she came into our conference room she started belittling everyone, guys and girls both. I'll be honest, Eric tested the water a bit to see if she might be interested in a date but wasn't rude about it, but Joy was pretty cruel in how she answered him, and then she started domineering everyone in the room. Later that first day she sent me and Sabrina down to clean one of the records rooms, but then showed up herself a little while later and sent Sabrina up to a meeting she said Sabrina had been asked for. Then Joy made some, ah, well I'd say romantic advances but it sounded like she was just looking for sex. I told her I wasn't interested, and then had to physically fend her off a bit, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. Carol should have the records of Gemma and I reporting our relationship to HR, which was one of plenty of reasons I didn't want to engage in any sort of relationship with Joy, but she ended up slapping me when I continued to reject her advances. I left, and Gemma and Sabrina both met me up on this floor."

"Why didn't you report this alleged incident?" Cheryl asked stiffly.

"I mean, I didn't have any evidence," you said. "Well, we didn't. Gemma and Sabrina were pretty pissed off, but they didn't actually see or hear anything, so anything I brought forward was just going to be hearsay. And, to be honest, anything I brought forward was also going to be against a five-year intern who also happens to be a Senior Partner's daughter. The most evidence I had was the slap mark on my cheek, and Gemma can back me up about that because she saw it, but she didn't see it happen."

"This is-" Bellagamba started to say, but Garrison looked down the table at her and there was a short battle of wills. Bellagamba didn't back down, but she also didn't continue the comment.

Garrison turned to you. "Were there any other instances you think we should be made aware of?"

"Well, I kept expecting something," you said. "I started recording on my phone whenever I was going to be alone with Joy, but she didn't bring it up again until the sham performance reviews when she made some veiled threats that I should agree to what she wanted or else she would file a whole series of negative reviews for all of us interns that could get us fired. But she wasn't direct about it, and I got the impression she either thought I was recording her or she was recording the meeting herself for some reason. I believe that's all."

The Partners were silent for a long time, looking around at each other, and down the table at Carol and Cheryl. Vega had written something on a notepad and slid it to Garrison, who glanced at it and nodded.

"John, you can head back down to the conference room," he said. "We're done with you for now, but we may circle back around to you. This is a private meeting at the moment, so do not speak about it with anyone else. Including your girlfriend."

"Yes, sir," you nodded, and quickly stood and nodded again to them all before leaving the room and speed-walking yourself down the hall.

"Holy fuck," you muttered to yourself once you made it to the washroom, looking at yourself in the mirror. You'd been sweating bullets down your back.

But maybe, just maybe, this would work.