Separation Anxiety

Sometimes, when work pressures would keep them apart, she would join the group at a club, and while Aaron pretty much behaved himself, he did monopolize Emily's dance card, and pressed himself a little closer than she found comfortable.

"Aaron, if you don't stop pulling me so close I'm going to stop dancing with you."

"I'm so sorry, Emily. It's just that I'm so attracted to you, and I know that you'll never be mine, so when I get the chance I try to get as close as I can."

"That's very sweet, Aaron, but you're making me uncomfortable and you have to back off."

"I... I'll try, Emily, I'll try."

"Good. Let's go back to the table, I need a break anyway."

'Damn, I was getting so close!' Aaron thought.

With about six weeks left in the project Emily was at the club, and Aaron saw his opportunity slipping away, but didn't panic. He actually backed off on how often he danced with her, but made sure her drink was always full.

Aaron saw an opportunity while Karen and Sally were in the restroom, and Emily was feeling a little tipsy.

"I think I should be getting you home, Emily," he said.

"No, no," she said, "I'll be okay."

"Emily, I'd feel terrible if anything happened to you, and I really need to get going anyway."

Emily was hesitant, but ultimately gave in and stood up with Aaron's help.

They were halfway to the exit when Sally and Karen returned to the table and saw that Emily and Aaron were gone. Frantic, they looked around and saw them leaving. They ran over and grabbed Emily.

"Where are you going?" Sally asked.

"It'sh okay," Emily said slurring, "Aaron'sh taking me home."

Aaron couldn't quite hide his grin fast enough when Sally shot a look at him.

"We've got it, Aaron. You can leave now. We'll see you Monday."

Aaron hesitated, but realized that he would only get in trouble and started to leave.

"Take good care of her, she's a special lady," he said.

"You don't need to concern yourself about her," Sally said, "You just worry about yourself."

'What did she mean by that?' Aaron wondered as he turned and walked away.

Karen went back to get her and Sally's purses, then they took Emily home.

"You can go home, Karen," Sally said, "I'm going to crash here, I have a feeling she's going to be feeling some pain in the morning."

"No doubt," said Karen laughing, "Good luck, see you Monday."

"Thanks," Sally said, "I think I'm gonna need it."

Saturday morning, Emily woke up with another massive hangover and a stern Sally.

"We have to stop meeting like this," Sally said.

"Tell me about it," Emily said, "I don't think I'll ever have another drink. What the fuck happened?"

"I'm not really sure. It didn't seem like you were ordering that many drinks, but your glass was never empty. If I had to guess, I'd say that Aaron was getting you drunk. I know that Karen and I caught him taking you out of the club."

"That asshole! That's it; I've had it with him. He almost broke John and me up once; this could have been the end of us."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I don't know if I have anything that I can prove, we'll just have to see."

"Well, the first thing we have to do is get you into the shower, you reek!"

Emily threw a pillow at Sally, ran to the bathroom and locked the door.

She took some aspirin and stared at her image in the mirror, shaking her head at this latest development and wondered what would she do now?

The first item on her agenda was a nice hot shower, then some breakfast; the rest would wait.

She got out of the shower, wrapped herself in a big fluffy robe and made her way to the kitchen, where Sally had made some blessed coffee.

Sally asked again what she was going to do.

Emily sighed.

"I'm not really sure. It probably won't do a lot of good, but I feel like I have to file a complaint. Even if it goes nowhere, it goes on record. Maybe he'll think twice before trying something like this again; or if he does, it will give more credence to future victims."

"I hope you know that you can count on me, and I'm sure Karen also, to back you up."

"Thanks, I really appreciate that, but now comes the really hard part."

"What's that?"

"I have to call John and tell him what happened. He's going to be livid. I hope I can keep him from coming down and getting arrested."

"Oy vey, do you want me to stick around?"

"No, I think I have to do this by myself, but thanks."

"Well, good luck, and I'll see you Monday. Bye for now."

"Good-bye," Emily said as she closed the door and gathered her courage.

'I guess it's not going to get any easier,' she thought, and called John.

"Hi, Honey," John answered, "How're things going?"

Emily couldn't speak.

"What is it, Emily? What's wrong? It's that Aaron asshole, isn't it? I'm coming down, someone has to teach him a lesson!"

"No, John, please, I don't want you to get into trouble. I'm filing a sexual harassment claim against him first thing Monday morning."

"Will that get him fired?"

Emily hesitated.

"Will. That. Get. Him. Fired?"

"Probably not," she admitted, "there just isn't enough evidence; but it will hamper his career, and it will work against him if anyone else complains."

"I can't say that I'm happy, but I see your point. I appreciate you coming forward with this, not trying to hide it from me."

"You know I would never do that, John. I've been open with you about Aaron right from the start."

"That's true, you have. I apologize for forgetting. Please let me know if he tries anything."

"I will, John, and I'm looking forward to your visit next weekend."

"Me, too, Sweetheart, me, too. You take care now."

"You, too, Honey, bye for now."

"Good-bye, Emily."

'I guess that went about as well as expected,' thought Emily, as she began making plans for Monday morning and "Operation Aaron."

Sally was already in when Emily got into the office, and ran right over.

"How did you call to John go?"

"Not as bad as it could have been, though I did have to talk him down from coming here to kill Aaron."

"That wouldn't have been good," Sally said, laughing nervously.

"No, I don't know if they have conjugal visits, and I can't bake a cake, let alone one with a file!"

They both chuckled at that, then finished their morning coffee before Emily gathered herself together to speak to Personnel.

The visit to Personnel went about as expected. While the Personnel Manager was sympathetic, Emily simply didn't have enough evidence to really come down hard on Aaron. She did agree to put a notation of the complaint in his file, and to talk to Aaron to make sure that he understood what was and what wasn't appropriate behavior.

That was about what Emily expected, so she thanked the Manager and returned to her office.

As she was filling Sally in, she saw Aaron get a call. He gave her a dirty look and left the office.

A short while later he came storming back and came stomping over to Emily's desk.

"You fucking bitch," he growled, pressing his fists onto her desk and leaning over her. "Do you know what you've done? My career here is shot. It'll take me forever to get it back on track with your bullshit charge on my record. I never did anything more than some innocent flirting..."

"Oh, is that what you call it. Was it just flirting when you took advantage of my having too much to drink at the seminar to try to get me up to your room? Was it just flirting when you made sure that I had too much to drink Friday night and tried to get me out of the club while Sally and Karen were away?

"You've been coming onto me almost from the start of the project, even though you knew I had a serious boyfriend back in Boston."

"Oh, the wimp."

"He's no wimp, if I didn't beg him not to, he'd be here pounding you through the floor!"

"Whatever. But you'd better watch out, I don't get mad, I get even," he said as he stomped back to his desk.

Sally came over to Emily's desk.

"God, that was intense!"

"You got all that?" Emily asked.

"It would have been impossible not to. What are you going to do? That sounded like he was threatening you."

"Yes, I know, but I don't think that there was enough there to get the Police involved, and I certainly can't afford a full-time body-guard."

"So, again, what are you going to do?"

"The only thing that I can think of; call John!"

"Oh, boy," Sally said, "I don't want to be there when THAT shit hits the fan."

As Sally returned to her desk, Emily reached for her phone to call John and fill him in.

When she told John what happened she could almost feel the steam coming right out of the phone.

"That settles it," John said, "I'm coming down to straighten that shit-head out once and for all."

"John, please, I don't want any trouble."

"Oh, there won't be any trouble as long as he understands the rules of the game," John said, and hung up.

Emily tried to get him back, but got no answer.

The rest of the morning passed without incident, though Emily did notice Aaron shooting looks that could kill at her.

She went out to lunch with Sally and Karen, and couldn't be sure, but she thought that Aaron was following them. Sally and Karen didn't notice anything, so she chalked it up to an over-active imagination.

They did notice that Aaron never came back from lunch and wondered if it might mean anything, but quickly got back to work.

Meanwhile, John was driving as fast as was safe and ticket-free, cursing the traffic and praying that it would turn out to be a wasted trip. As he entered the city, he saw that it was near time for Emily to leave work, and hoped that nothing happened before he got there.

Emily couldn't help but worry that Aaron had never returned from lunch. She asked Sally to walk her to the subway station. Hopefully, she was just being paranoid, but she remembered the old joke: Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you, so she pulled out her phone to call John. She felt very relieved when he answered.

"John, I'm worried. I told you how angry Aaron was, and now he didn't come back from lunch. Maybe it doesn't mean anything, maybe he just had a liquid lunch, but I'm worried enough that I'm having Sally walk me to the subway."

"Okay, Emily, I'm in the city, I should be at your apartment in15-20 minutes."

"Oh, that's wonderful. I'm just heading down the stairs now, I'll see you there."

Breathing a sigh of relief, she thanked Sally again, and went down into the subway.

She was unable to keep from looking around nervously, but didn't see anything beyond the usual New York subway weirdos, and was soon at her stop.

As she climbed the stairs, she still didn't see anything unusual and was beginning to think that she had over-reacted. She started to relax when she turned the corner onto her street.

John was turning onto the street from the opposite direction, and wasn't sure, but thought that he saw someone suspicious near Emily's building. As he got closer and was looking for a parking space, he was pretty sure he saw Emily approaching, and the suspicious character seemed to sit up and take notice, too.

Just as Emily was reaching her building the figure pounced. John quickly double-parked and went charging into action.

Emily was fighting off her attacker valiantly, but was being over-powered as John reached them and yanked the attacker back. He allowed himself a moment of grim pleasure when he saw that the attacker was Aaron, then fired an overhand right with all of his might, flattening Aaron's nose.

Before any more punches could be landed, they were both grabbed by by-standers who held them for the Police, whose sirens were getting closer. Emily squirmed out of the grasp of the woman holding her and threw herself onto John. The men holding John quickly figured out what was happening and released John who wrapped his arms around the sobbing Emily.

When the Police arrived, a quick explanation from Emily, backed up by some of the bystanders, had Aaron being taken to the ER in handcuffs, and Emily and John promising to come down to the station to make statements. One of the officers told John with a wink to get his car into a legal space, and then they were gone, and the crowd dispersed.

After John moved his car they went up to Emily's apartment to calm down and fill each other in on what had transpired since they spoke, although in truth, there wasn't really any more than what they both saw.

Aaron was charged with assault and fired. Emily was offered the opportunity to do more work remotely, but with Aaron gone, she didn't see the need and she would miss her friends.

Aaron soon had bailed himself out, but wasn't foolish enough to do anything to risk having his bail revoked. By the time his trial ended with a suspended sentence Emily was safely back in Boston.

John and Emily had some long discussions about trust issues and appropriate behavior; they even had some counseling.

John admitted to having to work on his trust and anger issues, and Emily agreed that there was a fine line between friendly flirtations and come-ons, and she had to do a better job of backing away from the line.

John was right; the troubles with Aaron did turn out to be just a bump in the road, and was soon a fading memory.

Emily and John were hosting a Halloween party when everyone got very quiet. She turned around to ask John what was going on, and looked down to see him on one knee with an open ring box.

She went down on her knees.

"Yes, John, yes, I'll marry you!"

"It's customary for the lady to wait for the gentleman to ask her first," John said with a smile.

Emily gave him a sock on the shoulder, then kissed him as all their guests applauded and cheered.

They got married the following Spring and Karen and Sally were two of her bridesmaids.

Karen had a surprise of her own. Her plus one was Sam, and she was sporting a diamond on her ring finger.

"I was never so happy to lose out on a guy in my life!" she said, looking up smiling at Sam as he bent his head down and kissed her.

"Who's next?" Emily said.

They turned to Sally, who looked away blushing.