“Could you knock?” I asked heatedly, instantly regretting it.
He watched me, studying my expression and making me wonder if I’d crossed a line. His eyes turned icy as he stared at me, and I knew he was going to tell me to leave. Slowly, his lips upturned into a strange, cocky grin. “You really did have a rough day, didn’t you?” He chewed the candy with his mouth open, red-tinged strings of saliva connecting his teeth.
“Sorry, yeah.” I shook my head, trying to bring my anxiety down. Why was I taking my anger out on Elias, the one person in my life who didn’t hate me at that moment? “We had some fires to put out at work, and it’s been a day. But I didn’t mean to snap.”
“I’m sorry. I’m used to living alone and being able to walk anywhere. I should’ve knocked first. I’ll try to do better.”
“Don’t worry about it. I overreacted.” I pulled the shirt off my shoulders and grabbed a T-shirt from a drawer.
“You’ve kept yourself in great shape, Wes. You could probably give me a few pointers, hm? I don’t ever go to the gym, but I know I should.”
“Ah, I don’t either,” I lied. “I used to run, but I haven’t in years. I haven’t been to the gym in even longer.”
He chomped on the Twizzler grasped in his fist. “Hm.”
I picked up a folded pair of jeans, holding them awkwardly as I stared at him, waiting for him to take the hint. He didn’t.
“So, what are you thinking for dinner tonight?”
“Actually, I’m going to try and grab Rory and take her to dinner.”
“Rory?”
“My daughter.”
“You have a daughter? You didn’t mention it.”
“I thought I did.”
“Nope,” he said, popping the last of the piece of candy in his mouth before grabbing another from the bag in his hand. His teeth were littered with bits of red.
“Ah, well, must’ve slipped my mind, then.”
He sat down on the edge of the bed, and I groaned internally. “How old is she?”
Something about the question made my skin crawl. I turned away from him so he wouldn’t see the irritated face I was sure I was making and headed into the bathroom, shutting the door firmly behind me before saying, “Did you say something?”
There was no reply as I pulled off my shoes and pants and hurriedly stepped into the jeans, keeping an eye on the lock at all times. After a few silent moments, I opened the door hesitantly. To my surprise and great relief, the room was empty. I walked back out, placing my clothes into the white mesh laundry bag lying in the corner. I grabbed my tennis shoes and slid them on, tucking my phone and wallet into my pocket and heading out the door.
Elias was nowhere to be seen, though I did quite a few double takes, half expecting to find him hiding behind the curtains or sitting atop the refrigerator. I eventually gave up, shouting, “See you later,” and heading for the door.
Just as I reached it, my phone began to ring. I pulled it from my pocket, spying my boss’s name on the screen.
“Hello?”
“Wes, hey. I stopped by your office to tell you the news, but I didn’t realize you’d already headed home for the evening. I wanted to let you know what we’ve found out regarding the hack.”
I backed up, resting my hip against the couch. His snide remark about me leaving the office at an earlier time hadn’t gotten past me, but I let it go. “Yeah, definitely. I’m glad you called. What did you learn?”
He let out a sigh, and I immediately knew it wasn’t as bad as I’d been fearing. “Well, the good news is the hack didn’t make it to any client files or sensitive information from all we can tell. They were able to gain unauthorized access to our network, but it looks like the applications and confidential information remain unbreached. It’s the strangest thing, almost like they accessed the network and then turned around and went home. So, that’s the good news. The bad news is that we’ve had to fire Oliver.”
The head of our IT department and one of the only people I genuinely liked that I worked with. To learn he had anything to do with the hack would’ve come as a total shock.
“Oh. Why? Was it his fault?”
“Well, I don’t know that it was entirely, but it was certainly his job to prevent it. Thank heavens nothing consequential was accessed, but there have to be ramifications for something this serious. We’re still in our early years here; we can’t afford a scandal of such magnitude. There’s banking information on those contracts, social security numbers, legal names, home addresses—it could’ve been apocalyptic if they’d been able to get any further.”
I nodded, though he couldn’t see me, and though I actually disagreed. Oliver was a good guy. I’d relied on him a few times when I’d lost a file or gotten myself locked out of the system. I hated to hear he was going down for something that hadn’t actually caused any harm, but I understood the weight of the situation. A major crisis had been averted, I just wished Oliver wasn’t being faulted for something he hadn’t had control over.
“Didn’t he prevent it from being as bad as it could’ve been, though?” I asked gently. “I mean, whatever system he had in place obviously managed to make sure they couldn’t access anything too confidential.”
Across the room, I saw Elias’ bedroom door open, and he walked out, bag of Twizzlers still in one hand, a controller and headset in the other. I didn’t meet his eyes as he walked across the room and sank into the couch behind me.
“Yes, well, that’s the argument, but we pay good money to make sure they aren’t able to hack into our systems
