Stop and Stare

9

Mahony was kept very busy for the next few days and was barely at his seat. He still had the usual exchanges with Lisa in the mornings but was confined to polite pleasantries and him mostly ignoring Lisa's gripes over the shareholder's presentation.

It wasn't till Friday morning that Lisa suddenly jumped up from her seat as if she sat on a thumbtack as soon as she plopped herself down on her office chair. She let out a loud expletive, hand on her butt, and pulled her diamond necklace from the crack between the seat cushion and the backrest of her chair.

"How about that?" Mahony said as he watched her pull out the pendant.

Lisa looked at Mahony, her gaze narrowed. She looked the pendent over closely. Satisfied that it was her pendant and was undamaged. Instead of clasping it around her neck immediately like Mahony was expecting. Lisa bent down to retrieve her bag which she had unceremoniously dropped into the bottom drawer of her desk only a moment ago and placed it into the inner zippered pocket. Once again, dropping her bag back into its usual place with just as unceremonious carelessness as before.

"Aren't you glad you've gotten it back?" Mahony asked, curiosity peaked. He had expected dramatic display of happiness and relief but found her lack of reaction a behavior very much out of character.

"Why are you asking?" Lisa responded in a not so nice way.

Mahony held up his hands, "Sorry I said anything." He went back to his screen, determined to ignore Lisa.

Lisa instead stood up and walked over to his desk, and dropped a folded piece of paper on his desk. Mahony picked up the paper and unfolded it. The pendent is only the beginning, retribution is mine. Immediately, recognizing the phrasing, like the note from before, Mahony looked at Lisa, studying her face.

"Is this you?" Lisa accused.

"What?" Mahony jumped up from his seat. "We are on this again?"

"You did this, admit it," Lisa said.

"Did what?" Mahony said indignant.

"What do you want? Huh?" Lisa challenged.

"I've told you before, I don't want anything from you," Mahony spit back.

"Bullshit! You're deliberately messing with me," Lisa said.

"Why would I want to do that?" Mahony asked. "What do I have to gain?"

"I don't know, because you won't tell me," Lisa said.

"This is ridiculous," Mahony nearly shouted, "there's nothing to tell because I genuinely do not care what you do with your life." He threw up his hands.

"Look, this is your last chance," Lisa said. "Either you tell me the conditions for your silence or I'll deal with things my way from now on."

"Oh, my fucking god!" Mahony exhaled the words with frustration and walked away from his desk, away from Lisa. What's wrong with the woman? What part of him not interested in receiving anything from her for his silence didn't she understand?

Mahony walked in a random direction and went through the door to the stairwell, and climbed up a flight of stairs, wanting very much to go as far away as possible. By the time he stopped he realized he was standing just at the entrance to the Sales department. Perhaps it's his subconscious guiding him that he ended up here. He walked through the door and was surprised to find Brad at his desk.

Brad turned when he heard the footsteps. "Mahony, what brings you here?"

"You're here early?" Mahony said surprised.

"Yeah," Brad got up from his seat, "got an early morning teleconference with our distributors to deal with a customer compliant. They wanted the meeting early so here I'm." Brad walked towards Mahony, he eyed him up and down, "What's the matter? You look like you are about to punch something ... or someone?"