A Charitable Scandal

The Third Monday

After my meeting though, Emily showed actual remorse for her outburst and offered to take me to lunch so we could discuss matters a bit more openly than we could in our little office. It was a welcome excursion. The majority of the morning had been spent brainstorming on how the team should proceed next. Theo and Jean were given new ideas for social marketing, including a giveaway for a pair of tickets, while Dennis, Ryan, and Cynthia were to go through what networks we had and identify people of interest to target for ticket sales. As for me, I was going to be working alone on our last big push — a fancy dinner to convince the wealthy and influential members of our city to not just buy tickets, but to invest in the charity.

Well, I wouldn't be working completely alone.

Despite his assertion that he would be putting more effort into working with the gala team, since they had far more work to do with the event drawing so close, he insisted that I'd need his help with the dinner. It would be an evening filled with very powerful people and considering his position, he was a lot more familiar with those circles than I was. However, I couldn't help but wonder if he was making an excuse to be around me more. Or maybe he just didn't want to work with Colin — undoubtedly Colin would prefer to go without his help as well so he could demonstrate his abilities and earn favor with Tamara now that he was serving as her pawn.

I didn't know what was even going on anymore. We were so far off course with my plans that I didn't even know what to expect from one day to the next. It was all very tiring. I needed a breather and lunch out with Emily seemed like the best way to find some peace.

"I still think something's off about this charity," she said as she swept garlic bread crumbs from her lap. "Yeah sure, there's an office and supposedly people work there, but..."

"Can we just not right now?" I asked as I swallowed down a bite of my panini. "Can we talk about something else? I think we should just let it go." Emily sighed and pushed her pasta around with her fork. After a few seconds, a groan rolled through my chest and I unwillingly put my sandwich down so I could massage my forehead with my hand. "What do you mean by supposedly?"

"I mean," she said, placing her fork down and continuing on with a conspiratorial smirk, "I've visited there a few times and sometimes there are people there, sometimes there isn't. I think that's suspicious."

"What can we really prove though? I mean they're new and it's probably run completely by volunteers. Isn't it reasonable that their office isn't staffed regularly."

"I suppose."

I gave her a shrug and returned to my panini. She also resumed her slow progress on her pasta, but again she only pushed the noodles around instead of eating them.

"What about Carmen?"

"What about her?" I asked, groaning as I put my lunch back down.

"The promotion was unwarranted and it's a strange move."

"We don't work in her department nor do we speak to her regularly enough to know what else was going on. We can't make assumptions."

"Why are you so quick to shut this down? You seemed just as concerned as I am..."

"I just..." I threw my hands up and looked to the little Italian cafe's painted ceiling consisting of faux arches laced with grape vines. "I just have a lot going on right now. Out of everything, worrying about whether or not my company is wielding a charity for evil is not high in priority."

"Sorry," she mumbled, "I know you have a lot on your plate. How was the meeting this morning?"

I sighed and looked back to Emily. "It went well. Alec and I are going to be working on a dinner to reel in some fat checks. Who knows where those checks will be going, but I'll get a free meal out of it."