No Strings

CHAPTER 24--HARASSMENT

I was mad at him. Ted had called work again and said inappropriate things. I decided that I needed to talk to him face to face about his comments.

We were standing in his apartment and I tried to tell him, "You shouldn't call work like that. I like when you talk to me, but I'm a secretary. I need to keep the conversations clean."

His eyes drifted to the floor halfway through, "But I like calling you. I haven't found a job yet either, and I could use your help." When I stopped, he looked up.

He was shifting his feet and I felt him not looking at me, as if I was halfway there.

"You work on production, so why don't you put out feelers and ask around?"

"It's the off season--I don't think there is anyone around."

"In any case, I can't have you calling with such inappropriate comments."

"What comments?"

I blushed and said, "The ones about sex."

He laughed when I blushed. "See you like them."

"Not at work. Could you please stop?" I was trying not to make my voice louder. I wanted to stay calm and firm. I knew it would be hard.

"Why?" he said. He was smiling this time.

"Because those types of comments could get me fired."

"You gave me the phone number."

"That was for emergencies." I was trying to not imagine hitting my head against a wall repeatedly, but for some reason the image sunk into my head.

"Sometimes it is an emergency." He shifted his feet.

I tried to remember that I loved this man. There were good traits about him too. He liked to go out and have fun. He didn't watch massive amounts of football and scratch himself with a grunt.

"Saying you need a lube job--" I stopped because he was laughing. "--is not an emergency."

He continued to laugh. He didn't recover for a long time.

"Please, please, please... Please stop. Stop calling like that."

"Alright, I will."

I could see his eyes focus back onto me. His word was all I could believe. However, I didn't know if that was worth anything anymore.