Legal fallout at your workplace

You wake up the next morning bright and early, just after six a.m. You blearily stare at the alarm clock, before haphazardly bringing your hand down to stop its ringing. You sit up, and swing your legs off the side of your queen bed, and pause for a moment to try to wake yourself up. You do this by stretching as much as you can, and you realize that what would really wake you up right now would be a blowjob. You look down at your erection, stiff in its daily morning wood state, and ponder if you should take care of yourself.

You chide yourself immediately, and you get up to take a shower and a leak, the cornerstones of your morning ritual. As you walk into the bathroom and look into the mirror, your mutter to yourself, "No need to waste a load jerking off by myself. You're having sex with Mary tonight, and you'll need to be on your A-game, because you don't have the love of your life to aid you."

You conduct your business, get dressed for work, and check your phone while waiting for your breakfast, a breakfast burrito, to heat up in the microwave. Most your notifications are inconsequential emails, but apparently Carrie texted you last night. You check the text and note to yourself that it was sent at 2:38 in the morning. This might not be Carrie at her most sober.

C: Heeeeeeeey babe!!!

C: Thanks for convincing Natalie to make up with me

Inserted next is a picture of the two of them, presumably from the start of the night, holding each other in a half hug, half pose. Carrie is in the same blue dress you saw her in earlier tonight, while Natalie looks stunning in a red dress of her own.

C: I'm guessing that you're sleeping right now, but I just wanted to tell you that I love you, and that we both have the best fucking taste in women. I mean, look at Natalie in that picture of her and me. She's a fucking bombshell. And so is Helen. And same with Mary when you fuck her brains out tomorrow night.

Carrie rambles on drunkenly for a couple more sentences, mostly espousing your sexual heroics. You smile and reply yourself.

J: I love you too

The microwave dings, telling your that your breakfast is ready. Before grabbing it to eat, you decide to give a little gift to your loving girlfriend. You browse your phone and use a food delivery app to deliver Carrie's favorite post hangover breakfast meal, fresh fruit with pancakes. You do time it for a couple of hours from now, as Carrie likes to sleep in after drinking the night before, particularly if there's no morning sex to entice her out of sleep.

You head out of your apartment and to your car. You look around for Chelsea, but she's nowhere to be found this morning. It's probably a good thing, because while she's certainly pleasant to look at, she was downright hostile last night.

You set off to work in your car, hitting the typical traffic of a dreary Thursday morning. You arrive at work with no fuss or muss and as you go to park, you note that there are a couple of new cars in the parking lot: a nondescript black SUV as well as a flashy white Ferrari. You raise your eyebrow at that, but you head inside the office, wondering if this has anything to do with Ted.

Your suspicions are immediately confirmed when you reach your cubicle, boot up your computer, and see an email from Human Resources asking you to report to the conference room. You sigh and head over to the location of countless boring meetings.

As you enter the room, you see a four different people, two that you expect and two surprises. Your CEO Marissa Simmons is there, sitting at the head of table, projecting calm and poise as a leader should. Beth, the HR lady who gave you vital information in your short investigation of Ted, also sits there, rifling through papers looking for something.

One of the people that you didn't expect is one you don't recognize. He looks dour in a plain black suit, with a brown buzz cut that is slowly fading grey. He turns to look at you as you enter the room and he frowns as he sees you.

The last other person in the room is a woman that you do recognize, though you have only met her once before. It is Sarah, one of the three clients of Carrie's that she introduced to you right when you started all of this threesome talk. She's dressed a little more professionally this time, in a navy blue pantsuit going down to just above her knees. The blonde bombshell is about to wave and greet you but Marissa inadvertently cuts her off, introducing you to the room.

"Good morning John." You nod back and Marissa gestures first to Sarah. "This is Sarah Hooper, a corporate attorney that Simmons Pharmaceutical has on retainer." You note Sarah's last name as you stride up to her and give her a professional handshake, which she returns with a teasing smile. "The man over there," Marissa continues, "is Agent Carl Harmon, an FBI agent stationed in our dear city that specializes exclusively in white collar crime." A twinge of worry passes over you upon the introduction. You were certainly inexperienced with the law, and you hoped that the fact that you blackmailed Ted wouldn't come to light because it seemed very illegal. He approaches you and you return his firm handshake. "Carl, Sarah, this is John Doe, the man who brought to my attention the evidence pertaining to potential fraud by Ted Smith."

"I have a few questions for you, Mr. Doe. It won't take long," Agent Harmon states. You sit down at the conference table and get comfortable, hopeful that this won't be an exhaustive interrogation. "Please, summarize for me the events that led you to accuse Ted Smith of defrauding Simmons Pharmaceutical," Agent Harmon orders.

"Well, it started last Friday. Ted had cut out of work early to spend the weekend with his wife at his beach house. He specifically told me not to contact him, and over the course of the workday I arrived at a question that only he or Karen Stewart could answer. Since I couldn't contact her through the company email and I didn't know her personal phone number, I decided to go to her house to ask my question. I was shocked when she told me that Ted fired her earlier that week."

Harmon nods and jots a sentence or two on a notepad. Sarah also takes notes, and she's deep in thought while you tell your story. Harmon takes his free hand and gestures towards you, indicating that you should continue telling your story.

"I returned to the office, and I didn't know what to do. I wanted to make sure that I got all my facts straight, so when I ran into Marissa Simmons," you say, flickering your eyes towards your CEO, "I asked to confirm to myself why Karen left the company, and she told me that she went on maternity leave and eventually wanted to transition into a stay-at-home wife."

Marissa interjects to corroborate this part of your story for you, "That is what happened. It was particularly late in the evening, around 7 I'd say."

"I wasn't sure what to do. I could have told Marissa right then and there, but I was worried about potential repercussions from Ted if he found out and it ended up being nothing. I figured that I'd think about it over the weekend, then deal with it on Monday."

"So, how'd you deal with it on Monday? Did you weekend give you clarity on what to do?" Sarah asks, entering this story telling for the first time. Harmon shoots her a look for interrupting his investigation, but you continue your story.

"It did. On Sunday morning, I went to my coworker's Mary's house for brunch, where I ran into Beth. Due to the fact that one of the primary reasons I hadn't come forward was that I had no earthly idea why Ted would fire Karen and lie about it, I had an inspiration that there might be a company policy that would explain Ted's actions. So I went to Beth's office first thing Monday morning to ask her."

Harmon turns and looks at Beth, who steps in to speak. "This is true, John met me Monday morning and I answered a few questions and gave him an updated booklet of the companies benefits."

"That's correct," you add. "The important thing is that Beth told me the difference in severance pay and maternity leave pay gave Ted an incentive to lie."

"So why didn't you then share that immediately?" Harmon retorts. "Surely your company has policies in place to handle situations like this." He turns to look harshly at Beth and Marissa but before he can go further, you interject, continuing your story. Sarah's eyes narrow in suspicion as well, but she doesn't say anything.

"Because for the life of me I couldn't figure out how he was getting the money himself. I understood that he was siphoning off the extra money that maternity leave would give Karen rather than her expected severance pay, but I didn't know where that money went."

"I can answer that," Beth states confidently. "Two months before Karen exited the company, there was a request for a change of direct deposit. I'm guessing that Ted has control of this account."

"So, if the account for her standard pay changed two months ago, wouldn't Karen have noticed not receiving any money in her usual account?" Harmon asks.

It is Sarah who answers this time, saying "I suspect that Ted was manually transferring the correct funds to Karen, so that she would be none the wiser."

"Eventually," you say, "I felt like I just had to share the information with the company. While I still had questions, my investigation had run its course. So, yesterday evening, after Ted fortuitously left work early, I told our CEO, Marissa Simmons. And I guess the rest, you already know," addressing the two non-employees in the room.

"Is that all, Mr. Doe?" Sarah questions, an inquisitive tone in her voice. You get the impression that she is not totally satisfied with your testimony and still has questions for you.

"Yes ma'am."

"Thank you Mr. Doe, that'll be all for you," Harmon butts in, dismissing you, and you eagerly take the opportunity to leave.

"I'll escort him out," Marissa offers, as she stands up as well. The two of you exit the room, and you swear you can feel Sarah's eyes on the back of you the entire time. Marissa doesn't just lead you out of the conference room, and you realize that she's accompanying you back to your desk. Wanting to fill the silence, you slowly speak.

"You know, I didn't think that you would call the FBI," you say. "To be honest, I'd thought you try to cover it up or something." This earns you a frown from your beautiful boss, before she elaborates on her motivations.

"I wouldn't do that," she asserts. "The cover-up is always worse than the crime, as the saying goes. And for insurance purposes, there needs to be a police report filed. Of course, I don't mind the added side-bonus of knowing that Ted won't hold a management position for the rest of his life."

"Will it be that bad for him?" you inquire, primarily for purposes of schadenfreude.

"Well, as an employer, I can personally tell you that we don't look favorably on hiring people who've been to prison."

"Prison? I didn't realize that was an option." A shiver of delight passes through you, and a part of you knows that when you tell Carrie the news, she might just cum from the satisfaction of a manipulation well done.

"It is. I don't suspect it'll be a long time, but Ted will pay for what he's done to Karen, and potentially other former employees."

"Other employees?"

"Indeed. A preliminary investigation seems to indicate that there at least a half dozen other employees that Ted has defrauded. Obviously not all in the same manner; Karen was the only one affected by this maternity leave situation." You nod along as Marissa continues. "I have to sincerely thank you for coming forward with this information. I know you feared reprisal from Ted, but you still had the courage to do the right thing."

"Oh, it was nothing," you say, trying to downplay your role. After all, you didn't think Marissa would take it too kindly if she found out that you blackmailed Ted before turning him in.

"I'm serious," Marissa urges as the two of you stop, having reached your cubicle. She places her hand on your shoulder, saying "You helped me out tremendously by coming forward. I'll remember that, and help you out when you need it." You stop yourself from saying what you're truly thinking, that a night in bed with you would be the exact help you need. Instead you just murmur a 'you're welcome' and get to work for your first day without your asshole boss Ted.