A Heart to Trust A.L. Brooks (romantic story to read .txt) 📖

wanted Jenny to trust her from a professional standpoint, it was more than that. She wanted Jenny to trust her as a person, as the woman whom she’d shared an intimate—albeit misguided—moment with after that party last month.

Her search of Chrissy’s files turned up nothing out of the ordinary, which unfortunately made sense. If Chrissy was scheming, the last thing she’d do is leave evidence on the SharePoint. I need another coffee. She hit Control-Alt-Delete and typed in her password. Then she froze. What if… “Maxwell.” Her voice was loud in the quiet office.

He looked up at her, a little wild-eyed.

She smiled at him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

He grinned. “It’s okay. What do you need?”

“Well, I just have a question. You know how when we leave our desks, we’re supposed to lock our laptops to prevent anyone from accessing our data?” When he nodded she continued, speaking quickly before her thoughts ran away with themselves. “If you don’t lock it, how long before it automatically locks?”

“I think it’s two minutes. Or maybe five. Wait, let me check.” He scrolled and clicked a couple times. “Yep, five minutes.”

“Is that the same setting for everyone?”

“I think so, yes. It’s a network setting, controlled by IT, as is the case in most large organizations concerned about potential data breaches. To be honest, five minutes is too long and exposes C&V to all sorts of potential issues.” He pursed his lips. “Do you have a problem?”

“No, I… Just something… Never mind, it’s not important.” Her face heated as she turned away.

Not daring to look back up at him again, she focused on her screen, unlocking it and then scrolling back to the SharePoint. She found the document a moment later—the catering schedule that Jenny had screwed up back in July. Although, if Olivia’s theory was correct, it wasn’t Jenny at all.

She looked at the version history and found the one anomaly in the list where Jenny’s name was alongside the document, not Olivia’s. Then she noted the date and time of the version before switching over to her calendar. They all had access to each other’s calendars, as well as Derek’s, to make planning meetings and collaborations between them simpler. She clicked on the column containing Jenny’s calendar and scrolled back to July. Even though she saw what she expected, she still only just managed to suppress her gasp.

“Is everything okay, Olivia?” Maxwell asked from close by.

Olivia jumped in her seat. How on earth did someone so big move so bloody quietly? She looked at him and caught the genuine concern in his eyes. He seemed like a sweet man without a nasty bone in his body. Should she? “You’re friends with Jenny, yes?” she asked.

He shifted his feet. “Yes. Why?”

Olivia bit her lip. Here goes nothing. “I think Chrissy deliberately set up that argument a few weeks back. Remember? When I accused Jenny of making unnecessary changes in my catering schedule?”

Maxwell blinked a few times, then nodded, but his eyes didn’t lose their suspicion.

She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I looked at the version control on the document. The date and time coincide with a block out of Jenny’s calendar for a trip to the dentist. She wouldn’t take her laptop with her to the dentist, would she?” Before Maxwell could respond, she rushed on. “So how could she be altering my document at that time? The only way it happened is if Jenny forgot to lock her laptop before she went and Chrissy jumped on and made the changes. Then it has Jenny’s name on the version, not Chrissy’s.” Good God, I sound like a conspiracy theorist, one of those people the National Enquirer writes about.

Maxwell took one step closer, his expression thoughtful. “If Chrissy did that, then it must also have been a time when neither of us were here to witness it.”

Olivia wanted to hug him for getting on board with the theory. “Right!” She whirled back around to her screen.

Maxwell leaned down with his elbows on her desk and peered at the screen with her.

She scrolled to his calendar first.

“Yes.” Maxwell pointed at the screen. “I was out of the office from one o’clock that day, finishing off some work with one of my old TC projects. Where were you?”

She brought up her own calendar. Her heart skipped a beat. “In a meeting that started half an hour before the time the document was saved and ended half an hour after.”

“And Chrissy?” He locked gazes with Olivia.

She scrolled across to Chrissy’s calendar. “It’s empty that day. No meetings at all, internally or externally.”

They stared at each other.

“How likely is it Jenny forgot to lock out her laptop?” Olivia hoped she didn’t sound as if she were accusing Jenny of being an idiot.

Maxwell grimaced. “There is a high probability this was the case. She had been warned about it a few times at TC.”

“Oh.”

He shook his head. “However, while we have proved someone else took control of her laptop within five minutes of her leaving it, we have not proved it was Chrissy.” He frowned. “Do you have reason to believe it was her?”

Olivia slumped back in her chair. “No. Just a gut feeling.” She flicked her gaze up at him. “I don’t want to make you pick sides, but I do know you like Jenny. I like her too. And I don’t like that someone, Chrissy or whoever, is doing this to her. She’s a good person. She deserves better.”

Maxwell straightened. “Yes, I agree. But I’m sorry, I don’t know what we can do.”

“Nor do I. But I’ll start by apologizing to Jenny for the false accusation.”

And maybe if I prove to her someone other than me set her up for that, she might believe me when I reiterate I had nothing to do with whatever happened to her Excelsior files.

Maybe.

Jenny went through the weekend on autopilot. Saturday: sleep, eat, watch TV. Sunday: repeat. For once, they didn’t have a lunch date with