An hour later Brooke sat behind her desk with a fresh blouse and the fresh scent of pine sol in the air. Her direct line to Maxine's office rang. Picking up the receiver Brooke quipped, "Yes Ms. Cline?"
"Get in here now," Maxine growls into the mouthpiece.
Quickly hanging up the receiver Brooke snatches up her tablet and races into Maxine's office. Before Brooke could sit down across from Maxine's large wooden desk her boss begins rattling off a to do list. Brooke's fingers fly across her tablet, adding things to hers' and Maxine's synced calendars. While making notes for files and contracts that Maxine needs pulled, tagged, copied and where to send them.
Maxine's phone buzzes on her desk. Tapping the screen, she speaks into her Bluetooth, "Go for Maxine!" A male's nasally voice rings out from the other end, but Brooke cannot quite make out what he is saying. From the way Maxine's face drains of color Brooke knows the call is not a friendly one. Color soon returns though along with an icy rage that drips from Maxine's words, "Mr. Flanders I'm aware of sexual harassment laws. The only one who needs to be concerned about their actions this morning is your client. I can assure you that you'll both be hearing from my attorney by the end of the day!" Ending the call rather abruptly Maxine stands to pace the length of the room, wringing her hands. Brooke waits not daring to speak for fear of being on the receiving end of her boss's wrath.
Coming to a stop by the window Maxine speaks, "Once you've finished that list, Brooke, I need you to pull the security footage from today." Brooke pauses in her typing to look up at Maxine. "When you pull it copy it to this thumb drive," traipsing back to her desk Maxine pulls out a pink thumb drive from one of her many drawers then slides it across the desk to Brooke, "Return the thumb drive to me then wipe the footage from the security system."
Brooke could not help but feel like what she was being asked to do was illegal so she asked, "I'm sorry Ms. Cline but why would we do that?"
Smiling a bit smugly Maxine replies, "We aren't. You are."
"But isn't that illegal?"
Exhaling Maxine looks up from her laptop. Placing her hands face down on her desk she glares over her bifocals at Brooke, "I think someone in this room has forgotten who signs who's paycheck around here?" Pausing for affect Maxine looks Brooke up and down, "You need to remember real fast like Brooke you're my employee. You are replaceable. Hell, a monkey could do your job and I wouldn't have to deal with insufferable questions."
Brooke's cheeks lite up a bright red at Maxine's condemnation. Five years, for five years she has been slaving away doing Maxine's grunt work. On more than one occasion she has saved Maxine's ass. Hell, it was her quick thinking that saved Thomas Blooming's contract with the Hawks when they tried to cut back on his pay due to an oversight made by Maxine. She did not deserve this kind of treatment. Now she wanted Brooke to break the law.
"Earth to Brooke! Why are you still sitting here?" Maxine waves a hand in front of Brooke's face.
Grasping the thumb drive in her hand Brooke heads back to her desk. What in the h-e-double-hockey-sticks was she going to do? She needed this job. As a single twenty-five-year-old living in Atlanta rent wasn't cheap. Between her crappy apartment, her rust wagon she called a car, and her student loan debts she was barely making ends meet.
If she did not do as Maxine ordered, then she would most definitely be without a job. The witch would drag Brooke's name so far in the dirt no one would hire her. Effectively squashing her aspirations of being a big-time sports agent. Heck she probably would not even be able to sign someone in the minors or even the arena.
On the other hand Brooke knew Maxine and her "lawyer" Ted Baxter. If she erased crucial evidence against Maxine the two of them would find a way to spin what happened this morning around in favor of Maxine. No doubt doctoring the tapes.
Ted Baxter was a sneaky sum 'itch as her granddaddy would say. One of those slicked back white collar guys who graduated from the same alma mater as his daddy and his daddy before him did. High society clientele payed him very well for his abilities in and out of the courtroom. Maxine included.
A cold realization hit Brooke then. What if Maxine planned on framing Brooke, telling Eric's lawyers that her assistant wiped the security footage without her knowing it? Without the tapes it would be Eric's word against Maxine's. Maxine would be off the hook. No doubt she would fire Brooke just to keep up pretenses.
Dammit this was a complete fudge cluster. No matter what she did Brooke was going to be without a job.
Sighing she slouched into her office chair. She could not do what Maxine was asking of her. There's no way her conscience would allow it. Wiping the footage was wrong. The guilt of it would eat at her until she was forced to confess. Then she'd wind up serving time no doubt for being an accessory to a cover up. once again bye bye career hello orange jumpsuits. However, if Brooke did not wipe it Maxine would.
Eyeing the pink flash drive Brooke had a great idea. Quickly she pulled up the security footage currently rolling. Zoomed in on her computer screen and quickly tapped out a message on word pad for the footage to see. Then clicked print. Pulling up a new document she quickly typed out another letter and printed two copies of it signing her name along the bottom placing the pink thumb drive atop it on her desk in plain sight.
Ever so quietly she grabbed her things and snuck out the office.