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"No," Sanders said, shaking his head slowly "No, I was just leaving"

In the car, driving to the courthouse, Louise Fernandez recounted Sanders&039;s story to the two junior lawyers traveling with her One lawyer, a woman, said, "You don&039;t really believe him?"

"Who knows?" Fernandez said "It was behind closed doors There&039;s never a way to know"

The young woman shook her head "I just can&039;t believe a woressively"

"Why not?" Fernandez said "Suppose this wasn&039;t a case of harassment Suppose this was a question of implied promise between a man and a woman Thebonus, but the wo because a woman wouldn&039;t act that way?"

"Not about that, no"

"In that situation, you&039;d think that anything was possible"

"But this isn&039;t a contract," the woman said "This is sexual behavior"

"So you think woeements?"

The woman said, "I don&039;t know if stereotypical is the word I&039;d use"

"You just said that you can&039;t believe a woressively in sex Isn&039;t that a stereotype?"

"Well, no," the woman said "It&039;s not a stereotype, because it&039;s true Women are different from men when it comes to sex"

"And black people have rhythm," Fernandez said "Asians are workaholics And Hispanics don&039;t confront"

"But this is different I mean, there are studies about this Men and women don&039;t even talk to each other the same way"

"Oh, you ood at business and strategic thinking?"

"No Those studies are wrong"

"I see Those studies are wrong But the studies about sexual differences are right?"

"Well, sure Because sex is fundamental It&039;s a primal drive"

"I don&039;t see why It&039;s used for all sorts of purposes As a way of relating, a way of placating, a way of provoking, as an offer, as a weapon, as a threat It can be quite complicated, the ways sex is used Haven&039;t you found that to be true?"

The wo for the first tiuy? Not to litigate?"

"No But I told him his problems"

"What do you think he should do?"

"I don&039;t know," Fernandez said "But I knohat he should have done"

"What?"

"It&039;s terrible to say it," she said "But in the real world? With no witnesses? Alone in the office with his boss? He probably should have shut up and fucked her Because right now, that poor bastard has no options at all If he&039;s not careful, his life is over"

Sanders walked slowly back down the hill toward Pioneer Square The rain had stopped, but the afternoon was still daray The wet pavement beneath his feet sloped steeply doard Around hi, chilly mist

He was not sure what he had expected to hear from Louise Fernandez, but it was certainly not a detailed account of the possibility of his being fired, ain

Sanders felt overwhelmed by the sudden turn that his life had taken, and by a realization of the precariousness of his existence Two days ago, he was an established executive with a stable position and a prorace, humiliation, loss of his job All sense of security had vanished

He thought of all the questions Fernandez had asked him-questions that had never occurred to him before Why hadn&039;t he told anyone Why hadn&039;t he made notes Why hadn&039;t he told Meredith explicitly that her advances were unwelcome Fernandez operated in a world of rules and distinctions that he did not understand, that had never crossed his mind And now those distinctions turned out to be vitally iood, Mr Sanders

And yethow could he have prevented this? What should he have done instead? He considered the possibilities

Suppose he had called Blackburn right after thewith Meredith, and had told him in detail that Meredith had harassed hied his coed hers Would it have made a difference? What would Blackburn have done?

He shook his head, thinking about it It see would make a difference Because in the end, Meredith was tied in to the power structure of the company in a way that Sanders was not Meredith was a corporate player; she had power, allies That was the e-of this situation Sanders didn&039;t count He was just a technical guy, a cog in the corporate wheels His job was to get along with his new boss, and he had failed to do that Whatever he did noas just whining Or worse: ratting on the boss Whistleblowing And nobody liked a whistle-blower

So what could he have done?

As he thought about it, he realized that he couldn&039;t have called Blackburn right after the one dead, its power drained

He had a sudden i to a party So oncea story about soet it

There were plenty of reasons why the phone ht be dead The most likely explanation was nicad eable nickel-cade between uses, the batteries could reset theoing to show up Sanders had had to throw out batteries before because they developed a short htly The battery was holding up fine today

But there was so he wasn&039;t thinking about

Going to a party

He frowned He couldn&039;t get it It hung at the back of his : what else wasn&039;t he getting? Because as he considered the whole situation, he began to have the nagging sense that there was so that Fernandez had overlooked it, too So that everybody was taking for granted, even though-

Meredith

So about Meredith

She had accused hione to Blackburn and accused hiuilty about what had happened at theAnd perhaps she was afraid Sanders would accuse her, so she decided to accuse hiht

But if Meredith really had power, it didn&039;t make sense to raise the sexual issue at all She could just as easily have gone to Blackburn and said, Listen, it isn&039;t working out with Toe And Blackburn would have done it

Instead, she had accused hi to her Because harassment implied a loss of control It meant that she had not been able to control her subordinate in aunpleasant did happen, a boss would neverif you were a lowly feer, powerful man But in this case Meredith was the boss She had all the power Why would she claim harassment by Sanders? Because the fact was, subordinates didn&039;t harass their bosses It just didn&039;t happen You&039;d have to be crazy to harass your boss

Harassment is about power-the undue exercise of power by a superior over

a subordinate

For her to claim sexual harassment was, in an odd way, to admit that she was subordinate to Sanders And she would never do that Quite the contrary: Meredith was new to her job, eager to prove that she was in control of the situation So her accusationit as a convenient way to destroy hie that was difficult to recover frouilty until proven innocent-and it was hard to prove innocence It tarnished any man, no matter how frivolous the accusation In that sense, harassment was a very powerful accusation The most powerful accusation she couldto press charges And the question was

Why not?

Sanders stopped on the street

That was it

She assured es

Why wasn&039;t Meredith going to press charges?

At the time that Blackburn said that, Sanders had never questioned it Louise Fernandez had never questioned it But the fact was, Meredith&039;s refusal to press charges made no sense at all She had already accused him Why not press it? Why not carry it to its conclusion?

Maybe Blackburn had talked her out of it Blackburn was always so concerned about appearances

But Sanders didn&039;t think that hat had happened Because a formal accusation could still be handled quietly It could be processed inside the company

And froes to a foriCooal was to get rid of him, to banish hi by letting the accusation work its way through the corapevine? Why not ht about it, the more it seemed that there was only one explanation: Meredith wasn&039;t going to press charges because she couldn&039;t

She couldn&039;t, because she had so else was going on

We can handle it quietly

Slowly, Sanders began to see everything differently In thehi

Blackburn was scared

We can handle it quietly It&039;s best for everyone

What did he mean, best for everyone?

What problem did Meredith have?

What probleht about it, the more it seemed that there could be only one possible reason why she wasn&039;t pressing charges against him

He took out his phone, called United Airlines, and booked three round-trip tickets to Phoenix

And then he called his wife

Ygodda in a corner table at 11 Terrazzo It o o&039;clock; the restaurant was nearly deserted Susan had listened to him for half an hour, without interruption or co with Meredith, and everything that had happened thatThe conversation with Phil The conversation with Fernandez Now he had finished She stared at him

"I could really learn to despise you, you know that? You son of a bitch, why didn&039;t you tell irlfriend?"

"I don&039;t know," he said "I didn&039;t want to go into it"

"You didn&039;t want to go into it? Adele and Mary Anne are talking to me on the phone all day, and they know, but I don&039;t? It&039;s hu, Tom"

"Well," he said, "you know you&039;ve been upset a lot lately, and-"

"Cut the crap, To to do with me You didn&039;t tell me because you didn&039;t want to"

"Susan, that&039;s not-"

"Yes it is, Toht You could have told me if you wanted to But you didn&039;t" She shook her head "Son of a bitch I can&039;t believe what an asshole you are You&039;ve made a real mess of this Do you realize what ahis head

"Don&039;t act contrite with me, you asshole"

"I&039;m sorry," he said

"You&039;re sorry? Fuck you, you&039;re sorry Jesus Christ I can&039;t believe you What an asshole You spent the night with your goddaht And she&039;s notheartthrob"

"She wasn&039;theartthrob&039; "

"Oh yeah? Then ouldn&039;t you tell me?" She shook her head `Just answer one question Did you fuck her or not?"

"No I didn&039;t"

She stared at hileft out? No inconvenient parts skipped?"

"No Nothing"

"Then ould she accuse you?"