And so the meeting got underway, with Malcolm beaming like a proud father as everyone went around and discussed the specifics of whatever project they currently had underway. I just kept on gaping at my ruggedly refined boss, then trying not to look at him, then wondering if he was looking at me looking at him, or whether it was all just in my head…
“Annalise? Annalise? Miss Rhoades?”
I snapped suddenly to attention at the sound of my name on his tongue, as though I was being awoken from one of the many lurid dreams I’d been having about him. The meeting had been going on for a good forty-five minutes at this point, and I could hardly even decide just how much of it I’d tuned out.
“Oh, sorry, I was… Thinking,” I said stupidly, and he grinned.
“That’s a good habit to get into,” he said pleasantly, and the group chuckled. I let out a short breath, and straightened myself up, smiling.
“Right. So, as you probably know we’ve been pulling our hair out trying to deal with fake news and all the crap information have been sharing about the pandemic. Up to this point we’ve sort of just been handling it all as it comes on a case by case basis, which as you can imagine has been… Well…”
“Less than ideal?” he asked with a smile.
“Completely unsustainable,” I admitted, then laughed. “So, instead we’re trying to work on improving our algorithms to sort some of this stuff automatically. We also need to tighten up our criteria for what we should be looking for, which lines we should cross and how far is too far before people start complaining about censorship.”
“I’d much rather have a few wingnuts pissed off at us than have our users end up dead from injecting fish tank cleaner into their veins,” Malcolm offered, suddenly more serious. “Some of the stuff that’s going around out there is absolutely off the walls. Spreading that kind of dangerous bs isn’t what Goldfinch was ever about.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” I said, “and believe me, I’ve seen some of the crazier stuff that’s being shared. It’s not easy to get a handle on some of it, but I think we’re at least making decent progress.”
Malcolm smiled again, and nodded. “Well, if anyone can take on an issue like this, I’m confident you’re the right person for the job. Everything Liz has shown me from you and your team has just been spectacular, and I applaud you for your commitment to getting the job done right.”
I admit I might have swooned a little bit at this, and beamed back at my boss as my heart swelled to the size of a balloon in my chest.
_____
The meeting went on for about another hour and a half or so. I was relieved when I got the chance to finish speaking, but kept nervously watching Malcolm in the corner of the screen, searching for signs that may or may not have been there on his face.
“Alright everyone,” he finally said with that usual lovely grin on his face. “It’s been great seeing you all, and I appreciate you catching me up on things. I won’t take up any more of your precious time. Keep up the excellent work! I can safely say I’m more proud than I’ve ever been to be working with so many talented and dedicated individuals.”
Everyone said their goodbyes, and a cascade of waving hands went by on the monitor, as one by one the screens all flashed to black.
I’m not sure what came over me all of the sudden, but instead of closing out my window like everyone else, I just sort of sat there, watching it happen. Then, all at once, it was just Malcolm and I. This time, there was absolutely no doubting it when our eyes met. A sweltering heat rose up inside me, despite my feeling frozen from my head down to my toes.
It might have only been a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity passing, with me gawking like a deer in headlights. Malcolm opened his mouth, and looked like he was about to say something.
Finally the switch activated in my brain. I hurriedly clicked out of the chat window, and pivoted around in my seat.
“Jesus, why did I do that?!” I immediately scolded myself. All this time I’d been waiting to connect with him, and the moment I was in a chat room alone with him, I’d gone and had a panic attack.
I sighed, especially disliking myself at that moment. All I really wanted was to crawl back into my pajamas and slip into bed.
I slipped out of my dress and tossed it across the room, and stood wearing nothing but my bra and panties.
Suddenly my phone buzzed on my computer desk. The timing seemed odd, and I stared at it a moment before picking it up.
It was a message from Malcolm.
My throat tightened. What on earth was this? Why was he texting me just moments after we’d gotten out of a meeting together?
I opened up the text, not entirely sure what I was hoping for, though whatever that might have been, it certainly wasn’t what I found when I opened up his message.
“Hey, not to be awkward or anything, but your webcam is still on”
I froze, wide-eyed. I glanced up at my computer, and sure enough the little red webcam light was still glowing in the center of the screen. I looked down from it to my scantily clad body, then scrambled, irrationally, to first grab my dress up from off the floor, and then, finally, to close out of the webcam tab as quickly as I could.
My heart was racing at about a million miles a minute, and for a while I just sat there, struck with horror, not sure how on earth I was going to bounce back from this.
Could I just not acknowledge his text? Pretend that he hadn’t just seen me prancing around my apartment in my underwear? But what if, God help me, he’d liked what he’d seen?...
Sweat stood out on the back of my neck as I began to type back to him, my hands trembling, my face surely a deeper shade of crimson than it had ever been.
“OMG, Mr. Finch, I’m so embarrassed! I’m so so sorry about that, I thought I’d closed out the window!!!”
Yes, crawling under my covers and never emerging again felt like just the thing for me at that moment…
I paced back and forth through my apartment for several minutes, waiting for a response. Finally he answered, and I let out a deep breath at his graciousness.
“I’m the one who should be sorry. Didn’t mean to embarrass you or anything. I closed out as quickly as I could once I saw what you were doing, but Liz had the meeting set up to be recorded for future reference. I didn’t want it to keep on filming you without your knowledge, which I feel like it probably would have as long as your chat window was still open.”
“God, thanks for telling me,” I wrote back, grateful that at least some shred of my dignity to be preserved. “I still feel super ridiculous right now though…”
“Please don’t be,” Malcolm wrote, adding a smile emoji next to his message. “I’ve been hearing about these things happening a lot. People are used to being comfortable in their own homes, so these video meetings kind of throw them for a loop.”
“I guess that’s true,” I responded. “I’ve read a few crazy articles about that. I saw one about a guy who thought he’d multitask by taking a shower during a work meeting, and he thought he had his camera off. And, well… He didn’t.”
Malcolm texted back a laughter emoji.
“Exactly. Besides, at least you waited until after the meeting to undress. Hand to God, I’m pretty sure Doug Vandemeer went through that entire meeting without any pants on…”