I take my usual mid-afternoon cigarette break on the 22nd floor's outdoor deck. The Chinese food has settled. I've calmed down. Earlier, on the train, I thought how I just want to get through the day without trouble, and now I'm over the hump. Sure, I treated Patti badly over the last couple of years. But I had no idea I'd gone over the edge. We just plain didn't like each other. Nothing wrong with that. She wouldn't be so vengeful as to report it...would she?

Fred, my coworker and friend, has convinced me I'm imagining things. He saw it all. There's nothing to worry about.

But when I get back up to my office, my boss, Hope, is waiting for me. She asks me to follow her to Danielle's office.

I feel the kind of fear a person might only feel once or twice in a lifetime. Shit-your-pants terror, like a soldier must feel during an attack. I tap Fred on the shoulder on the way out. We both know: I've been charged with sexual harassment.