Chapter Text
When Damianos Vallis comes to the HR office, Laurent recognizes him immediately. They’ve never met, but Laurent has seen the head shot in his email signature, and the picture in their internal employee directory, and a Sales team photo where he stood tallest of the bunch. Even through the glass door, he’s startlingly handsome in real life. Laurent had assumed he was just photogenic. The overall impression is more overwhelming in person, but that could also just be his size.
Damianos smiles at Laurent through the glass. He opens the door just enough to stick his head in, and he says, “Hey, can I ask you something? Off the record?”
“Above a certain threshold, I’m required to escalate,” Laurent says. “I suppose my answer depends on what you say next.”
Damianos’s smile falters, but he recovers it. “Can I come in?”
“If this office wasn’t meant to be open to visitors, it would be awfully misleading of us to have those,” Laurent says, indicating the two minimally cushioned leather chairs in front of Vannes’s desk.
“I meant…The door was closed,” Damianos says.
“And yet you opened it,” Laurent says.
The smile fades entirely. After a moment, Damianos says, “You didn’t say no, so I’m going to…” He steps all the way into the office and closes the door behind him. “If that’s all right.”
Laurent waits. Damianos looks around the room as if it presents some kind of risk to him to be here. As if the snake plant on the bookshelf is going to leap off and stab him. He withstands the silence for longer than Laurent might have guessed he could.
“You’re Auguste’s brother, right?”
“Your off the record question is whether I’m Auguste’s brother?”
“No, I was just. Checking. That’s not the question.”
He really is incredibly tall. In this modest office, with Laurent still seated, his scale feels exaggerated.
“I’m on his team,” Damianos says. “As in—the team he leads, I mean. We aren’t peers. I report to him.”
“I’m responsible for org chart maintenance and reporting changes,” Laurent says. “I know who you report to.”
Auguste handpicked Damianos from the Kesus office this past spring and asked if he’d be open to relocating to the central office here in Marlas. Laurent has a general mental map of staff across the company and their basic details, but Auguste has spoken so highly of Damianos that Laurent has retained a wider collection of random facts. His prior experience was in gym sales. He brought in more new prospects than anyone in his region three quarters in a row. His thirty-first birthday was two weeks ago.
“He’s great,” Damianos says. “I’m learning a lot from him.”
It’s a clear attempt to build rapport and soften his actual aim, and Laurent doesn’t feel inclined to humor it. He waits.
“Is it okay to talk here?”
Laurent raises his eyebrows. “How many questions are you going to ask me before the question you came here to ask?”
“No, I mean—” He looks at Vannes’s empty desk. “I really do just want to check something. I’m not trying to be…official about it.”
“She works from home on Mondays and Fridays,” Laurent says. “If your concern is that she will return to this office while you’re in the middle of disclosing something you don’t want her to hear, you can unclench.”
“Okay, great,” Damianos says, and visibly releases at least 15% of his tension. “Can I sit down?”
Laurent looks at him. Slowly, Damianos pulls one of the two visitor chairs from its spot facing Vannes’s desk to the stretch of floor in front of Laurent’s.
“So,” Damianos says. He sits. “Hypothetically. If two people are dating. Two people who both work here. Is that something one or both of them would get fired for?”
“Of course not,” Laurent says.
He brightens instantly. “Really?”
Laurent shakes his head. “They wouldn’t be fired for dating. They would be fired for any number of ethical or performance issues produced by the relationship, but not for the relationship itself.”
“What issues?” Damianos asks, with seemingly genuine concern. “What’s unethical about dating?”
“Power imbalance. Favoritism. Misuse of company funds. Do you need more examples, or are you catching on?”
Damianos tilts his head. Laurent can almost see the gears turning inside it. “And if none of these issues apply?”
“The hypothetical people in this hypothetical relationship would not be the best judges of whether any of these hypothetical issues are in play,” Laurent says. “And the concern is not only about favoritism, for example, but also the appearance of favoritism. We need to keep everything above board.”
“Sure,” Damianos says. “That makes sense. So, hypothetically, if one person is in Sales and the other is in Expansion—”
“Jokaste Kalaitzi?” Laurent asks.
“Damn,” Damianos says. “Do you seriously have the org chart memorized?”
“The rest of the Expansion team is old, married, or both,” Laurent says.
“You think I’m that shallow?” One eyebrow quirks. He has a face for a cinema screen. “I could love Halvik. You don’t know.”
“You and Jokaste aren’t in the same reporting structure,” Laurent says. “You can’t apply for Halvik’s job and she can’t apply for Auguste’s, should either of their roles be vacated, but other than that, you’re in the clear.”
“Really?” With a broad grin that makes his dimples known.
“You also shouldn’t submit peer feedback for each other’s performance reviews,” Laurent says, “but you’re in different departments anyway, so I don’t see why you would.”
“Wow, okay, great.” Damianos claps his hands onto his thighs. “That’s a huge relief, honestly. Thank you.”
“The policy is in the employee handbook,” Laurent says. “All I did was restate it.”
“Do I have to, like, fill something out?” Damianos asks. “Do we put something in our employee files, or whatever?”
Laurent shakes his head.
“Seriously, thanks so much,” Damianos says, standing. “Orlant said you’d be a good person to ask. Glad I came by when it was just you.”
Orlant is one of the maintenance engineers, and Laurent isn’t sure they’ve ever had a conversation. He can’t imagine why he’d recommend him.
“Vannes doesn’t bite either,” Laurent says.
“You’ll forgive me for not believing you,” Damianos says, “given that you do bite.”
Laurent isn’t sure what to say to that. In general, nobody at the company speaks to Laurent much at all, other than Vannes, and obviously Auguste, although not at work. Damianos has already warmed too quickly from ‘carefully polite’ to ‘friendly and teasing’, and Laurent can’t think of any response other than To maim but never to kill, which does not seem like an appropriate response from an HR professional.
“You can leave,” he says instead.
—
That should be the end of it. For Laurent, that’s the end of it. But when he mentions it to Vannes during a call the following Monday, he learns that once a relationship has been disclosed, they’re obligated to follow up. Vannes says Laurent should be the one to do it, given that Damianos brought it to him and not her in the first place.
This means scheduling a meeting for him, Damianos, and Jokaste the next day they’re all scheduled to be in the office, pending Jokaste’s return from a business trip. He titles the meeting POLICY REVIEW, reserves a small conference room on the fourth floor, and makes the calendar event private to just the three of them.
“Are we in violation of company policy?” Jokaste asks, in the conference room.
Aside from a few times in the elevators, never facing each other head on, this is the first time Laurent has been in an enclosed space with her. He was aware that she was beautiful, abstractly, but she’s even more striking next to Damianos. Laurent came to the room exactly at the meeting time, and the two of them were already sitting together with their chairs pulled to one side of the round table. Not touching, but with the impression that they just had, or were about to.
“We aren’t,” Damianos says, but looks back and forth between Laurent and Jokaste, as if one of them is about to tell him he’s wrong.
“I’ve been instructed to review a few details with you both,” Laurent says. “This won’t take long.”
“He told me I can’t have Auguste’s job,” Jokaste says. “I had no designs on it, so I think I’ll be able to live with that. Is there anything else?”
“Of course there is,” Laurent says, “or I wouldn’t have scheduled this.”
She blinks at him. Waits. There’s nothing to do but barrel on through. This is the first time he’s been asked to take one of these conversations, and he already hates it. Vannes had him invite them to speak with him separately, if they preferred, and Jokaste said that wouldn’t be necessary. It’s a small blessing; he only has to do this once.
“First,” Laurent says, “I did need to confirm the nature of the relationship with both of you.”
“As in, you’re checking whether we’re having sex?” Jokaste says. “Of course we’re having sex.”
A mix of emotions, from embarrassment to pride, plays across Damianos’s face. He tempers it, and seems to settle on pride.
“I am confirming with you,” Laurent says, “that this is consensual on your part, and not an instance of harassment wherein the harasser reported it as a relationship in an attempt to get away with bad behavior. I hope you understand.”
“I consent,” Jokaste says. “Enthusiastically.”
Damianos covers his face with his hand. Laurent can see, though, that behind it, he looks pleased.
“Second, on the topic of harassment,” Laurent says, “I have been instructed to inform you that public displays of affection in the presence of a third party can be construed as sexual harassment, and to advise you to refrain from such displays in the workplace.”
“Understood,” Damianos says quickly, looking sidelong at Jokaste, as if cutting off whatever response he expects from her.
“Thirdly and finally,” Laurent says, “neither of you will be eligible for transfers or promotions that would put you into the same reporting structure. In the event that one of you raises your hand for such a transfer or promotion, we will only be able to move forward if the other party is transferred out of the reporting structure in question. This includes being on the same team, in addition to being above or below one another in the same reporting line.”
“Great,” Jokaste says. “Understood.”
“You’ll receive an email from me after this meeting summarizing what we’ve covered, with links to the relevant portions of the employee handbook. If you do have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me or Vannes at any time.”
“We’re all set,” Jokaste says, pushing her chair back from the table.
“Really appreciate your help,” Damianos says. “See you around?”
As the one closest to the door, Laurent does useless, courteous thing and holds it open for the both of them to leave first. Jokaste gives him a tight, polite smile as she passes. Damianos lifts his hand to the small of her back as though on instinct, his knuckles grazing the back of her shirt. Then he seems to remember where they are, and his hand falls to his side.
He flashes Laurent a smile over his shoulder. Laurent ignores it, and he rounds the corner to his office.