Page 44 of Sweeter than Honey

I pause, struggling to keep my eyes from her neck and chest. I’m in more trouble than I thought. “No. I have some other business to attend to first.”

My tone indicates that she shouldn’t ask me any other questions about it.

I don’t want to worry her, so I go the long way around, by my sister’s office and down the hallway. I hope she assumes that I’ve gone to ask Celine or Lexi a question. But I circle back, and knock twice on the door of the Human Resources office before letting myself in.

Mel is lounging at her desk, staring off into the distance. She doesn’t have a laptop, or even a notebook in front of her. I give her a sharp, curious look. I wonder how long she was sitting at her desk, doing absolutely nothing, before I arrived. Mel wasn’t my hire, and certainly wasn’t my first choice for the position of Head of Human Resources. Tudor hired her during the Wicked Wars. She’s a mermaid, and he wanted to improve our relationship with the mermaids that occupy Silverlake. She wears an enchanted garnet ring that magics her fin into legs so she can walk on land. It’s a ring Tudor paid handsomely for, but I can’t say that we’ve gotten much in return for it.

“Oh,” she says. “Ms. Espina. I wasn’t expecting you, come in.”

I take a seat opposite her. Her nameplate says “Mel - Human Resources.”

“Mel,” I comment. “Is that short for something?”

“No,” she replies curtly.

I tilt my head. “Do you have a last name?”

She looks at me as though I’ve asked her a very offensive question.

I sigh. “I have a hypothetical question, Mel.” I try to think of how to phrase this. “It’s…imperative that you don’t tell anyone what I’m about to ask you. Is that understood?”

The mermaid twitches her nose. I assume that’s a yes.

“I have to ask you about employee relationships. Say, for example, that a manager were to find themselves in an…intimate relationship with one of their direct reports. I assume that we have a policy that would cover such a situation…”

Mel takes a long finger and taps her pointed front tooththoughtfully. “Well, it’s never happened before, but it has been an issue at other hotel chains…”

“Has it?”

“Yes, well, it’s a different situation if it’s a manager with someone they supervise. That’s considered highly inappropriate and unprofessional. There was a case recently where a CEO had an affair with hisassistant, if you can imagine that.”

I hold my face still. “You don’t say.”

“I know! Very scandalous stuff. They were seen by another employee of the hotel, and it was all over the front page of the papers the next day. Not that I read the papers.” Mel rolls her eyes as though the idea of reading a newspaper is ludicrous. “I’m all about podcasts, of course.”

“Of course,” I reply absentmindedly, turning over Mel’s words frantically in my head. “Well, I’m sure there are ways of handling such a situation professionally. I could imagine perhaps…having another supervisor complete their performance report, or…”

Mel barks out a single note of sharp laughter. “No, no, it was too far gone for that. It was ahugeethical breech and violation of trust. The CEO was immediately fired, and so was his assistant. The company’s stock completely tanked. People take that sort of thing very seriously nowadays.”

“I’m sure they do,” I say, my voice flat. Resigned, I stand from the uncomfortable leather chair. “Thank you, Mel. That’s helpful information.”

“You’re welcome!”

I turn to leave the office.

“It’s funny,” says the mermaid.

I look back at her. “What’s funny?”

“Someone else asked me that exact same question.”

“Really?” I raise my eyebrow. “Who?”

“Oh, you know,” Mel waves her hand. “It was the…the tiny blond one, she’s really cheerful. You know, the one with dimples, who’s always in a good mood, even though she works here.”

I grimace, but let it slide. “You mean…Lily?”

“Yeah, Lily!” Mel nods.