Loitering

"I'd like to see the job requisition," I said, when Denise finally pushed the door open herself. "Just the posting date and the approval signature. It should take you thirty seconds."

"That's not something I share with rejected candidates."

"I'm not asking as a candidate."

Something flickered across her face, gone before I could name it. She stepped back into the doorway instead of coming closer. "I don't know what game you're playing, but you need to leave the premises. Now, or I call security."

"Do it," I said.

She did not expect that either. Denise pulled a radio off her hip, the kind building security carries, and spoke into it with a steadiness that told me she had used this move before. "Front lobby, side conference room. I have a visitor refusing to leave after her interview concluded."

Two minutes later a man in a gray security jacket filled the doorway, hand resting near his belt out of habit more than threat. "Ma'am, I need you to come with me."

"My badge is right here," I said, tapping the small red card on my blazer. "Board Office. I'd like someone to actually read it before anyone touches me."

The guard glanced at it, then at Denise, who was already talking over him. "She's been harassing my staff and refusing to leave a restricted floor. Escort her to the lobby and have her card deactivated."

"It's not restricted," Owen said quietly from the hallway, then seemed to regret saying anything at all.

Denise did not even look at him. "Owen, go back to the desk."

The guard's hand closed around my upper arm, not hard, but final, the grip of a man following an instruction rather than a judgment. I did not pull away. I did not raise my voice. He walked me two steps toward the lobby while I watched Denise's face settle into something close to satisfaction.

"You have no idea what you just did," I said, quiet enough that only she could hear it.

"I know exactly what I did," Denise said. "I got rid of a problem."

I let the guard keep walking. There would be a much shorter distance to cover, later, between this hallway and the truth.