Resignation

“Anna, could you come in here for a moment please?”
“Sure Tom, what is it?”
Why did I ask her to come in here? Oh yes, the phone calls! “Did you make those calls I asked you to?”
“I just finished the last one, the board will be assembled by seven o'clock as you wanted.”
“Good, can you get the boardroom ready for the meeting?”
“Sure, what's it about?”
“I intend to tender my resignation.”
“You what?! How could you?”
“I have to Anna, for personal reasons. That's all for now.”
“You're the boss.”

After she left to finish her duties for the day, Thomas paused to reflect on the matters which had led to to him choosing to resign from his position as General Manager. It had all started about three months after Anna joined the firm as his Personal Assistant.

His friend before she came to work for him, her efficiency amazed him, and her ability to guess what he needed meant that he had come to rely on her for many of the more mundane tasks of his job. Thomas had also learnt to trust Anna's intuition and judgment on many of the major business decisions he had during the course of the week.

Thomas started to notice changes in his feelings towards Anna about three months after she had come to work for him, after the office Christmas party. That night, Anna was a little sad after a fight with her husband and had turned to her friend for a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. He, of course, was willing to provide both. One thing that he didn't count on however, was for him to be attracted to her.

Though he tried to ignore the feeling, Thomas found that it was getting harder and harder to get through the day without taking with Anna, something that was easy as she was his assistant. It troubled him though, as he knew that her friendship with his wife could make life hard for them both, if he ever chose to act on the attraction he felt for Anna.

There was absolutely no way out of the situation, actually, there was one way out, but he hated the thought of that option. So Thomas tried to spend as little time as possible around Anna, leaving work early, and arriving late, and avoiding social situations where he could bump into her, but that meant that his wife was being isolated socially and his work began to suffer.

So, he spent more of his time at work, often keeping Anna late so that he could spend time with her. This caused problems at home for both Thomas and Anna, as their partners started to get a little jealous. Eventually, Thomas stopped fighting the only option available to him. He asked Anna to gather the members of the board together for an extraordinary meeting.

Am I doing the right thing? Should I really take this final step? Damn! I wish Mother hadn't taught me to respect my marriage vows so strongly! It would be so much easier if I could just have an affair with Anna. Then again, he had no guarantee that she would even be interested in him as anything other than a friend or as an employer.

“Tom?”
“Anna?”
“I'm about to head off home, is there anything you need me to do before I go?”
“No thanks, Anna. I'll need you here early on Monday to help me pack.”
“So you are really going through with this?”
“I have to.”
“Ok. I'll miss being able to work with you.”
“We'll still see each other as friends?”
“What a silly question, of course we will.”
“Ok.”

Thomas watched her leave and then went back to work writing his speech for the board meeting. I should tell her how I feel, but I can't. Our friendship is strong, it might work out, but then again, I might even lose her altogether. Better not say anything.

Thomas made his way to the boardroom and made his announcement to the members of the board that had gathered there. As he had thought, they were shocked and refused to accept the resignation. Eventually though, they saw that he was serious and relented.

As he made his way out of the building, he felt relief, and a strange sense of loss, almost as if an important part of him had just died. The strange thing was, it had.

Thomas was surprised to see that a woman was waiting for him outside the building. He was even more surprised to see who it was. "Anna, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to warn you to stay away from James for a while."
"Why?"
"We're getting a divorce, and he blames you."