Member-only story
Do You Want to Hear A Secret?
“Can I trust you with something private?
A cold sweat formed on my brow. The back of my neck grew damp. My palms moistened.
Stella (not her real name) was a coworker whose group crossed tasks with my department. In addition to office meetings, we went out to lunch. Over time, Stella and I developed a workplace relationship. That expanded into couples dinners with me and my (then) wife. We were even invited to her wedding.
Stella had a complicated upbringing and internecine family feuds with her sister and brother. Over a 25-year period, she learned things about my past and vice versa. Our friendship was such that Stella asked me to edit documents presented to a court for legal proceedings.
Emphatically, Stella insisted this piece of knowledge had to remain between her and I. This made me nervous, as she had never crossed a line and told me something in strict confidence that could not be shared with my own spouse. I was also fairly certain the information had not been divulged to her husband.
Tentatively, I nodded. Stella closed her office door and quietly told me about how the vice president in charge of her group had sexually harassed her years earlier, when he’d first joined the company. Now, he had given her a bad work review and denied her a much-deserved (small) increase in salary.
