You Are Our Family

Gemma was late to the office on Monday morning. That was cause for concern – she was almost obsessed with timeliness, often arriving 15 minutes early and eating lunch at her desk, before leaving later than most of the others. When Lydia went to get her morning coffee, she stopped at Gemma’s desk. “Is everything OK, Gemma? Are you feeling all right?”

Gemma looked up briefly and nodded abruptly. She and Lydia were not really friends. The younger woman was too flighty for Gemma’s taste. She had to admit, though, that Lydia had a good heart, and her concern was probably genuine. “I’ll be fine, Lydia. I appreciate you asking.”

Then she went back to her work, keeping her face down so no one could see her expression. Lydia paused for a few seconds, twirling her blonde hair awkwardly, but couldn’t think of a way to push harder without seeming rude. She moved on, her questions unanswered.

Various of the office staff looked at Gemma as they passed. She did not seem to be her normal calm self. They whispered to each other, speculating on what might have happened. Their pooled knowledge didn’t help very much.

Jim: I know she drives a Lexus. Looks pretty new. Anyone know where she lives? (Jim was the junior – he knew very little about anything, but he loved cars.)

Tariq: She has a loft downtown. I met her shopping one weekend. (He was an accountant, and he was making money on the side by buying and renting out property.)

Lydia: She must be well paid then. Those lofts are ex-pen-sive! (She fanned herself to emphasize her point.)

Monet: She has a grown daughter. She showed me a picture of her one time. I think she said the daughter was studying in Europe. (Monet always had the inside scoop. She did not respect other people’s boundaries when she was in search of an item of gossip.)

There was a round of serious nodding. A picture was emerging of someone richer than any of them.

Tariq: Is she married? Maybe it’s his money.

Monet: No, she got divorced a couple of years ago. It came through a few months before she joined the company. She said she planned to avoid getting into another relationship.

Lydia: We all say that after a breakup, but it doesn’t stay true. Maybe she met someone.

Tariq: She didn’t bring a plus one to the company party though.

Hector: I think at her age, she has more sense, Lydia. You’d do well to follow her example. (He smiled as he said it. Hector was nominally their boss, but he preferred to be everyone’s buddy.)

Monet: We ought to find out what’s going on. She’s always so nice and helpful. We rely on her a lot.

Hector: Well, if she needs any help from the company, send her to me. She’s made quite an impression on the management team; they’d be glad to help. Now, if it’s not too much to ask, can we get back to work?

At lunchtime, Monet went to the restroom to refresh her makeup and found Gemma weeping. “All right, Gemma, this won’t do. Come out to lunch with me and tell me all about it.”

Gemma tried weakly to refuse, but Monet was determined. In her opinion, gathering gossip was a way of caring for those around her. She hustled Gemma out to a sandwich shop and bought some food for both of them. As they started to eat, she said, “So what’s happened? You’re obviously upset. You can tell me, I won’t say a word to anyone unless you want me to.”

“I’ve been scammed. I feel like such an idiot. I got a text from my daughter, Sharon. She said she was in prison and she needed money for a lawyer. She gave me a contact number to call.”

Gemma looked up and met Monet’s sympathetic eyes. “I mean, I know better, but when your kid is in trouble and you can’t get to her, you panic, you know?”

Monet nodded and patted her hand. “Did they ask for a lot of money?” Monet was good at keeping the conversation going.

“No, and that made it seem less like a scam. The man explained that Sharon had been accused of shoplifting from a very high-end store. They were pressing charges, but he could get her bailed out for a couple of thousand dollars. He said it was just bail money, so I’d get most of it back as long as Sharon didn’t try to flee the country. It all made sense at the time.”

Monet hmmed understandingly. “Well, a couple of thousand is a lot to lose, but it won’t bankrupt you, will it?”

Gemma shuddered. “No, I would have been fine with that. But then I got an email from Sharon. She’d lost her phone and wanted to warn me in case I tried to call her. There had never been a shoplifting incident, the text wasn’t from her at all. So of course, then I checked my accounts. All my money is gone, my credit cards are all maxed out…” she trailed off, looking forlornly at the table.

“Oh, my goodness! Did you call the bank and the police?” Monet was ready to help handle the problem with her, but Gemma just smiled tearfully. She took a deep breath before explaining.

“I gave out the account information willingly, so the bank won’t help. I’ve canceled all the cards and closed the accounts, but it’s too late now. The police want to see what proof I have, and there’s just that first text that looked to be from Sharon. Everything else was over the phone. And the person I spoke to was in Spain. I don’t have any useful information for the police to follow up on. They gave me a case number, but you could see they weren’t going to be able to do anything.” Gemma started to cry again.

“I was doing so well. I’d recovered from the divorce, I had money in the bank and savings against a rainy day. Now I owe the maximum on all my credit cards and the only money I have is what’s in my purse. I don’t know what to do. I’ve got to pay rent, pay my bills, buy groceries, put gas in the car, and pay back the debt. I don’t know what I can do.”

Monet reached into her purse and found a tissue to give her. She watched her cry for a few minutes, fighting back her own tears. They were starting to get curious looks from the surrounding tables. Finally, she grasped Gemma’s shoulder firmly. “We’ll all help you, Gemma. I’ll see how much cash we can raise in the department. That’ll see you through the next few days. And I’ll get Hector to have a word with the management team. I’m sure they’ll come up with a loan or something so you don’t have to pay thousands in credit card fees. It’s a horrible experience, but it’s only money. At least you know Sharon’s OK after all.”

Gemma blinked at her. “Oh, but I barely know everyone. It’s too much to ask. I’ve only been here for a year. I can’t ask them all for money.”

Monet stood up. She had this part under control. “You leave all that to me. I’ll make it happen. Dry your eyes and sit up straight. I’ll tell Hector you need the afternoon off so you can calm down and get some rest. I’ll call you later – what’s your cell number?”

When Monet returned to the office, she was a woman on a mission. She went straight into Hector’s office and closed the door. Hector was as upset as Monet when he heard the story. Although he was aware that Monet had been sticking her nose into other people’s business again, this time it had a good outcome. He agreed that Monet had done the right thing sending Gemma home for the rest of the day. “I’ll talk to the management team. Gemma’s a rising star, and they’ll want to do something to help. You go ahead and talk to your colleagues. See what they want to do.”

Monet left his office, breathing the exhilarating air of personal success. Feeling empowered, she called a quick meeting with the staff. It was difficult to tell the story without bursting into tears, so she kept it as clinical as possible, but her voice was still shaking.

“We all know that Gemma was upset this morning. I won’t go into all the details, but she’s lost all her money – savings, credit, everything. Hector is going to see what the company can do, but meanwhile, she needs cash money to get her through the next couple of weeks. Her rent is due in a few days, and she has literally just a hundred dollars in cash to her name.”

After a shocked pause, everyone tried to speak at once. Some wanted more details, others were already opening their wallets or saying they would go to their banks. Lydia asked if they should set up a GoFundMe for Gemma as well.

After a few minutes of chaos, Monet regained her composure. She spoke up again. “Tariq, we all trust you with money – would you be prepared to collect all the money people feel comfortable to give?”

Tariq nodded eagerly. Here was his chance to be useful in an emergency. “You can give me checks if you want. I’ll deposit them and draw out the cash at the end of the day. We can have it ready for her first thing in the morning. Lydia, you and I can set up the GoFundMe.”

When Gemma arrived at work on Tuesday morning (ten minutes early, back to her old habits), the whole team welcomed her. Hector called everyone into a meeting in the conference room. There were breakfast pastries and a hand-painted sign saying, “We love you, Gemma!” The general manager walked in and stood with Hector, who cleared his throat and introduced the special visitor. The GM asked Gemma to come forward and addressed the room.

“Gemma, you’ve only been with us for a few months, but you have impressed everyone with your work ethic and your attitude to teamwork. As a company, we pride ourselves on seeing our employees as part of our family, and this crisis has given us all a chance to put that into practice. I know that those who work closest to you have been gathering cash to help you meet your short-term financial needs, and we’ll let Tariq go through that in a minute. But to deal with the long-term problems, the management team is giving you a loan at zero percent to pay off your credit card bills. Here is a cashier’s check for you to pay into a new bank account.” He paused for effect and added with a smile, “Please don’t link it in any way to your other accounts that were compromised. And remember, you are part of our family, and we all appreciate you.”

He handed the cashier’s check to Gemma, whose eyes were filled with tears. He gave her an HR-approved side-hug, then he stepped back and Tariq took the floor.

“Gemma, when we heard what happened, everyone wanted to help. Everyone in the department contributed something. Several people gave a whole week’s salary. We know you closed all your accounts, so here is the cash from us to you.”

He handed a shaking Gemma an envelope full of cash. She turned and looked at the sea of faces and couldn’t speak. She waved and smiled, then Monet put an arm around her and walked her out as the GM led a round of applause.

On Wednesday, Gemma did not come into the office. She had paid the cashier’s check into an account, cashed it out, then skipped town in her Lexus with all the cash. This had been the most successful scam she had run so far.