by Iona Rose
Tonight was one of those I reasoned would be a good move to be apart, but I didn’t want whatever was brewing between us to gather up more momentum than was needed.
I expected her to be broody, so as I slipped my key into the keyhole, I cautioned myself to be as patient as was possible. After the long, trying day I’d had however, it worried me that perhaps I would be too curt and dismissive.
I pushed the door open, and was greeted with the homey smell of brewing soup.
She was slicing some mushrooms on the island and met my gaze for a brief moment. “Hi,” she said, and without waiting for a response, turned to head back to the stove with the mushrooms.
I draped my suit jacket across the sofa, and after slipping off my shoes, I headed over to her. I stood just close enough to see she was preparing a creamy soup. It smelled absolutely delicious and reminded me that I had only had a quick tuna sandwich for lunch, which I had been too busy to even finish.
Normally, my arrival back home, which was usually later than hers, would prompt a long sweet kiss from her but today, she barely looked at me.
I held my peace and handed the complete reins over to her.
“It’s almost ready?” She said. “Do you like garlic bread?”
I nodded, my gaze on her beautiful face, hoping I would be able to survive the incoming storm.
After a bit, we were seated side by side with each other and for the first time, we didn’t say a word.
Halfway through the meal, I couldn’t take it anymore. “How did the rest of your day go?” I asked, choosing the route of transparency instead of provocation.
She was ready with her attack. “Well, my scope of responsibility is now to reply to the endless stream of comments from the Oasis’s trip advisor site. So I can’t say it went very well.”
I continued eating, “Hmm. Coghlan was indeed out of line today.”
She stopped, and raised her eyes to me.
I met her gaze head on.
“Carter, what happened?” She asked. “I told you not to get involved.”
“Not to get involved with what exactly?”
Her lips quivered, a multitude of responses probably coming to mind all at once. In the end, she voiced none, her sigh heavy. “Carter, I felt horrible today, and it’s not going to go away tomorrow. From now on, because of my association with you, it will always seem like I do not deserve any progress that I make. That’s why I didn’t want to draw any attention whatsoever to us.”
“I understand that,” I replied. “And that’s why I said that Coghlan was out of line today.”
She looked even more perplexed. “Carter, for God’s sake! You went to Henry, and got him to present my proposal to Daniel, and that was why everything blew up.”
“I would have done that for any other employee,” I said, and she went quiet.
“Leah, I didn’t make Henry pay attention to your proposal because you’re my girlfriend, but because it was a good proposal that most likely will get your team out of its current rut, if only the executives in charge would give an ear to it. This showed me more than anything, how sour the state of management is in the company. Who knows how many other employees have had great ideas, but have been stifled by bosses with their fucking heads in the clouds. We’re together but I need you to understand that I own that company. Its success or failure will be on my head, so I am not going to make decisions that are solely based on emotions or personal relations.”
Her gaze faltered then, and then her head fell in her hands. “I know, I'm sorry, it’s just—how the fuck did he even figure out that we’re dating? He’s just fucking complicated everything.”
“Why do we have to hide the fact that we’re dating?” I asked.
Her head lifted then, her gaze narrowing in surprise. “Carter, it’s a work environment.”
“Is there a policy in place that states that employees cannot be romantically involved with each other, or their superiors?”
She seemed even more taken aback by my response, so I rose to my feet to give her the space she needed to process what I was saying. I took her plate, and mine, then headed over to the sink. I rinsed out the plates and proceeded to load them into the dishwasher. “What if we get married?” I asked. “Are you still going to hide the fact that we’re together?”
“Carter, that’s different.”
“How? How exactly is it different?”
“That’s permanent, or at least more perm… you know what I mean.”
“I moved, Leah, to find you. To work at building a life with you. How much more serious does it get?”
“But that’s between the both of us…”
Leaning against the counter, I folded my arms across my chest and watched her. “I don’t want to pretend to not know you personally at the office. We don’t have to fuck in front of everyone, but I would like to stop by your cubicle to see how your day is going when I'm on your floor for meetings. I would also love for you to head over to my office whenever you want, without having to creep around like we’re having an affair.”
“Carter…” She sighed. “What if we—?” She stopped herself in time. “I’m not saying that things will go bad, but life can be a bitch and—?”
“If we break up, I’ll either move to a different branch, or you search for another job.”
She stopped at my bluntness.
“Life is simple, Leah. Let’s try to keep it that way. If your performance at the office is lacking, your personal association with me will not in any way influence the incline or decline of your career.”
“I know that,” she said. “But other people won’t see it that way.”
“Why do you care what they think?”
Our gaze locked, then with a subtle, polite nod, she looked away.
I knew it wasn’t because of her acceptance of what I was saying, but just for the acknowledgement that she heard me.
She rose to her feet and headed towards her bedroom.
Chapter 33
Leah
“He left.”
The next morning, whatever rumors and gossip the office had managed to cook up was the furthest thing from my mind, as all I could think about was the fact that Carter had not come to bed the previous night. I’d waited for him, and then I left the room to check, only to see he had left the house altogether.
It made me nervous.
I stared at my computer screen, barely managing to get any work done. The moment the response came from our group chat, I turned my attention towards my phone.
‘He probably just wanted to give you some space,’ Tracy wrote.
‘I hope so,’ I texted back.
I truly hoped this was the case and not that he had been too unhappy with me, to even bear being in the same space. It had been the first night since we became official, that we had spent apart.
Suddenly, I wanted to see him, more than anything else, and almost didn’t even care what anyone thought about it.
Once again, he had been right.
Who cared what they thought? Our personal lives were no one else’s concern, and if they chose to adjudge otherwise, then that would be their problem and not ours.
I began to work on my perspective, and a few hours later, I believed I was now somewhat on the same page with him. But I still didn’t have the confidence to completely embrace it.
I wanted to go up to his office to see him, but my legs refused to move from the chair, so I remained glued to it, and continued on with my day. Another text came into my phone and I saw that it was from Jeremy.
‘Heading to the break room,’ he wrote. ‘I’m sure you need some coffee too.’
I hesitated, but then reasoned that talking to someone in the office who didn’t seem to have suddenly lost all feeling whatsoever towards me in the light of the recent revelation, would be a much needed reprieve.
I rose from my chair, and strolled over.
When I arrived, he handed me a mug of steaming hot coffee doused with cream.
<
br /> I took a much needed sip. When I reopened my eyes, I found him watching me with interest and knew that the questions were coming.
“First of all,” he began. “Is it true?”
“The entire office believes it is,” I replied. “Why do you still have doubts?”
“Because, there’s no way that you would be able to so thoroughly hide it, especially from me.”
“I wasn’t hiding anything,” I refuted. “It just hadn’t come up.”
He seemed truly surprised then. “So it is true. You’re dating the CEO.”
When I truly didn’t deny it, his face fell with disappointment. “I thought I had a fucking chance,” he swore.
Coffee almost spurted from my nose in amusement.
He raised a hostile gaze to me “You’re laughing?”
“I’m sorry,” I said, patting the liquid from the corner of my lips. “I just didn’t expect that to be your comment. I thought that you’d push me away too, the way every other person seems to have.”
“You can say that again,” he said. “Even I am wondering why everyone is so butt hurt about this. One would think that you had an affair or something with someone else’s man.” He cocked his head in thought. “Well in a way, you kind of did.”
I was doubly amused. “What?”
“We all secretly set our eyes on him, some of us with more hope than others, but yesterday all of that was crushed. How did you do it? And you move fast. He hasn’t even been here that long.”
“Jeremy,” I said. “I didn’t meet him here. We met in Alanya, when I was still on vacation.”
His gaze widened, as things finally started to make more sense to him. We were interrupted then by my cubicle neighbor as she walked past. “Leah… Jeremy? Have you both seen the announcement that the VP just put out on the portal?”
My brows furrowed. “What announcement?”
“Your team’s Vita500 project, Leah,” she said. “It seems your client is being an asshole so the VP has made it an open brief and given until Thursday next week for any employee to come up with a good campaign strategy. The top three will be picked based on general popularity to present to the client on Friday, and whomever he goes with will be the winner.”
“What?” Jeremy asked.
“What exactly does general popularity mean?” I asked.
“It means,” she explained. “Every employee is going to be able to vote for the anonymous entries. The decision isn’t going to be made by some executive panel.”
I smiled to myself, and shook my head as Carter came to mind. She left us then, and I went over to the sink to rinse out my mug.
“Your man seems to have dealt the VP a serious blow,” Jeremy said.
“No comment,” I replied.
“Were you aware of this beforehand?” He asked.
I gave him a frown. “Of course not.”
“I believe you,” he said.
“But what makes you so sure that the CEO ordered this and not the VP himself?” I asked.
He smiled. “Because, I don’t think that this was just to give the employees a chance. It was perhaps also to test the VP, especially after what he did yesterday. If he had said no to the CEO’s request for this, then he would have made it clear that his alliance was not to the company or employees, but to his pride. That, Leah, would have been the start of his decline towards unemployment. Help me confirm if this theory is true from Mr. Edwards would you?”
I smacked his arm as I left the room, and returned to my desk. Picking up my phone, I texted Carter, ‘Any plans for lunch?’
My hand trembled as I placed the phone down. However, he did not respond. I waited with my heart in my throat and my gaze glued to my phone’s screen.
His response came, ‘No, not yet.’
I immediately rushed to reply before he disappeared again. ‘I’ll get us a sandwich. Do you want to come out with me, or can we have it in your office?’
‘Let’s have it here,’ he replied.
I released a deep sigh of relief.
By lunchtime, I hurried over to the coffee house, a short distance away from the office and ordered us both a chicken sandwich. I then returned to the office, and didn’t bother stopping on my floor as I headed over to his. When I arrived at his door, I found his secretary’s desk was unoccupied.
Glad at his absence, which I suspected Carter might have had a hand in. I gave three little knocks to his door.
His voice came from within, “Come in.”
I pushed the door open, and saw him behind his desk.
He lifted his gaze from the documents he was perusing in hand at my entrance.
I sent him a smile. “Do you want me to come over there, or do you want us to stay here?”
“I’ll be right there,” he replied.
With a nod, I headed over to one of the single seater sofas in his lounge area. I unpacked the sandwich and white chocolate cookies I had gotten for him, and soon enough I heard his approach.
I looked up to watch him, dressed simply today in a dark, round necked shirt, under an equally dark patterned blazer. His hair didn’t have a single strand out of place and his face was completely shaven, showing off skin so supple that it glistened.
It reminded me so much of the first time I’d seen him, and how I had been completely struck by his very presence. What a way we had come since then.
He reached me and instead of sitting by my side, took his seat on the edge of the coffee table opposite me, so he could face me directly.
This kind of proximity wasn’t every good for the rhythm of my heart, but I tried my best to remain composed as he retrieved his wrapped sandwich from me. He pulled the paper backwards and took a bite, while I focused on mine.
We were silent as we ate, occasionally stealing looks at each other and sending smiles, until I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew he was waiting on me by all means, to speak first. “You left, last night,” I said, my voice sounding smaller than I had intended. But I could do nothing to increase the tempo. I was shy and vulnerable with him and it stripped me bare of my usual established confidence. “Were you so angry that you couldn’t even bear to be in the same room with me for the night?”
He seemed unfazed as he replied, “I didn’t leave because I couldn’t bear to be with you. I just didn’t want you upset throughout the night. I stayed on the couch for a little bit, but then since I couldn’t fall asleep, I just went back to the hotel.”
“I wouldn’t have been upset, and I also missed you,” I told him.
I lifted my gaze to see the softness in his.
“I missed you too,” he said. “I won’t do it again.”
“Please don’t,” I said. “Even when we’re upset with each other, I don’t want us to be apart. And I wasn’t upset with you, I was just… conflicted. But now, I’ve thought things through and you’re right. I did nothing wrong and I shouldn’t act like a criminal, just because I’m dating you.”
His grin was blinding as he set his sandwich down. “I knew you’d come around.”
Before I knew it, his hand slid around my neck. I was pulled into a kiss that weakened my bones, and I almost fell into him when he ended it and sat back.
He stabilized me with a laugh and brushed the curls on the side of my head away from my face.
I shut my eyes, melting into his touch as my heart jumped around in my chest. “For the record, I’m sorry, Carter,” I said. “And thanks for always being on my side, and that of your employees. You’re a great boss, and lover.”
A deep emotion flashed in his eyes as he stared intently at me. “I’ll always be on your side, Leah. I hope that you’ll also always be on mine.”
“I will,” I promised.
He sealed it with yet another kiss.
I was on top of the world when I returned to my floor after lunch, and was even more ecstatic over my plan for the rest of the day. Since my scope of duties had now been significantly reduced, I accessed the employee’s portal and foun
d the announcement for the competition.
The rest of the afternoon was spent preparing and polishing up my proposal, and by the end of the day, I sent it in, anonymously as the requirements requested. Regardless of what happened from then on, my heart was now settled and grateful for the chance.
When I was done, most people had already left for the day, so I picked up my purse, and went home to Carter.
Chapter 34
Carter
At the end of the following week, I sat anxiously in my office, awaiting the result of Leah’s presentation to the Vita500 team. Just as I’d predicted, her anonymous proposal amongst two others had been selected, and I couldn’t wait to hear what the final result would be.
“Are you even listening to me?”
At the offended tone, I lifted my gaze and was reminded once more that Mark was sitting across from me. He had flown in from Minnesota to try to settle a discord about the suit at our Chicago’s office.
“I am,” I told him, the knots in my stomach tightening even further at the reminder of the legal annoyance. “I’ll have to ponder on the best way to counterattack this. I’ll get back to you tomorrow.”
“I say we just pay them off and make this whole thing go away.”
“And then make ourselves an easy target for anyone else who wakes up on the wrong side of the bed in the future? No way. You know what, I’ll head over there myself tomorrow, and when all this is resolved I’ll also stop by St. Paul to review things there.”
His smile was wide. “I was beginning to think that you’d never travel out of Indianapolis again.”
“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to, but yet here we are.”
His face fell. “Is that a shot at me? Because I’m going to send it right back to you. My job is to increase your assets, not help you manage them. With your move here, I have been bearing the brunt of the work and my salary has still remained the same.”
My phone vibrated with the arrival of a message then, so I picked it up. “You already earn much too much money for your own good, Garrity,” I said.
