Chapter 10 : Rumor Has It

**Isa

For a man who low-key warned me to be professional at work, Callan was sure looking like a hypocrite. Every day it was something new, some problem, some miscommunication, some expectation that wasn't met.

As it turned out, I had to pride myself on not murdering my boss for over a week. Everything I did, every report I turned in, every presentation I gave, EVERYTHING had "room for improvement."

Of course, as a businesswoman, I knew that everything DOES have room for improvement. But, occasionally, a person likes to hear they did a good job.

"What, what is it THIS time?!" I finally snapped as I walked back into Callan's office at Jeffery's bidding. Callan's office was becoming my second home. Pretty soon, I was going to pitch a tent in the conversation corner.

Callan raised an eyebrow at me.

"Sir?" I added tersely.

"Better, but still insubordinate," Callan intoned, looking back down at the leather-bound folder in his hands. He was standing with his suit jacket draped over the back of his chair, his tie loosened, and the top button of his shirt undone.

I followed the tanned length of his neck to the high V in his shirt, wondering how he could possibly be tan when he spent so much time in the office.

"Isa?" Callan asked. "Did you have something you wanted to say?"

I had a few choice words, but I swallowed them. "No, sir."

"I thought perhaps an apology might be in order," Callan said. His eyes seemed to twinkle when he said it.

"Don't push your luck," I muttered. I stomped over to him, letting myself get enveloped in the bergamot haze that was Callan Arison. I didn't know how I could still find it attractive. I didn't know how I could still find HIM attractive. "What did I do this time?"

Callan frowned when I didn't apologize to him, and his tone became clipped as he spoke. "I hear you've been speaking to outside marketing entities about your ideas for our company."

"What now?" I asked, thinking my eyes might just bulge out of my skull.

"I have it on good authority that you've been lunching with other marketing directors and marketing chiefs...." Callan rephrased.

"I can't have lunch with my colleagues now?" I snapped.

Callan's lips pressed into a thin, disapproving line. "They aren't your colleagues. They're our competition—"

"Not one of them works for a brand management agency! Did your 'good authority' tell you that? We've known each other since school! Of course we bounce ideas off each other. I would never share anything proprietary with them—" I argued.

"No, you won't. And to help ensure that, I'm asking that you stop discussing business with them," Callan said firmly.

I counted backward from twenty. Twice. "How exactly do you expect me to learn, then?"

"You lead a competent marketing department. And you can always ask me." Callan folded his arms, standing his ground.

I wanted to stomp on his foot, but I didn't.

"I understand your concern, Mr. Arison, but I won't stop meeting my friends for an occasional lunch or dinner. Maybe you don't understand because you don't have anyone close to you other than your personal assistant who was handed down to you from your father, but some of us actually have friends who we care about. So no, I will not stop meeting with them," I said quickly. I didn't want to give him room to interrupt me.

Callan narrowed his eyes at me and clicked his tongue. "You're awfully stubborn," he said.

He focused on my face for a long moment, making me uncomfortable. Even under his authoritative gaze, it wasn't the potential punishment I had waiting for speaking out of line that made me quiver…

"At least promise that you'll not discuss business with them?" he pleaded.

"So I can't rant to them about my boss either then?" I muttered.

Callan chuckled dryly. "What could you possibly have to rant about?"

I gnashed my teeth together and forced a smile. He always had to have the last word, didn't he? Well, he could be childish and if he wanted, but I decided not to let him get to me.

Regardless of what he thought, there was nothing unprofessional about meeting my friends and talking about work. It wasn't like I worked for the FBI.

***

"I mean, the audacity of that man," I grumbled.

David poured me another drink from the bottle of wine we ordered for our table. "He does have a rather big ego. Of course, he thinks he knows best."

Myalin shook her head. "It's something more than that I think," she mumbled.

I didn't know what she meant, but I didn't have time to ask. Jonas and Rosie walked up to our table and pulled out chairs for themselves.

"I heard we were complaining about the big boss man," Jonas grunted as he squatted down into his chair next to me.

"Oh, we could go on for days about Callan," Rosie said. "But I'm intrigued. Are you having some issues with him still? Is he picking on you?"

I sighed. I had told myself that I wasn't going to let him get to me, but truthfully, his constant disapproval was starting to wear me down. "Maybe he's picking on me, or maybe I'm just not cut out for this job."

"Don't say that," David scolded. He draped his arm casually over the back of my chair. "Your department is actually doing really well. I should know as the talent agent. I know talent when I see it."

"Or maybe he's just repeating old habits," Rosie whispered across the table. Her eyes had gossip written all over them.

I had to admit that I was curious to know more about the rumors I'd heard about Callan. "Old habits?" I asked.

Myalin nudged me. "Brace yourself," she muttered.

Rosie wiggled down into her seat and leaned closely into the group. Everyone around the table inched in to listen.

"The last few girls to work in your position had similar complaints about him," Rosie began as if she were telling an ancient tale of mystery and danger. "It's strange, because, while he does certainly critique us, that's the only position he rains hell down upon."

This was already feeling both close to home and far-fetched at the same time. I glanced at David to get his opinion about what to believe. He shrugged with one shoulder. Unhelpful.

I chugged my glass of wine and listened in.

"So Rachel, Lucy, and Carmen—they were the last three girls to come through—all complained about Callan. He started asking them into his office… a LOT…" Rosie's raised eyebrow said it all. "...And then one day, out of the blue, suddenly they stopped complaining as much. Their work didn't seem to get better or worse in their time here, but they made regular visits to his office. We hardly saw him during that time…"

"And then they would randomly quit… or perhaps be let go," Jonas finished for Rosie.

"I don't get it," I said.

Rosie reached across the table and patted my hand. "You poor, innocent girl. As far as we could all tell, he was taking advantage of them, maybe coercing them into things...."

I jerked my hand back. "What? No way."

That didn't make any sense at all. Suddenly, my heart was racing. Maybe I had chugged the wine too fast. Maybe it was the whiplash of Rosie's gossip. I felt dizzy.

Jonas nodded slowly at me with a twist of pity curled on his lips. I glanced at David. He was the only person at the table who seemed rather emotionless about this whole thing. Still, unhelpful.

I grabbed for the wine again. "He might be a prick, but I don't think he's like that," I said, thinking back to the version of Callan I first met. There was a sweet, innocent side to him, and he never once made me feel pressured.

Work was different, obviously, because he had certain expectations regarding my performance for his company. Oh, and there was the fact he didn't remember me. If he had, then wouldn't it be even easier for him to try and take advantage of me?

I poured myself some more wine.

"Isa, you might want to slow down," David's voice echoed in my ear.

Myalin was watching me closely with concern. She must have caught my growing anxiety because, thankfully, she changed the subject. Something about her brother and his minor league baseball friends having a game soon.

I couldn't participate because I was still stuck on the rumors.

***

"Isa?"

The voice I was hearing was coming from somewhere above me. It felt like I was underwater, like someone from the surface was trying to reach me.

"C'mon, I'll get you home. Just tell me your address," he said.

"David?" I mumbled.

I reached up and felt a slightly stubbled chin.

"Yes, it's me," he said. "I've gotta get you home. What's your address?"

"Just bring her to my house," I heard Myalin suggest.

David huffed. With my eyes refusing to open and my ears hardly able to work, I didn't quite understand what was going on. But I just relaxed into the sudden warmth that lifted me into the air.

I felt safe and cared for, so I let my fuzzy mind rest in the darkness and the scent of fresh linen.

***

"We are not going out on a Thursday again," I said, clutching my throbbing forehead.

Myalin opened the door for me. "I don't think the problem was that is was Thursday. I think the problem was that you drank all that wine by yourself."

I quickly shrugged off my coat as we entered our office area. I was hot with embarrassment. I flung it onto the coat rack in the corner and adjusted the blouse Myalin had let me borrow from her closet.

"I don't still smell like alcohol or anything, right?" I asked her in a low voice.

She chuckled and shook her head. "Nah, you're good, girl."

My car keys suddenly jingled in the air in front of me, a hand holding them over my head. I swiveled around to find David there with a playful smirk on his face.

"Glad to see you made it in today. Lucky for you, your car made it also," he said.

I lifted my palm up and he dropped my keys into them. "Thanks," I said, a blush sneaking into my cheeks. I vaguely recalled how he had carried me out to Myalin's car. I was sure my dead weight was not easy to carry.

"So does that mean the rumors are true?" a voice chirped from a cubicle nearby.

I squinted in confusion.

"What rumor?" Myalin asked.

The blonde girl, Candance, rose up from her office chair and smiled at us. She looked between me and David.

"Are you two really an item?" she asked. "Are you the new office romance everyone has been speculating about?"

David gave a short laugh but didn't deny it.

"N-no," I said softly.

Candance eyeballed us closely for a moment, looking us both up and down. "If you say so," she said with obvious disbelief, and she sunk back into her workspace.

Myalin elbowed me lightly. "I wouldn't think anything about it. Just ignore it, and it'll pass over in no time," she told me.

I glanced at David who stood there silent and with a smile stretched across his face. I couldn't help but feel lighter when I looked at him. If he wasn't worried about a silly rumor, then I didn't need to be either. Besides, it was bound to happen with as close as we had become.

"Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it," Jonas said, suddenly appearing in the doorway. "Those kinds of rumors pop up all of the time."