In My Office, Now.

by June, Victoria

  She might appear crusty and hard-headed on the outside, but I was coming to respect and like Mrs. Kendall. Ethan called her the "old battle-axe", but grudgingly admitted he was as glad as I that she was on our side. Her stubborn will was indomitable, and she was just as determined to save her house from demolition as Ethan and I were.

  The elevator slowed to a stop at the eleventh floor with a cheery, musical 'bing'. I held my breath. The doorman had become accustomed to my coming and going at all hours and said nothing more than a cheery hello or goodbye, depending on which direction I was headed, but in all the time that I'd been practically sneaking in and out of Ethan's apartment, I'd yet to run across anyone else, so it didn't bode well for the rest of the day when the doors slid open to reveal the handsome, blond man I'd met more than a month earlier in the very same elevator.

  He stepped in and eyed my rumpled clothing, recycled from the day before until I could get home to shower and change. I wore no make-up and had thrown my hair into a messy ponytail to keep it out of my face on the drive home. One look in Mr. Mallory's brown eyes told me he knew exactly what Ethan and I had been up to.

  "Good morning," he drawled, standing a little too close than was proper in the large elevator. I took a step away as the doors slid closed and the elevator lurched into motion. "You're up awful early, Gorgeous. Looks like it was a late night. And by the way, how is Anderson?"

  I tore my gaze from the control panel of the elevator to look up at Lawrence Mallory. His handsome face was a mask of bland courtesy, but the look in eyes said much more. He wasn't asking after Ethan's health.

  "Fantastic, actually," I replied coldly, garnering a somewhat shocked look from the haughty man. "Makes me see stars, thanks for asking."

  Mr. Mallory opened his mouth to reply but evidently thought better of it and closed it with an audible snap which had me stifling the urge to laugh. He really was terribly ridiculous. Probably thought he was God's gift to women and couldn't understand why I didn't want him. Sure he was cute, but he lacked any sort of the charisma and power which Ethan seemed to easily radiate. Mallory's handsome face was painted with a look which bordered on contempt and whether it was for me or Ethan, I couldn't be sure.

  "Have a nice day," I taunted with a smirk as the elevator slowed to a stop at the lobby. I could feel his eyes follow me out.

  ********

  The meeting was between Mrs. Kendall and the land developers took place at City Hall and to say that the decision to put us in the largest, most intimidating boardroom I'd ever seen was a co-incidence would have been a lie. I was glad to be sitting between Mrs. Kendall and Mr. Maddock. We'd all decided having Ethan attend probably wasn't the best idea, since his ability to control his temper and hide his dislike was questionable on a good day, never mind when he was passionately fighting for something. Mr. Maddock had taken an additional interest in our project since we'd begun our fight against City Hall, so it was of little surprise when he offered to accompany me and Mrs. Kendall to the meeting in Ethan's stead.

  To my left Mrs. Kendall was chatting quietly with her lawyer while we waited for the City Hall officials, the land developers, and their teams of lawyers to arrive. Beside me Mr. Maddock fidgeted with his fountain pen.

  "Can I ask you a question, Ms. Kovacs?" he asked quietly in a soft spoken, grandfatherly voice which belied his quick mind. I nodded. "You've been working on this project with Anderson for how long?"

  "Almost three months," I replied automatically.

  "So it's fair to say that you know him pretty well by now."

  I could feel the hot blush creep up my cheeks despite my frantic desire to keep it down. I nodded, saying nothing. Where was Maddock going with this line of questioning? My heart raced.

  "I've been giving Ethan a great deal of thought lately," Maddock confessed, giving me a small, reassuring smile. "And I've been thinking of making him partner once this whole kerfuffle with City Hall is finished. What do you think?"

  "I-it's hardly my decision to make, Sir," I stammered. My ears were ringing with disbelief. To my left Mrs. Kendall and her lawyer chattered on.

  "I know," Maddock replied jovially. "But I figure you've gotten the measure of him by now and I value your opinion. No other architect in the firm has worked with him on a project for so long, he usually scares them away after a week or two. Ethan's worked for me for twenty years, so I know his worth, but after all it won't be me working with him in the long run. My retirement is looming, Ms. Kovacs, and I'd like to know I'm leaving my firm in the hands of the right person."

  I sat in stunned silence, wishing Ethan could be privy to this conversation. He'd worked his ass off for Maddock for two decades and I knew unequivocally that he deserved the promotion. I told Maddock so in just a few words. He nodded and patted my arm in his grandfatherly way.

  "That seals it, Ms. Kovacs. After all this is over, Anderson gets promoted to partner and you get promoted from junior architect. Just don't tell him before I do, I'd like to break the news myself."

  I nodded without speaking, hearing Maddock as if from far away. Both Ethan and I would get promotions? I'd be a full architect in the firm? I felt a little dizzy and resisted the urge to lay my head down on the conference table to catch my breath.

  Behind us the boardroom doors opened and a veritable flood of suit-clad men washed in bearing briefcases, laptops, and rolled-up charts and plans. The land developers had arrived and at the end of the line was a handsome blond I recognized with a groan. He fixed me with a knowing smirk before seating himself across the table from me. I felt the pit of my stomach drop out as Lawrence Mallory sized up the figure of Maddock sitting beside me. I had little doubt he knew exactly who Mr. Maddock was and had even smaller doubt of what Mr. Mallory would say to us when he had the chance.

  "Ladies and Gentlemen," a tall, grey-haired man in an Armani suit said from the head of the table. "I'd like to introduce a few key players from Green and Worthington, they're the city's foremost land developers and City Hall's partners in this project." He rattled off a list of names, none of which I recognized save that of Lawrence Mallory. Mrs. Kendall's lawyer stood and did the same for our side of the table, which was a significantly shorter list of names.

  I only half-heard the opening negotiations, which were tempered with legal terms I was only vaguely familiar with. Both Mrs. Kendall and her lawyer seemed comfortable with the entire procedure, and referred only a few times to either Maddock or myself to answer questions regarding the building's architectural significance or perceived structural issues.

  Mrs. Kendall played the batty old millionaire character to perfection, stumbling over her words and acting confused at times, both of which were completely out of her usual mien. The land developers lapped it all up and it was evident to even a rookie like me that they thought she was half-senile and totally ignorant. Lawrence Mallory's cocky grin revealed what the rest of his team was thinking. They thought they had the sale in the bag.

  My unsettled stomach calmed as the meeting stretched endlessly on. At this rate, Mrs. Kendall and her lawyer could keep the boys at Green and Worthington strung along for months before they expected her to make a decision. There must be a great deal of money involved for them not to rush her.

  It took much too long for the meeting to conclude, but when it did I breathed a sigh of relief which was just a little too loud. Maddock was filing out the room behind me and laughed at my loud sigh.

  "Don't worry, my dear," he said kindly as we made our way to the exit. "You'll get used to this sort of business as your career progresses. You've conducted yourself with nothing but the utmost professionalism and I do believe you're an asset to my firm." I nodded, cheered by the encouragement. Maddock was an all right sort of guy, and more than that, he wanted to make me a full-fledged architect in the firm. I smiled broadly at him.

  "And that other thing, Ms. Kovacs, about what I said earlier," Maddock hinted, bringing back to my mind his promise of Ethan's pr
omotion as well. "Please don't tell Anderson just yet, I'd like it to be our little secret."

  "More secrets Ms. Kovacs?" asked a smooth, cool voice from behind Maddock. I glanced over my boss's stooped shoulder to see Lawrence Mallory smiling cruelly. The bottom dropped out of my stomach. "Don't tell me you're sleeping with both your bosses? Utmost professionalism indeed."

  Mr. Mallory sailed nonchalantly past, leaving a shocked Maddock in his wake. "You should have called me," he whispered. "Have a nice day."

  I stood motionless, blushing fifty shades of red, too stunned to say anything, numb to everything except the look of old-fashioned horror on Maddock's grandfatherly face.

  Chapter Seven

  It was the longest twenty minutes of my life, and I regretted in a moment the decision to carpool to the City Hall meeting with Mr. Maddock. On the way to the meeting we'd chattily discussed business; on the ride back the silence hung awkwardly between us.

  I was doing my best not to feel guilty. After all, Ethan and I had done nothing wrong. There wasn't a written rule stipulating that interoffice dating was forbidden. It just wasn't done and everyone knew that. I wanted to explain to Mr. Maddock that I never had the intention of sleeping with Ethan, that wasn't the kind of girl I was or the sort of behavior I regularly indulged in, but his silent, taciturn mood didn't encourage conversation, so by the time he'd pulled his expensive Cadillac into the parking lot of the office I all but sprinted out of it to escape the uncomfortable silence.

  Ethan was lurking in the reception area, no doubt waiting to hear of our triumphant success over the schmucks at City Hall. All I wanted to do was intercept him and whisk him off for a quick debriefing of the entire Lawrence Mallory situation, but Mr. Maddock was right behind me and I had to begrudgingly admit he was pretty spry for a senior citizen.

  "Anderson. My office. Now," Maddock grumbled as he stalked past, drawing amazed looks from Ethan and the receptionist. The shock on Ethan's face upon hearing his favorite order being barked at him for once did me in. My wobbly knees wouldn't hold me up any longer, and I collapsed in a nearby chair with an audible gasp which melted into frantic, weary giggles. Ethan eyed me warily, but thought better of disobeying Maddock's orders. I watched his retreating back with hysteria-tinged laughter.

  When I'd collected myself, I made my way slowly to Ethan's office. Since we'd started working on the Kendall project in earnest I'd hardly been at my own desk, hell, I'd hardly been aware of what else was happening at Maddock Architects. All the other junior architects had been giving me a wider berth too, although whether that was because of something I'd done or my association with Ethan, I'd yet to figure out. Personally I didn't much care what the other juniors thought of me, but I wasn't looking forward to them all knowing about my little office fling, and it was only a matter of time before they did.

  I settled myself at Ethan's drafting table, where my current drawing of the east-facing side elevation was only half completed. I stared at it unseeingly for the longest time, wondering over and over what was happening in Maddock's office. What would Ethan's response be? What did Maddock think of me now? Maddock was such an old-fashioned sort of man, from a generation vastly different than my own, or even Ethan's. The sick, heavy feeling in my stomach only intensified as the minutes dragged on.

  When Ethan finally did enter the room he did it so quietly and so coldly that I knew something was wrong. I'd much rather that he'd yelled and slammed doors. The stony, blank-faced Ethan was infinitely more frightening.

  "Perhaps," he said softly, closing the office door with a quiet click. "You would like to explain to me just what the hell happened today?"

  "D-didn't Maddock tell you?" I gasped. I watched Ethan with caution, afraid to spark his ire further.

  "Oh, I've heard what Maddock has to say on the subject, Emma, but I'd like to hear your side of the story. And I suggest you tell it well."

  I considered his handsome, expressionless face, trying to find some glimmer of warmth in his blue-grey eyes. There was none. The first time I opened my mouth, no sound came out of it. I had to fight the urge to get up and bolt from the room, anything but face another second of Ethan's inscrutable gaze.

  Somehow the words happened. In a rush I told Ethan all about my early morning run-in with Lawrence Mallory in the elevator, about how rude I'd been to him, how sarcastic and condescending. I hadn't thought anything of it at the time, it had all seemed so trite, but these things always have a way of coming back to bite me in the ass. Bad karma, I suppose.

  How I was to know Lawrence Mallory worked for the land developer? That I'd ever have to have any dealings with him in a professional sense? And when he walked into that boardroom, I'd been prepared to be completely professional with him, to ignore our little unpleasantries in the elevator, but he hadn't extended me the same courtesy. I didn't know what I should have said to Maddock about it afterwards, so I said nothing.

  Ethan listened silently to my increasingly panicked explanations. I could hear myself repeating the same useless excuses time and again but was powerless to keep the words from pouring out of my mouth. I was desperate for some sign from him that I hadn't made a huge mistake, hadn't jeopardized both of our careers simply because I couldn't keep my mouth shut to Mallory.

  Ethan gave me no quarter. Eventually I grew tired of my cyclical babblings and stopped talking almost mid-sentence, and still Ethan was silent.

  I couldn't take the stillness in the room. Every cell in my body was straining, waiting for some sort of response, some sort of emotion. Anger, disappointment, relief: anything would have satisfied me at that moment.

  "What did Maddock say, Ethan?" I asked after a long stretch of painful silence.

  Ethan regarded me emotionlessly for a moment, as if he didn't really see me, like I was someone he'd accidentally bumped into on a crowded sidewalk. It felt like every moment we'd had together over the past few weeks had just ceased to exist. They counted for nothing if he could look at me like that.

  "Basically," Ethan rasped, "I've taken advantage of a young girl who knows no better and should be ashamed of myself." His voice was dry, rough-edged with sarcasm, and wholly unnerving to hear. "I've been distracted by a nice set of breasts and a pretty face to the detriment of my focus and, hence, my career."

  I watched wide-eyed and silent as Ethan began pacing the length of the room. It was a gesture of old, one I hadn't seen since my first days of dealing with Ethan and it didn't bode well for the situation that he'd begun it again.

  "Maddock feels I've been a fool to allow things to happen between us. After all..." Ethan paused to look over at me. His silver eyes were lifeless in the dark hollows of his face. He'd aged over the course of the afternoon; the bitterness had crept back into the lines around his eyes and mouth. "After all, I have a notoriously bad record with women and I should know better than to expect it would be any different with someone like you."

  "Someone like me?" The disbelief in my voice was evident. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It didn't sound like Ethan speaking at all, but an empty husk of the man I'd come to know.

  "Someone young, beautiful, and ambitious. Someone who sees what they want and will do anything to get it. You're not to be blamed, of course," Ethan hurried on before I could interrupt his tirade. "You're inexperienced; you don't know all the rules of the game yet. Well, I'm certain this has been a good lesson for you. The next time you'll have the routine down pat."

  There were no words, only an aching throb in my stomach that would never fade. It would have hurt less if he'd hit me.

  "Maddock is taking you off the project and assigning me another junior architect. You can work with Jim Farrell; he's married and has like, ten kids. There's enough busy work to do around here to keep you and your considerable talents well employed. Considerable architectural talents," Ethan added, "as to your other considerable talents, well... I'm afraid I can't help you with those."

  Everything felt numb and acutely pain
ful at the same time, like a foot that's fallen asleep. The room spun around me and the edges of my vision dimmed and faded despite my deep, gasping breaths.

  "I-is that what you think of me?" I spat out, unsurprised at the bitterness which infused each syllable; apparently it was contagious.

  Ethan didn't reply, but he stopped his pacing and stood motionless in the centre of the room. My disbelief kept me frozen in place for a time, each of Ethan's accusations sat festering in the air between us. I didn't know what to say, what to do to make him see his mistake, but eventually my astonishment and doubt faded away to reveal an emotion I was much more familiar with: anger.

  "No," I said loudly, jumping up from my perch on the drafting stool and crossing the room in a few angry strides. "This is unacceptable, Ethan. That's not how I am and you know it!"

  Ethan regarded me blandly. My fury increased.

  "This is fucking ridiculous. I can't believe for one minute that you would think I was capable of using you like that. After all this time do you know nothing about me? I don't know about the women in your past, Ethan, but you know I'm not like them. You know." I tried to hold Ethan's gaze but he looked away, focussing on a spot over my shoulder. I took another step closer until I could feel the heat radiating off his broad chest.