Claire could not hide in the restroom forever. She knew this would happen. Everyone with TV knew already. She had spent the rest of the weekend explaining to her mother and it was on holding for now. She had promised to explain everything to her this coming weekend.
Now she was sitting on the toilet, hiding in the restroom from every employee in the building. She heard the door open and three women entered.
"Can you believe it? I always knew something was off about her." There was no mistaking Julia's voice. Claire was pretty sure she would recognize her voice even if she was under a lake of ice due to so much resentment it carried. "How else do you go from a fifth floor intern to being the PA of the CEO?"
"By seducing the boss, it seems." Jesse said and they burst into a laughter. Claire rolled her eyes. Did they not know she was in there or something?
"I'd love to seduce Ryan Gordon." The third woman who Claire didn't recognize said in a dreamy voice. "He's so sexy."
"Don't forget gorgeous." Julia chimed in. "Whatever did he see in that bitch! Sure, she had a good figure and a pretty face but I'm prettier." Claire wanted to laugh. So that's why Julia hated her so much.
Deciding that she won't be hiding forever, she straightened her skirt, flushed the toilet and went out.
Judging by the looks on their faces, they hadn't known someone was there, especially her. Claire walked to the sink besides Julia were she was applying her make up. "Ladies, don't you know it's wrong to fantasize about another woman's husband?"
Julia's face went from pink to red with anger. Claire was pretty sure she was going to eat her alive. Before Julia opened her mouth to say whatever vile things she wanted to say to her, Claire continued, "If I were you, I would be careful how I speak about me. You wouldn't want to make the boss's wife your enemy by calling her names, would you?" She loved the faces she was seeing on the three ladies in front of her. She probably should feel bad about what she was doing, right? She would feel bad later, right now she had to deal with these three.
"Silence suits you, Julia." She rinsed her hands and walked out forever so graciously.
She ignored all the looks and whispers from people as she passed in the hallway on her way to her desk.
"Mrs Gordon, in here please." Ryan's voice said through her intercom. She heard a 'awwww' voice from her neighbor, Ana, who had apparently heard Ryan. She wanted to dig a hole and bury herself from embarrassment.
"Can you not...?" Claire had started to say before she turned around to face Ryan with two other guests in his office. Great,just great Claire. "Sorry, I didn't know you had company."
"Claire?"
She raised her eyes to the voice which had uttered her name. Her eyes widen in surprise. "Gary?"
"Oh my God, Claire! It is you." He hugged her and she hugged him back. She couldn't believe he was standing in front of her after all these years. He hadn't changed a bit, well maybe he had gotten a feet taller. "You haven't changed a bit."
"You two know each other?" Ryan asked.
"Yea, Claire and I go way back." Gary answered Ryan and turned to her. "What are you doing here?"
"I work here."
"And she's my wife." Claire thought she heard a hint of jealousy in his tone but she quickly brushed the thought off.
"Oh. So this is The Claire. Never in my thirty-two years did I ever imagine this."
"Hi." The other man extended his hand which she took for a shake. "I'm James Thompson, their best friend."
"Nice to meet you."
"These two are the CEOs of the Chicago and LA branch." Ryan explained to her to which she just nodded. They made small talk and then excused herself from the trio but not before she planted a small kiss on his cheek and whispered a goodbye.
***
Ryan watched her as she exited his office. He couldn't help the flush of pink on her cheeks when he had called her his wife; and the way she had handled the situation with his friends, there was no doubt he had chosen the perfect woman for the job. And then there was the small kiss. He was still pretending not to affected by it.
"You failed to mention your wife was very beautiful." James said to him which he ignored and turned to Gary.
"You failed to mention you know my wife." Gary laughed and James joined in.
"The great Gordon is jealous."
Was he that obvious?
So what if he was jealous that his only single friend in the group knew his wife from way back?
Maybe they dated.
"Before you feed yourself all the wrong information, no, I didn't date her. We went to school together. I kinda had a thing for her sister but she was a junior and I was a senior so, you know."
He might as well as come clean and say he knew nothing about Claire. He realized he had focused sorely on his side only. So he just nodded at Gary and changed the subject.
"Enough talks about my wife, shall we do business?" and just like that, the mood had shifted to serious.
***
Claire's heart almost stopped when the elevator door opened to reveal Ryan leg crossed, hands in the pockets, leaning against the wall. "You went to lunch without me?" he gestured to her take away with his eyes.
"Well, you were busy with your friends, I thought not disturb you." she shrugged.
"Well, I guess we're sharing." Images of the time they fed each other popped into her mind. Judging from the narrowing of his eyes, he was thinking the same thing. "You coming in?"
Claire wanted to take the stairs but being on the ground floor and working on the fourteenth floor proved to be difficult. She entered inside and stood as far away from him as possible. Ryan pressed the second floor button and she did a little dance in her head. Maybe she wouldn't have to endure him for too long.
He didn't get out on the second floor. He pressed the forth floor.
Ding. Still he didn't get out. It was like that until they reached their floor; doors opening after every two floors. She wanted to ask what that was about but she decided to keep quiet.
Okay
So he wasn't kidding about sharing.
"You do know you're the boss, right? No one would question you even if you decided to have lunch at nine in the morning." Claire stated after he practically devoured her lunch. Good thing she had brought two burgers.
"So you were gonna eat these two by yourself?" he asked as he stabbed in fork into her salad.
"Hey, a girl's gotta eat."
"Don't get me wrong, I love a woman who can eat." Another stab.
Claire tried not to react to his statement.
"I was thinking," stab, "maybe you should knock off early.
"Why?"
"Well, I can't have people think I'm abusing my wife. You already work for me as my PA."
"They already think I got this job because I slept with you. Now I'm getting favours? They already hate me as it is."
"Why does it matter what everyone thinks when you and I both know the truth?"
"It does to me. I want people to know that I work hard by myself. I got promoted by myself not because I married the boss. So no. We'll get off together."
Ryan nodded at her. "Okay, I understand. But we'll have lunch together."
"Three days a week."
"Five."
"Two."
"Okay, okay. Three." she smiled which he returned. They continued their lunch in silence, with her stealing glances at him.