A Curve Ball Called Love

Tiffany had noticed how Ellie threw herself at clients before but she could not compare it to the way she did it with Douglas. Her outfits had always been a little inappropriate but with Douglas’ arrival, they got shorter and tighter. Tiffany could also tell that Ellie had invested in quite a number of push up bras. Tiffany almost felt sorry for her. The kind of effort she was putting into trying to get noticed by Douglas was admirable and a little pitiful too since Tiffany knew exactly who had his heart. But as she realized, it wasn’t an easy thing to simply surrender herself to her feelings for Douglas. There was so much that could go wrong and she was scared every time she thought about it. The chemistry between her and Douglas was undeniable and as much as she tried to hide it, she still couldn’t do it. Even when Ellie Cavanagh stared daggers at her from time to time as if to mark her territory, she still couldn’t do much to hide what was between them.

***

Douglas had for a long time tried to stay away from Tiffany but it wasn’t exactly easy. After all, they did work closely together and while Douglas had made a business decision based on emotion, he didn’t have any regrets. Tiffany had done a great job of handling his public image. In just a short two months, his image had improved so much that he even had people approaching him for more business opportunities. That had never happened in his life because to the world, he was just another spoiled kid who was just lucky enough to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth. As far as everyone else knew, he did not know a thing about business and now, he could hardly keep up with the number of offers coming his way.

Since he and Tiffany began working together, he had endured keeping his distance from her but it was not exactly easy. Every time he saw her, he wanted her. He craved her body. He just wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her. He did his best to make sure that he respected her and kept his distance letting his body language do all his communication. He wasn’t so sure he was discreet.

It was in the way he stared at her during meetings and the way he complemented her a little too often. It was also in the way he stood a little too close to her any time he had the opportunity… she was having a hard time staying away from him. Before she knew it, she was allowing herself to be carried away by is charm. Allowing herself to be swayed by his words. The promise she’d made to herself was slowly fading as she found herself bending to his will more and more. She’d gone from staying away from him to having breakfast and lunch with him almost every single day. They also met for coffee after work just to catch up on the day and it hit Tiffany one Tuesday as she was sitting across him in a coffee shop that there really was no difference between a normal dating couple and the two of them. Their working together was no excuse for how much time they spent together. It happened in and out of the office and Douglas loved it so far. He’d promised to give Tiffany all the time she needed to earn her love and respect and so far, she seemed much more at ease being around him. What he didn’t know was that he’d already earned her respect.

***

It was on a Tuesday morning when Ian poked his head through Tiffany’s doorway.

“Hey, can I come in?” he asked and Tiffany raised an eyebrow.

Somehow, she knew that this wasn’t work related because he usually just walked in if he had something work related to talk to her about. It was usually a walk in and dump files on her desk situation as he narrated what the files were for. However, this was different. She knew that something big had happened or something was very, very wrong.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Vincent Abrahams. He quit.”

She shrugged and shook her head.

“Well, good for him, I guess. Right?” she asked and Ian walked into the office and slowly closed the door behind him.

“Well, it would have been good news for everyone at Entity but not this time.” He slowly walked towards the desk and had a seat. “You know that all assistant have some kind of informal club, right?”

Tiffany shook her head.

“And what do you do there? Discuss your bosses and find out which kind of devil wears Prada?” she asked, smiling.

Ian forced out a laugh.

“Actually, yes, but we also protect our bosses by sharing intel and some intel has been floating around the assistants’ pool.”

Tiffany leaned in. Her curiosity was painted all over her face.

“Well, out with it. Don’t keep me waiting here,” she pleaded.

“One of the assistants, Gemma Malone, just called me. She works for Leaders In Readership Publications,” Ian started and Tiffany nodded.

“Okay, what about her?”

“She just told me that Vincent is shopping a book to publishers in town,” he finally said.

Tiffany leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest.

“What?” she asked and he nodded.

“Yeah, and he’s promised to keep looking for a publisher even if he has to go out of state.”

Tiffany was confused. She’d known Vincent for a long time. Almost as long as she’d been working at Entity, and in all that time she’d never known him to be a writer.

“What book?” she asked. “The man was known for his one-word text messages. Even his emails were short. They were never more than three sentences long.”

Ian nodded and shrugged.

“The situation is even worse.”

She shook her head.

“How could the situation possibly be worse?” she asked.

“The book is a tell-all and it’s based on his time working here.”

Her eyes grew wide.

“What?” she asked.

“Yeah, and a big chunk of the book is about you know who.”

Tiffany shook her head.

“Let me guess, Douglas Ingram?” she asked and he nodded. She took a long, deep breath and sighed loudly. That was perhaps the worst news she could ever handle. But then again, what did she expect working in a public relations firm? “What could he possibly know about Douglas? He didn’t know enough about him to write a paragraph, let alone a book.”

 “Well, he’s playing the field a little bit,” Ian said. “The book features some of Entity’s other clients as well. Xavier Morrison, Howard Lutz, Terry Anne Chase…” Ian shook his head. “But he’s spending a lot of ink on Douglas.”

Tiffany shrugged.

“First off, he can’t do that. Everything he heard and saw while working in here is covered under the confidentiality clause of his contract. He cannot do that.”

“That’s what I told Gemma but I’m afraid Vincent is still a little salty about his office.” Ian shrugged. “Something tells me that he isn’t going to give up. God knows he can afford the legal battle.”