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"Not needed," I replied. "And she is right, I do look like a bimbo, I guess.”
“A gorgeous one." He smiled.
“I don’t know but I do know I shouldn’t be bothered, but I did want to go to medical school to qualify for more significant occupational labels than 'bimbo.'"
"You're quite pretty to be a doctor," he replied. "I don’t know if I'd let you be the one to operate if I was fighting for my life."
"Exactly," I replied. "Everywhere I look, there's a con, but then..." I turned to him and reached out to straighten his bow tie. I hadn’t intended to basically out our relationship in this way, but when the eyes began to turn on us, I knew then that it was too late to hide. After straightening his bow tie, I looked straight into his eyes and continued with what I was saying.
"But then what?" he asked, and I replied, my decision made.
"Being with you, the pros, that is worth all the other cons."
"You're amazing," he leaned forward to press a kiss on my cheek. "And don't forget that you are free to do whatever you need to. Don't feel pressured by anyone."
I nodded, my eyes going across the crowd and indeed noting the eyes that turned in surprise at us. A kiss on the cheek was not exactly scandalous but given that I was supposed to be just his secretary, it sent quite a multitude of informative messages to those around and those beyond.
The next day in the office, I received my first well-wisher. It was a photo posted by Rosalie in our group chat, and by the time I opened it up, all hell broke loose. I hadn't even arrived at the office yet, but after last night, all had been calm, so it was my hope that perhaps not everyone had seen.
However, there it was in the chat: me being kissed on the cheek by Guy, and the girls were completely confused.
"What's happening?" came the interrogation. "What is this, Hannah?"
"Yikes. You really would do anything to win the bet, wouldn't you? You're formidable, respect," Sarah asked.
I frowned at this because on the surface, it seemed like a simple comment, but how the hell was it? It felt like an insult.
"It was just a thousand dollars, though. You didn't have to go that far. Are you sleeping with him?"
"Wait, is this how you maintained your job at the other offices too? You had extracurriculars with your bosses?"
Laughing emoji’s filled the screen, but Faye soon called everyone to order.
"You guys are being rude. They might have just taken a liking to each other."
"Of course they did. Or I'm sorry, she did. We've worked with him, Faye, and all the time there he never even looked at any of us. He didn't even contact any women, we were his personal secretaries, remember? So, what does this say, that we weren’t pretty enough? Or he just fired us because we didn’t tickle his fancy. I'm not mad at you, Hannah, you had to do what you had to do for the bet and your job, but this freaking annoys me. I'm still trying to get a good position, and here I was thinking I was fired on merit. Turns out my boobs just weren’t big enough!"
I scoffed then in disbelief as I looked out the window. Sure, I'd known I would get this backlash, but from these girls? I didn't expect the blatant anger.
"So, are we still proceeding with the class action or not?" Sarah asked.
"And miss a chance to get millions from that devilish man? Absolutely freaking not. We have everything we'll need. The lawyer at my new law firm has always had a hatred for him, so he's on it with me. We also have inside help. I thought at some point Hannah would be willing to help us, but that will probably not happen now, given that she's sleeping with the enemy."
I thought of responding, however, I understood now that anything said would be used against me. I felt hurt. I'd kept my distance from them from the beginning anyway, and we'd only met because of our joint interest, but now there was no need for that.
So, I simply remained silent and put my phone away, but I couldn’t help but wonder about who had sent Rosalie the picture.
Soon enough, I arrived at the office, and of course, I couldn’t possibly miss all the stares that were directed at me. Some were casual, some were intense, and some were extremely irritated. But in the end, I tried my best to convince myself that it didn’t matter.
I got to my desk on time; however, I had barely settled in when the first upsetting visitor for the day came knocking. Sandra.
"You know, when I heard you were invited to the Templeton Charity function, I was surprised. Most colleagues don’t get invited to that, and Guy is unapologetic about it. Only John and a few senior partners. It's more like a selected gathering than anything else. And then I heard you were going, and my mouth literally dropped. But then I saw the picture, and I understood."
"What picture?" I asked as I set my bag down and turned on my computer.
"Someone sent it to me," she said. "I still can’t believe it."
"Show me?" I asked, and she was a bit taken aback by this.
