Chapter Three
The trip to London had been all too brief, but Verity decided to turn her attention to Stavros, and her date goal.
She did think, a little bit, about the way that Alex had praised her after the meeting. He had told her what a good job she had done, and something had lit up inside of her.
Pleasing him was one of the nicest feelings she could think of. And it wasn’t because he was more important than anyone else—it was only that he was so taciturn and difficult to read that when she knew he was happy with her it felt like something came alive inside of her.
She was used to walking on eggshells. She had grown up that way.
In a house filled with volatile adults, who held everybody at the mercy of their moods.
Her siblings had then learned how to weaponize those moods.
Aim them at each other, and Verity had done everything she could to stay away from it. To stay away from them.
It wasn’t like that with Alex. Yes, he had a mercurial nature. She could understand why people were afraid of him. But, she knew how to keep things running smoothly, and so she never took the brunt of his temper.
She didn’t spend her time trying to avoid his ill will, and as a result, she was able to enjoy the feeling of earning his approval.
She collected those compliments; she thought of them as shiny rocks that she carried around in her pockets. Glimmering pieces of evidence that he was happy with her.
But, she wasn’t going to think about Alex right now.
Because she had chosen her outfit today specifically to ask Stavros on a date.
She didn’t usually dress sexy. Not that this was particularly sexy; it was just maybe a little bit bolder than her typical office fare.
A purple dress that came a couple of inches above her knees, figure hugging and very flattering if she said so herself.
Her hair was especially wild today, but she had made her peace with her curls a long time ago. Once she’d stopped fighting them and learned to love them she had been much happier. And she had saved a lot of money on product.
Alex had texted her to say that he was coming in late today, which was all fine; she would see him at lunchtime. And then she could talk to him about how she had managed to get a date with Stavros.
She moved quickly down the hall, toward Stavros’s office, her heart thundering in her chest. It was echoing just slightly in her ears. She had never done anything like this before. She imagined him, all sunny and pleased to see her, and that made her feel...
Not as good as pleasing Alex, but she wasn’t going to dwell on that.
She paused at the door, and knocked.
“Come in.”
She pushed the door open, and grinned when she saw him sitting there, just as she had imagined him. Dressed in his navy blue suit looking boyish and charming.
“Verity,” he said.
His smile faded slightly, and Verity was confused.
“That’s me. I wanted to talk to you.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I... I was wondering if you...if you wanted to have dinner sometime. Maybe this weekend.”
“Are you joking?”
“No. I’m not joking.” Well, of all the responses that she might have received to her dinner invitation, that wasn’t one that she had imagined.
“I just saw this.”
He turned his computer screen so that it was facing her, and Verity looked at it as shock infiltrated her system.
It was a photograph; that was the first thing that she noticed on the screen.
A photograph of a London street, her in her little plaid suit, and Alex in all black as always, looking down at her as though he was giving an indulgent smile to a child.
And she couldn’t even enjoy the fact that Alex had been caught on camera smiling at her, because her eye went to the headline next.
Tech Mogul Alexios Economides to Wed Personal Assistant!
She blinked.
“Is it true?” Stavros asked.
She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know if Alex had seen this.
She didn’t know where the rumor had come from.
She should just say no. It didn’t matter what Alex thought, because this wasn’t true, so there was no reason to let Stavros think that it was.
The man that she wanted to go on a date with. Who she had just asked out on a date.
But if she said no, and... What if there was a reason?
And it compromised her job? What if it made Alex angry, or it undermined something?
As she stood there, trying to reason this truth quickly as possible, trying to figure out a way to extricate herself from the situation as peacefully as possible, she came to the conclusion that this must be some sort of mistake, but there was going to have to be a delicate extraction from the mistake.
Because it was public. Grandly public. This wasn’t a gossip rag. This was being featured in a major journalistic publication.
And sure, they had gotten it wrong. Because of course it was possible for news sources to get things wrong. But she just needed to... She needed to talk to Alex. She took her phone out of her pocket and she started to text him.
“Is it true?” Stavros asked. She had totally blanked his existence for a moment. She looked up at him, and guilt gnawed at her. She realized that he looked hurt. Maybe he did like her. She had to fix this. She just needed to...
“Please excuse me for a moment. I’m really sorry. This is... I just need to... Have to make a call.”
She abandoned her text message, and opted to call Alex instead. He did not answer. She rang again, and again. He still didn’t answer. What was going on?
She opened up social media, and she was shocked to see that his name was trending, along with hers.
She clicked on her name with a sense of growing hesitation.
Verity Carmichael.
There were so many posts.
Verity Carmichael is twenty-four and from Bend, Oregon. Get to know Alexios Economides’s future bride!
Snag Verity Carmichael’s look! Details here.
Is Verity Carmichael hiding a secret?
Inside the workplace relationship turned romance of Verity Carmichael and Alexios Economides!
How could there be an inside look at something that didn’t even exist? She felt nauseous.
Somehow, she was afraid that it was her fault.
She could see him storming into the office looking angry.
She could feel her control on everything around her beginning to dissolve, beginning to slip away.
Already, Stavros was mad at her, and maybe she shouldn’t be worried about that right now, but she was. It made her feel queasy. Shaky.
This job meant a lot to her. Pleasing Alex meant a lot to her, and she was going to go ahead and admit that now as she stumbled toward his office. She sat there, a sheen of sweat beginning to form on her forehead.
Where was he?
She called two more times, and he didn’t answer the phone. She knew that he had said that he was going to be in late, but it was strange that he wasn’t answering the phone. Him being late did not mean that he wasn’t working. Alex was almost always working.
And anyway, she was his...mistaken fiancée, so he should be in communication with her. Maybe he hadn’t seen any of it yet.
She was going to have to break the news to him.
That made her palms get sweaty.
And then she looked up, through the glass walls that made up his office, and she could see him striding toward her. Could feel him, as if his energy transcended the barriers around her.
She stood up, and walked to the door. She had it opened as soon as he approached it. She started to speak, but words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. Coherent sentences wouldn’t form.
“I...” She winced. “Somehow, the media got ahold of the mistaken information that you and I are engaged, and it very much messed up my attempt at getting a date.”
He looked at her, his expression smooth. He didn’t look surprised. He didn’t look upset.
That tilted her entire world on its axis. She had been afraid of him being angry, but she hadn’t imagined him being...placid. Mostly because Alex was never placid. And he seemed suspiciously so right then.
“Oh?”
“It must be a mistake,” she said.
“Must it?” He was serene, unruffled. It was...baffling.
“Yes, because we are not engaged.”
“Indeed not. And I did not intend for the press release to go out so quickly.”
She blinked three times. “I’m sorry?”
“Yes. I gave the information to the media.”
Oh, so it wasn’t baffling. He had gone behind her back and done the most insane thing possible that she would never have guessed in the entire world because who would ever do such a thing?
Your eccentric boss who pays you to eat lunch with him.
“You...you gave the information to the media. But we are not... We aren’t... I told you that I was going to ask Stavros out.”
She didn’t know why she was coming back to that, except everything felt absurd at the moment, and returning to that one, grounding thing seemed as sane as anything else.
“Yes, I do remember you telling me that.” She sputtered as he continued speaking.
“And that is an unfortunate casualty of this turn of events. But I was thinking about it after the board meeting a few days ago, and I decided that the best, most beneficial thing for my image would be if you and I were to be married.”
“That’s... . Who in the world would think that was a logical thing to do? And what is this? 1950?”
“Do you think that culture isn’t traditional anymore? Trust me, Cricket, they are. While the youths posture about their progressive ideals, they still very much gather information about someone’s mortality and likeability from their romantic partnerships. And everyone loves you.”
“I don’t... You don’t...”
She didn’t even know what to say. She couldn’t form sentences. She was standing at the center of his office flustered and speaking in half-realized, choppy sentences like a fool.
“This makes sense, Verity. I have an image problem and I need to fix it. This will work.”
“And you didn’t...you didn’t ask me?”