about.
“He asked for her personally, Marissa,” Derrick was saying, leaning against the woman’s desk.
Rachel walked into the office, standing awkwardly in the doorway. “I’m terribly sorry about this Marissa,” she said softly, hoping to alleviate some of the woman’s anger. “I honestly didn’t expect anything like this. I can probably do both the wedding and this party. I can work overtime to get everything done so you aren’t left hanging.”
Rachel was taken aback by the woman’s glare, her fury shining through her eyes like nothing Rachel had ever seen before.
“I should be doing these parties.” Marissa spun around to face Derrick again. “Let her take the senator’s wedding! I’ll do the sheik’s parties. I know international protocols much better than Rachel. She’ll mess things up royally and we could have an international incident on our hands.”
Rachel couldn’t believe what she was hearing. All this time, Rachel had been trying to figure out how to help Marissa while the other woman was just trying to get the better event! “Excuse me?” Rachel snapped, stepping forward. Her whole body language changed with the bitter woman’s words. “I will not cause an international incident. Nor will I even cause an office incident such as the one happening right now. And as for experience, I think I can do just as good a job, possibly even better, at anticipating Sheik Rais’ concerns than someone who thinks it is appropriate to back stab one’s coworkers.”
Derrick looked over at Rachel with newfound respect. He obviously hadn’t expected his junior organizer to stand up for herself quite so eloquently. “Well said, my dear.” He turned back to Marissa. “As for you, if you don’t stop making a scene, I’ll take you up on your request to be pulled from the senator’s wedding this weekend but you definitely won’t be given anything as important as the sheik’s social calendar when you don’t have the professionalism to finish your current assignment.”
He stood up and started to walk out of the office but he must have eyes on the back of his head because Marissa was just about to say something else but he stopped her cold by spinning around and snapping at her, “Forget it!” before leaving the two women to stand there glaring at each other.
Marissa looked Rachel up and down, shaking her head. “Well, we know you didn’t sleep with the guy to get this assignment. So I wonder what you did do for him.”
Rachel gasped, unable to believe what she’d just heard. “Excuse me?”
Marissa knew she’d scored a point with that statement and took on a smug expression. “You heard me. The Ice Princess sleeping her way to the top? I’m pretty sure that the sheik is going to be disappointed when he realizes that you don’t…”
Rachel didn’t even wait for the end of the sentence before she spun around on her heel and walked out of the woman’s office. She couldn’t believe the vitriol the woman was spewing but her other concern was that Marrisa actually knew, wasn’t just guessing, but was positive that Rachel wouldn’t put out. It was true about her clients, but the way Marissa had said that made her think that she also knew that she didn’t sleep with any of her boyfriends.
Rachel went back to her office and closed the door before she let her emotions show. She was so horrified, insulted by the possibility that her friends and co-workers were gossiping about her sex life. Or lack of it, she clarified. How could they all know? Or were they guessing? Was it written on her face somehow?
What a mess, she thought. She couldn’t even counter their impressions because, unfortunately, it was true.
She had to get out of here. Her office was tiny and she felt as if the walls were closing in on her. She hated this feeling so she grabbed her notebook and her purse before rushing out of her office. She ran into several co-workers in the hallway but they all looked away, avoiding her eyes.
That hurt, she thought. It meant that they all knew and all were gossiping. Either about her fight with Marissa or the woman’s horrible accusations. How could her sex life even become a topic of conversation? What would cause them to speculate on things like that?
She dated and she had friends who she would talk about her weekends with them. They all discussed their dates over lunch in the kitchen or when they went out for lunches or dinners, sometimes even happy