Marcus said nothing. Now, Dale continued, I don't believe any of that. I've been watching you work for 5 months, and I know what I see. But the people saying it, some of them have titles. Some of them have the ear of people with bigger titles.
And I need you to understand that the heat that's coming isn't going to be about what's true. It never is, Marcus said quietly. Dale looked at him for a long moment. You're not surprised. No, Marcus said.
I'm not surprised. He drove Claire that same afternoon. She was in the back reading a contract, red pen moving fast. Halfway through the ride, she said, without looking up, Have you heard the rumors? Marcus as eyes on the road.
Yes. And? And what would you like me to say about them? Ms. Whitmore?
She looked up at that, the professional distance in his voice. The careful return to formality. She understood what it was not coldness, but protection. He was protecting her and himself simultaneously. The way a careful person moves when the ground becomes unstable.
I'd like you to say what you actually think, she said. I think people see what they expect to see, Marcus said. And I think what they expect to see is determined a lot more by what I look like and what I drive than by anything I've actually done. Claire set the contract down. I'm going to address it.
With respect, don't. She stared at him in the mirror. Excuse me? If you respond to a rumor, you confirm that the rumor is worth responding to, Marcus said. That makes it real.
Right now it's noise. Let it be noise, Marcus. It's not just noise. It's affecting It's affecting how some people look at you, he said. I know, but if you go out of your way to publicly distance yourself from your driver to manage perception, then you're letting people who don't know either of us decide what we're worth.
He paused. Is that the kind of CEO you are? The silence in the car was so sharp it almost had sound. Then Claire said, low and precise, that is either the most arrogant thing anyone has ever said to me or the most honest. Probably both, Marcus said.
Another silence. Then quietly, something like the ghost of a laugh. Drive, she said. He drove. But the rumors kept building.