Somewhere west of them, a siren rose and faded. So, you avoided me, Terrence said. I avoided you, he waited. He understood there was one more layer and he understood she needed to arrive at it herself. Every time I watched you with Ila, she stopped.
I started imagining something I had told myself I didn't want. She turned and looked at him directly. That's what I've been trying not to answer for 8 months, she said. In case that wasn't clear. It's clear, Terrence said.
He looked at her for a long moment, long enough that she understood he wasn't going to dismiss what she'd said or rush past it. Then he said, "I'm not going to do anything about it tonight." She tilted her head slightly. "You're still my CEO," he said, "and I'm not interested in starting something real under conditions where one of us has power over the other. That's not what this should be if it's going to be anything."
Adrien was quiet for a moment. Most people would consider that an overco complicated position. Most people haven't watched what happens when that gets ignored. She understood exactly what he meant. Okay, she said.
Good, he said. They stood at the railing for another minute in a silence that was different from every silence they had shared in 8 months. Not the careful, managed silence of mutual avoidance, but the quieter kind that doesn't need filling. By the following morning, the photographs had appeared. Someone at the dinner staff, a guest impossible to say, had captured Terrence and Adrien arriving together.
The image was not scandalous. It was simply the two of them walking through the entrance side by side, close enough to suggest intention. On the internal company message board, the speculation was immediate and not particularly subtle. Terrence dealt with it the way he dealt with most things by not addressing it and continuing to do his work. What was harder to deal with came 2 days later.
Donovan Price had submitted a formal complaint to Oruraline's board of directors. Accompanying the complaint was a scanned document, an old Harbor Light campaign file, partially redacted with Adrienne's name appearing on the approval line of an early creative brief. It looked at surface level like evidence that she had sanctioned the direction Donovan had described that she had signed off on using the private testimonials and later claimed otherwise. The complaint included three demands. Araline's withdrawal from the current Harbor Lightite partnership, a public apology from Adrien, and Donovan's installation as the primary liaison between Harbor Light and any future Oruraline involvement.
The board requested a formal meeting. That same afternoon, Terrence received a message from HR. Due to the ongoing rumor and to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest, he was being placed on temporary reassignment away from the Harbor Light project pending written confirmation. The following morning, he read the message twice. Then he went to find Adrien. She was in the small conference room off the main executive suite, standing at the window with her arms crossed and her phone face down on the table.
She turned when he came in. You saw the HR message, she said. I did. I didn't authorize it. The board moved on it directly.
She looked at him. I'm sorry. Don't be. He meant it. What's happening with the document Donovan submitted?