Conquest of the Heart (12 page)

Faith sighed, “Her first mistake was knocking
on the door. When she came in……” Faith explained the morning’s
event. Gavin grew angrier with every detail.

“That’s it. You found me cussing her out
shortly after that.” Faith looked at the clock on her phone and
said, “We need to get going to the meeting.” She stood and gathered
everything she would need. Gavin went to his office to get his
portfolio.

Along with Carter, they continued their work
on the expansion project. As expected, Carter came prepared to add
his information regarding the promotional prospects and potential
activities of the cities. Today, they would be discussing Boston
and Phoenix. Their morning meeting was very productive and didn’t
take all morning as they had originally anticipated. Gavin decided
to cover both cities in one meeting. Neither Faith nor Carter
disagreed with this.

Carter was noticing that
Faith looked exceptionally beautiful today.
‘Gavin thinks he can keep her all to himself. Well, he’s sadly
mistaken,’
he thought. He had come up with
a way to get her out to lunch without Gavin finding out.

Once they concluded their reviews, Gavin
stood back for a minute, looking over the notes he had written on
the white board. He turned to face them before speaking. He had a
proud look on his face.

“Great job you two. I can see you’ve both
worked really hard.” He already knew Faith had been working hard
because he had been with her the entire time. He was more impressed
with Carter. Carter had completed his tasks and some. “Carter, you
did a fantastic job with your data research. I’m impressed with how
much you were able to find.”

Faith looked at Carter and
said jokingly, “Now who’s the pretty one?” They all laughed,
thinking back to the first meeting that they had.
‘She’s flirting with me. She might just like me
better than Gavin,’
he thought, completely
twisting the situation.

Gavin looked at Faith, not caring about
Carter, “That doesn’t change how I feel about you. I haven’t lost
focus.”

Without skipping a beat, Faith chimed, “But
now I have competition,” looking at Carter playfully. They all
chuckled again, and Gavin calmed them down.

“Alright, alright,” he
smiled. “Well, our afternoon for today is free. This will give us
all a chance to get a jump on next week, which is our final week
before we turn our list of twenty cities into six. As you both
know, we’ll be planning two week trips to each city. We’ll be
meeting with potential clients, visiting potential building sites
for the company, and basically taking in the atmosphere. These
trips will
not
be a
time of play,” he said, this time looking at Carter. Carter
shrugged his shoulders as if to say ‘What?’ “Our days will be
packed with activities, but at night, there will be a little more
free time. Just like a normal weekday. Weekends will be free as
well. I’m looking forward to getting away from New York for a
little bit. How about you?”

“I haven’t been in New York that long,” said
Faith. “But it will be good to get away from the office.” Gavin
knew exactly what she was referring to after her adventurous
morning.

“I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go on any of
the trips with you guys. My schedule was already booked before this
project started. I guess we’ll see,” said Carter.

Gavin knew Carter’s schedule was tight, which
meant that most of the trips would just involve himself and Faith.
That didn’t bother him one bit. Gavin grinned and said, “You’ll
join us when you can.”

Carter could see behind that
smile. There was nothing he could do about his schedule. Carter
smiled back, thinking,
‘That’s okay. You
just keep on smiling. You won’t be smiling when you find out that
Faith wants me and not you.’

“Okay, well, I guess that wraps us up for
today. We’ll plan to meet all day tomorrow unless something
changes.”

They all nodded and began to collect their
things on that note. Gavin had two things to do. One, he needed to
get the notes to Agnes to add to the previous week’s. Two, he
needed to speak with Chandler. Carter, on the other hand, was going
to lunch with Faith, only she didn’t know it yet.

As they left, Gavin asked Faith, “Shall we
meet this afternoon? You know, to work on the outlines for next
week.”

“Um hum. I was planning on it. I’ll see you
later,” as she proceeded to her office.

Carter walked to Lauren’s office. She had
just gotten off of the phone.

“Hey there. I thought I’d stop by and see if
you wanted to go to lunch. You don’t get out enough.”

“You know, our HR activities just increased
about fifty percent. We’ve been swamped. We’re going to be even
busier once the expansion project goes through.”

“All the more reason to get out for an hour,”
he said. He waited patiently for her to think about it.

“Okay, sure. Where are we going?”

“I don’t know. You pick.” He paused as if to
be deep in thought. “Hey, why don’t you call Faith and see if she
wants to go? Didn’t you say you wanted to get together again with
her?”

“Just us girls, Carter.”

“Oh, well, this will be the exception.”

“No worries. I’ll call her. What time?”

“Let’s try to beat the lunch crowd. Eleven
thirty?”

“Okay. We’ll meet you in the lobby.”

Lauren picked up the phone to call Faith as
Carter left. Carter had a devious smile on his face, knowing that
he had just gone behind Gavin’s back, and against his warnings.

About a half an hour later, they all met in
the lobby and left for lunch. Carter tried several times to hint at
taking Faith out for a date. Both ladies ignored it, and spent most
of the hour getting to know more about each other. With that,
Carter became a tagalong, which was okay with him. For now, he
enjoyed listening to, and staring at, Faith. It was nice to be
around her, even if it meant that Lauren had to be there.

As they were walking back to the office after
eating, Carter again tried to bring up going on a date.

“Faith, I would really like to take you to a
movie or something when things with the project settle down a
little bit. What do you think?”

Faith glanced at Lauren for a second, before
answering. “Why don’t we revisit that when the project is over,
okay?” Like she had told Gavin, she wasn’t looking to date or sleep
with anyone.

Lauren said, “Carter, give her a break. She’s
only been here for a few weeks. Since when did you start asking
colleagues out? This is not like you.”

“Well,” he said, first looking at Lauren,
“Faith is different.” He then looked and smiled at Faith.

“Down boy,” snapped Lauren. “You’ll have
plenty of time to get to know her. For now, give her some
space.”

Faith looked over at Lauren and mouthed the
words ‘thank you’. Faith was looking forward to spending more time
getting to know her. She hadn’t had a chance to get to know anyone
else since she had started except for Gavin. All he wanted to do
was tell her how she would soon give in to his advances, so really
she didn’t know much about him either.

“Okay, okay.” He looked at Faith again and
said, “Think about it, alright?”

“Carter!” Lauren yelled.

“I’m going to take a short cut so you ladies
can talk. Thanks for lunch. I’ll see you later.” He turned down
another block to take a different route back.

Faith and Lauren were finally left in peace.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that. Is Gavin giving you just as
hard a time?” Lauren asked as they weaved in and around the people
traffic.

“He’s been okay. We’ve mostly been working.”
Faith didn’t like to discuss personal matters right away with
people. She wasn’t a gossip. It didn’t matter that she didn’t like
Gavin’s attempts to get her to sleep with him. She wasn’t going to
talk about him behind his back.

“Well that’s good. I’m surprised he hasn’t
approached you yet. Give him time. He’ll make a move, I’m sure.
Don’t think that you have to do anything. He’s a gentleman. If you
say no, he’ll leave you alone.”

That hadn’t worked yet with her. “What are
you talking about?” Even though she knew, she wanted to know if
Lauren would give her more than what she could get out of
Gavin.

“Obviously you’ve been too busy to have
learned about what he likes to do,” Lauren said. “Gavin hasn’t been
in a serious relationship since I’ve known him. Instead, he likes
to approach certain women, take them out for dinner, lunch,
etcetera, and get to know them for a little bit. Then, based on
whether he likes what he sees, and they like him, which, who
wouldn’t like Gavin, right?” she said looking at Faith. “Anyway, if
they agree, they have sex, and that’s it. Sometimes they enjoy each
other more than once, sometimes it’s just the one time. If they
don’t agree, or if she says no, then he moves on to his next target
– that’s what I like to call them.”

“Oh. Exactly how many people know about
this?”

“It’s not really a secret. It doesn’t really
bother anyone. Most of the women in our office would kill to be
with him, even if it is just for a night. What people do outside of
work is strictly their business I say. He’s never forced himself on
anyone that I know of.”

“Has he ever approached you?” asked
Faith.

“Nope. I’m not his type and I’m married.
Although, there have been several married women who have vied for
him. He likes an extremely classy woman. That’s why I was sure he
had approached you. I’m still trying to figure out how Chandler
fits into that category. She actually approached Gavin, which
supposedly he hates. Apparently she had something to offer I
guess.”

Faith didn’t feel like hearing about
Chandler. However, she was surprised to have it confirmed that
Gavin didn’t make a point to sleep with everyone.

The ladies finally made it back to the
office. As they went up to their floor in the elevator, they both
let out a deep sigh.

“I had a lot of fun. We should plan to do
this at least once a week. Without Carter,” Faith said, both of
them laughing.

“I had fun, too. I’ll take a look at our
calendars and set something up.”

“Good.” They got off of the elevator. “I’ll
see you later. Have a good afternoon.” They went in opposite
directions, returning to their offices.

Gavin took time to talk to Chandler during
the lunch hour. He knew she normally ate lunch at her desk.

“I need to see you in my office,” he said,
calling her from his desk.

A few minutes later, Chandler arrived at his
door. She peeked in, “You wanted to see me?”

“Come in. Close the door.”

“Ooh, you must want a quickie,” she joked.
She closed the door and walked to his desk. Before she could come
around to where he was sitting, he instructed her to sit down.

“Sit. This is business, for the most
part.”

“At least you have more manners than Faith.
She didn’t even let me sit down,” she said, sitting down. Her skirt
rose up about two inches. It was shorter than normal.

“I’m glad you brought it up, because that’s
exactly what I want to talk to you about.” He was now looking at
her with a very serious face.

“Is something wrong?” smiled Chandler. It
wasn’t what she expected.

“I don’t want to fire you, but Faith is not
playing any games when she gives you a warning.”

“She can’t do anything to me. She’s not my
boss.” Chandler rolled her eyes.

“But I can. I can override any decision that
your boss makes. You’re crossing a line that you shouldn’t be.”

“She’s in my way. Your mood has changed since
she’s been here. I don’t like that.”

“Look at me.” Chandler looked at Gavin, as he
kept his straight face. “I know that you don’t want to hear this,
because you seem to get selective hearing when I say it. I want
nothing from you except for sex. You will get nothing from me
except for sex. Get it through that thick blonde head of
yours.”

“That’s just you blowing smoke. You don’t
mean that.” Chandler waved her hand at him.

“I do. It won’t be hard for me to find
someone else to meet my needs. I will tell you one last time. Leave
Faith alone. If you bother her again, you’re fired.”

“What is it about her anyway? Why do you want
her so bad?”

“That’s none of your business. Do your job,
like I know you can, and leave her alone. She is not someone you
want to tangle with. Trust me, you won’t win.”

“Are you done? I’ve got to get back to work.”
Chandler was pissed. She had to get Faith out of the picture, she
just didn’t know how. All she knew was that she was going to do
whatever it took. Gavin could not choose to be with anyone
else.

“I mean it, Chandler. I see that look in your
eyes. Leave her alone, or you’re gone.”

Chandler just stood up to leave. “I heard
you,” she snapped.

“You need to hear
everything
that I said.
Not just what you wanted or needed to hear. There’s nothing between
me and you. Nothing!” he said sternly.

“I heard.”

“Oh, and Chandler, please read our dress code
thoroughly. You might want to do some shopping to get more work
appropriate clothing.”

“You’ve never complained before.”

“No, I just never said anything to you
directly. I’m sure your manager has spoken to you several times,
because I asked her to. Adjust what you wear to work. I’m not
asking. I’m telling you.”

She turned and walked out of the office. As
she got around the corner, she was so upset, tears began to well up
in her eyes. Faith would not take her man. She was not going to let
it happen. Gavin didn’t say he wouldn’t call her anymore, so that
was a good sign. She just had to keep him happy. For now, that
meant she had to stay away from Faith.