A CONTRACT ENGAGEMENT

Nina laughed. “Please don’t pick a fight with her or anything like that. She talks a lot, but I’m sure she doesn’t really mean to cause any harm. She’s just like that”

“Oh I won’t,” Camille replied. “That would be very childish. It just makes me wonder who else at the company knows. I just don’t want to cause any problems for Evan”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“You really like him, don’t you?” Nina asked.

Camille blushed and sipped her drink. “I do,” she said. “I’m in love with him actually”

“Awwwwn. I’m happy for you honestly. At least one of us getting the happy forever after story that she deserves. And you deserve to be happy. Evan is such a nice guy and you are both lucky to have each other”

“Thank you,” Camille replied. “I gotta say it’s kind of a relief to talk to someone about this. The hiding and sneaking around is kinda tiring”

“Yeah it can be tiring” Nina agreed, then she grinned and added. “But you gotta admit it’s kind of exciting too”

Camille laughed. “Yeah I guess it is, but that was when we first started seeing each other. Now I just want a normal relationship where I can go on a romantic date without worrying about someone from the office seeing us and stuff like that. But I guess now that I know some people from the office know about it, it doesn’t matter so much anymore so I will just talk to Evan about it…. And now speaking of people we are dating, how is it going with Julian Martin? What did he say about all this ”

Nina sighed deeply. Hearing Julian’s name brought memories she was trying so hard to forget… Both good and bad ones.

“We kind of broke up,” she told Camille.

“You guys did? Why?”

“Yep”

“Because of the whole gossip stuff on that paper. Whose decision was it to break up” Camille asked.

“It was mine,” Nina replied. “Actually I didn’t want to end it all at first, I just suggested that we lay low for a while. Not see each other for now until this whole thing clears up, but Julian didn’t want that. He said that he wasn’t going to be my dirty little secret and that since I was so worried about what people thought about me, then we shouldn’t be together ”

“Damn, that’s not good” Camille said. “urmmm… Does he know what happened at your former company? Does he know why you cared so much about people finding out about you two?”

“I didn’t get a chance to talk to him about it before he stormed out of my apartment, but I guess now that it’s out in the open too, he’s going to see it”

Nina buried her face in her hands for a second and when she looked up, Camille was looking at her with a pitiful expression on her face. “Don’t look at me like that,” she said.

“I’m sorry I can’t help it. I’m really sorry for what you are going through right now.”

Nina motioned to the bartender to get her another drink and when Camille tried to stop her, she protested. “Just let me be, babe,” she said. “Just let me have this evening… Don’t worry, I’m not going to drink myself to stupor or any shit like that”

After she’d sipped the drink, she turned to Camille again. “Do you think I made a mistake?” she asked. “Do you think I shouldn’t have asked Julian for us to put our relationship on hold?”

Camille shook her head. “No I don’t think so. I think it’s okay to need a break sometimes. I think it’s okay to be worried about your career and reputation… Those are important too. You are human, and after everything you have been through, it’s okay that you wanna lay low for a while and breathe. But I’m not going to say that Julian was wrong either. I think I can understand him too. He wants to be with you and the thought of sneaking around and hiding what he has with you just doesn’t sound right to him. So I think what you both need is to settle down for a while, give yourselves some space and then meet up and talk about it… If you guys want to be together then screw what other people think ”

“He doesn’t want to talk to me anymore” Nina said slowly, “The last time I saw him was at my apartment. We ended up yelling at each other. Said some mean things to each other. I said he was inconsiderate, he said I was selfish… He told me not to come back to him if I ever changed my mind”

“Oh that’s not good, but I’m sure he just said that out of anger” Camille replied.

“It doesn’t matter. I think it’s for the best actually”

A voice calling Camille made them both turn around. Nina found herself staring at a guy she’d never seen before and maybe it was an effect of the alcohol, but she found herself thinking the guy was kinda cute… Not kinda cute actually… He was cute.

He was tall, dressed in a fitted shirt and jeans and walked with a lean grace. He smiled as he walked towards them. His smile carried all the confidence of a lady killer on the prowl.

“Hey, Camille” he said when he got to them, “Fancy meeting you here”

Camille smiled back at him. “Hey Leonard,” she replied. “What the hell are you doing here? Let me guess, looking for a date?”

The guy called Leonard threw his head back and laughed, and Nina had to admit that he kinda had a nice voice too.

“Not really” he said finally, “Just hanging out here. Blowing off some steam. But if I was looking for a date, I wouldn’t have to look anymore because, wow, there is a beautiful woman seated right next to you. Camille, are you going to introduce us or should I just go ahead and do it myself?” Then before Camille could say anything he added, “You know what, I think I should do it myself, because you know, that way it has more effect”

Camille smiled and rolled her eyes. “Will you just shut up?” she said.

Leonard raised his hands in surrender. “As you wish ma’am” he replied, and Nina found herself smiling at him. He was charming.

Camille turned to her. “Leonard, this is my friend and colleague, Nina Taylor and Nina this is my friend Leonard Scofield. He works at Creative Edge and I would like to apologize for his attitude, he’s just annoying like that most of the time.”