Bed Sheets II

25. Who Is Real?

"Hey everyone."

Draven watched as a few of his editors nodded their heads, staring back at him in shock and uneasiness. A few of them had most likely believed the rumours, which was understandable since a few of them had only been here a month. However, he met the gaze of Miranda, Jason, Rebecca and even Hector, which boosted his confidence.

There was also a new additional to the floor, which was Sophie, who poked her glasses further along the bridge of her nose and folded her arms. There was pain behind her relationship with Draven, but being by his side was better than not being with him at all. And when he offered to re-hire her, she tried to hold her ground and say no, but her resistance soon crumbled.

He sighed, "I know, I haven't been there in about three weeks. The whole thing with the media had me in a gloom and I didn't think I'd ever come back, honestly—"

"Did you do those things?" one of the editor's, Ryan, asked.

"Does it matter?" Miranda glanced backwards with narrowed eyes.

Ryan frowned, "Yes it does—I'm not working under an abuser."

"Then leave," Miranda spat.

"Hold on," Draven intervened before it could become much worse. He paused for a moment, watched as a few eyes seemed to be scrutinizing him, and he sighed, "I understand if any of you would want to leave due to these allegations. But no, I loved Eric from the deepest chambers in my soul. I could never lay a single hand on him, and he knows that."

"He can't just be making those things up, at least that's how I feel," another editor commented; her name was Annie.

"Then I guess you either trust me or you don't, that's on you. The decision lies solely on your sentiments, and I understand if you leave. I will give you a formal letter of recommendation for your next place of work, so you can all leave now."

Draven waited a few minutes, and when nobody stood to their feet, he frowned.

Ryan raised an eyebrow, "I just asked if you had done it and I trust what you're saying. So no matter what, I'm on your side."

"Same here," Annie said next, grinning.

A few other editors added their own words of encouragement, smiling towards Draven who felt his heart begin to clench. He had felt terribly empty and alone these past weeks, as if he had nobody in his corner. Seeing his entire editing team stay with him in this moment of hardship, was enough to making him emotional.

They were seeing his eyes become teary and he was exhaling long breaths to prevent himself from crying. Unfortunately, they knew Draven, and they all saw the way he looked Dow to his feet uneasily.

"You don't have to hide the fact you're getting a bit emotional—"

"I'm not getting emotional," Draven hissed at Miranda, and rapidly wiped the tear that had leaked.

Miranda simply chuckled, and glanced backwards when another editor said, "We're ready to work, so whenever you're ready?"

Draven smiled, breathless. "Right—The Newborn Horns, I believe it was Charlie working on the design of the opening chapter?"

"Yes sir," Charlie stood to his feet, "I've completed the design you envisioned." He handed Draven a document enveloppe, and Draven thanked him.

"What about Andy and Booze, the short series comic I handed to someone, I can't remember which one of you—"

"It was me," an editor named Casey raised her hand. "It'll be done by tomorrow morning."

"You told me by tonight, I gave you a week," Rebecca furrowed her brows, glancing over her shoulder over to Casey.

Casey seemed uneasy, lowered her gaze and muttering, "l know, I'm sorry—"

"It's fine, I promise." Draven grinned, "Well those are the two projects I'm worried about. If you have anything else that you have competed, hand it to any one of the senior editors."

Draven turned around to head into his office, when he heard his name being called. "I finished editing chapter four and five of Losing Us over Selfish You. I was wondering if that project was still ongoing—"

"No," Hector spoke first, standing to his feet. "We're done with that project—no more Eric being talked about in our building, how does that sound?"

All their eyes turned to Draven who snickered, and slowly nodded his head. His blue eyes seemed as warm as ever, staring at all the heads of people who had remained by his side and trusted him. With that, he shrugged and said, "That sounds perfect to me."

-&-

"Why hasn't he responded into the media?"

"He said he's forgetting about what happened."

Kyle raised an eyebrow, "His name was ruined."

"He's trying to move away from the pain and hurt—"

"Sounds soft to me, I'll just make Eric say more things about him. Eric has been keeping his distance from me, which he should," Kyle muttered, his glass of champagne touching his lips as he took a sip. "Thank you for bringing this over by the way."

Rebecca leaned backwards on the couch, "You're welcome—I was dying to see you."

"I was dying to see you too. With Eric around again, we can't be together as often."

After a short sigh, Rebecca asked glumly, "Can't you break up with him?"

Kyle snorted; he never considered breaking up with Eric. But keeping Rebecca in his grasps was important, and he tilted his head, "I was supposed to until I thought about this idea of manipulating the press in thinking Eric had been abused by Draven. It wouldn't work without him. In any case, when this whole thing blows over and I'm sure Draven's career is in ashes, I'll make sure we're together."

Rebecca stared into his endearing eyes for a moment, watching as he leaned over and placed a short peck on her lips. Then, she whispered, "Okay." After a few seconds of silence, she added, "He brought Sophie back."

"He still doesn't know you were the leak?"

Rebecca shook her head, "I hope he doesn't find out."

"If he does, you can just come work with me."

"You mean work for you, which I don't want that. That creates problems in relationships."

Kyle nodded his head, "You're right, but let's just see how this whole thing plays out."

"Okay," she agreed. Then, she bit her bottom lip hungrily and cooed, "In the mean time, we can..." her fingers reached for his belt, and immediately, Kyle placed his glass on the table and grabbed Rebecca around her lower waist, pulling her towards him.

"We can have some fun."