The Perfect Date - romance / love story

Chapter 6

"Honestly Ben we are not dating."

"Yes but were you?"

He was being so persistent. "Why does that matter?"

"I'm going to have to assume that you were," he was almost talking to himself mulling over her words.

"Bree over the past few weeks he's been like a bear with a sore head. His mood seems to be significantly worse during the hours of your shift. You don't have to confirm or deny. The pallor of your skin is enough to give you away. Like I said it's not the point of what I wanted to talk to you about but what I have to say to you is life changing for all of us and basically it's going to put me into a desperate situation and I'm here to ask for your help..."

Breanne walked out of the meeting room seething. If what Ben was saying was true then Zandro could be making damaging decisions based on irrational emotions. Ben wanted her to subtly change Zandro's mind. She wasn't feeling rational enough to do subtle. If she had a sledgehammer she could see herself powering her way through his office and scaring the pants off him into backing out of his plans. Instead she marched up to his office and rapped on his door.

"Yes?" he looked surprised to see her in his office.

'I need to talk to you but preferably not in this fishbowl where everyone can see us?"

"May I remind you that it was you who stated that we should avoid personal conversations at work? So why the three sixty and all of a sudden the need for privacy, which will no doubt spark more rumours than us being seen together in here?"

"This is not a personal conversation. It is work related, highly sensitive and requires privacy" she was cranky and would need to force herself to stay calm. Guns a blazing was seriously not the best approach and if she slowed down for just a moment she would be rational enough to realise that. Unfortunately she couldn't seem to slow down her racing thoughts. Maybe it was a culmination of the news and the recent cold treatment but all of a sudden she was erupting and she needed a private meeting room to do it in.

"Fine, but this had better be good. I'm in no mood for hysterics over some trivial office issue."

She wondered why it was that she always needed to breathe and count to ten in his presence. This man infuriated her like no other. She couldn't understand how on earth she had given herself so freely and with complete abandonment. Trying to push the thoughts away she could feel the rising heat in her cheeks as they sat down and faced off. Now that she had him here she was not sure where to begin and with little thought to the consequences she simply blurted. 'I know about your plans to outsource and I would not have believed you to be capable of such a vengeful move."

Zandro's eyes narrowed and locked onto hers. He maintained his silence waiting for her to dig herself further into a hole or that is how it felt. "Aren't you going to respond? Have you no compassion for all the people you will be putting out of work? People with family commitments who depend on their income an income that you will take away from them to get rid of me," as soon as she said it she heard the absurdity but she wouldn't be backing down, her pride was holding her steadfast.

He continued to hold her stare. It was maddening. She always felt the need to fill a silence and wished at this moment she could hold her tongue. She hated this tactic it was an obvious control technique and she had never mastered her response to the silent power play. Don't talk; don't say a thing, she repeated to herself. Finally Zandro reached down and picked up his pen. Slowly and deliberately he opened up his notebook taking his time to draw out the silence which was engulfing her.

'You have a genuine concern here and I appreciate your honesty in bringing your concern straight to me."

Breanne felt floored. This was not what she had expected. She was ready for a fight and he effectively took the bulk of the wind out of her sails.