Gillian Foster made herself take a deep breath and close her eyes. 'And breathe' she thought to herself again as the anger continued to course through her veins. She repeated the process four times before the door bursting open brought her back to reality. She looked up to see Ria Torres, looking at her worriedly.
"Don't you know how to knock Ria?" she snapped as she started to tidy up some of the paperwork on her desk. Torres grimaced.
"I'm sorry. I can leave again if…"
"What do you want?" Torres gulped. She'd never seen Foster in such a foul mood. She'd noticed her and Lightman being very tense around each other the last while. It would take an idiot not to notice. Or Loker. But he seemed to be more interested in getting out of there anyway. A bus could have crashed into his office and he wouldn't have looked up. And that brought her to the reason she was in Foster's office in the first place. But now didn't seem the time.
"It's really not that important," she said reaching for the door. Gillian was focused now.
"I'm guessing it's about Loker, right?"
OXOXOXO
Cal Lightman was powering through his third chapter. Ever since Emily had written that foreword for him he'd seen some new impetus and just, all of a sudden, begun writing, which was good because that publisher was emailing him every waking minute and the fact that he had something to send her seemed to get her off his back for a while.
As well as that, their caseload had eased off quite substantially meaning all he had was time to write. He figured if he got a couple of good days like this, he would have a first draft finished with minimal need for edit.
OXOXOXO
"Lightman's not pushing him and he's not pushing himself." Ria was sitting in Foster's office, hands folded in her lap. Gillian had momentarily gotten over her anger to listen carefully.
"Ria, it's not Cal's job to push him on. He has to want to do it himself too. We didn't push you. You had initiative. I'll be honest, we thought Loker did too but he hasn't shown it." Gillian spoke truthfully. More and more she had noticed Loker's fall off from the company collective. He was reserved, only doing minimal work and keeping his head down for the most part. The anti-Cal, she thought to herself but then banished the idea because thinking of him only made her angry. It was a facial flash Ria didn't miss, but didn't ask about.
"He's disillusioned. And now he's applied for that job and things are just, getting messed up…" Gillian frowned suddenly.
"Did something happen between the two of you?" Ria looked at her before looking away again. Gillian nodded.
"Thought so. Look, Ria. I don't know what more we can do. Cal promoted him but since that he's sunk even further into himself. I can try talk to him but he'll probably resent it. I can try talk to Cal but, well, I might strangle him. At the moment, the only person I can see who might be able to get through to him is you." Ria skipped over her remark about Cal and stood up. She paced the room, thinking for a minute.
"He doesn't seem to listen to me. I think, it sounds crazy but, I think he may be punishing me." Gillian sat back in her chair.
"Why?"
"For going cold on him when he got the promotion."
"Going cold?"
"I didn't want to be seen to be sleeping with the boss. Or superior or whatever you want to call him." Gillian closed her eyes. This was more complicated than she cared to deal with right now. It was time to close the discussion.
"I'll talk to Cal. See if I can't make him take his head out of his ass and try keep a promising employee." Ria nodded and thanked her. As her hand twisted on the door know to leave, she stopped, looking back.
"What's going on between you and Lightman? You look like you can't stand to be in the same room as each other." Gillian didn't look up from her paperwork. She simply responded,
"At the moment, we can't."
OXOXOXO
Ok, good? Bad? Continue? Bugger off? Tell me.