—3—
It was Monday, her first day home from the Bahamas and her first day back to work. Chloe was praying for a miracle.
Oh God. Oh God, please let this all have blown over by now. Please let no one have seen the pictures. Let it be just a bad dream.
While the weather had been warm and tropical at the Curry's wedding, Star City—although typically blessed with a milder climate—was definitely heading into a chillier autumn than normal. Chloe had donned a jacket and scarf that morning before setting out, and as she entered the Whistle building, she had her hands wrapped gratefully around a cup of coffee.
As usual, heads turned as her heels clicked across the lobby, but Chloe couldn't help feeling subconscious suddenly, knowing in her heart of hearts that the reason was different this morning. Had everyone seen her disgrace? They all probably thought she was just another bimbo who couldn't keep her hands off Oliver Queen now. So much for the reputation she had been working tirelessly to maintain since she was eighteen years old and interning in the copy room.
"Miss Sullivan, how are you this morning?" Edward James, her personal assistant said, joining her in her swift pursuit of the elevator, clipboard in hand.
"As well as can be expected, Edward," Chloe said valiantly, as she pretended she didn't notice the at the front desk gaping at her as she walked past. Doesn't she have phone calls to answer? Chloe thought crisply. "Messages?" she said aloud to Edward as she pressed the 'up' button on the elevator and paused momentarily before the doors opened for them.
"I have four messages from your mother: two regarding your return date, one to confirm your lunch date on the fifth, and one to discuss…personal matters with you." He shot her a look, and Chloe knew exactly what 'personal matters' he was referring to. "There's a message from Vogue about the interview with them. They wanted to know if you were available the 25th but I told them you were booked, so it was moved up to the 20th. They want you to confirm a location. You received an invitation to the Star City Shakespeare Theatre opening of As You Like It, guest optional. I also have a calendar reminder for our annual gift to them as well as to the Christopher Reeve Foundation. Also, your stylist wants to schedule a dress fitting with you for the Star Symphony Orchestra gala, which, to remind you, you RSVPd for yourself and no guest. Also, you've been nominated as one of Star City's Top 20 Empowered Women. If you want to accept the nomination, you need to schedule an interview and attend a photo shoot on the 30th."
"Have Veronica call my mother and confirm the lunch date, and tell her we can discuss everything else in person," Chloe instructed. "The 20th with Vogue is fine, and tell them it can be held in my apartment. Confirm the invitation to the Shakespeare play, no guest. Go ahead with both annual gifts. Have Louise call the stylist and schedule something this week. Decline the nomination to Top 20. Anything else?"
"Yes, your meeting with Mr. Gould is at 3:00 this afternoon, and the Board of Directors will be meeting on Wednesday of this week."
"Fantastic. Anything on your mind, Edward?" she asked, sensing that he was holding something back. The elevator stopped at the top floor and they got off, taking off at a quick stride down the hallway.
"Are you sure you want to turn down the nomination?"
"It's cheap. They use the name as an excuse to have Star City's Top 20 Most Eligible Bachelorettes."
"True," he said easily, "but it's fabulous publicity for Whistle," he told her, as they passed two women sitting at desks and one filing papers outside her office.
"How do you figure?" Chloe asked. Edward held open the glass door for Chloe, who entered first, Edward following closely behind. She sat down at her desk and looked up at him.
"Our target audience would love to be able to see the figurehead of Whistle as someone they can relate to personally."
"I thought that was why I was doing the Vogue interview."
"That's part of why you're doing the Vogue interview. The Top 20 nomination makes you look like someone that men are not only intimidated by, but also attracted to. Women like to think that powerful and independent can be sexy, too. Accepting the nomination gives Whistle a little more sex appeal."
"We want sex appeal now?" Chloe sighed dubiously, not really needing an answer. "Fine," she said then, "have Louise schedule the interview and photoshoot as well then."
But Edward didn't leave.
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Anything else, Edward?"
"Seven different publications have called asking you for confirmation of your relationship with Oliver Queen."
"WHAT?"
He cringed. "I knew it had to be fake. Were they photoshopped?"
"No they weren't photoshopped they were just…circumstantial." Chloe rubbed her forehead. "Seven?" she repeated.
"Today."
"Oh my God."
"What response do you want me to give them."
Chloe explained the story about the garter, and instructed him to have Louise type up a statement.
"Amused, Edward?" she asked grimly, noticing he looked as if he were trying not to laugh.
"Me? I don't find anything amusing ever," he said, eyes twinkling.
She sighed. "Get out of here. Nice tie, by the way."
"Thanks," he said. "My boyfriend gave it to me."
"Mmhmm. How is Darren?"
"Fabulous."
"You got my gift?"
"I did, thank you Miss Sullivan. We had a wonderful time." Chloe had had reservations made for them on their anniversary at a restaurant opening while she was in the Bahamas.
"How many years again?"
"Two now."
She smiled almost imperceptibly. "Congratulations."
"Thank you," he said before heading out the glass doors.
Chloe opened her inbox to start replying to e-mails, but before she could get back to Angela in marketing, Edward had reappeared. "Now what?" she asked, brows raised.
"Veronica is crying."
"What?" Veronica was a new intern, being supervised by Louise.
"Her boyfriend broke up with her this morning."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Tell her to go home until she can pull herself together. Have Louise call my mother instead."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, vanishing again.
Oh brother. There went another perfectly good intern. Veronica had made it almost two months, unlike the last one, Elyse, who had lasted only two weeks. Or, infamously, last year Megan had lasted four hours. What did Louise and Vivian do to them? she wondered, glancing at the two secretaries sitting outside her office.
The day was long and trying, and, to her growing aggravation, full of Oliver Queen. Everyone wanted to get a statement from her personally on their alleged relationship, of all the stupid things. A few idiotic photos and it was a relationship.
"People assume because it's you that there's a relationship," Edward had explained to her that afternoon, handing over her eighth cup of coffee. "They know you never get up to anything scandalous, so they thing someone has finally tamed the wild beast."
Chloe had been demanding to know why they never assumed Oliver was dating any of the other women he ended up in the tabloids with.
"How long do you think it will be until they actually believe me?" she asked. Nearly everyone she'd condescended to talk to on the subject had clearly believed that she was only selling them a story, and that she and Oliver weren't ready to "go public" yet. Several had had the audacity to hint that whenever she and Oliver were ready, they hoped to get the exclusive announcement.
"Well," Edward had said, "that all depends on two things, really."
"Oh?"
"First, it depends on whether you and Queen can manage to stay away from any cameras for a good month to two months."
"Done."
"Second, it depends on whether or not Queen has the good sense to tell the reporters the same thing we've been telling them, and doesn't try to make it sound like there's anything going on to have a little fun taunting the media."
Chloe had stared at him. "I'm doomed."
"There, there," he'd said, patting her shoulder. "Want to go to a gay bar with me tonight? No one will hit on you."
But, even if she had wanted to, Chloe would not be going to happy hour at the gay bar. Dinah had called her in the middle of the day from the Bahamas, blissfully unaware that her wedding photographer had sold her wedding photos to the media. Instead, she and Arthur had been enjoying their entirely sunburn-free honeymoon.
"So far," Chloe had teased.
"But I need a huge favor. My housekeeper, Esparanza?"
"What about her?"
"Her daughter went into labor this morning, so she had to take off. Would you mind looking after Tango for me?"
Tango was Dinah's beloved pet fife canary, a gift from her parents after she graduated Julliard.
"Of course, Dinah, no problem."
"Oh, thank you thank you thank you. You're an absolute gem. I'll e-mail you instructions. Will you stop by and pick him up after work?"
"Of course. You and AC just have a good time, sweetheart."
"You're an absolute doll. I owe you margaritas when I get back."
"I'll hold you to it."
So, as much as she wanted to go home and pretend that this day had never happened, she was stepping off the train at the other end of town and heading into Dinah's building.
She used her key to unlock the door—she had had a key to Dinah's apartment ever since she moved in—and headed to the living room, where she knew Tango was kept in an antique birdcage that had been a gift from AC last year on Dinah's birthday.
Chloe pulled the cover off the cage and smiled at the beautiful yellow bird with its white wing tips. "Hi, sweetie. How are you doing without mommy here?" she cooed to it, knowing the pet bird liked to be talked to. "Guess what?" she told it, "you get to come home with Auntie Chloe." It twittered back to her, pleased with the chatter.
Chloe sighed. "Talking to a bird. This is going to make my life seem much less pathetic," she told it sarcastically.
"I feel like that might be really difficult to accomplish."
"OH MY GOD!" Chloe shrieked, clutching her chest and whipping around to see Oliver Queen leaning jauntily in the door frame. She threw her shoe at him and he ducked.
"Woah, no need for violence!" he said, raising his hands in alarm.
"Dear God, hasn't anyone ever told you not to sneak up on people like that?"
But he was already laughing at her. "When it's that much fun, are you kidding?"
Tango was flapping his wings in distress at the sudden disturbance, so Chloe reached into the cage to pull him out, stroking his head gently, "shhhh," she soothed him until he quieted and chirped pleasantly. Once he did so, she returned to glaring at Oliver, who was examining the height of the heel on her shoe.
"Wow, you're really short, aren't you?" he commented casually, and she rolled her eyes.
"And you're like a bad penny. What are you even doing here?"
"Dinah called and asked me to check that the appliances were all turned off and the doors were all locked. Sounds like her housekeeper had to leave in a hurry."
They stared at each other for a second before they both groaned.
"Seriously?" Chloe sighed, thinking that Dinah was going to owe her a hell of a lot more than one margarita.
"Wow, I'm beginning to see what you mean about them needing to mind their own business," Oliver rolled his eyes at the ceiling.
"Your mommy is a bad lady, isn't she?" Chloe said to the bird, carefully placing him back in the birdcage, shaking her head as she did so. She held out her hand to Oliver then, and he returned her shoe, a smirk on his face.
"So," Oliver said when Chloe had gathered up the bird's belongings, "how have you been holding up against the press?"
She short him a look that said it all.
"Ah," he said, getting the door for her. She wished he wouldn't be polite. It was easier to loathe him when he wasn't a gentleman. "Sorry for that."
She raised her eyebrows at him.
"Well, I mean, I'm not really apologizing for going along with a goofy wedding tradition," he clarified. "Just sorry that your face got plastered all over the internet."
She looked genuinely surprised for a moment, then looked at him slyly before heading for the elevator. "Careful, I might start to think you're not so bad."
He chuckled. "Don't get carried away. I still had copies made for my own personal scrapbook. I'll mail you some if you like."
She sighed.
Outside the building, he looked around for her car. "How did you get here?" he asked.
"Oh, I take the train."
"Really?"
"Uh huh. Sets a good example for my employees."
"Well let me give you a ride. You can't go carrying that birdcage on the train."
Chloe had to admit, she really hadn't thought of that until just now when they'd gotten outside. She glanced at his car and hesitated. "That's all right," she protested. "I'll get a cab."
"Nonsense," he said, taking the birdcage from her hands and setting it in the car without waiting for her permission.
Chloe gave in, not one to argue with him if he was going to be so polite. Suddenly the hair stood up on the back of her neck, and she glanced around her, paranoid. She remembered what Edward had said about her being seen with Oliver. But she didn't see anyone, so she told herself to relax. It was too late now, anyway. It would be completely rude to refuse at this point.