Marissa's next day at the office felt a little uncomfortable. She was bolstered by Bianca's wise words of support but she still felt bad that the company was losing an important deal.

Caleb told her not to worry about it. He wanted Courtland to be a company that only did business with the right people, and those guys clearly weren't the right people!

It seemed however, that although Caleb had rejected the offer CalNovatronics were still desperate for the deal. Rob, the company manager arrived without Bill and with a new, female lawyer in tow to offer his deepest apologises to both Caleb and Marissa. He assured them his was not a homophobic company. He added that he and his colleagues were enrolling in sensitivity in the workplace training, which will be rolled out to the entire company, so that an incident like this could never happen again.

"I am sorry." said Rob, in all sincerity. "It's just I've never met a… a person of your persuasion before. I didn't know the etiquette."

Caleb harrumphed a bit, clearly not sold by Rob's words.

"It's a simple rule." said Caleb gruffly. "You treat all people equally. That way there can be no misunderstandings."

"Of course." said Rob quickly. Sweat was rolling off the guy's brow, that's how badly he needed this to go well. "But like I said, I've never met a… a… a…"

"You can use the word gay." suggested Marissa. "Or lesbian, both are acceptable."

"…Lesbian…" Rob blurted, giving Marissa a worried look. "…before. No offence was intended."

"Plenty was taken." said Caleb, the sour expression on his face unchanging, making Rob look even more nervous.

"Look, let's not beat around the bush here." said Rob, trying a cocky smile. The effect ruined by his flushed, sweaty, complexion. "You need this deal… we need this deal. We can't let one unfortunate misunderstanding ruin both our companies."

Caleb leant forward in his chair and looked hard at Rob, who visible cowed under Caleb's glare.

"Now I pride myself on being a man of principles." Caleb said slowly. "And my principles are telling me that you punks can go jump… No deal."

"But..!" stammered Rob, looking from Marissa to Caleb, "But… but you can't do that! I need this deal!"

Caleb gave Marissa a wide smile.

"Well thanks to this brilliant lawyer I have here by my side, I don't! Good day, Robert… Miss…I'm sorry I didn't catch your name… Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"

When Rob and his lawyer had retreated Marissa turned to Caleb in surprise.

"I can't believe you did that!" she exclaimed, "I thought we needed their business."

Caleb got up and briefly put his arm around her shoulder.

"I have every faith in you for getting this Chandler deal through. That is what is going the save this company… these guys were just small change in comparison."

"So no pressure then…" said Marissa with a self-deprecating laugh.

"Oh no there is plenty of pressure on you… I know that and I'm sorry for it… but I have faith that you know what you're doing."

Marissa nodded, and gave the old mountain man a grateful smile.

"Thank you…" she said, "And thank you. You're a good man."

Caleb sniffed in playful distain.

"Now don't you go spreading those kinds of rumours, people might start believing it!"

…