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little uneasy.
    “Oh no, no, don’t worry.” Linda’s face got serious, and she held up her hands. “You’re totally fine. You’re way too new to have done something to make him hide away in his office yet. Maybe one day, though.”
    I laughed. “A girl can dream.” If she only knew what I’d already done, I think I’d be the center of gossip in this office for weeks.
    “Anyway, I doubt it’s girls he has back in there. Or boys, for that matter. I hear he hardly dates, if he dates at all.”
    “Has he ever had a serious relationship?”
    Linda shrugged. “I think so, awhile ago. But I’m not really sure. It’s all office gossip, and I don’t really buy this one.”
    “What is it?” I felt nosy, but I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t usually the type to get into gossip, but I felt hungry for anything about him. And Linda seemed particularly interested in talking about his personal life.
    “Well,” Linda said, leaning in conspiratorially. “I heard him and Janice, his assistant, had a long relationship a few years ago. They ended and stayed friends, but there’s a tension between them, like nothing was resolved.”
    That made me pause. Janice and Shane? She was tall and gorgeous and fashionable, everything I wasn’t. But them dating, that made a lot of sense to me. Why was she still working as his assistant if they were exes? That wasn’t exactly normal. It didn’t make a lot of sense, but Shane was a mystery to me. Everything about him felt like a secret, and I was desperate to learn the truth.
    “But you can never know what’s real with this stuff,” Linda finished, leaning back.
    “How true do you think it is?” I was hoping not at all.
    “Not very, if I’m honest. But they are pretty close, so who knows.”
    I hadn’t noticed that, but then again, I’d only been around a short time.
    “Brother and sister close?” I asked.
    “Well, look who’s interested in the office rumor mill all of a sudden,” Linda said, teasing.
    “I’m not interested, I mean, I’m just curious.” I felt myself backpedaling, embarrassed. I didn’t want her to know how intensely interested I really was. Like, willing to torture her for more information, if I had to. Okay, maybe I wasn’t that interested, but I couldn’t stop thinking about him. He was like a black hole I kept tumbling down deep into.
    “Oh it’s fine, relax. I’d say brother and sister, but what do I know.”
    “Where do these rumors come from, anyway?”
    “Who knows? He’s so private about his personal life. People probably make stuff up to fill in all the blanks. And that man, he has a lot of blanks.”
    “Sorry to shoot all these questions at you,” I said. It was strange trying to find out about a man through one of his employees, especially a man I had sent such detailed, personal messages to. I felt like I was cobbling him together from second hand sources, trying to paint a picture without paint. It was frustrating, but it was all I had.
    “No problem. Ask anytime. I love talking about Mr. Mysterious Boss.” Linda gave me another grin and waggled her eyebrows, then rolled back to her side of the partition.
    The only real question I had, the only thought that dominated my mind since I started working at Adstringo was: Why did he avoid me? I couldn’t help but think it was because he realized the mistake he made. He got to know me outside of the business world, and maybe he didn’t like what he saw. Maybe he’s reconsidering everything, and regrets signing those contracts.
    I’m afraid he thinks I’m a silly girl who texts dirty messages for fun, and that I don’t belong at a company like Adstringo. Or, worse, he thinks I’m a liability, and might tell people about our relationship. I would never betray his trust like that, but I could understand that fear.
    Before I fell into a total meltdown tailspin, an email popped into my Inbox. It was an invitation to a meeting from Janice. Curious, I opened it.
    It read,