The Call

Chapter - 24

Selin took a deep breath, she wasn't 100% sure that she was ready to walk back into ArtLife but here she was. She had made a promise and she was going to stick to it, she had work to do. Efe had her back, literally, his hand was on her back as he reached for the door to open it.

Betul greeted her, "Selin hanim, Efe bey, they're waiting for you in the conference room."

Great Selin thought, she got to run the gauntlet. She and Efe entered through the yellow doors, heads were down to the desks as if people were trying not to look.

Leyla and Melo walked up to greet them, "Selin hanim, Efe bey. Hello. Selin hanim, Melo has offered to be your assistant again if you need her while you are here, she thought it might make your transition easier."

"Melo, that is very kind of you, thank you." Selin smiled at Melo, "I would be very pleased to work with you again. Everyone is in the conference room?"

At Leyla's nod, Selin said, "Well I guess it's time for me to face the music then. Melo, could you come with us please?"

Melo was a bit shocked, two pleases and a thank you out of Selin, this was a record. She hurried after Selin and Efe.

Selin knocked on the conference room door, "Hello."

Everyone stood to greet her and Efe, the men came forward to shake hands with Efe. Even thought they had been mad at him when they left they had always liked him as a person with the exception of Serkan, he didn't like Efe because he was too close to Eda.

Serkan walked up to Efe, "Efe, good to see you again, thank you for coming with Selin. If you like you are welcome to use the upstairs office space as your headquarters. Selin's office will be across the hall from you."

Serkan walked over to Selin and gave her a brief hug, "Thank you for coming. We appreciate this and can really use your expertise."

Eda closed her eyes to avoid watching Serkan even have the slightest contact with Selin.

Pyril walked over to Selin to say hello as well, Selin pulled a surprised Pyril in for a hug, "I am so sorry that I didn't respond to you about your wedding. We will have to celebrate it while I am here, Efe and I brought yours and Engin's gift with us, we hope that you will like it."

Selin hugged a surprised Engin too.

Eda, Ferit and Ceren were glad that they were spared the hugs from Selin.

Serkan was not thrilled when Efe went to hug Eda, he knew that the bastard was doing it on purpose especially after Slovenia. Serkan walked over to Eda and made sure that she was back next to him where she belonged. Yes he was possessive, every bit as possessive as Eda was of him.

Ferit kept a close eye on Ceren, both of them nodded at Efe and Selin. Not shaking hands just exchanging a greeting.

When everyone was seated at the table Ceren started the update, "We have received upwards of two hundred calls in the past twenty hours. The majority of the calls are from reporters though we are receiving a significant number of calls from clients. Serkan, Engin, Ferit, Pyril and Eda have been handling as many of those as possible with Serkan taking the calls on those where he has been the lead architect and he has memory of or has been briefed on the project. We have only had one prospective project cancel so far but we have two others on the bubble. I think that Serkan mentioned to you Selin that you have traced the original report to Fatma? I haven't found the leak to her yet, I haven't had the time to delve into further."

"Thanks you Ceren, the update is very helpful. As most of you know, Fatma and I have a colorful history, well Serkan you might not know but I'm not going into that now. I reached out to her today wanting to know how she got a hold of the story. I didn't let her know that I was going to be working for ArtLife, I pretended that I was calling to gossip."