Cheryl exhaled a large deep breath as her hand reached out for the handle of the door that several important people were waiting behind, eager to begin their meeting as soon as possible. Simon's hand jumped into the path of Cheryl's as she almost grasped the handle and she turned slightly, giving him a questioning look. He didn't need to speak as she immediately understood what he was about to say, the same thing that he had been saying for the past two days, only proceeding to continue with his constant pestering of 'are you sure about this?' whilst they were on the way. She glared at him defiantly, simply daring him without words to ask her once more. He comprehended the look successfully and allowed their joint hands to drop downwards as he smiled slightly at her before squeezing her hand in his, informing her that he was entirely supportive of her decision despite his annoyance towards her with his constant need to be reassured that she was positive with what they were doing.
Monday had come quicker than they had both contemplated it could and Cheryl raised her free shaky hand to pull the handle down on the large conference room door to undo it, allowing Simon to enter the room first and guide her through, keeping her fingers firmly entwined with his, feeling as though she desperately needed the support. The six familiar faces at the table swiftly turned their attention to the couple as they dodged inside the door and were thankful that the people there were already aware of their togetherness and the announcement that they needed to make as Hilary had previously informed them of the reason for the gathering.
Hilary cleared her throat as both Cheryl and Simon slid securely into their seats behind the desk, 'can we just make sure that you two are still both happy about your relationship being made public?' She asked, picking up a pen as she spoke and directing her question to Cheryl. Cheryl firmly nodded to show her agreement and Hilary nodded towards their PR management, who sat up straighter and addressed the two of them,
'Ok so you can do this one of two ways, you can simply go about your business as a couple, put on a few public displays of affection and allow everyone to assume.' He clarified as they listened intently before awaiting an answer. Cheryl felt Simon's hand slide across her thigh comfortingly as she turned her head to stare at him imploringly, unknowing of what to answer.
Simon leant forwards against the table slightly, 'we were thinking something more understated. Like a statement.' He informed the table and observed as three of the people swiftly noted something down on file paper placed in front of them. He glanced backwards to where Cheryl was sitting with her back against the seat, her eyes darting from person to person as she attempted to work out what they were writing with a tilt of her head and squinting her eyes. Simon tapped her thigh with his hand and she averted her attention back to him,
'Is that what you wanted? A statement?' A particularly formal man asked boldly from the opposite end of the table and Simon nodded his head,
'I don't know if you've noticed but we're not one for big bold public displays of affection. Or we would have been discovered a long time ago.' An impatient air surrounded his tone of voice as he shrugged his shoulders and removed his hand from the contact with Cheryl to unscrew the top from a bottle of water that had been hurriedly placed there only moments earlier by a scared looking youth. He took a sip and raised his eyebrows, waiting a reply from the suited man who looked back towards Hilary.
Hilary gestured towards Cheryl, 'if you want a statement then you can do a statement, we don't have a problem with that.' Hilary shared a quick glimpse around the other people seated around the large oval table who quickly nodded their heads to show their agreement with her.
'So do we simply need to say in this statement that you are dating or would you prefer we specified and said that you are happy and how long you've been together?' A small man perched on the curve of the table piped up, his first time speaking and everyone suddenly directed their gaze towards him, forcing a pink blush to form across his cheeks as he put his head down at the sudden attention he received from the many powerful people in the room.
