Smoke and Mirrors (Smoke #1)

[ 28 ]

With my head kept down and myself beginning to work on my next batch of sport articles for the following week, I felt myself become distracted from my work when I heard a knock at the door. Lifting my head upwards, I saw Derrick popping his head through the doorway as I rolled my eyes.

"Is it a bad time to see you now Scarlett?" He asked as I just shrugged my shoulders before turning my attention to him.

"You are my boss aren't you?" I added sarcastically as he just sighed and made his way towards me, sitting up on my desk as I ignored his presence. As I was starting work on writing the next paragraph, I could feel his hands on mine as he began lowering them down onto the table. I looked up at him feeling irritated.

"What do you want Derrick?"

"Okay. I think it's time that we talked -"

"About what?"

"- About whatever this is. I always regret those words I said to you that day. I promise I never meant to say any of those words to you, suppose it was just within the heat of the moment." He pleaded with me as I sighed and looked up at him.

"I totally forgive you." I added bluntly as he sighed and placed his hand on my shoulder. I looked at him confused but shook that off as I crossed my arms forcing him to remove his hand away from me.

"No you don't. Look, I think you are an absolutely amazing journalist and have the potential to be one of the greatest in Australia. I really am sorry that I said what I said to you especially knowing how hard it is to be a sports reporter. It takes a lot of effort and I appreciate what you do this company but I don't want us to be fighting over this. I enjoy working with you and want to keep doing that for as long as I can." He said as I paused for a moment before finally giving in.

"No, it's actually my fault. I shouldn't have snapped at you, I just had so many things going on and with Kyle's coincided behaviour, I guess it must have tipped me over the edge. I appreciate working with you too Derrick and also want to keep working with you for as long as I can. You are an absolutely amazing mentor and one of the best people I could ever ask for to help me within the industry." I added as he smiled at me, making me return the favour smiling back at him. As I went back to working on the articles, Derrick cleared his throat before tugging his collar.

"I don't mean to get into your business but is it true that you're in a relationship with Marcus Bontempelli?" He asked as I could feel my heart race, why exactly was he asking me this.

"Uh well not exactly. We aren't in a relationship."

Well not yet, anyway. I thought to myself as I noticed Derrick nodding his head slowly before adding a smile upon his face.

"Oh okay, good good. I'm going out on break now and was wondering if you would want to come with me to get some coffee?" He asked as I smiled and put my pen down slowly.

"Yeah sure, you know I can't say no to coffee, do you?" I added as we both chuckled. I put away the articles, grabbed my bag and headed out the door with Derrick as we engaged in a conversation about the upcoming work events at Autograph.

.....

Holding the warm cup of coffee, we took our seats at a cafe about 15 minutes away from the agency. As I took a sip of the coffee, Derrick's face lit up suddenly like he had remembered something.

"Just between you and me for now, there's a new editor beginning work at the agency with us."

"Oh my god, really? That's so exciting. But what's happened to the other editor?" I asked as Derrick laughed.