Replacements

TWO WEEKS LATER

Ruth's POV

The sparks flying over InfoWeb Softwares building from a distance looked oddly beautiful.

Knowing that they were welding the new name over it today took some of the beauty out of it, but I still couldn't help but admire it as I crossed the road from my bus stop to the building lane.

With all the changes that had happened in the past two weeks, I had hoped I would've gotten used to it by now, but no such luck.

My phone buzzed in my hand, and I smiled when I saw Shy's message flashing onto it, wishing me good luck for my day. I was gonna need that because lately, there were never such thing as a good day.

For one, the takeover formalities of InfoWeb Softwares by CrossRoads was finally completed. I couldn't help, but feel a sense of defeat everytime I thought about it.

Even though technically, it wasn't my fault, I couldn't help but feel that I had let everyone down by letting a giant like CrossRoads succeed in swallowing our company.

Of course, the blatant accusation in the eyes of other employees didn't help, as the news of details of my business trip had spread.

Atleast they weren't vocal about it, but the office was ripe with unspoken tension these days. Everyone knew what a takeover meant. New rules, new policies, and quite possibly, the new staff.

I sidestepped the sparks raining down from 19th floor where the welding was currently going on, and walked into the reception area mentally listing off things I had to get done today, when I skidded to a halt.

A tall man in black blazer was leaning onto the front desk, chatting with Ellen Cole, made my heart go into an override before I got a good look at him. I nearly face-palmed as I realised just how desperate I had gotten.

This was another cause of my constant misery for the past 2 weeks. Caleb Cross was missing. Well, not criminally missing. But he had yet to make an appearance at work after returning from Boston.

When I was sent back to Seattle, I had figured that Caleb will return when he had sorted out whatever mess he was in. Even as a tiny corner of my heart screaming at me to not leave him alone there, I had listened to my head and boarded the flight. Because logically, I had no place to help him through this, right?

It had taken me 3 days to realise that it might not be as logical as I had thought. Even with Shy's constant assurances that there was literally nothing I could've achieved by staying, I would sometimes wake up in the dead of night, wondering if I had done the right thing.

I was so lost in my thoughts, that it took me a moment to realise that the man standing at the front desk had followed Ellen's line of sight and turned, and yet another moment to register just who it was.

"Leo!" I practically ran towards him, feeling oddly choked up to see him here.

"Hey, darling. Missed me?" Leo grinned, before engulfing me in a bear-hug. Even though I hated being touched in general, and especially in a work space, Leo's hug felt comforting.

"How are you? What are you doing here?"

He pulled back and gestured at the workers welding the huge C and R on the building.

"Well, believe it or not, takeovers are surprisingly long and gruelling process. I'm just here to put a final seal on things, to get things up and running."

"Oh. The takeover. I see, well, yeah. I mean, um...." I stuttered, unsure of how to ask what I really wanted to know.

"Uh-huh, its all very interesting and makes for a great topic of conversation, but why don't you ask what you're really interested to know, Ms. Brooke?" He smiled, and waited for me to form a coherent sentence. But before I could voice my question, Ellen's voice reached us.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Ms. Brooke, you need to hurry up to your office. Don't wanna keep your boss waiting, do you?"

Boss? Caleb was back?

As if electrocuted, my insides buzzed with excitement. Finally, things were gonna be normal. Well, as normal as they were with Cross men around.

"Yeah, about tha—" Leo began, but his phone rang at that very moment.

Fishing the phone from his pocket, he frowned at it for a second, before looking back at me.

"I gotta take this, Ruth."

"Its okay, I'll talk to you at lunch?" I replied, already moving towards the elevators.

"No, wait. It'll only be a mome—" he started again, but the elevator announced its arrival with a ping and I got in.

"No, no, its alright. You work, I don't wanna disturb. I'll see you in a bit!" I shouted the last part as the doors closed shut with Leo trying to concentrate on his call and simultaneously, on me.

Even I couldn't understand why I was rushing off when he asked me to wait. I wasn't usually so badly behaved. But the nerves cramping in my stomach urged me to worry about it later.

By the time the elevator reached my floor, I had prepared mentally myself to face Torpedo again. Even though I had no reason to be, I was nervous to see Caleb again after 2 long weeks. So I picked a notepad and pencil, stupidly believing that they would act as a shield.

Just like my usual habit, I knocked on his door, waited for a beat before letting myself in.

"Good morning, Mr. Cro- Wait, you?" For the second time in last 20 minutes, my heart went into an override, only to stumble to a halt as the man sitting in the leather chair twisted around to look at me.

"Good morning, Ms. Brooke. Is that any way to greet your boss?"

Tristan stood up from Caleb's chair with a smile. Even with a mild expression on his face, I couldn't help but shiver in discomfort. He took my silence as a que to talk, and continued, "you look unpleasantly surprised, Ruth. Not who you were expecting find here?"

"No, well, Tri- I mean, Mr. Andrews, I thought Mr. Cross has—"

Cutting me mid sentence, he replied, "Ah yes, Mr. Cross has sent me to take care of things around here. To get everything set and in motion. I had guessed that I've been disposed off to clean up my brother in-law's mess again, but I gotta say, I'm pleasantly surprised by what I found here."

He leaned against his desk, twisting his wedding band on his finger.

I frowned, because that didn't sound right. The Caleb I knew wasn't the brat Tristan was describing him to be.

"I was just looking at all the work you've put in, Ms. Brooke. Everything seems to be up-to-date, all reports completed, and records filled up. Makes me wonder why anyone would ever consider replacing you."

"Replacing me?"

He inclined his head in my direction, then continued, "well, yeah, Mr. Cross—"

At that moment, the door opened, unannounced, and Leo filled the doorway.

"There you are. I was wondering where you ran off to." He smiled and walked in, casually - infuriatingly - dropping his arm onto my shoulders, before looking up at Tristan.

"Can I borrow your assistant for a moment, Tristan?"

Without waiting for an answer, he stirred me towards and out of the door. He had a firm grip on me the entire way, as he dragged me to the doors that lead out to the fire escape, indicating me to be quiet before releasing me once the doors closed behind us.

"You know Leo, I don't hate you and all, but if you don't keep your arms to yourself, I'll find a way to make you hurt."

I narrowed my eyes at him, to which he raised up his hands, palms out in apology.

"Forgive me for that, Ruth, I just had to get you out of there before Tristan could stop me. See, I have to talk to you before I leave."

"You're leaving? I thought you were here to seal the takeover." The thought of Leo leaving made me feel like my last connection to Caleb was disappearing.

"I was. But something urgent came up. My... Well, my mom is unwell. Nothing serious really, but when she's unwell, she freaks out. So I need to go to New York, calm her down. Shouldn't take too long."

That made me pause. In all the time I've known Leo, which was admittedly not long, I've never heard of his mom before.

"You have a mom?"

"You think I fell from a tree, dahlin'?" He asked in an exaggerated Boston drawl, making me feel stupid.

"Well, no? I just, well, never mind. You'll be back soon, right?"

Leo's face softened, and he replied, "I'll be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, I'm talking to Jay Patel to possibly get you shifted to the programming department and—"

"Woah, woah, wait a second. Why would I shift to programming department?"

"Well, you have a degree in programming, for one. Might as well put it to use, no?"

"How do you know about that? Did Caleb put you up to it? Wait, is that what Tristan meant when he said that thing about replacing me?"

I hated to not know things. I hated to be confused. And they were doing exactly that.

Leo sighed, "So he told you about that, huh? Why am I not surprised? And no, Caleb didn't tell me anything, but are you forgetting I'm kinda your boss now? We reviewed employees files, just to check any redundancies. That's where I found your employee application, with your qualifications."

Leo shrugged, jamming his hands in his pockets and checking the shine on his shoes. "And, I just figured, maybe you would not want to work with Tristan. I mean he's not a bad person, and certainly not a bad boss. But well, Caleb is, I mean, I thought this could be the.. um a good option for you, to be, you know, away from this mess, but still be around."

He looked back up at me with a smile, "besides, you passed with honors so you gotta be good at it. Programmers get paid so much better than office assistants."

He said this kindly. Casually. But I felt a trickle of irritation as his words echoed what I had heard thousand times before.

"You don't need to worry about keeping me away from messes and paying me better. You're not my knight in shining armour, Leo."

He opened his mouth, but I cut him off. "I'm not a programmer because I don't want to be one. I am an office assistant, and get paid less, because I want it that way."

I was being disrespectful, unreasonably. But I couldn't stop. Suddenly all the irritation, the confusion, the pent-up feelings of last two weeks erupted. And somewhere, I felt foolish to let myself get sucked into this family drama.

"If Caleb cared, he'd be here. But he isn't. He's busy being a baby, letting his daddy isssues fuck up the whole firm, not even caring how others are getting affected by all of this. Not even caring how I'll be aff— you know what?"

I paused in my tirade, drawing a deep breathe. "I don't care who my boss is. My work won't be affected by who I answer to. And if push comes to shove, I'll just quit. Be away from this so-called mess for good. I'm sure there are companies in Seattle that doesn't have a Cross stamped onto it."

With that, I walked out of the fire escape, leaving a defeated looking Leo behind.