"You've been holding out on me!" Julia jumped as Marilynn's voice echoed around her cubicle. She had been sitting at her desk, minding her own business when Marilynn snuck up on her.
"What do you mean?" she asked, swiveling her chair around to face her coworker.
Marilynn lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. "Why didn't you tell me you have two men fighting over you?"
Julia let out a heavy sigh and slumped in her chair: so that's why everyone had been acting so strangely. It had been a week since her boss had unceremoniously revealed his attraction to her, and she had hoped the news would not spread to the entire office.
Unfortunately, all day Monday she had gotten the sense that her coworkers were watching her. While heading toward the copy machine outside of Mark's office she had felt like there were eyes following her every move, and as she glanced around she swore half of the staff writers ducked their heads below their cubicle walls.
By Wednesday people had started to abruptly finish conversations as she entered the room. When she went for a cup of coffee she found a group of columnists standing around the break room in sudden silence, all avoiding eye contact. As soon as she left she could hear them speaking in hushed tones behind the door, and she fought the urge to listen in.
Now it was Friday, and Julia felt like there was a big secret going around that only she didn't know about. Even the freelance writers who only turned up once a month seemed to be in on it. They all seemed to be keeping something from her, when in fact she knew more than anyone else.
"Who says anyone is fighting over me?" she asked, hoping the rumor was confined to a few people. Marilynn's grin made her heart sink.
"Everyone! I must have heard it from ten different people." She didn't wait for a response before continuing. "Apparently when Mark first got back he asked around to see if you were seeing anyone, and since no one knew for sure about you and Ben they all assumed you were available."
"And now that they know about me and Ben, they all assume there's some competition going on?" Julia shook her head. For an office comprised primarily of men, there was an awful lot of gossip spread around. She sighed again, "Why didn't anyone just ask me?"
"Oh honey, you know that's not how things work. When you hear a story about someone you talk about it with everyone else." Marilynn gave her a patient smile. "Still, I'm not sure why everyone is assuming Mark is so interested in you. No offense, but asking if someone is single doesn't mean-" she stopped short when she saw the guilty look on Julia's face.
All week Julia had been debating about telling Marilynn what had happened between her and Mark. She had thought saying anything about it would just inspire wild rumors, so she had kept quiet about him kissing her (not to mention her punching him in response).
Now that wild rumors were already spreading, she wondered whether telling Marilynn would make any difference. With reluctance, Julia told the whole story.
For perhaps the first time in her life, Marilynn was speechless. Julia could almost hear the gears clicking together in her friend's head as she processed the information. Finally she managed to say, "To be honest, I'm jealous."
"Jealous? Of what?" For the life of her Julia couldn't think of a single enviable thing about the situation.
"The only two guys in the whole office I haven't been able to seduce, and you have them both at your beck and call!"
Julia stared in disbelief, a thousand questions coursing through her brain all at once. She was well aware that Marilynn had a hobby of picking up younger men, but had no idea she was honing her skills so much at the office.
She picked her most prominent concern and asked, "When exactly did you try to seduce my boyfriend?"
"Oh relax. It was years ago, back when he first started here." Marilynn gave a reassuring smile. "He was so sweet and innocent, I just wanted to take him home and do bad things to him."
Julia leaned over and looked at Ben, who was talking intently on the phone barely ten feet away. She was having difficulty picturing him as completely sweet and innocent after some of the things they had done together.
"Used all my best tricks, but he didn't seem interested," Marilynn continued. "Never completely gave up until you came along, now he's a lost cause." She gave a wistful sigh, but otherwise didn't seem too disappointed.
"And Mark?" Julia asked, wondering if she really wanted to know the answer.
Marilynn gave her a patient look. "I only go after the available ones, and as long as I've been here he's never been single." She paused before adding, "Until now that is."
Julia saw a familiar gleam in her coworker's eye. "That's assuming you don't believe all the rumors going around of course."
Marilynn patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry hon, it'll all work itself out. I'm sure by the end of the weekend everyone will forget the whole thing."
As Marilynn turned to leave, Julia again glanced across the aisle to her boyfriend's desk. Ben was still sitting with his phone pressed to his ear, furiously scribbling into a notebook. She wondered how much of Marilynn's report he had heard, and what his reaction would be when he found out the whole office was talking about him.
Things at work the past week had been tense. Ben was doing his best to let things go, but that didn't stop him from keeping a close eye on Mark whenever he ventured anywhere near Julia.
Mark was doing his best to pretend nothing had happened at all, and was avoiding Julia whenever possible. Even so, she couldn't shake the feeling that he was watching her.
Despite all the tension at work, Julia was relieved that her after-work life had not been negatively affected. She and Ben had barely left his bed the past weekend, and had spent every night that week together. Ben would never admit it, but Julia had a feeling the extra attention she was getting in the bedroom was a subtle way of reminding her where she belonged.
She was brought out of her reverie by a familiar hand on her shoulder, and smiled up at Ben as he leaned against the edge of her desk. "Busy day?" he asked.
"It's been interesting if nothing else," she began. "I didn't know Marilynn tried to get you into bed with her."
"Neither did I," he replied after a long pause, a worried look crossing his face. "Recently?"
"When you first started working here." Julia laughed. "Don't tell her you didn't notice, she might try to compensate."
Ben still looked mystified, but shrugged it off. "So that's what the two of you were whispering about."
Julia hesitated, debating about whether to tell Ben about the rumors. While she didn't want to upset him, she thought it was better for him to know. As she gave a condensed version of her conversation with Marilynn, the smile faded from Ben's face. By the time she finished he was sitting perfectly still, staring blankly at the floor.
"I wondered why everyone was looking at me funny," he eventually said. "They must expect me to fly into a jealous rage any second."
She gave him a reassuring pat on the knee. "It's just talk. As long as no one actually involved is saying anything then there's not much we can do but wait for it to blow over."
They heard a noise from the aisle and both turned to see one of the young photographers standing there. He was still in college and Julia had never heard him say more than three words at a time, but he seemed determined to speak to them.
"Sorry to interrupt," he said to Julia in a meek voice, "but I just wanted to let you know that I don't care what Mark says. I think you're better off with Ben than with him." As soon as he finished talking he hurried down the hall to his own desk, leaving the couple in silence.
They stared after him, neither sure what to say. Up until then Julia believed all the rumors were caused by idle speculation, but now it appeared Mark was fueling the fire.
Eventually Ben spoke. "As long as no one actually involved is saying anything, eh?" His face stayed passive, but she could hear the anger building in his voice.
Julia still couldn't think of anything to say. She was getting angry too, but had no idea what she could do about it. She was still deep in thought when Ben stood up.
"This has gone on long enough," he said, then walked out of Julia's cubicle in the direction of Mark's office.
He was already halfway down the hall before Julia stood up, peeking around the wall to watch what was happening. She could see Ben and Mark exchanging terse words, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. After a short exchange Mark got up from his desk, threw off his suit jacket and followed Ben out into the hall.
Mark was loosening his tie and Ben rolling up his sleeves as they made their way toward the elevator. Ben gave her a confident smile as he walked by, pulling off his glasses and assuring her they would be back soon. Julia watched in bewilderment as they left: were they actually going to fight over her?
She stayed rooted in place as the elevator doors closed, wondering if she should follow them. In the end she sat down in her chair, thinking it would be better if she didn't know exactly what was happening.
It was nearly an hour before they got back. Julia had spent the time alternating between pacing in front of her desk and unsuccessfully trying to get some work done, all the time ignoring the urge to go to the window to see what was going on. By then it was almost five, and the office was slowly shutting down for the weekend.
When the elevator doors opened, Julia was surprised to hear the sound of laughing. She stood up from her desk as Mark and Ben came by, talking and joking like old friends. She took in their appearance and was instantly glad she had not gone to watch.
