His Naughty Lessons

** Harper **

Harper had just typed up an ecstatic text when she felt someone inching up behind her. She whipped around and found Naomi — the marketing girl who did the presentation yesterday — smiling at her.

"Did I catch you at a bad time?" Naomi pointed her chin at Harper's phone.

"Oh, no, not at all." Harper hastily locked the screen and slid the phone back into her pocket, hoping that her colleague didn't get a chance to read the text itself. Not that it would raise any issues, professional business wise, but she liked to keep this — whatever relationship it was that she had with Eli — private, for reasons that she herself didn't always understand.

Naomi's unfaltering smile suggested that she hadn't picked up anything suspicious. "I just wanted to say thanks for the meeting yesterday," she said. "You handled the questions really well. Honestly, I was a little worried at first that they might've gone too much into details that you haven't thought of, but I'm so glad you nailed it. That was definitely one of the best highlights of the day."

Harper hadn't expected such a sincere compliment. Naomi might be only a few years older than Harper herself, but given her position as one of the senior leads of the marketing strategy team, her praises mattered and were not casually given. "Oh … thanks," Harper replied with no small surprise. "Well, you were the one who did the amazing presentation, so I should really be thanking you for selling my slides so well in the first place."

Naomi chuckled. "Ah, on that note — I actually went back and forth thinking about your slides just before the meeting … When we realized you knew Eli Sterling, I was quite tempted to add a note in the presentation to point out which proposal was yours, in the hope that he might give it a more favorable opinion. But then I thought better of it … Since you guys barely talked when you ran into each other, and I couldn't quite tell if your relationship with him was a good one or not."

Oh. Harper didn't know that so many subtle twists and turns had occurred without her knowing, and she was thankful the presentation didn't get tweaked in the end. Otherwise, the remark from Eli's technical advisor wouldn't have worked nearly as well in her project's favor.

Naomi studied Harper's expression curiously. "So … I don't mean to pry, but just for future reference, you are on good terms with Sterling, right? He did seem to like your project a lot, same as the rest of his team."

"Of course they're on good terms!" Another voice cut in before Harper could reply. It was one of the art interns who she didn't quite remember the name of. "I saw you guys driving into the sunset together yesterday, Harper," she winked.

"What?" Someone else's head popped up from behind a cubicle divider. "Oh my God, spill! That's not why your voice is so hoarse today, is it Harper?"

"…" The sudden onslaught of questions was a bit bizarre. And what kind of connection could they have possibly drawn between getting a ride in Eli's car and her voice being hoarse? "No … I mean, yes, sort of … But really, there's nothing much to spill." Harper wondered what would be the best way to explain this. "Eli was a neighbor of mine from back home. I was surprised to find out — when he arrived yesterday morning — that he was leading the investors group, so we met up after work for a little … chat."

She didn't quite want to admit to a big group of coworkers that she had actually gone to an amusement park with him. That sounded a bit too silly, and honestly not very credible without giving away the entire history between them.

But apparently, leaving it at "a chat" didn't answer her curious coworkers' questions at all. Instead, it only made them even more curious.

"So … Is that related to why your voice is hoarse?" the art intern asked. There was something wily and amused in her tone now.

"Um … I suppose it's just from staying up too late," Harper said. "We took our time, and well, I also did do a fair amount of sc—"

The word "scream" was not yet fully out of Harper's mouth when she realized, with the sudden clarity like the crack of a lightning bolt, what her coworkers were trying to allude to. And her ambiguous explanation had all too conveniently opened the gate of gossiping hell.

"Holy, shit," the art intern said, to the point.

"You meant you kept sc— 'chatting', for the whole night?" someone else gasped. "Is he that good?"

"He doesn't quite strike me as the wild type," another new voice chimed in. The crowd seemed to be growing rather quickly now.

"What are you talking about? He totally does! Those eyes and the way he smiles are the telltale playboy signs, I'm telling you."

"I agree, he's smoldering! And a man simply can't look that way without some decent hardware to back it up …"

"…"

"Ladies, ladies, hold up." Naomi, despite fighting back a big conspirator's smile of her own, interjected. "Harper said she just went for a chat."

"Oh come on." A propped up face from behind a poster darted Harper a significant look. "It's not like these things are against protocol or anything. Don't be shy, Harper!"

"A good personal connection like that works in all of our favors," agreed another.

"… It's … really not like that." Harper could barely believe the direction that the conversation had taken, and she could only hope that she wasn't blushing like a cooked lobster. That would probably only make them believe firmer in whatever version of wild tales they were imagining. "I mean … he's just a … friend that I hadn't seen in years …"

"Aww, absence makes the heart grow fonder," the art intern said dreamingly.

"Fate brought you guys back together through this project." A new voice this time. "Golden Heir of Finance Magnate Reunites With Girl Next Door … It makes such a beautiful tale to tell!"

"I think this deserves a ladies night out at this point," someone concluded. "Can we celebrate this, Harper? And maybe wish you good luck in any future … 'chatting's?"

"…"

And that was how Harper's promotion celebration turned into a ladies night out, gossip-girl style.