JAMIE

“I CANT BELIEVE IT! HE’S COMING HERE! HERE OF ALL PLACES!” Sarah, our newest intern, gushed behind the latest issue of Insider Weekly, a national human interest magazine.

Marta, our receptionist, with wide-eyes and flushed cheeks contributed to the current sex symbol gossip, “I know! I can’t wait for him to get here. Golly, I wonder what he’s like in person.”

Sarah closed the magazine and proceeded to fan herself, “I bet he’s even hotter in person and very charming.”

That finally caught my attention. I looked up from my computer to eavesdrop on their conversation, “Who’s even hotter in person?”

It was already twelve o’clock, and I’ve heard nothing but giggles, swooning and gossiping all morning about their latest sex symbol obsession. I didn’t pay attention at first, and I usually wouldn’t participate in such a conversation, but when I heard that someone hot was joining our company, I had to find out who they were exactly.

I discovered recently that ever since Sam and I officially became an item a year ago, I magically lost interest in anything to do with the opposite sex. I didn’t even notice, it just happened right under my nose, but that’s the goal, isn’t it? I mean if you’re happy then the desire to look or what anyone else eventually dissipates, right? At least that’s what I’ve always believed, but it wasn’t as if I currently thought some man out there was just as hot as Sam. If I did, it was only because I was human after all.

I was starting to think that all of these rules of morality came out of nowhere without any real logic to base them on. I never imagined I would ever be the kind of person that was annoyed by conversations about men and how good looking they were because I did the exact same things once upon a time.

“Callum is,” Sarah answered.

“Um, who?” I asked.

“Callum King. You know the Callum King?” Sarah gasped.

I shrugged in response. I didn’t have the slightest clue who Callum King was, I wasn’t exactly up-to-date on current events or what was happening in the world. I barely watched television anymore but apparently, this Callum guy was a hot guy, and he was joining our team. I wonder why this was the first time I was hearing about him and most of all how did our intern and receptionist find out about him before I did?

According to Sarah, he was one of the world’s most eligible bachelors, and he was going to be our new Marketing and Public Relations Director, a position that was newly created. I wasn’t sure if it was recently designed just for him or Sam felt like they needed someone of his caliber. It made no sense to hire someone new because we already had staff here that handled all of our marketing efforts and I have been helping them with some minor projects this entire year.

“How do you not know who Callum King is? He’s just about the hottest man alive, and he was just voted U.K.’s sexiest man last year. He is the only topic of conversation on everyone’s lips these days, and he’s practically on every woman’s ‘to do’ list. He’s definitely on mine.” Sarah explained further.

“Uh, you need to wipe your chin. You’ve got some spittle there.” I pointed. Sarah and Marta were practically drooling over his picture. “Also, shame on you Marta. You’re married, and you're old enough…”

“Old enough what?” she eyed me.

“You know what I meant.” I eyed her back. “Let me see the magazine.”

“Why?” Sarah looked at me suspiciously, as if she was afraid I’d ruin the idea of Callum for her but that wasn’t what I was trying to do. I just wanted to see what all of the gushing and hype was about.

“Just give it to me,” I demanded.

“Alright, but don’t bend it or create creases in his face. This magazine is very fragile.” she cautiously handed over the magazine.

“Don’t worry, I won’t ruin his pretty, little face.” I rolled my eyes.

Sarah went on, “I think I’m going to ask him out. Unless he’s married but if he isn’t, yeah, I definitely will ask him out.”

“Oh, you definitely should. I hope he says yes.” Marta clasped her hands in excitement and swung her legs back and forth underneath her chair.

“Yes, you go on and do that.”  I agreed while I skimmed the magazine until I located the right article about him.

So this was Callum King – a scruffy, blonde hair and blue-eyed Englishman in a sleek suit. Hmm, interesting. He’s not too bad on the eyes, in fact, he looks better than I assumed. It also seems like he has a strong sense of style, but he didn’t do it for me. At least not in the ways that I loved about the men I was attracted to. I don’t know what it was, but something about his scruffiness, arrogant pose and his intense gaze hindered his ability to be appealing to me. I guessed he could be useful for someone else but that someone else would have never been me.

He looked like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

If that’s what Sarah and the rest of the female gender loved, then more power to them but that wasn’t a quality I wanted in someone, I settled down with.

“The devil wears Hugo.” I shrugged and lightly tossed the magazine in her direction.

“What?” Sarah asked defensively.

“It’s a play on words from the movie, Devil Wears…” Marta interjected.

“I know what she meant, I just don’t understand the implication. What are you trying to say, Jamie? That he’s some devil incarnate or that he’s some liar?”

Uh oh, I’ve managed to piss her off without even trying to.

“Sarah, don’t be upset. I didn’t mean anything by it. All I meant was that he looked like one of those bad boy types.” I called after her as she snatched the magazine from the table and stormed off back to her desk.

I guess I pissed her off to the point where she practically had steam shooting out of her ears. You’d think I insulted her mother with the way she looked at me with daggers in her eyes. I don’t understand it, she didn’t know the guy, and yet she was already swearing allegiance and ready to defend his honor.

“You’ve really done it now, but I wouldn’t worry about it. She’ll get over it by tomorrow, and then she’ll be good as new.” Marta patted my shoulder in consolation.

“Don’t you think she kind of overreacted to a harmless comment? I mean she doesn’t even know the guy, and she’s acting like he’s perfection. I think she needs to take him off the pedestal that she has him on and make up her mind once she meets him. She doesn’t know if how he is in person is just as great as the end result our imagination leads us to.”

“You know how Sarah is, she doesn’t like hearing any criticism about her choices in things. She’s been into the guy ever since he popped onto the scene and now that he’s going to be working here, she’s probably excited about having an honest chance with him.” Marta explained as she stood before heading back to her own desk.

I shook my head in disbelief at the ridiculousness of the situation, and I was about to make another asinine comment about how Callum was just some guy and that men weren’t everything but again, I was like her once upon a time.

I used to be that infatuated with Sam and yet here we were. We were together now. If Sarah was lucky, she could end up with Callum in the end so I shouldn’t put the situation down so much.  I think I’ll apologize to her.

****

During the afternoon, I made the mistake of watching Sam while he paced back and forth in his office. He was on a conference call brainstorming ideas with someone I’m pretty sure was the infamous Callum King. I couldn’t hear much because his glass door was closed, but I think they were discussing the idea of a small clothing line inspired by his father’s music.

I don’t know what it was about this guy, but Sam seemed to be hanging onto his every word…taking everything, he said earnestly. I didn’t really care about any of that, all I cared about was how attractive Sam came across when he was focused on his work. It was the assertiveness in his voice, the way his pen twirled in and out of his fingers or the way he leaned back in his chair – he looked so mouthwatering to me.

It was silly to do but watching him became this sexy little game I played in my head every day. I would watch him hoping he would do subtle things like tug his pants up, bend over, flex his muscles or those moments when he’d catch me staring and smile back. Watching him when he didn’t think anyone was looking was the highlight of my day because that was when he was the most himself.

After I told him about my guilty pleasure a few days ago, he made it a point to tease me about it every chance he had. In fact, I think he developed a bigger ego knowing he could torture me easily with such simple acts of manliness and bravado.

I had to give him credit though, his sense of humor was improving, not to mention he has been training more with Professor Felix at the martial arts gym we both belonged to. Not only did he earn his brown belt in jiu-jitsu, but he was starting to show more definition in his muscles. Just thinking about it, set my body on fire.

After we made the decision a year ago to incorporate each other into our lives, it’s been a roller coaster. Thankfully, we’ve had more ups than downs, but the most significant problem we faced, in the beginning, was his ignorance about the importance of standing up for me despite the social norms he was accustomed to.

In the beginning, he didn’t make the level of effort that I needed at standing up to his family and make it a point to show them that I was a priority too. A year later, we were still together, and he finally learned that he had to fight for me. I haven’t won over every single member of his family yet, but we were still focused on the future, taking it one step at a time.

At the Foundation, things were progressing exponentially and as efficient as I naturally was and as much time all of us put in, we were falling behind anyway. Most of the bottleneck stemmed from our media and marketing department. The Foundation and all of our for-profit pursuits gained so much notoriety, we received thousands of media requests every month, and we couldn’t handle sorting through them all. Not to mention the hundreds of calls we received every day from the general public.

Marta was kind enough to give me information about what she knew about what was happening.  According to her, Sam was afraid the Foundation and Ellis Enterprises would implode or at least crumble slightly, so he and the Board of Directors made the decision to hire a new Media and PR Director.

It was a lengthy and challenging search for the hiring committee because of the standards they placed on the position and when it came to candidates they interviewed. They were looking for someone who not only had a career history in media marketing, content development, and public relations, but they wanted someone more than just great. They were looking for perfection. If they thought Callum King was all of those things, then so be it because apparently, I wasn’t what they were looking for. I was merely a convenience until they found someone better.

For a while, there was a dark outlook the search committee had about this whole process, and it wasn’t as if they didn’t get qualified candidates but these were ordinary people who had at least an intermediate level of experience, but none of them fit the committee’s expectations of what greatness looked like.

Sam lucked out a few months later when an acquaintance of his that worked for the city mentioned reading an article about the Top 10 Global Influencers especially when it came to interruptive and cause-related marketing. Two concepts neither Sam nor I had ever heard of, but whenever they had something to say, people always listened. Those were qualities the Foundation needed if we were ever going to grow as an organization.

It may have been a long shot, but when Sam reached out to a couple of names on that list, only one returned his call: Callum King. According to the article, Callum was the highest rated individual on the Top Influencers list, so it made me wonder about the reasons behind the things he accepted whether it was a phone call, a position or even an in-person panel interview.

I also wondered why he was even interested in becoming our new Media Director when he could have been a part of anything in the world, but he chose us. Callum had been in the limelight for several years now, and he was very good at getting people to pay attention but in a tasteful sort of way.

So why was he here?

I was determined to find out. All I knew about him from watching interviews online was he was this hotshot marketing whiz from across the pond in London. He was a young, suave, and intense man with a subtle British accent. It was also that accent that made him a big hit with women.

His work history with some of the most significant firms in Europe wasn’t as incredible as his ability to turn his confidence on and off like a light switch. The fact that I just found out about his existence only recently and yet he was set to start working for us next week was something that I wanted to ask Sam about soon.