Valor, part 3 (a short story)

If you want to catch up before reading the conclusion, you can find Valor, part 1 here and Valor, part 2 here.

And now for the much-anticipated conclusion… (A little over-hype never hurt anyone, right? 😉)

****

Savannah stared as Marcus walked in the door to the conference room. What was he doing there? She was supposed to be meeting with the infamous Val. She was supposed to get an assessment of her onboarding and find out where she would be assigned.

But, no.

Marcus walked in with apologies written in his eyes.

She stared for a second before breaking the silence. “No Val?”

“We’ll get to that in a minute. First, tell me what changes you would make to the philanthropy department if you could.”

They’d talked about the end of her onboarding and the meeting she was nervous about. He never mentioned he’d be present.

Hm. Maybe she’d done all the talking?

She felt lied to. Maken a fool of. But this was still her dream job. Probably.

Still, Savannah couldn’t meet Marcus’ eyes. “Everything’s very efficient, and people feel appreciated. But there’s a disconnect between the people doing the work and the people who give the awards.”

His head tilted to the left in what she’d come to recognize over their every-day-since-she’d-arrived-lunches as his thinking pose. “What do you mean?”

“Everyone pours so much into this job, you know? They want to make a difference. But when awards are granted, the people who screened the grant application and helped with acquisitions for funding and who handle the social media and all that stuff – they don’t get to be a part of the actual awarding. I think it would fuel everyone a lot more if they could somehow take part in that. Make it a conference call instead of a phone call. Invite more than just the awards team into the conference room if it’s in person. I don’t know. It just seems…” Her voice trailed off.

Marcus’ voice was soft, thoughtful. “Huh. That’s not a bad idea. In fact, that’s a really good idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes. But why would you think of it, either? It’s not like that stuff’s your job. You’re in charge of HR, right?”

He waggled his hand. “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

She squinted at him. “How so?”

He tugged at his tie, and his gaze skirted to a spot right over her shoulder. Then he let go of his tie, reached a hand out to shake hers, and looked straight into her eyes as he turned her world sideways. “Hello. I’m Marcus Valor. Folks around here call me Val. It’s nice to meet you.”

She’d reacted reflexively, putting her hand out to meet his. Her hand was engulfed in his warmth before his words registered.

Marcus Valor. Valor. Val. Or.

She tugged her hand from his grip as her stomach flipped and flopped. It was like a bad 80s movie, only it was real life.

His eyebrows lifted. “Happy April Fool’s Day?”

She sputtered, arms stiff at her sides. “April Fool’s? You’re going to pass this off as an April Fool’s joke? Are you kidding me right now?”

Her words were too sharp, too angry. She knew it, but she couldn’t stop herself. She’d liked him. Liked him. Who knew schoolgirl crushes were just as painful in the adult world?

“Will you let me explain?” His voice was low and cautious, like he was talking to a wounded animal.

Which pretty much described Savannah’s state in that moment.

Marcus ran a hand through his hair. “I had no idea you didn’t know until Friday. It never crossed my mind that you wouldn’t know who Val was. Talk about ego, right?”

“I cough into my elbow.” Why on earth had that been the first thing to fall out of her mouth?

One of his eyebrows quirked up. “Um… How is that relevant?”

She waved a hand back and forth between them, the motion sharp. “I cough into my elbow. You cough into a napkin. I already knew we weren’t in the same league, but we’re not even in the same stratosphere. Valor. Unbelievable. Were you laughing at me that whole time?”

His eyebrow lowered. “Do you really think that?”

“Yes! No! I… I don’t know. I’m embarrassed. How was I supposed to know you were Val? Or that it was short for Valor?”

She stared.

He sank into one of the conference room chairs. “I started tagging along with my dad when I was about five. I loved going to work with him, and he let me whenever I wasn’t in school. Everyone called him Valor, though. Some habit left over from his military days. And they started calling me Val since there couldn’t be two Valors. It stuck.”

She stared even harder. “You introduced yourself to me as Marcus.”

Color stained his cheeks, but he didn’t break eye contact. “I don’t even know why I did that. Sometimes… Sometimes I wish people didn’t know who I was. I feel like I’d get a more honest reaction if I was anonymous. I’ve never done that at work before, though. I just… I saw you sitting there, and I wanted to get to know you, and I didn’t want to be me for just a minute. But even then, I didn’t realize that you had absolutely no clue who I was. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to deceive you.”

And, just like that, she believed him. He might not have been honest about his name, but she couldn’t believe for a minute that he hadn’t been honest about who he was during their lunches together. His reactions had been too genuine, too real.

Could he really be the man she’d been eating with? And could he also be the Valor heir?

Maybe. The two didn’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Savannah sank back into her chair, but she sat stiff and straight, arms crossed.

“Normally we would start this meeting by going over what you thought of each department within Philanthropy, where I think you’d be the best fit, et cetera. We need to do things a little bit differently, though.”

Savannah gave him a nod. “Okay…?”

Marcus – ehrm, Val – got up and opened the meeting room door. “Cindy, come on in.”

A woman she didn’t recognize sat down and placed some papers on the table in front of Savannah.

“I’m Cindy. I work in HR. Val has requested that we go over the policy on inter-company romantic relationships.”

Savannah swallowed her spit, choking, and coughed into her elbow until she could breathe again. “Excuse me?”

Marcus – ugh, she didn’t think she could call him Val – answered for Cindy. “I intend to ask you out on a date. More than one, actually. If we’re both employed by Valor, though, there are rules to follow. You need to be apprised of those rules.”

Cindy gave him a brisk nod before returning her gaze to Savannah. “You’re under no obligation to accept any overtures from Val. The rules are in place for your protection.”

Savannah’s eyes flew from Cindy to Marcus and back again. “Date?”

He nodded. “You don’t have to say yes, but I am going to ask.”

“A date?”

He nodded.

Cindy huffed. “You need to stop this conversation until we’ve gone over the guidelines and filed the appropriate paperwork.”

Savannah could get over the whole Val thing. Eventually. She could even forgive him for being someone who coughed into a napkin. What she couldn’t get over, though?

When it came down to it, she couldn’t get over how kind he’d been to her each time they’d lunched together. Even though she’d basically started off by accusing him of roofying the Chinese food. Or the subtle little ways he’d made her laugh time and time again. Or the way she knew, all the way down to her bones, that she could trust him. She also couldn’t get over the way her heart stalled out when he smiled at her.

She probably wouldn’t say, “Yes,” the first time he asked her, but she would eventually. That was pretty much a foregone conclusion. So she gave her attention to the woman from HR. “I’m listening.”

Marcus smiled at her words, and the whole room lit up with the joy of it.

Valor was turning out to be a dream come true in more ways than one.

****

First, thank you for reading “Valor”. And second – thank you for being awesome. I’ve been blogging with Inspy Romance since early in 2014. An entire decade! Wow, the time has flown! Regardless of when you joined the Inspy Romance family as a reader, though – you are wonderful. As a group of readers, you have been unfailing in your encouragement and support of the IR authors. You really are amazing, and I hope you know just how much I’ve appreciated each of you. If you’d like to keep in touch, you can sign up for my newsletter. I don’t send out a ton of newsletters – but I do always let folks know when I have a new book out. And if you like devotional blogs, you might also like to visit here where I’ve recently started blogging semi-regularly. Blessings to you and yours. Thank you for a fabulous decade and for being the kind of readers that made me want to come back again year after year. ❤️