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Then, when walking across the floor lobby, she heard her name being whispered. Followed by "every guy who looks her way" and "I knew she was a slut the second I laid eyes on her".
Hannah felt her spine straighten, her stomach doing flip-flops in a way that made her instantly nauseated. Were they actually talking about her? Why would anyone call her a slut? And no guys ever looked her way, let alone paid her any attention. Maybe she had misheard. There were so many women at EM Corporation. Hannah could easily sound like Briana or Joanna or any number of other names. Hannah shrugged off the incident as a misunderstanding and went about the rest of her day.
Though that wasn't the end of it. Every day she would come into work, there would be something small. Things so small that, at first, she convinced herself it was just her mind playing tricks on her. That maybe she was feeling guilty about what had happened with her and EM and she was projecting it out onto other people.
There were sideways looks and sometimes downright hostility aimed at her from other peoples' eyes. And there was always a constant hush whenever she walked into the room or got on the elevator or walked into the lobby. The kind of hush one remembers from middle school cattiness when girls would gossip about other girls behind their backs.
Then one evening she was sitting in the stairwell, just trying to get away from everyone and everything for five minutes. And she heard female voices coming from below her.
"Yeah, I heard she had sex with Aaron from IT," one voice said.
"Oh, not just Aaron. It sounds like she's slept with half of the guys at the company. Including both of the Michaels brothers. It's disgusting."
That did sound disgusting, Hannah silently nodded. Where did a woman think all that sleeping around would get her?
"Gross," the first voice responded. "I mean both of the Micheals are hot as hell but why would they nail someone who has been with all of their male employees?"
"Yeah, well. Elliott I guess just reached for what was easiest. He doesn't have the time to go out and wine and dine someone. So his assistant is the most logical choice. I guess he thought she was pretty."
The voices got closer and closer and Hannah felt herself wanting to slink into the walls. She hadn't been paranoid. The last few weeks of feeling like something was wrong wasn't all in her head. People really were talking about her. Not only were they talking about her, because she could handle that, people talk. But they were spreading downright lies about her. Bad enough they might have thought she was sleeping with one person at the office, but how had it gotten to the scale where she had been in practically every man's bed?
Who would start a rumor like that? Of course rumors spread and get fabricated until they are no longer even a hint of what they started out as. But still... someone had started it. Someone had disliked her so much that they had accused her of screwing around at work. She had never even met Aaron from IT for God's sake!
Just then the gossiping women came into view. The older of the two, a harsh brunette, nudged her red-headed companion and glanced pointedly down at Hannah. They opened the door to the floor and walked through and Hannah could hear as it closed, "Eww her? Really? She's chunky."
Hannah cringed. She had been called worse in her time, but women always knew how to hit below the belt. She wasn't a lithe little supermodel, but neither was the redhead. What was it about women who down talked someone who wasn't even that different from themselves?
Maybe it was because she had grown up in a very small, close-knit town but there had never been much bullying. Everyone knew everyone and everyone's mother. No one would be able to get away with it. Of course people talked, perhaps more so because everyone had everyone else in common, but it never got to the point where it was downright malicious. Apparently, it had ill-prepared her for life in a big, bad city.
Around five that same afternoon, there was a knocking at her door from the main lobby. She mumbled a "come in" despite wishing for nothing more than to be alone. Tad popped his head in, his eyebrows furrowed.
"How ya doing?" he asked, closing the door quietly.
Hannah looked up at him, her face pale and tired. "Didn't you hear? I'm the goddamn whore of Babylon. And apparently business is really good."
Tad sighed deeply. He looked uncharacteristically solemn, sad. "I don't know what the hell is going on around here," he admitted, coming up to her desk and rubbing her shoulders. "It's never this bad. Whoever is fueling this must really hate you."
"For what?" Hannah exploded, spinning her chair around to face him. "I haven't done anything to anybody here! I've been nothing but nice to the ladies. And I almost never even speak to the men. I don't understand what I could have done to piss someone off so much."
Tad shrugged, perching himself on her desk. "Women are terrible sometimes. Maybe you smiled at her boyfriend or she's just jealous of you. Who knows really."
"And I'm chunky," Hannah mumbled, looking altogether mopey and sounding sorry for herself.
Tad scoffed, looking genuinely affronted. "Who said that?"
"That red-headed bitch from the fourth floor."
"Easy, tiger. The last thing you want is for it to circulate that you're talking crap aboutthemnow."
"Could it really get any worse, Tad?"
Tad jumped up suddenly, pulling Hannah out of her chair and enveloping her in his arms. "Listen to me, Hannah-Banana," he said, his chin resting on her head, "all of this is going to blow over if you don't play into their hands. I know it sucks right now. You're just gonna have to take it on the chin. Don't let anyone see that it is getting to you. They're like the lions. And you're the gazelle with a broken leg. You can't let them see your weakness or they are going to take you down."
Hannah nodded into Tad's chest, holding on as if her life depended on it. She didn't realize how badly she needed a hug, some comfort from someone who actually cared about her.
Tad let her go a moment later. Smiling at her, he playfully punched her on the chin. "You can take it," he said with a wink, kissed her forehead and left.
She heard the elevator chime as he left. EM was at a dinner meeting so Hannah went into his office to grab the coffee pot and take it to clean in the kitchen. The office was pleasantly quiet. With no one there to glare at her or whisper behind her back, she felt the hours of stress slowly melting away. She rolled her shoulders as she stood at the sink.
