Put His Foot in It

Carter calmly walked out of the room and headed toward Barov, thinking briefly about Roland's random ramblings.

'He was probably talking about Anna, right? Those two seemed to glance at each other a lot when they thought the other wasn't looking; there's probably something going on.

'But why would he need to be so vague, he could've just said it was here, right?

'That would mean it's probably someone else. But I definitely saw something between the two of them, so what's going on?'

A look of disdain appeared on Carter's face. 'I sincerely hope he's not one of those guys with several girlfriends. The idea of a harem disgusts me, especially those characters in novels who treat their women as nothing more than sex dolls as they all clamber for his affection.'

Carter chuckled at where his casual musing had derailed into a rant about harems in novels. He soon arrived at Barov's desk and passed on Roland's instructions.

"Hi, um, Roland said you'd show me around and get me settled in. So, er…"

Barov looked at him and unintentionally leaked a sigh. He immediately noticed his faux pas and apologized, "Sorry, that was exceedingly rude. I wasn't sighing at you anyway."

He quickly stood up to lead the way.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I can only guess how busy you've all been since last week."

Anna overheard their conversation and soon piped up.

"I can show you around if you want. After all, you are my savior," she said with a bright smile.

Barov quickly sidled up to Carter and said, "No, no, it's quite alright. I really don't mind. You have a lot of work to catch up on."

A weird gleam twinkled in his eyes. 'I have to accept that I'll lose Anna to Roland soon enough. It's time I start looking for another strapping lad.'

"Thank you for the offer, Barov, but if it's alright with you, can Anna show me around? We do know each other."

"Ok, that's fine," muttered Barov, barely audibly. He then thought to himself, 'Everyone seems to be choosing Anna over me these days.'

"Don't take it the wrong way," said Carter hurriedly, seeing his downcast expression. "We'll all be working closely together, so we need to get to know each other. How about I buy you a drink some time?"

A ray of hope appeared before Barov.

"That sounds great!" he replied enthusiastically.

…

Anna swiftly lead Carter around the building. Of course, it was a colossal building, so she didn't take him to every floor; he could do that on his own. She mainly took him to places of importance like the security office, the various department heads, and the few board members who worked in the building.

As they were chatting, Carter suddenly asked, "Forgive me for asking, but are you and Roland dating?"

A red hue lightly colored Anna's cheeks. She nervously laughed. "What do you mean? We're nothing like that."

Too many people had spread rumors about the two of them dating, so it was a slightly sensitive topic for Anna.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I must've read the situation wrong. He was talking about someone close to him, and I thought it might be you."