Hearts Call

Chapter4

“She won’t recover from this one,” Pearl said quietly.

Ruby walked into Jonathan’s office, her proposal neatly organized, her mind focused.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Morning,” he replied. “Have a seat.”

They spent nearly an hour going through her ideas; line by line, detail by detail.

For the first time in weeks, Ruby felt heard.

“You’ve thought this through,” Jonathan said finally, closing the file. “Every angle.”

Relief softened her shoulders. “I told you.”

A faint smile touched his lips. “You did.”

There was a pause; comfortable this time.

Jonathan said, “I'll present it to the board at tomorrow's meeting on your behalf and I'm sure they'll love it”

“ I don't want to keep you here any longer you can go."

“Okay. Thank you,” Ruby replied.

The next day, Jonathan initiated the presentation while Ruby concluded it and the board was impressed.

After the meeting, she walked to her desk feeling hopeful and reassured that things are finally getting better.

A few days had past,

The office was unusually quiet for a late evening, the kind of silence that settled only after ambition had clocked out and left determination behind.

Ruby Hale sat across from Jonathan Reid in his glass-walled office, a thick file open between them. Numbers, projections, and regional expansion charts filled the pages, but neither of them seemed entirely focused on the data anymore.

Jonathan leaned back slightly, studying her.

“You missed something,” he said.

Ruby looked up, a faint smile touching her lips. “I didn’t.”

He raised a brow. “Confident.”

She leaned forward, flipping a page and tapping a column with her pen. “You’re looking at projected losses without factoring in seasonal demand shifts. Q3 spikes would offset this.”

Jonathan’s gaze followed her finger. A slow, impressed smile formed.

“And this,” he said, “is exactly why I asked you to stay.”

Ruby allowed herself a small, satisfied smile. “So I was right?”

“You usually are,” he replied.

The words lingered longer than they should have.

Ruby cleared her throat lightly, looking back at the file. “We should finalize this before tomorrow’s meeting.”

“Or,” Jonathan said calmly, closing the file, “we could take a break.”

She blinked, caught off guard. “A break?”

“You’ve been here since morning. So have I.” His tone softened slightly. “There’s a place nearby. Quiet. Good food.”

Ruby hesitated, her fingers tightening slightly around her pen.

“Are you… asking me to dinner?” she asked, her voice careful.

Jonathan met her gaze directly. “Yes.”

The simplicity of it made her heart skip.

For a moment, she said nothing.

Then, quietly, “Okay.”

The restaurant was warm and softly lit, the kind of place where conversations felt private even in a crowded room.

Ruby sat across from Jonathan, more relaxed than she had expected to be.

“You’re different outside the office,” she said.

He tilted his head. “Is that a good thing?”

“I think so,” she admitted. “You’re less… intimidating.”

A faint smirk crossed his face. “I’ll take that as progress.”

They talked easily—about work at first, then about everything else.

Ruby found herself laughing, really laughing, in a way she hadn’t in a long time.

And Jonathan… listened.

Not just politely, but attentively.

Like every word mattered.

“You don’t believe the rumors, do you?” she asked suddenly.

Jonathan’s expression shifted slightly. “Which ones?”

Ruby hesitated. “About me.”

He held her gaze. “No.”

The answer came too quickly to be rehearsed.

Too firm to be uncertain.

Ruby exhaled softly, something in her chest easing.

“Good,” she said.

The next morning, sunlight streamed through the office windows as Ruby practically floated to Pearl’s desk.

“Pearl,” she said, her voice bright with excitement. “I need to tell you something.”

Pearl looked up, her expression warm. “That sounds serious.”

“It’s not serious,” Ruby said quickly, then paused. “Well… maybe it is.”

Pearl leaned forward, intrigued. “Go on.”

Ruby lowered her voice slightly. “Jonathan asked me out.”

Silence.

Then Pearl smiled.

“Finally,” she said, her tone light. “I was wondering how long that would take.”

Ruby laughed softly. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Mm-hmm,” Pearl teased. “And how was it?”

Ruby hesitated, then smiled in a way that was softer, more vulnerable than usual. “It was… nice.”

Pearl’s eyes flickered; something sharp, something calculating, but it vanished behind a look of delight.

“I’m happy for you,” she said.

And Ruby believed her.

By midday, the whispers had already begun.