The Hot Canary (A Brian Quinn Fanfic)

Part 37: "Don't Sell Yourself Short Kid"

Soon enough, the long weekend was over and now Nova was back at the office doing her usual grind. She was now into an even longer week, finishing up her editing and turning all of her media into content that could be used to promote the show. She definitely had more than enough to keep herself busy and she knew that she had some long office days ahead of her.

Her and Q did not talk much after their crazy hotel stay. In fact they didn't talk about it all except for the usual pleasantries of seeing each other during travel. They were both exhausted from lack of sleep and just wanted to focus on getting home. The rest of the team felt the same way since the majority had to get up and go to work again the next day with out a break day in between, which included Nova.

And Now there she was, busy as a bee in her little nook of the network building with a full schedule ahead of her. She was so wrapped up in her work that she did not notice the figure that was standing in her door.

"Knock Knock" they said, making Nova jump.

It was Topher.

Nova's eyes widened and she felt all the moisture leave her mouth at his intrusion, making her swallow hard. Topher saw the fear take over her expression and right away his hands went up.

"Hey hey, I come in peace, I promise. I just wanted to apologize for how I acted the other night. I'm really sorry if my actions made you uncomfortable. I was just trying to let loose from everything I've had going on and I didn't mean to do anything."

Nova was still trying to process that he was here in her space and she felt like she had been taken off guard.

"Okay?" Was all Nova could say.

She knew that she had way more she could have said but that was all her mind was letting her come up with at the moment. Her nerves made her totally blank.

"Can I have a seat?" Topher asked, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk.

Nova looked at the chair and then back at Topher with a deer in headlights look.

"Okay" She said again, her tone laced with uncertainty.

Topher walked in and then took a seat. He cleared his throat and then nervously straightened his tie, giving Nova the impression that maybe he was feeling as awkward as she was right now.

"Look, I didn't mean for anything to happen, I was just really drunk after being under so much pressure and I didn't want to go at it with Brian the way I did but he did challenge me and he should have known better than to run up on a network executive like that."

Nova felt like she had just been slapped in the face.

"Wait, what?!" She said with a scrunched face, thinking there was no way he just said what she thought he did.

"I mean I know he is your boy and everything, but just because he is one of four main runners on a show doesn't mean that he can put his hands on people. Like I said, I'm sorry about what happened between us and I promise that I will never let things escalate to that again, but it was none of Brian's business and he didn't have to interfere."

Nova couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Umm, from what I remember, you grabbed me first? Brian was just defending me, he didn't do anything wrong" Nova said with firmly.

"And I apologized for that. Look, I came here this morning to save you the aggravation of going to HR and I'm giving you the option of handling this like adults. I'm just trying to be a upfront with you so you know what will happen and what you would be getting into. The chances are they are going to see it for what it was and then squash it. I don't mean to sound full of myself but yeah, I'm kind of a big deal around here and you...Well no offense but you just started here. I have years of credibility and connections.