Caleb shifts his penetrating stare from Arthur to me. When his eyes meet mine, I feel a shiver whip down my spine.
“You’re not encroaching on anything. If the communications and social media team tells me I have time to ride aspace hopper”—he stops and gives Arthur a bombastic side-eye if I ever saw one— “then I think I have more than enough time to give a reporter a tour of the motorhome.”
“A space hopper?” I ask, confused. “What’s that?”
Mason types a few things on his phone and then holds it up to me. “This. It’s a ball you bounce on,” he interjects.
“Oh! A hippity hop!” I say, understanding now.
“Well, whatever you call it, they wanted us to race them on the track for content,” Mason says cheerfully. “I was game for it, butsomeoneelse refused.” Then he flashes Caleb one of the cheekiest grins I’ve ever seen.
Ooh, I wish I could ask Caleb about it. That sounds like it would have been fun content.
“Are you ready?” he asks, ignoring Mason’s pointed remark.
“Yes, thank you,” I say. I turn to Catherine as Caleb escorts Chip and me out of the conference room. “Thank you, it was a pleasure meeting you.”
“Likewise,” she says.
“Catherine, can you join us for a moment?” Caleb asks.
She nods and joins us in leaving the room. He shuts the door behind her. “Catherine, write this up for HR as soon as you get back to your desk,” he commands.
“That’s exactly what I was going to do,” she says, nodding.
Whoa.He’s taking this seriously,I think, surprised. Caleb was nice enough to stand up for me, but I never expected him to take it this far. Most people wouldn’t, even if it’s the right thing to do. They don’t want to be involved. Or get HR involved.
But doing the right thing is what matters to this F1 driver.
That says a lot about his character. He doesn’t have to mess with this. Getting involved in this issue will be a thorn in his side.
Yet Caleb Collings doesn’t care.
“Thank you,” I say softly. “I know you don’t have to do th—”
“Of course I have to do this,” Caleb interrupts, looking down at me in surprise. “I’m not letting Collings Motors be associated with that behavior. If I didn’t say anything, that would make me complicit with Arthur, and I’ll be damned if I do that.”
Whoa.
I don’t know much about Caleb—he’s very driving-focused in all his interviews and doesn’t do much social media content for Collings Motors—but what he’s doing right now?
This speaks VOLUMES about the kind of man he is.
“I’m going right now,” Catherine says. She turns to me, an apologetic look passing over her beautiful face. “I’m so sorry thishappened to you. I promise this isn’t representative of Collings Motors.”
“Thank you,” I say, shaking her hand again.
“Would you like a place to secure your tote?” she asks, looking at the bag slung over my shoulder. “I would be happy to lock it up for you at my desk.”
“Would you? I would be so grateful for that.”
“Not a problem. Caleb can bring you to my desk after the tour.”
I take out my phone and mini microphone, which is like a tiny box cube. Then I slip my tote off my shoulder and hand it to Catherine. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome,” she says, accepting my bag. She descends the stairs, leaving me with Caleb and Chip.
“Right. A tour of the motorhome,” Caleb says, shifting back to the original reason why I’m here this morning. “How would you like to start?”