When I first started working for Cal I wasn’t impressed. He had a terrible reputation and he was so rude! I resolved not to let him get the better of me but it was looking quite antagonistic. Then, just a few days after I started working for him, my perspective changed. We were on our way to a business meeting when he suddenly barked an order to stop the car and jumped out. There was a child sitting at the bus stop. He was grubby and crying. I hadn’t even noticed them but a moment later Gold’s thousand dollar jacket was around them.

His reputation was that of a cold, heartless monster but he sat there for over an hour talking with him, completely missing the meeting. He then took the boy to the hospital where he was treated for a broken arm. Gold stayed with him, paid all the bills, and then took him home. It turned out the child was being badly bullied, and another child had pushed them over which is how they were hurt. Gold set up a trust for him, paid for him to go to a different school, and not one word of it was leaked to the press. It wasn’t done for good publicity, it was just done because he could and because it was a nice thing to do.

I knew then that he wasn’t the man I thought he was, that there was more to him – a man behind the ruthless businessman. Nobody could be that nice to a complete stranger, for no personal gain, if they were actually a monster. By the time he was taken a couple of years later, yes I was completely in love with him. I’d got to know him by then, unraveled some of his many layers, and I really liked the man I’d found.

He was still my boss so I never said anything, if it hadn’t been for the Iron Man suit I don’t know if either of us ever would have. There was an incident at Gold’s factory, which is what led to him announcing he was Iron Man, and it was an adrenaline-fueled time. I saved Cal’s life and then soon after he saved mine and we kissed. He confessed he was terrified he could have lost me and I confessed the same. It’s a tale as old as time really…