Chapter 4
“Mrs. Cartwright?”I looked up to the woman sitting at the reception desk in thelobby.
“Hello?” I was confused by her questioning myname.
“Mr. Wellington is expecting you in his office this morning. Please follow me.” I looked over to Lilly and Erica, trying to mouth my concern to them, but they just raised their shoulders in a shrug, and followed behind us. “We can drop you ladies off along theway.”
No one said anything as we entered the elevator. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but what I did know was that I wasn’t scared. Max knew where we stood. We’d even had a decent conversation this weekend. He had seen a part to me that almost no one had. He had seen me at my mostvulnerable.
When I had gotten home that night and still hadn’t heard anything from Adam, even through to the next day, I turned my phone off. It wasn’t the most adult thing to do, but it was the only way I knew how to control the situation. I scrambled to find the phone in my purse, realizing it was still off, and frantically turned it on. I might have missed something that would have prepared me for this on-the-spot meeting. It took a minute for my phone to come to life—seven missed calls, three voicemails, and twenty texts. Almost all from Adam. Only one voicemail from Greg, stating Max wanted to do my introductory meetingtoday.
I tried to riffle through the messages from Adam when the elevator stopped on the fourth floor, and I continued up while the girls headed to work. Every message was filled with rage. This wasn’t something that I was used to, but then again, I understood why Adam would be mad. I had never ignored him or turned my phone off. The last few messages were ones of worry and regret. My heart melted because I knew he didn’t deservethis.
I shot him off a text letting him know I would call him later tonight after work. A woman in a gray dress greeted me once the elevator opened to Max’s floor. I left the other receptionist in the elevator, while this new woman lead me to Max’s office. I hand’t been on this floor yet, but all I could see were conference rooms and one giant office against the backwall.
“Mr. Wellington is excited to see you this morning.” She stopped at the double doors behind her desk and turned back to me. I couldn’t read the smile on her face, but she opened the door and waved me in. “Goodluck.”
Her words seemed more like a warning as I stepped into the lion’sden.
When I walked through the door, I didn’t know what to expect of Max’s office, but it suited him all too well. Light chrome office furniture, dark grey walls, an open window skylight above and off to the left-hand side of the office. The only thing that seemed out of place was the purple couch sitting to the side, which looked as soft as it probablyfelt.
“Please sit down, Alexa.” Max was standing in the middle of the office holding out a chair for me. I slowly made my way over. I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be when I sat down. We were both silent while he made himself comfortable across from me. He took his time getting papers straightened out on his desk before settling his eyes onme.
“How was the rest of your weekend?” I looked down at my hands that were planted against my legs and smiled. I didn’t knowwhyhe cared, but I knew he meant his question with allsincerity.
“It was actually pretty good. Well, until this morning.” I looked up to him now. He was standing over his desk, hands planted firmly on top of it. His eyebrows were drown together in confusion and the fire in his eyes scaredme.
“Whathappened?”
“Nothing, just, I didn’t even know I was meeting you this morning.” The confusion didn’t leave his face. “I turned my phone off after I got back to Lilly’s on Saturday and didn’t turn it on until I was in the elevator thismorning.”
“This meeting made you upset?” I understood now how what I had said didn’t make sense. It wasn’t the meeting this morning that had my mood heading south. It was the texts from Adam, and the more I thought about them, the angrier I got. I didn’t have to tell Max any of that, but for some reason, I wanted to. For some reason, Max felt safe. Like a third party who judged, but only because he didn’t know Adam or me, and I felt like that was the best-case scenario rightnow.
“No.” The word came out as barely a whisper, but I was looking at Max directly in the eyes. The tick in his jaw stopped and his eyessoftened.
“I see.” He sat back down, readjusting the papers on his desk a second time. “You don’t have to disclose. We can just jump into your workhere.”
Max handed me a copy of my application, which was only half filled out. I tried not to laugh at how pathetic the application looked. I had barely filled anything out onit.
“I know that Greg did your phone interview, and you came highly recommended from Lilly, but what I don’t understand is why you only filled this out halfway. You haven’t listed where you graduated from or what degree you graduated with. I don’t see previous employers on hereeither.”
“I didn’t think it mattered all that much since I had already gotten the job and was given this to fill out after the fact. You’re just now looking at it anyways.” The silence quickly filled the air and Max sat there waiting for the answers to his questions. “Fine.”
I readjusted myself, my hands not leaving my thighs this entire time. Them being glued to me meant I wouldn’t fidget, but talking about myself made the urge grow stronger. I let out a huff and laid it all out forhim.
“I went to USC, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. I worked in retail for six years before cominghere.”
Done. Simple. I didn’t have to talk about myselfanymore.
“Creative writing? Why are you working in the accounting side of the business, then?” He moved from his seat to the one next tome.
Great. He wanted to know more. I loved learning about new people, I just didn’t like talking about me or my life. I wasn’t that interesting, but with how intently Max was listening, exactly like he had in the cable car, I felt like I was being plastered all overTV.
“This was the job that Lilly could get me an interview for, so I took it. I may have a degree in creative writing, but I am a total math geek at heart.” I laughed at my own words. Normally when I told friends of this truth, they thought I was weird. I couldn’t believe that I was telling my boss now, that I was opening up to him. By the look on his face, he didn’t seem to think this was weird at all. It settled me a little that he wasn’t judging me, especially since I was laughing at myself. He didn’t even see how nervous I was, or maybe he did and just didn’tcare.
“You have the brains and the looks.” His comment barely caught my ear, but it was there hanging in the air. I blushed. I didn’t want to bring attention to the comment. It may have seemed harmless, but the butterflies in my stomach said something else. “Is there a possibility that you would want to transfer over to our editingdepartment?”
“I’ve thought about it, don’t get me wrong. But I’m actually happy where I am now.” It wasn’t that I loved math more than reading, but there was something about working with numbers that made my blood rush. Max moved his attention to the phone that was vibrating on his desk, and then back to me. “Go ahead. I should get downstairs to workanyway.”
