“Cheer up, you’ll get through this.” Bill gave me a mock salute before turning and walking to a waiting car. There wasn’t one for me.
I had to go inside the airport, make my way through the crowds, and wait in line for a cab. The ride to the office was uneventful. As I walked across the lobby of the skyscraper, I felt a calmness wash over me. This place was familiar. It called to me. I worked because I didn’t know what else to do, and with the chaos of my personal life, I needed the grounding feeling of having a task to accomplish.
Pulling my keycard from my laptop bag, I smiled at the security guard. “How’s your day been?”
“Oh, nothing to complain about,” the portly man quipped. “You had a good weekend so far, Miss?”
He wouldn’t believe me if I told him.
“It was eventful,” I said absently, tapping my card against the display. The sooner I was upstairs, the better. I went to push the rotating gate.
The light beeped red, and the metal bar refused to budge.
What the…?
I tried again. It stayed red.
“That thing acting up?” The security guard ambled over. He took my badge and tried a different gate.
Red again.
“Let me see if I can sort this out.” His reassuring smile was full of confidence that this was just a mistake.
I prayed he was right, but the sinking feeling only grew as he dialed his boss. Pulling the strap of my computer bag off my shoulder, I balanced the case on my rolling suitcase.
“Miss Loring, I’m so sorry, but your access to the building has been denied.” The guard came back, handing me the badge. “I’m sure it’s just a mix up.”
“That’s not possible!” I rubbed my solar plexus, the sinking feeling weighing against my chest. “What happened?”
He shrugged. “That’s above my pay grade. Maybe call your employer?”
It couldn’t….
That wasn’t….
No!I took a desperate gulp of air. “Thanks.”
I took the badge and wandered to the row of benches on the far side of the lobby. Sunlight filtered through the tall glass window walls. They were designed to let the light in but keep the heat out. The temperature-controlled air penetrated my suit jacket, making me shiver.
I tried dialing HR, but it went to voicemail. The legal minds of Kirk & Wallace might work long hours, but the accountants, the human resource goons, and a few other departments kept bankers’ hours. Only the tech guys worked around the clock, beating the legal team in terms of combined hours. There was always a wizard available if a partner’s computer crashed, or to prevent the private servers from being hacked. I thought about trying one of them to see if they knew what was happening.
But my fingers hovered over the contact list in my phone.
I never asked him for a favor before.
If this was a minor inconvenience, bothering the senior partner seemed silly.
“I’ll just keep the conversation short,” I promised myself as I dialed.
Jared St. Just picked up on the second ring. “Amanda, good morning. I didn’t expect to hear from you.”
He sounded…pissed. His voice was tight, as if he were trying to keep from yelling.
“Good morning, sir.” I pulled myself up straight. “I was just on my way up to review the Henderson Merger, but it seems there’s trouble with my access card.”
A pulse of silence echoed through the phone.
An older gentleman wearing a bow-tie entered the lobby, walked through the security checkpoint, and stopped by the bank of elevators beyond. He probably worked for one of the other businesses that used this building. If he was a lawyer, he didn’t work for us. Not in that brown, dated suit.
