I didn’t need to catch my own reflection in the phone screen to know that I looked different.I liked to spend every moment in my home gym when I wasn’t here at the office.I had kept up the same physique I’d had when I was playing.Even though I didn’t need it anymore.It was a point of pride.Honed muscles like steel helped me keep my brain sharp as well.
Was I even anything like Keaton’s type at all?
I closed my eyes.Shut off my phone screen.This was stupid.I was his boss.I had yelled at him.I wasn’t even out publicly and I already knew he would hate that.There were a hundred reasons why we would never work.
But I thought about Jordan Muriel hurting Keaton and I squeezed my phone so hard that I felt something crunch inside my hand.
Keaton
“Keaton,” a familiar voice greeted me.“Are you alright?”
I looked around and quickly tried to calm myself, pretending I had just been looking out of the window.“Oh, Fernando.Yes, hi, how are you?”
He frowned at me a little, but if he suspected I actually wasn’t fine, he didn’t say it.His expression cleared.“I haven’t seen you since you got the job.Congratulations, by the way.”
“Thanks!”I said, but my enthusiasm quickly tapered out.Who knew how much longer I would have the job for.Mr.Harvey had summarily sent me away, and he hadn’t even tried to hide how angry he was with me.I realized my hands were still shaking and quickly clasped them behind my back.“I’m just on my way out to get some co- some snacks.Do you know what kind of pastries he likes?He wasn’t specific.”
Fernando gave me a long, slanted look.“Harvey doesn’t eat pastries.”
“Right.”I let my head droop on my shoulders.I should have figured that out for myself.“It must be for guests.I’ll just get a selection.”
Of course, I wasn’t going to get any pastries at all.I just didn’t want Fernando to know that I was going out to get coffee because that would invite the inevitable question: why I was going all the way across town when there were multiple coffee machines within this very building.
“Okay, well,” Fernando said.“See you later.”
He headed off back down the hall in the direction he had been going, one hand in his pocket and the other loosely holding a printed document, whistling as he moved away from me.
I didn’t want him to ask too many questions about why I was shaking, why I had been standing in the hallway alone, and why I had very obviously been blinking back tears when I first turned around – but, still.It would have been nice if he’dnoticed.
I shook it off as best as I could and headed to the elevator, riding it quickly down to the lobby.I was about to walk smartly across the marble floor and leave, but someone called out my name before I could take so much as two steps.
I looked up at the clerk at the front desk – a pretty young woman who was sharper than she looked.She was watching me expectantly, and an older woman stood in front of her.She was perfectly made-up, with greying hair dressed up in a bun on top of her head that swirled like something a film star would wear, a chic beige overcoat, and a very prim expression.
“Hi,” I said expectantly, looking between the clerk and the woman, waiting for someone to explain to me what was going on.
“This is Helen,” the clerk supplied meaningfully.Seeing that I wasn’t there yet, she added: “Helen Alcori.”
Oh!Mr.Harvey’s last secretary – the one whose phone stand I had found.She looked a little on the older side to have been using a phone stand, but what did I know?
“Helen,” I greeted her, trying my best warm smile.I stuck out a hand which she shook reluctantly as if she was touching something distasteful.“It’s nice to meet you.Did we miss something of yours that we should have sent along?”
Helen glared at me and pursed her wine-colored lips.“You should not have sent along anything,” she said in clipped tones, her voice at least two income brackets more correct and precise than mine.“How rude of you to simply dispense of my items without so much as a phone call.”
I blinked, taken aback by how furious she was.“I… I’m sorry,” I said.Was she seriously that old-fashioned?“I thought it best to make sure you had your things as soon as possible.I would have called, but it was very late when we found the stand, and I wouldn’t have liked to have disturbed you.”
“Sent it along as soon as you found it, did you?”she scoffed.“You didn’t stop to use it at all?”
I felt myself flush red.It was true – I had used it without knowing whose it was.A second later, though, realization struck.“How did you know I had used it?”
“It was scuffed,” she said, pronouncing the word as if it was really the worddeadand the object in question was her beloved pet dog, not a phone stand.
I coughed.“I’m sorry about that,” I said.Had I scuffed it?Really?I couldn’t remember doing anything so strenuous.But maybe it had gotten roughed up in the mail.
She sniffed and turned up her nose a little towards me.I couldn’t believe I’d just witnessed someone doing that in real life.I’d always thought it was just a turn of phrase.“Well, thankfully, I am not missing the good breeding that you lack,” she said.“I came to thank you for couriering it to my door.Very kind of you.Though a waste of company resources, I should think.”
I almost choked.First, it was rude of me to send the item on without warning, and now it was also a waste of company resources to politely make sure she had it as soon as possible?I felt like I was being thrown from one side of the ropes to the other.“Right, well, my apologies for that,” I said.My head was reeling.What else?“Oh, and thank you for coming all this way.Was there anything else I could help you with?”
She glanced me up and down and sniffed slightly.“Just make sure you keep my details on file, dear,” she said.
