I nodded. “I’m sure they can help.”
She gave me the best smile that she could. “Have a nice day, sir.”
I don’t know what in the fuck possessed me to do it but… “Charlie.”
“Hmm?”
When she looked up at me, I tried again. “Back in my military days, people called me Ghost. But I’m Charlie. Charlie Johnston.”
When she smiled, it reached her eyes, softening the sadness that had been there before. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Charlie. And again, I’m sorry that we couldn’t be of further assistance.”
You’ll be a great help once I can get those cameras put up in your place.“You, too, Jasmine. And no worries, you were brilliant.”
I hated how I carried the smile she gave me in my mind as I finally left that building.
Because it was time to push everything to the back of my mind and get to fucking work.
6
JASMINE
I watched that masked man enter the elevator before I heaved a heavy sigh. I hated it when I got my ass chewed out by my boss in front of a room full of people. Sure, I was paid six figures to do what I did.
But sometimes, the money simply wasn’t worth it.
I sank myself into my routine, thankful that my boss would be gone for the rest of the day after this meeting. I barely registered getting out. I barely registered everyone walking by my desk without so much as greeting me.
I hardly knew anything until a stack of files was dropped onto my desk in front of me.
“These need to be signed off and filed away before you leave,” my boss said.
I looked up at him to respond, but he already walked away from my desk. “I’ll make sure it gets done, sir!”
“You better!”
I ground my teeth together as I sighed. I waited until I heard the elevators ding closed, and I busied myself with things on my desktop until I was sure he wasn’t going to double back. I flicked my attention over to the elevator every once in a while, clockingwhat level it was on. And when I watched it finally descend to the first level, I let out a breath I didn’t once realize I was holding.
“Another long night,” I muttered as I reached for the file on top of the stack.
Once I sank into a rhythm at work, I hardly ever came up for air. Ripping me out of a groove like that always made it harder to sink back into things, so it was nice whenever my boss was out of the office. Granted, that was usually always. But at least things were quiet up there on the top floor.
With no one else around me.
Got lonely sometimes, though.
By the time I finished with the last file as well as the other things slated on my schedule for the day, it was past eight in the evening. I yawned as I clocked myself out for the day. Well, there wasn’t really a clock to clock out on. Being paid what I was paid meant my boss owned most, if not all, of my time. However, I logged out and shut down my desk, eager to go straight from the top of the building to the parking garage beneath.
I was in my car within minutes.
“All right,” I muttered to myself as I cranked my rustbucket of a vehicle up, “let’s go get some food.”
I sure as hell wasn’t going home just to cook this late at night. I was tired. My hands ached. The tips of my fingers were damn near bruised from the amount of typing I’d had to do that day. So, I treated myself to my favorite place so that I could enjoy my favorite meal:
Veggie ramen with extra kimchi and a mango bubble tea.
The smell of my food taunted me as I drove across town. Well, not really across town, since the firm was pretty much smack dab in the middle of downtown. But I was still a good twenty-minute inner-city drive from the place, and sometimes I just wanted to claw my eyes out.
I really needed to find a place closer to downtown if I kept this job.
