“Mr. Knox,” I said interrupting Atticus, “it’s a pleasure to meet you, again.” I stepped forward extending my hand.
I was not going down with a fight.
“Again?” Atticus questioned, looking at me with a frown.
“Yes, Mr. Knox worked for my mother, Margaret Cunning,” I lied.
Well, it wasn’t a complete lie. I had met him before, and he had worked with my mother at one point, right?
“Yes, of course. I’m quite sorry to hear about her passing.” Tristan smirked at me.
Atticus’ mouth dropped open, and this time, I was the one who turned to wink.
“You’re all late,” Levi scolded, coming towards the elevator.
“We’re five minutes early.”
“You were five minutes early, but you spent those minutes, my minutes, may I add, chatting about your personal lives, right Tristan?”
“I couldn’t get them to shut up.”
They’d fucking set us up.
“Anyway, in this office, if you aren’t a half hour early, you might as well not show up. So far, I’m rethinking the both of you,” he responded, as the elevator doors closed.
“You were supposed to be on that elevator with him,” Tristan said from behind us. “If you don’t make it to the car before he does, believe me, he will drop the both of you on the spot.”
Atticus and I glanced at each for a second, before I took off my heels and bolted towards the stairs.
“Are you insane? There are at least 60 flights of stairs!” Atticus yelled after me, but I ignored him, running as quickly as I could.
As I reached the 49th level, I pushed open the door and dashed towards the elevator, pressing the button over and over again, as if my life depended on it.
“Ma’am?” a security guard asked, coming towards me. Fortunately, the doors opened, and sure enough there was Levi reading his paper.
“I work for him!” I shouted, pointing to Levi, as I jumped inside.
He looked up at me, confused as I entered gasping.
“I would have been more impressed if you’d ran down all of the stairs,” he said, no longer interested in me. As I stood there trying to catch my breath, he continued reading.
“Fuck you.”
“Excuse me?” he turned back to look at me, his eyes narrowing.
“Achoo,” I sneezed. “Excuse me,” I lied and he knew it, but I put my heels back on anyway.
“Where’s Atticus?” he asked as the doors opened.
“I don’t know maybe he just isn’t hungry for—” I stopped, seeing Atticus already standing at the car door. ‘
Levi looked back to me. “He wins.”
He allowed Levi to enter before cutting between us both and climbing into the spot next to Levi, which forced me to take to the front seat.
“We are going to see the Archibalds,” he said. “Keep your heads down, don’t talk to anyone, especially not the reporters, don’t even breathe into their mics, and don’t under any circumstance, make eye contact. The same goes for the Archibalds themselves. You are nothing more than flies on a wall, you take notes, and you keep out of my associates’ way, because they sure as hell won’t be paying attention to you. If you have questions, keep them to yourself. If you have thoughts and opinions, keep them to yourself, unless I ask from them. Understood?” We both nodded. “Good.”
This was the first time I had ever seen him dressed to the nines. When he had been with me, it was always a variation of jeans, and a button down shirt, or just his boxers, or sometimes, nothing at all. At school, he was semi-casual. But no matter what he wore, he looked good in everything.