But part of me was already rooting for this to work. The little town of Fairhope was a breath of fresh air after New York and all the chaos I’d left behind. I already had a dozen new fresh unread texts since last night, missed calls, and emails. I knew I needed to reach out to my real friends sooner or later and explain my side of things, but I just couldn’t yet. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe the day after that?
Stone Tower’s parking lot was packed when I pulled up. I felt more than a little surprised to see that they didn’t have as much staffing trouble as I’d imagined. There had to be two hundred cars parked outside, if not more.
I gave my outfit a quick once over before stepping through the oversized front doors. I’d been going for professional but down to earth with a simple black dress, a cardigan, and a pair of red pumps for a little touch of “look at me.”
A pretty blonde with bright red lipstick greeted me at the front desk. “Hi, do you have an appointment?”
“Actually, I have an interview with Mr. Stone. I’m a little early. But between you and me, I’m trying to convince him I’m not actually the type of person who is usually late by over-doing the early thing for this part. Fingers crossed he buys it.” I smiled, even though I was internally wincing for over-sharing. Caffeine before the interview might’ve been a little bit of a mistake.
She gave a strained smile. “Well, Mr. Stone doesn’t personally conduct interviews. If you have one scheduled, it’d be on the tenth floor with HR. Let me look you up and I’ll find out exactly where you should…” she trailed off as her fingers flew across the keyboard. “Well, that’s odd.”
“What is?” I asked, craning my neck to try to peer at her screen.
She gave me a look and tilted the screen slightly, bringing it further from my view. “It looks like you were scheduled for the tenth floor, but someone with administrative privileges changed it this morning. The computer says your appointment is on the fifty-fifth floor.”
“Okay. What’s the problem?”
“That’s Mr. Stone’s personal office. He doesn’t–” she cleared her throat, gave me a suspicious look, and lifted a phone to her ear. She dialed a number and waited. “Hi, I was hoping you could check the system for a Miss Lola Thorn. I think there’s been a mistake with her appointment.”
She waited a while, face screwing up as she listened. “But that doesn’t make sense.”
There was another wait.
She eyed me, then stepped a little away from the desk and lowered her voice to a whisper. “What if it’s a mistake? If I send this woman to him and it’s wrong, he’s going to fire me. You heard what he did to Rhonda, didn’t you?”
It looked like she was about to explain to whoever was on the other end but then she remembered I was standing there.
“Well, I’m going to send her your way. If you want to send her to his office and risk your jobs, that’s on you.”
She hung up the phone abruptly and gave me a sickly-sweet smile. “Take the elevator over there to the tenth floor, Miss Thorn.”
“But you said the computer told me to go to the fifty-fifth floor, didn’t you?”
“The tenth floor, Miss Thorn.”
I pursed my lips. “Thanks so much for your help.”
I headed to the elevator with the full intention to send my damn self to the fifty-fifth floor, regardless of what the woman at the front counter wanted me to do. In fact, I planned to go there and tell him she sent me. But all the elevator buttons were lit up except the top five floors. When I tried jabbing the fifty-fifth, I was greeted with red letters that read “Access Denied.”
I frowned and grudgingly punched the button for the tenth floor. Maybe there was a keycard or something I needed to get all the way to the top.
The tenth floor was a cubicle office setup with about a dozen people bustling around. There was a reception desk near the elevator and two men and a woman were behind it, talking fast and looking like they were in a state of borderline panic. They all looked up sharply when I stepped out of the elevator.
“Hi,” I said cheerily. “I’m supposed to get to the fifty-fifth floor. Is there some kind of special elevator that can get me there, or do I need a code?”
They all looked at each other, and then both women rushed away from the desk. The last guy remaining took two steps after them, started to say something, and then sighed. “Fuck it,” he said. “You’re Miss Thorn?”
“Yes,” I said, approaching the desk.
“Listen, if I send you up there, my name is going to be attached to the keycard I give you. That means if it’s a mistake, it’s my ass on the line.”