“Next time, I’ll just buzz you in,” he raised a brow, his face strained in a scowl.
Ignoring him, I badged myself in and waited for the elevator to take me to the tenth floor. I’d stopped by a coffee shop just across the street before heading into Kiriakis Technologies. They had the most delicious pastries, sticky and sweet but their coffee? That was heaven. They had a creamer for one of my favorite things in the world. Chocolate Baklava…
As far as I knew, the tiny little Greek coffee shop was the only place in the world that had the delicious concoction. I sipped and waited, scrolling on my phone as the other employees whirled around me, talking and moving on with their morning.
When the doors slid open, I went to step on and there he was.
My stomach immediately lurched but I took a deep breath, as I moved the coffee cup away from my mouth. He looked up and took me in, and he too arched an eye brow in my direction.
“Are you getting on?” He finally snapped.
Bad mood Andy…
The thought instantly popped into my head. Everyone whispered about what a dick Mr. Kiriakis was and how bad his temper was. The week before, he’d gotten pissy at the robotics team and had broken a dry erase board over his knee.
“Yeah,” I nodded and stepped on, instantly finding his scent surrounding me.
Fuck, I thought.
“What floor?” He looked back at me, his fingertips dancing out to touch the panel.
“Ten,” I muttered.
Two months.
I’d been working at Kiriakis Tech for two months.
His company, for two whole fucking months and this was the most he’d said to me the entire time.
Part of me wanted to tell him how disgusted I was with him. That he’d been a huge gaping asshole that was basically a cliché. He had taken a girl’s virginity and then disappeared.
My mouth actually parted to say something to him and then the door slid open and he stepped out onto another floor leaving me alone with my thoughts.
He doesn’t even work on the seventh floor, I thought.
“You could hack into his shit and expose whatever secrets he has to the internet…”I mumbled out loud.
By the time I reached my desk, my coffee had gotten a little cooler. Setting all my stuff down, I parked my behind in my chair and booted up my computer.
“You remembered!” My annoying co-worker who knew everybody’s business stood up and leaned over to remark on the sweater that I was wearing. Beatrice Chan knew your business before you did.
My eyes tracked her dark brown eyes as she read my sweater. The deep maroon colors spelled out HARVARD, where an outline of the school’s crest sat below in the same color.
“What’d you get your degree in, again?”
I pulled my coffee cup up to my lips and took a sip. “Beatrice, now you know you went through my Linked In two months ago when you found out that I’d gotten this team lead position.”
She cocked her head to the side and stared at me. “You’re right, I did.”
I thought that would be the end of it, but she danced around from her side of the cubicles and surprised me. In her hands was a cupcake decorated in white frosting and tiny maroon sprinkles.
“Happy rep your college day,” she smiled and sat the cupcake down.
“Did you cook this?” I asked looking at her.
“What…no…of course not,” she looked offended, as if I cared. “Susan in developmental coding used the company card and got a bunch made for the office. There’s a little bakery across the street.”
“Oh, I love that place,” I held up my coffee cup.