Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 147128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 736(@200wpm)___ 589(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 736(@200wpm)___ 589(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
I smiled back at him. ‘Bright and early.’
As soon as their boss left, the group of three I’d been watching earlier rose from their seats and dispersed to different parts of the office, likely to gather their things and leave. In mere minutes, there were only a few stragglers left behind, a phone or two ringing every now and then.
I clicked on the light on my desk, picked up the Ashton folder and went through everything again to get ready for tomorrow when he’d fly in to New York to meet the team. By the time I lifted my head, an hour and a half had passed and the blue sky behind me no longer carried its light hue.
I moved my head from side to side, letting the muscles stretch to loosen the tension I’d been feeling these last few hours, and noticed the cleaning crew parking their equipment in front of Douglas’s office. My eyes then landed on one specific employee who was also working late hours.
Contemplating for a few more minutes on how I should handle this unexpected situation – as I’d done most of the day, if I was being honest – I got up from my seat, walked around my desk and came to a firm decision by the time it took me to get to the door and open it.
Pushing my hands into my pockets, I watched her from my spot by the door. She was only a few feet away, and after a few more minutes she wrapped up her phone call. With her laptop in front of her, she was seated at one of the long desks in the shared working space, closer to the elevators. I wasn’t near enough to follow her conversation smoothly, but I’d heard enough to put two and two together and waited for her to finish her call with the B-list celebrity I knew she was working with.
I took her in. Something I had done more than just once in the last few hours.
Charlie Davis.
One of my new – for lack of a better word – teammates who also happened to be Douglas’s other daughter.
‘Jesus,’ she growled loudly.
Then she dropped the phone onto the desk and rested her forehead in her hands. I couldn’t see her expression since I could only watch her profile, but she looked tired. Tired and done with the day. Which was understandable since she’d spent most of her time either actively trying to stay away from me or trying her very best to hide in plain sight.
‘She’s giving you trouble, isn’t she?’ I asked.
Her head snapped up, eyes rounding as she met my gaze. She muttered something I couldn’t quite hear and looked up at the ceiling.
‘Excuse me?’ I asked.
She swivelled in her chair to face me. ‘You scared me, Wil… Mr Carter!’
‘William is enough, and I apologize. I didn’t mean to.’
‘I didn’t think there was anyone else left here!’ she lied, still talking unnecessarily loudly. I’d caught her more than a few times giving my office sideways glances and quickly looking away. She knew I was here. Once or twice I even caught her suddenly power-walking when she was passing my office or noticing my eyes on her. Though I was pretty sure she thought she was being discreet.
‘How about instead of shouting across the room, you come to my office so we can have a quick talk and let other people work?’ I asked in a normal voice.
Some colour rushed into her cheeks as she noticed the cleaning crew and the few other employees now staring at us. If I was being honest, I half-expected her to get up and run straight to the elevators. It was a toss-up after how our morning had started.
‘I should call Laurel back and smooth things out. She is not good with change. Then I have to do… the other things.’
‘The other things. Like what?’
‘Like… other things that you don’t know about, Mr Carter.’
‘Just William.’
I’d repeated the same line close to ten times since we had sat down for the lunch meeting. While the others had no problem calling me by my name, every time Charlie Davis had to speak directly to me, she couldn’t quite decide which one to go for. If she called me William once, she called me Mr Carter five times.
I wasn’t sure whether I should end her misery or let it go on for a little longer, since it was undeniably fun for me.
‘Let’s call her together and see how that goes. If she is adamant about working with you that much, we’ll handle her account together,’ I offered with a straight face.
One of the guys from the cleaning crew started up a loud vacuum, causing me to have trouble hearing her answer.
‘Ah, teamwork…’ she started, then began yelling ‘… isn’t really required with this one. I can handle it myself.’