Zander
I feellike I’m walking on clouds as I enter the office. It’s not the first time in my life I’ve had something great to be happy about, but this is the first time I can say that I am truly happy right down to my core, and it’s all because of one person.
Ali.
I thought about her all night, wishing she was living with me instead of at home with her mom. I replayed what happened last night over and over in my mind—how her mouth felt on mine, how soft her body felt beneath me, how her voice sounded when she moaned in my ear, and how sweet and innocent her eyes were when she looked back at me.
Last night was heaven, and Ali is my angel. What’s more, there’s no doubt about what I’m feeling when I walk into my office.
Love.
I’m in love with Ali.
I have a coffee for her—one of those silly, crazy iced drinks that girls love from Starbucks. I had to ask the barista what she recommended just to know what to get, but as I step up to the front desk where Ali is supposed to be sitting, checking people in and doing her job, I find it empty, as though no one has been here all morning.
Luckily, Frank, the security guard, is sitting where he’s supposed to be sitting.
“Frank, you uh…you seen Ali?” I ask.
“Yeah, she went upstairs earlier,” he replies.
“Upstairs,” I repeat slowly, nodding. “How much earlier?”
“Oh…half an hour, at least.”
“Hmmm…” I say. “Thanks, Frank.”
“No problem, boss.”
A strange feeling comes over me as I head upstairs, Ali’s coffee in my hand. I’m still absolutely thrilled and buzzing to see her, but there’s a pang of nervousness beneath all that now. After all, I am still her boss at the end of the day, and what’s she doing not at her post where she’s supposed to be? What’s she doing up there with all the vultures and pariahs?
But when I reach the second floor, I don’t see her there either. All the men are at their desks working like any other normal day with no sign of Ali. So I go over to Sebastian, one of my best men on the loaders, and ask him if he’s seen Ali this morning.
“The new girl? Yeah, I saw her earlier, boss. She was going over to HR about twenty minutes ago. You want me to go get her for you?”
And then it all clicks and comes together for me.
“No, that’s all right, Bast,” I reply, patting him on the back. “Hey, you gonna need another truck for the delivery up to Herrington?”
“Nah, we got enough, boss.”
“Make sure you let me know if you come up short, okay?”
Sebastian flashes me a thumbs-up as I pace quickly over to the HR office, that slight bit of nervousness I was feeling downstairs growing in my chest.
I get it now.
Ali went ahead and took the initiative this morning and promoted herself off the desk where I put her to the HR job she applied for originally. I guess after what happened last night, she figured I won’t have the balls to step in and be her boss and tell her to go back to the position I assigned her.
I barge into the office and find Ali sitting beside Miss Hawthorne, the head of HR, who appears to be teaching her the computer system.
“And this is where we input the values for the—”
“Go grab some coffee, Jen,” I say to her. Without argument or hesitation, Jen simply rises from her seat and walks past me through the door.
“I was just thinking how I could use a coffee,” she says, almost to herself. She closes the door behind her, leaving me alone with Ali, who smiles at me, a little mischievous grin that makes me want to lift up the little black pencil skirt she’s wearing and fuck her hard over the desk, right now, even while I’m angry with her.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I ask her.