Alphahole (Alphahole Roommates 1)

“There was a plumber that fixed the shower Friday. Maybe it was him. But, I think it might have been Seth the Security douchebag.”

Ally gasps. And then she thinks on it and starts nodding slowly. “That guy is not right. You’re probably correct.”

We natter about how creepy that was. And then I tell her about my night of babysitting.

We get to work, and I call my Mom, who I spoke to yesterday afternoon. She’s on her lunch break at work and surprised to hear from me again so soon. I fill her in on the missing jewelry thing, not telling her about my undies, because that’d freak her out in a big way. I just tell her that some stuff is missing from the corporate apartment and my boss wants pictures of it, if she has any. Mom says she’ll check some old photo albums tonight and let me know.

“Don’t stress out, honey. Your Grams is in your heart. Her jewelry isn’t that important.”

“I know,” I say, but I can’t help but feel so much sadness at the idea of it being gone. Of someone else having it, melting it down or whatever, not knowing any of the stories attached to it.

Aiden is in his office and he’s shouting on the phone.

“I do not fucking think so. Go have another drink. This time take a fucking taxi,” He slams the phone. I glance behind myself. His face is like thunder. He slams his office door and the sound echoes through the whole office.

Yikes. I turn my back and don’t allow myself to do any peeking.

I get an email from him a minute later. It’s a department-wide email.

Today’s mkt’g meeting: Canceled.

And then I hear all his blinds go down, one by one. Loud.

“Wanna come downstairs and work in the atrium with me?” Stacy asks. She’s got a pile of paperwork in her hands. “We can go over some of the stuff from the last Eastmark conference George went to. He told me before he left that if I got a chance to go this year, I should go through his notes. Said he made notes

on the best brands and conferences to spend time on. I have this big folder of whatever he collected as well as his notes so maybe you know what to look for this year?”

“You should really be coming to this,” I say.

She shrugs. “Next year, maybe.”

I know what it’s like to be an intern. Expected to know everything and yet being left out of all the important stuff. She was probably going to get to go, but then they hired me instead.

To Stacy’s credit, she’s been nothing but awesome with me.

I gather my notebook and unplug my laptop and follow her to the elevator.

She heads to the coffee cart and I get hit with a great feeling. My bonus. I forgot!

I tell her I’ll be there in a minute and go to the big area of beanbag chairs and put my laptop on the floor and sit down in a big yellow beanbag and swipe my banking app on my smartphone. I check my bank balance and see there is $7,102.48 in my account.

I smile big and decide I’m splurging for some biscotti as well as the Trenta coffee today.

I buy a biscotti for Stacy, too.

We sit down and drink our coffees and go through the pamphlets and notes of George’s from the last Eastmark conference and then Aiden’s suddenly in my space.

“Carly!” He looks tweaked.

“Hi.”

“Where’ve you been?”

“Uh… here.”

“For two hours?”

I nod and gesture to the piles of paper all spread out on the table.