Chapter 3

I nearly sprayed coffee out of my nose.

I quickly crumpled the sticky note and stuffed it into my pocket. "You're probably imagining things. It's some coworker messing around."

Cara looked skeptical as she headed back to her desk.

I sat down, my heart pounding in my chest.

What on earth was he up to?

*****

At ten in the morning, I was deep in revising a proposal when Sophia strutted over, her heels clicking loudly.

"Emily, did you finish the revisions yet?" she asked.

"Almost, Sophia. Gotta wrap up the last bit," I replied.

Sophia stood behind me, checking my screen for a moment. "The whole structure is off. Scrap it and start from scratch."

I turned to her. "But you were the one who set this framework last week."

A flicker of awkwardness crossed Sophia's face. "I told you to use it as a reference, not copy it. Can't you think for yourself?"

I bit my lip and kept quiet.

Sophia turned and walked away, her heels clicking into the distance.

Cara mouthed a curse for me from her desk.

I lowered my head and reopened the document, fuming inside.

This was already the third time this month that Sophia had shot down my proposal.

The last intern was pushed out by her in exactly the same way.

*****

During lunch break, I couldn't hold back anymore and opened up Alex's chat.

After hesitating for ages, I finally sent him a message. [Thanks for the coffee.]

He replied almost instantly: [Mm.]

I stared at that single "Mm." For some reason, I suddenly felt that though Alex acted as if every word cost him money, he wasn't actually as scary as everyone made him out to be.

*****

At two in the afternoon, I got a notification to head to the big conference room for the company-wide meeting.

I'd only been to one of these meetings before. There were so many people that there weren't enough seats, so we small fries had to stand in the corner.

The conference room door swung open, and Alex walked in.

He stood well over six feet tall, dressed in a charcoal suit with his tie perfectly straight. His face was sharp and icy, and as he strode in, he didn't glance at anyone. He was like a blade, cold and dangerous, but still sheathed.

I shrank into the corner, trying to make myself as invisible as possible.

Please, he didn't look at me.

Alex swept his gaze around the conference room.

His eyes landed on me for half a second.

I felt like my soul was about to leave my body.

He looked away without a hint of emotion and took his seat at the head of the table. "Let's begin."

I barely paid attention to the whole meeting. My mind kept replaying that look Alex gave me. What was that supposed to mean?

When the meeting wrapped up, Sophia stood up. "Mr. Grant, I've got some initial ideas for the quarterly promotion plan you mentioned last time. Want me to run it by you sometime?"

Alex glanced at her. "Email it to me before Friday's off."

Sophia smiled, "Got it, Mr. Grant."

As she passed by me, she made a point to stop.

"Emily, get that proposal on my desk before you leave. Don't push it to tomorrow," she said.

I nodded.

Once Sophia was gone, Cara pulled me out of the conference room.

"Did you notice that?" she asked.

"Notice what?" I replied.

"Mr. Grant totally checked you out now."

"He scanned the room. He looked at everyone, nothing special."

Cara shook her head. "No, it wasn't the same. He barely glanced at everyone else, but when it came to you, he stopped for a second."

"Are you making things up because you watch too much gossip?"

"I've got a nose for drama."

I didn't feel like arguing with her and hurried back to finish my proposal.

*****

I stayed late until 7:30, finally wrapped up the proposal, and handed it over to Sophia.

Sophia barely looked at it, muttered, "It'll do," and told me I could leave.

I dragged my exhausted self out of the office building.

Just as I reached the door, my phone buzzed.

Alex: [Have you eaten yet?]

I froze.

Why did that sound so familiar?

I used to act all cute with him when I treated him as my brother on WhatsApp. For example, [I haven't eaten yet, I'm so hungry]. Then, he'd always send me some cash so I could get something to eat.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard.

I replied: [Yeah, I ate.]

I hadn't eaten at all.

But I was clear-headed now. I knew it was Alex on the other end, so I couldn't act like before.

He didn't reply.

I headed to the convenience store downstairs and grabbed some food, figuring it would do for now.

As I pulled out my phone to pay, my phone buzzed again.

It was a transfer: one hundred dollars.

Alex: [Don't eat at the convenience store.]

I glanced at the food in my hand, then at my phone.

How did he know I was at the convenience store?