Page 7 of After Hours

“Mara, set up the meeting room for me, please,” I said to her in a calm voice.

“Sure,” she said, smiling at me, and walked off.

I walked into my office and noticed that the new intern, was already seated and waiting for me to arrive. I gave her points for being on time

I looked her up and down, realizing how simple yet appropriate she was dressed— a first for me. In my experience hosting interns, I had to let some go due to their attire, but I was impressed.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, Mr. Xander, you’re late,” she said and spun her head around to face me.

“It’s my company,” I spoke and walked over to my desk.

“Your company, and you can’t follow your own rules. How do you expect your employees to respect you?”

“Ms. Willis—”

“Don’t even deny it; you know I’m right.”

Ignoring what she said, I switched to a topic of more relevance.“You’ll be my assistant for the next few months, your office is directly in front of mine.”

“Great.”

“Any questions?”

“No,” she spoke and left the office space. It’s about time too, my meeting was just about to start.

The meeting was boring, as usual—all of them are. I’m thirty- two years old; I should be on my yacht feeling the breeze of the Italian coastline slapping my face, not in a meeting room with power-hungry men who want to undermine me at some point.

“I need to be excused.” With my comments being acknowledged, I left the room.

Rather frustrated, I walked around the corner, and someone bumped into me. I couldn’t even see her face, but I had an idea of who it was.

Before I could say anything, my thoughts were interrupted by Shelby. “Oh, Mr. Xander, good your meeting is done; I see you’ve met the new girl, Miss Willis, the intern.”

“Yes, I’ve met her, and shouldn’t you be doing your job on the ground floor?”

“Yes, si—”

“Then get to it,” I said, raising my voice, and she left.

“I’m so sorry for bumping into you, was trying to find the bathroom.”

I released a low chuckle. “Don’t worry about it. There’s a bathroom in your office, but there’s also one down the hall.”

“Thank you.” She started to walk but stopped midway.

“There’s a woman waiting for you at the office door. I had told her that you were in a meeting, but she insisted on seeing you.” I didn’t give a response, but instead went to see who it was. Security and I would be in deep problems if this turned out to be Annalise.

“Mother?” You’ve got to be kidding me. Can this day possibly get any worse?

“Yes, Dillon, hello.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I was in the area and decided to stop by. Where’s the lovely Mara?” I got the ick listening to her speak about us like she didn’t completely fuck up as a parent for all our lives.

“Probably eating chips somewhere,” I chuckled and walked into my office.

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