Page 47 of Meet Me at Midnight

I stop briefly at Madeline’s office to get a quick influencer list update, and then I head straight for my office. I need an energy drink—or five—and then I need to churn and burn on storyboard approvals for five different campaigns.

A small container sits on my desk as I round my way to the back of it, along with an attached note that I see on closer inspection.

I pull the note off the top and lift the lid, revealing three fist-sized chocolate chip cookies.

Now these are 10/10 chocolate chip cookies.

-Mystery Woman

My smile is practically too big for my face—seriously, I should be ashamed of it—as I feverishly snatch up a cookie and take a taste.

Moist, chocolatey, and just a tiny pinch of salt—they’re fucking incredible.

God, that’s good. And just what I needed to get me through the next several hours.

I pick my phone up off my desk and swipe into our chatbox, the blinking cursor waiting on my words. Taking this chat from after hours to during work is not the smartest idea.

It’s risky. It’s questionable. It’s all the you-shouldn’t-be-doing-this things.

But I do it anyway. I can’t wait for tonight. I have to thank her now.

ThunderStruck: Where’d you get these cookies from? Heaven?

Not even a minute later,ElizaBeth has reentered the chatappears on the screen.

ElizaBeth: LOL I didn’t get them anywhere. I made them. Good, huh?

ThunderStruck: 10/10.

ElizaBeth: Yeah?

She’s messaging me during office hours. Which means she’s somewhere in this building watching the screen of her phone like I’m watching the screen of my phone. My eyes flit out of my door, scanning the other offices along the edges and the giant cubicle area in the center.

I don’t know what I think I’ll find, but with ninety-five percent of the workforce on their phones, I come up with nothing.Damn, I wish I could just figure out who she is.

ThunderStruck: I can only think of one single thing that would make them better.

ElizaBeth: What?

ThunderStruck: Having them hand-delivered.

ElizaBeth: By, like, a courier?

ThunderStruck: Don’t be cute.

ElizaBeth: Sorry. Cute’s all I know how to be.

Oh, ElizaBeth, I know.

Her cuteness is like quicksand. And I’m in so deep, I don’t know if I’ll ever get out.

My eyes are heavy, and I’m doing everything I can to pay attention during my Midnight team’s weekly meeting.

Eddie is in the process of getting a final cut of the commercial, the edits he wanted to put into action already approved by me last week, and Madeline’s current list of influencers and celebrities interested in joining our campaign if our team does end up getting the green light from Hughes International is impressive. Laura and Jay have made significant progress on copy for the digital space and slide mock-ups for the presentation we will be giving in front of the Hughes International executives in a couple of months, and Harry has secured fifteen additional magazine spots.

The test groups have given unbelievably good feedback, and everything is running full steam ahead.

Everything, that is, but me.

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