Page 13 of In Love and War
“Um, Margaret…” I started as I pointed at the glass, my heart rate beginning to pick up. There was no way in hell any of this was just a coincidence.
“Oh, all of the glass windows have an opaque feature most people utilize if they need to have a private conversation or whatever. It completely frosts the glass over so you can’t see into the other room. The instructions are in your binder on the same page as your log-in info, but we generally like to keep an open office space feel while still providing our talent with quiet working areas. Hence the rooms with glass walls.” She smiled at me as if that was a sufficient enough explanation.
“You’ll probably spend the majority of today going through your compliance training, but if you have any questions or concerns, my office is the one just across the hall.” She walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Panicking, I sat at my desk and took out my phone. My father’s face appeared on the screen quickly enough to be suspicious, as if he’d been waiting for the call.
“Sweetheart! How is your first day going so far?” His mischievous smirk gave him away immediately.
“Dad. Did you have anything to do with picking out my office?” I asked.
“Whatever do you mean?” His voice was teasing and playful as he grinned from ear to ear.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Did you know that the hiring manager I had my interview with shared the eighteenth floor withyou know who, and did you or did you not have anything to do with the factthat our offices are quite literally attached and separated with nothing but glass?Dad, I can see everything in his office from my desk and vice versa!”I was seething.
“Honestly, Milly, do you know how time-consuming it is to successfully run a company this big? I don’t have time to meddle in things as trivial as the office spaces of my employees. Ciao, darling.” He laughed as he hung up on me.
Liar.
I put my phone down just in time to catch Zac turn around and take a seat at his desk. My heart jumped into my throat when he looked up and saw me, his mouth going still midsentence. Flustered, I immediately looked away and opened the red folder Margaret had left on my desk, actively aware of the gaze that remained fixed on me.
Refusing to look back up at him, I logged on to my new computer and started on my compliance training, my eyes stubbornly glued to the material.
That is until thirty minutes later when I heard footsteps, followed by Margaret’s excited and rushed voice outside of my office. “… MBA from Columbia, and she actually worked at Yuval before coming here, so that’ll be good for the Emerson account if we win. You’ll have to introduce yourself though. I have to be on a conference call in two.”
I watched through the glass as she walked back toward her office. Two seconds later there was a light knock on my door and Zac walked in, closing it behind him.
The room felt significantly smaller with him in it.
“Amelia.”
“Zackary,” I mirrored, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms.
“You didn’t mention during your little visit last week that you’d be working for Margaret.”
“I didn’t know it would matter.”
“You knew she was one of the only two marketing directors.”
He was right. It had come up in the interview.
“I didn’t know you were the other.” Again, the truth. I had avoided the topic of Zac with my father like the plague, so I wasn’t aware of his exact position at the company before I applied.
The fact that he was promoted to a director level at his age was an extremely unpleasant turn of events. I would have guessed senior associate or marketing manager at best.
“The big office, personal assistant, and the literal nameplate on my desk with my title on it didn’t give anything away?” he asked condescendingly.
“I’m surprised my father didn’t give you a heads-up. You were so chummy, such great buds, the last time I was here. Trouble in paradise?” I pouted my lips in mocked sadness and tilted my head.
Then, something weird happened. His eyes flickered to my mouth and momentarily glazed over, but then they were back up to my eyes as he caught himself.
It happened so quickly I thought that maybe I imagined it.
What was that?
“Alright, listen.” He ran a frustrated hand through his disgustingly perfect black hair as he stepped closer to my desk. “This changes things. We can’t act like this if we’re going to be working this closely together. It’s wildly unprofessional.”
“I’m being perfectly pleasant,” I said.
