Page 3 of With Conditions

“Tibby, I told you several times to call me Sophie.” I winked at her to which she jested and tilted her hat. Drake was already out from the passenger side, and we made our way up the side path to the outside door, which led to an elevator leading directly to my office. When I built this HQ a few years ago, we added a separate entrance as the main entrance was a free large gym for anyone who worked in the building. It was important that I offered corporate employees the same experience as our members. The elevator on the side was hidden and required a code to open the door. Only the three of us knew it—Drake, Tibby, and me. That was as far as my circle went.

Drake put in the code and the elevator doors opened. It had two openings, one that faced the outside entrance and an entrance that led to my office. The building was five stories high, and the elevator would not move until all doors had been closed. It didn’t play any music like a typical elevator which sometimes bothered me when an awkward silence filled the space. Trying to prepare for the day I opened my phone to review the day’s agenda after the elevator started moving. Not paying attention that we had already reached to the top floor, Drake gasped as the elevator door opened. My eyes lifted as Drake and I got an indecent view of my new CEO’s bare tits and legs wrapped around a man’s shoulders welcoming us. With my resting bitch face mode on, I walked towards my desk, without giving a reaction. The large room had glass around the entire place except for the walls which faced the elevator and the offices. The large glass table in the center was generally used for meetings but that morning Jamie, the new CEO, used it as her bedroom. Strolling around my desk, my fingers grazed her laptop and items placed on it.

She popped up embarrassed, grabbing her shirt to cover herself. “Sophie, I thought you… ”

I leaned against the side of glass desk holding up my hand for her to stop with her explanations. Honestly, I was more interested in the man standing next to her that was between her legs a moment ago. I immediately recognized him as the guy who worked in our janitor department.

His face flushed red as much as Jamie’s while he was still naked. He started to grab his belongings.

“How is the janitorial department doing today?” I asked just to make the situation more uncomfortable.

He stammered, “I. . . I. . . It’s been fine.”

Turning my head to the new CEO, I smirked, “Jamie and I need to have a conversation.” I added an extra cloying flavor into my words, “Feel free to use our showers downstairs if needed.”

Moving toward the desk chair, Jamie was now dressed, pinning up her messy hair. “Listen, I know this is not a good start.”

I waved my hand to get her to stop talking. She knew how intimidating I was even without this situation from our previous interactions. I took my seat and leaned my elbows on the desk, cutting straight to business, “Talk to me about your strategy thus far.”

She let out a sigh of relief, realizing I wouldn’t go over the situation we traveled into. “Yes, today we will be laying off some of the staff to reallocate the cost of getting corporate recruits. Looking at exit interviews, no one wants to live here, outside of a big city, so this will allow us to build an HQ in New York. My thought is, bring the new and best minds from elite universities as a sounding board so we can raise the bar in talent.” She froze, which made me think that my face gave off the emotion I was truly feeling inside. The thought of irrelevancy of her explanations and that walking into this situation confirmed that she not only didn’t know what she was doing but lacked any integrity for herself as a professional woman. She jumped as William entered in with Sarah, the VP of HR. Jamie sank back into her chair, and Drake flashed a smirk in my direction.

“Let me get this straight Jamie, your first action within the company as the new CEO is to terminate 20% of our workforce of loyal employees? Have you considered working with HR to develop a virtual working location for certain roles?” She didn’t answer back, knowing well that I wasn’t expecting her to come up with excuses, “You misuse the space in our facility for your inappropriate use. And you broke company policy by having inappropriate relations with our staff.”

Her face turned pale as she realized what she had done. “The severance package was for your time when you were making poor decisions without escalating through proper channels; however, with the misconduct from this morning, we will just move to the verdict that your employment has ended with immediate effect.” Tears started streaming down her cheeks, but I ignored her reaction and waved toward Drake to guide her to the door. She got up without saying a word and left. William and Sarah followed, and Drake stood in the doorway.

“Reschedule that Friday interview up to tomorrow and order the cleaning crew to do a deep clean of this office.” I added feeling disgusted, “Not the same person that was in here making it a mess though.” He nodded with a grin on his face as he left me alone.

A few hours later, after the HR sent out the formal announcement, things went back to normal. Drake came in from his office just as I finished my call with the project director on our grand openings in Florida. As the phone hung up, I looked at Drake, who I could see in his eyes was unhappy, but he played it professionally.

I enquired, “Did you send me the portfolio for my interview tomorrow?”

His voice was monotonous and I knew that something had been going on at home between him and Paul, “Yes, it’s in your inbox, his name is Miles, and he is unable to move the meeting up.”

“Did he give a reason?”

“No.”

“I’m going home early tonight, so head home.”

Drake knew this wasn’t true but listened to me as he moved his way to the elevator. I wanted to ensure that Drake went home to work on things with Paul and I was uneasy about this Miles guy just blowing me off. If he really wanted the job, he would be able to provide a reason. Something was not right, and I was going to find out what it was. Opening the portfolio, I noticed the file had no pictures but ones of him lifting his daughter upon an elephant. I could see he was fit, but the view was of his backside. His daughter was cute, maybe five or six years old. He was a prior military, no college background but years of fitness experience. He opened four gyms in the South Miami area, which had considerable growth and profit margins. “Why did he sell?” talking to myself and digging through all the searches Drake had provided, I tried to solve the mystery. He did like his privacy, but this was a bit unusual. No social media, legal documents, nothing. Collecting my things I headed for the elevator, when my phone chimed with a text.

Unknown: My pleasure must not have been that great.

Thinking the only person it could be, it has to be the guy from last night, and I called Drake.

“Hello,” Paul’s voice was a breath of fresh air.

He was just the one who could have known the answer. “Hey, how could someone I just met get my number?”

Paul paused on the other line. “Typically, a quick search, but being that IT locked your stuff down, it would have to be a hacker.”

“A Hacker!” I yelled while climbing in the back of the SUV and nodding at Tibby who moved a brown bag in my direction.

“Yeah, they have those, you know,” he retorted, being a complete smartass. His voice was full of concern the very next moment. “Why? Do you need Drake to change your number?”

“No, I’m going to let this one play out but bring this up to him so he knows if it might be needed at any time.”

“Okay, and I’m not sure why you refuse to take a vacation, but next time I’m telling Drake to put you on an island in the middle of nowhere so even William can’t find you.” Not wanting to ask questions on if he was upset with Drake, I chuckled before another chime on my phone came in. Paul had already disconnected.

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