Kidnapped: Welcome 'home'

Chapter 13: The Team

David led me through a series of corridors. up in an elevator and into an extremely expensive looking, squeaky-clean office that had a stunning view.

"Welcome to my office, the one and only place that controls everything in my business." he said, making his way to behind the desk and switching on a computer. I sat down on the chair opposite him. "I will call one of my employees. She will be your manager and show you around the place. If you have any questions just let her know. She'll also be introducing you to the team later on."

He rang a number on a phone and started speaking into it. I didn't really hear what he was saying because, somehow, I was staring through the window and into oblivion without thinking about anything.

Some minutes must have passed because, the next thing I knew, a thin, blonde woman was standing beside me. I blinked twice, returning to the present and turned my head towards David who was busy focusing on some papers.

"Asmaa, this is Sophia. She'll be showing you around the place." he said without looking up and waving me off.

"Okay. It would have been nice if you at least looked up at the person you are addressing for once." I retorted with an eye roll, getting up and leaving the room. Sophia followed nervously, glancing quickly over her shoulder as though she was making sure that she had permission to leave. Upon seeing David's blank expression as he stared after me, she hurried out of the room with her head bent down low and I shut the door behind her with a smug look on my face.

Sophia was around my height with dirty blonde hair, green eyes and long natural lashes. She seemed very nervous and agitated, so I decided to go easy on her and be nice.

"Hi, I'm Asmaa." I said, holding out my hands for her to shake with a warm smile on my face.

"Hi. I'm Sophia." she stuttered nervously, shaking my hand.

"Are you okay?" I asked: she didn't seem to be acting normal.

She nodded her head vigorously. A little too vigorously if you ask me. She seemed to be really nervous, so I gave her some time to calm down.

"How about we both go grab a drink and get to know each other more?" I suggested hoping that she'll calm down.

"O-ok" she nodded.

We both went to a café that was located within the building we were in - it was apparently for ease and functionality, but I felt like it was more to allow David to make sure all his workers did not mess around. Sophia ordered a coffee, and I, a hot chocolate. We chatted and got to know each other over our drinks allowing Sophia to relax and act more like herself in little to no time. She was quite young too, in her 20s and had moved into L.A. a couple of months ago. She explained that she acted the way she did because she was really anxious as, despite usually getting direct orders from David, he was very adamant and strict about me, putting pressure on Sophia... and she didn't know what I'd be like.

A little while later, she showed me around the place. My memory is not that of a fish and the building was so well organised, making it easy to get around, that I highly doubted that I'd get lost. There were many different offices for people with different statuses in the business and for the specific jobs they did: designing, customer service, selling etc. The higher your status was in the business, the better your office looked. The building was also divided into different wings, one for each of the roles required to keep the business going, and was decorated in a way that yelled professionalism, but accurately represented the work being done in that space too. Sophia also made sure to show me around the ground floor, it being the place where the employees tend to have their break due to its garden and multiple facilities.