𝑺 𝑬 𝑹 𝑬 𝑵 𝑰 𝑻 𝒀 (18+)

Forty-nine.

                     S E R E N I T Y

                                        ♥

It had been a month. Noah was interviewing people left and right to fill my position. Every day at least five candidates were going in and then promptly coming out of his office minutes later. His patience had been especially thin lately, I'd heard through Andrew that he picked at every little thing on their resume. Whether it was a gap or a hobby or a qualification he didn't like—he sent them all away.

I was doing fine, at least as fine as I could be. I had met a couple of people going on the trip in September. Most of them were women and I thanked the stars I'd finally get some more female friends in my life. Vanessa wasn't a fan but she rarely liked anyone for me that wasn't her. I even took a trip to New York to see Alex which turned out to be a bad idea because I spent way more than I expected.

Alex was a gracious host and his mom truly was one of the sweetest women I'd ever met in my life. I was getting adjusted to my new normal. A life without Noah wasn't so hard to imagine anymore. I was lying, severely but it could be with more practice.

Tom and I met almost every day piecing together all of our theories. He'd found out that Bullion and Summers used to be good friends and then their contact with each other ended after the allegations came out but he'd spoken to him twice a few weeks after. He was oddly defensive during his interrogation, it wouldn't surprise me that he'd use an idiot to do his dirty work.

I didn't know how Giselle tied into everything, at least not yet. She had the worst intentions but she was careful. She'd never want her family to know about her involvement in any scheme so she must've had some leverage, a fallback to ensure Noah wasn't completely hopeless. I believed that she loved him and somewhere inside that black heart of hers she thought she was doing the right thing.

I hoped that after our talk she put some serious thought into her actions before it was too late. Noah only had a month left to find my replacement and I wanted to get all of this over with way before going to France. I didn't want to deal with any drama before my trip.

"Any progress?" Andrew had been helping me organize the last of my assignments and assisted with clearing out my office.

"No the last person was too short, and then the one after them had too many piercings—oh! I almost thought he was gonna go with this guy, crazy impressive resume." He stopped and chuckled to himself.

"But what happened?" I was a little too curious.

"Boring."

"Boring? Noah thought the guy was boring?"

"Yup. Said he made him uncomfortable, too quiet or something like that."

I hummed and hung my head to laugh. Noah was a bore himself. He was funny once you got to know him a little better but with all his crime documentaries and his love for the history channel and non-fiction books, he definitely took home the prize for most boring.

"Well if he doesn't make a decision soon, you're going to have a lot more work on your hands' friend," Andrew's amusement dropped and he sunk into the couch. I left him to wallow and took a pile of folders to Noah's office. It was all the work I had finished but forgot to return to him.

"Mr. Harrington? Can I come in?" He didn't reply so I took the liberty of opening the door without invitation. "This is the work I forgot to—"

I looked up from the folders and at the heel that was propped on the chair in front of Noah's desk. The leg that was attached to it was long and the face that belonged to the woman wasn't bad either.