She's The Wild West

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The next day, Sunday, everything was fine at work until I found myself in an elevator with Mr. Brandt, alone. It had been a perfectly normal morning until I saw his hand slide between the space of the closing elevator and I watched him climb in, leaving me with no way to escape.

I didn't like Mr. Brandt.

It felt really weird to dislike someone because it wasn't something I found myself doing often. There were people I wasn't particularly fond of, or people I was pretty neutral about, but Mr. Brandt was someone that I fully disliked and he made it pretty easy.

"So, I just found out you're going to be attending the dinner tonight." he greeted me.

The dinner was with a potential donor. Apparently it was intended to be an opportunity to discuss the organization and its work, sort of like the meeting with Mr. Quintrell, but Ms. Mori told me that, more often than not, the talk about the organization was ditched early on. Then it just became a normal dinner and, no surprise, Ms. Mori hated it.

"Yep."

I reached over to swipe my ID card in the slot by the elevator buttons but Mr. Brandt rushed to use his card first. He hit the button for floor 32, way harder than necessary, and then looked over at me from the corner of his eye. Those blue eyes gave me an up and down, and then he stared straight ahead.

Mr. Brandt always looked the same. He was one of the 'strictly gray, navy blue, brown, or black business suit' people that the building was filled with. It took a while for me to realize, but I really liked the fact that Ms. Mori switched things up with what she wore. She wore business suits just like the men that worked for her, dresses, blouses, skirts, heels, loafers. Veea Mori could pull off anything and look like the definition of power while doing it.

"You know, it's really strange that Veea keeps bringing you along for things your not needed for." He mused out loud.

"Well, Ms. Mori has her reasons and so I just follow what she says."

It almost seemed like he thought it was my fault that I went where Ms. Mori told me to. Mr. Brandt ran a hand through his tousled brown hair and I could see the glint from his gold watch in my peripheral view.

How is his watch so shiny?

"What reasons could she have for dragging some kid along with her everywhere?"

Is the elevator going slower than usual?

"Is the elevator going slower than usual? It feels like it is."

Mr. Brandt finally turned in my direction and I looked his way too. He had an irritated expression on his face, not quite a full glare, but headed in that direction. I could tell his jaw was clenched.

"Is that supposed to be a joke?"

Finally I felt the elevator come to a stop. A second later the doors slid open and I waited for Mr. Brandt to walk out. He didn't and I raised an eyebrow at him. Then the second I moved to step out, he rushed to do it first.

He makes it soooo easy to dislike him.

"Um, okay, have a good day." I turned and started walking down the hall.

"Try no to get in the way at dinner kid." he called after me.

It was kind of rude but I just kept walking, not knowing how to respond. I couldn't figure out what his problem was with me. Other than the small moment at the charity gala, and the moment in the bathroom at the Halloween party, Mr. Brandt and I hadn't had any real interactions with one another. It seemed unlikely to me that those two small things could cause him to dislike me as much as he seemed to.