Hold The Door, Please | ONC 2022

6. Floor: 43

Will

"Coming through."

I glance up from my phone when I hear the familiar, gruff voice after the doors have opened on floor forty three.

Kayla and her two personal security guards step into the elevator. As if she's Moses, everyone immediately shuffles out of the way and makes a clear path. The trio takes their usual place at the back. I decide to follow and manage to weave my way to the back as well. Thankfully, the elevator is nowhere near as full as earlier. The security guard to her left, either Jason or Mason – I always forget who is who, gives me a nod and moves over so that I can stand next to her.

"Morning Kayla," I greet her. She's wearing a dark red blazer and skirt; the same deep shade of red as blood – as if the people here aren't already scared of her enough.

"Hey," she mutters without looking up from her phone.

I can't help but notice the woman with the visitor pass slightly turning around and peeking at us.

Her curiosity is beginning to pique my curiosity. I noticed her looking at me a couple times already, but I didn't want to be rude and address it in front of the others. She looked embarrassed enough after the unicorn and Baby Shark incidents.

I try to ignore her, but my attention is constantly getting drawn back. Her eyes sparkle with this bright look of curiosity. With the repetition in my days, it's refreshing to finally see someone with energy and excitement in them.

Under different circumstances, I might consider stepping out of the elevator when she does to try and strike up a conversation. She's incredibly attractive and I'm itching to finally return to the dating scene. Unfortunately, I know Ashley would kill me if I were any later than I already am.

I quickly turn my attention back to Kayla. "What were you doing on the forty third floor?" I ask. She's rarely anywhere besides her office or meeting rooms.

She wrinkles her nose. "Someone reported a rodent infestation and I went to meet with the exterminator," she says. "It was a false alarm. Turns out someone just brought his daughter's pet rat today."

I nod and chuckle.

"Anyways, did you see the email I cc'd you in?" Kayla asks.

I furrow my brows. It was definitely one of the harsher emails I've seen her send. "The one with Ashley?" I ask hesitantly. "She and I both think that you're being a bit unfair."

She pauses and actually looks up from her phone this time, as if I had the audacity to speak back to her. "What I say goes," she reminds me.

I take out my phone to look at the email again and skim the long list of interviewee names. Someone from HR had originally sent it to us last week, but Kayla sent an unwarranted edited version back to Ashley and I. She had taken the liberty of adding asterisks next to several of the names. In the footnotes, she added some of her... thoughts. One line catches my eye, being significantly longer than the others.

**Company she works for looks sketchy at best, search it up yourself. Mostly irrelevant experience, and minuscule relevant experience. Don't waste your time or my money. 

I look back up at the list to find the corresponding asterisk.

**Haylie Finn – Monday 8:30

Poor girl. I hope the two of them never end up crossing paths.

"Not everyone can be as perfect as you, Kayla," I tease.

Kayla sighs and gives me a tired smile. "You're so annoying sometimes, you know that, Will?" she chuckles softly and nudges me.

I can't stop myself from grinning. It's rare these days to see Kayla even remotely relaxed. It brings me back to a time before the accident, when she'd constantly be socializing with the staff here. Heck, it brings me back to a time before we even started working here. Back when we were just a couple of kids. As difficult as it may be to imagine these days, Kayla was always the goofiest one in the group.

"I'll text you tonight and let you know how today goes. We can decide how the rest of the week goes from there... fair?" It's a far-fetched idea to try and negotiate with her, but I don't have many other options.

She furrows her brows and thinks for a moment. "Fine," she sighs and returns to her phone, "but only because I'm in a good mood today."

I breathe a sigh of relief. I definitely don't have the same confrontational skills Kayla has.

I feel my phone ringing and pull it out of my pocket.

"Hey Mom, everything alright?"

"Why do you always assume something is wrong when I call?" she chuckles.

"Habit, I suppose."

"It's Sienna, she wants to talk to you."

I can't imagine how a sixteen month old baby managed to communicate that, but I decide not to question it.

Mom turns her camera on and holds it in front of Sienna. I'm ninety nine percent sure that she doesn't fully comprehend what's happening. She could be watching an episode of Sesame Street and be equally as interested. Although that doesn't matter much, I'd never pass on the chance to see her. Unsurprisingly, working two jobs doesn't leave a whole lot of room for personal matters.

Food is smeared on her cheeks and bib. I swear to god, no matter how frequently I clean her, she's somehow always covered with something within minutes.

Sienna blankly stares at the screen, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

"Hi honey," I say softly.

Her wide brown eyes suddenly light up and she giggles. "Dada," she chirps.

She tries to grab the phone, but mom hastily moves it out of her reach. Sienna has destroyed an abundance of electronics already. One of the first things she did after learning how to walk was bring my phone to the bathroom and toss it into the toilet.

"Are you being good for grandma and grandpa?"

Sienna simply responds by promptly lunging forwards and biting mom's finger. Mom yelps as she drops her phone, and I'm left staring at the ceiling of Sienna's playroom.

"Sienna!" I gasp. "We don't bite people."

She quickly crawls over and hovers over the phone. I can faintly hear mom in the background calling for dad, while Sienna makes indistinguishable babbling noises at the phone. Her wide smile is deceptively innocent. When it comes to her mischievous tendencies, Sienna certainly takes after Becca.

"Bye bye!" Sienna giggles. She fumbles with the phone and somehow manages to end the call on her own.

I stare at my phone in disbelief. It looks like I undeniably owe mom an apology, maybe a gift as well. I feel an embarrassed heat linger in my cheeks when I see the same woman by the front trying to stifle her laughter. 

Kayla snickers. "She takes after you."

"Shut up," I grumble. Not everyone can have kids as unbelievably well behaved as Kayla's.

She just laughs and she spends her remaining time in the elevator on her phone.

"Make way," one of her security officers grunts once we've reached the fiftieth floor. The three of them take up so much space that everyone has to step out of the elevator to let them exit.

I'm a mere twenty two floors away from my floor now. The woman with the pass still hasn't left, and we're starting to run out of possible floors for her to get off on. I bite my tongue to resist asking her – I'm over half an hour late now. Ashley can only be bribed with so much alcohol before she'll make your day hell for making her mad.