MARINA ONE-SHOTS

CHAPTER 5: WORKPLACE AU (PART III)

I rub my palms together as the cold hair hits my face. It is Saturday morning. Yep, you guessed it. Ripley's house. I stand in front of my car in the parking lot as I look at his house. It's expensive, is what comes to my mind. I've always known Ripley to be rich and everything but his house just showed how flawless he was in his work. Half of the architecture is covered in glass, there is a pool on the roof and not to mention a huge backyard which is now filled with too many people.

As I go over to the front door and knock, I can hear the commotion inside, the loud voices of all the department head talking and discussing the growth of their business.

Ripley opens the door with a smile and invites me inside. I'm almost instantly handed a bottle of chilled beer and pulled into a conversation with the Economy head.

Andy and Vic are nowhere to be seen yet and I wander around trying to figure out what to do. As much as I love the place where I work, it is a little difficult for me to converse with the ones I work with. It's not a competition or anything, but a few people had been pining for CEO after Ripley leaves and I was supposedly on the list too. So, where some people hated each other and sugar-coated their words, I simply remained quiet and only talked about it with the only two people I trust most in the world.

"Bishop." I turn around from where I was looking outside at the road to see if Vic or Andy was here yet to see Ripley smiling at me, "How's it going?"

I smiled back at him, "It's going fine, sir."

"And you have been treating DeLuca well? I don't need to worry about any catfights?" He joked and clanked his beer bottle with mine, taking a sip while I only smiled. Suddenly all I can think about is Carina.

"No sir. We're both adults. And since we didn't get off on the wrong foot, I don't suppose there'll be many fights."

He laughs nodding his head towards a door, "She's in there. I guess all of this has been too much for her since she only just joined."

"You mean it's not always that you see Maddox and Ruiz scaring women off?" I say with a chuckle. Ripley laughs out loud and pats my shoulder once.

"Go give her some company. I'll let you know when Vic and Andy arrive."

With that Ripley walks away, giving me one last smile and a nod of encouragement.

I stand still and think if I should go inside. I don't know where that door leads to, all I know is that Carina is in there. And the moment I walk inside that room, it's going to be me and her again. Alone. Inside a room.

Screw it.

I pull out my phone, quickly sending a text to Andy to tell me when they arrive before walking through the crowd, slowly, without gaining too much attention, and finally reaching the door. I looked back at the room once again. Nobody was looking at me. All of them were either too drunk to notice anything or they were too indulged in a conversation.

This is my chance.

I keep my head down and stay close to the wall until I slipped out the sliding door and inside the dark room. I hear a yelp as soon as I close the door, the lock shutting into place.

I turn around only to be met by Carina who was laying on the hood of a car, resting against the windshield. The room is illuminated by the sliding glass door, half-open, light flowing into what seemed like a secret garage.

"Carina?" I can see her brightly colored dress skirt fanned across the hood, and her bare feet with painted pink toes peeking out at the hem. I can see the curve of her thighs, her belly, and the swell of her breasts like an outline that I desperately want to trace.