HANNAH
Hannah walked by the glass walls of the conference room and pulled open the clear door. Nearly every seat was already taken. She spotted an empty one between Jules and Mark and slid in quickly, before someone else could take it.
"Hey guys," She whispered as she settled in.
A few more people trickled in behind her. The room was unusually quiet. Not silent, just... subdued in a way it normally wasn't. There was a weight in the atmosphere that didn't match the usual energy of an all-hands meeting. Eyes darted, lips whispered, shoulders hunched tensely. Everyone was clearly searching for answers no one had.
Trying to cut through the obvious tension, Hannah turned to Mark. "How's HR treating you?"
God that was cheesy. Small talk was never her forte. But even Mark's posture seemed rigid.
He shrugged. "Same shit, different day."
Typical Mark, a man of few words. How he ever ended up in human resources was still a mystery.
There were more employees now than there were chairs. A line had formed against the back wall.
The low buzz of voices continued, but not the kind of animated chatter that usually filled this room before a big announcement. Hannah checked her watch, two o'clock on the dot.
Click. Click. Click.
Jules was clicking her pen with a growing intensity. Hannah's knee began bouncing in sync with the rhythm.
Click. Click. Click.
It was like an anxious metronome. After another few more clicks, Hannah reached over and gently pressed her hand to Jules' forearm.
Jules startles at the touch. Her pen popped out of her hand, flipped once in the air, and skittered under the table.
Hannah gave her a look, half amused, half exhausted, and ducked down to grab it.
Just as she disappeared under the table, she heard the door open. Footsteps approached. She saw three pairs of shoes: two sets of polished Oxfords and a slender pair of black heels.
Damn, she thought. These are some well-dressed folks. This must be important.
And, of course, the pen had rolled all the way across.
She reached for it, her arm awkwardly extended, shoulder straining. Hannah realized she should have asked someone to kick it over. People around the table adjusted their posture, straightening up as the newcomers reached the front.
Finally, her fingers snagged the pen just as a man's voice filled the room.
"Hello everyone, I'm glad we finally get to meet face-to-face. My name is Tim Langhans. This is Larry Kern. And I'd like to introduce you all to Carmen Mills."
Applause followed, though it wasn't anything boisterous. Hannah had just wrapped her fingers around the pen with it faded.
A new voice– lighter, smoother– spoke up.
"Thank you everyone. It's truly wonderful to meet all of you. Although, I think I may have already met a handful of you at the wedding reception this weekend. I had no idea so many of you were there, actually. I wasn't given a list of names until this morning."
That voice.
That voice.
Hannah froze.
No. No no no no.
She scrambled upright and smacked her head hard on the edge of the table.
CRACK.
The entire table jolted. A hollow thud reverberated across the wood, loud enough that the people in the back of the room turned their heads. It was a heavy table, one that always made her question if they had had to build it in this room, because she couldn't imagine anybody carrying the thing in.
"Ow!" She hissed, clutching her head.
Jules leaned over, wide-eyed. "Are you okay?"
She nodded, blinking through the pain, and handed over the damn pen.
"You should have just left it under there."
No argument here. She slumped in her chair, face hot and head throbbing. A bruise was already forming, she could feel it. A big, pulsing reminder that she should've just sat still and minded her business.
Slowly, she looked toward the front of the room.
And there, standing with effortless confidence, her dark blazer fitted to perfection, stood Carmen. And she was looking right at her.
The woman that had pulled Hannah outside that wedding, the woman Hannah had taken behind a barn, the woman standing in front of this conference room–the woman that was now addressing them all as their new boss.
YOU ARE READING
Of Course, It's You
Romance[Book 1 in the Of Course series] The only reason Hannah made it to this wedding, was because her friends asked for her daughter to be the flower girl. After the death of her wife, Hannah resigned herself to a life devoid of love and she's determined...
