The 18th Floor

Chapter Fifty Eight

As the days pass, we fall into an easy routine of living together. Lucien will usually wake up before me and head to the gym in the mornings and be back as I start getting ready for work. I make us both breakfast and then on the drive in Lucien will stop for coffees for the both of us.

Despite us being together all day in the same office, we've both been busy at work. Our workloads are increasing and we urgently need more hands on deck. Luckily, one of the guy's Lucien interviewed a few weeks seemed good enough to please Lucien and starts today.

"Are you excited for the new starter today? What was his name?", I ask on our drive in.

"Yes, Elias. He seems like a good fit, hopefully he will be able to lighten the load. I keep telling the board and the seniors that we need more people but they don't listen." Lucien especially has been drained and pulled in all directions.

"Exciting", I say.

"Let's see."

Simon is already in and prepping for the new starter when we arrive. Setting up his work station at a desk near Simon's. He'll mostly be floating around for the first few weeks between us all as we train him but he'll be sat with Simon, so he's not alone. We've had the green light to finally move floors above and get bigger rooms and offices above; we're just waiting for the furniture to be placed.

"Morning Simon", I say as I poke my head around his office door.

"Morning! Elias should be here any minute, what do would you like him to do first?", he asks, more to Lucien than me.

"The usual. Bring him up, he can meet the team, sign all the contracts, paperwork etc and then I'll start showing him the basics, but Abbi might have to take over I don't know how much time I have."

"I can always help out too if Abbi is busy", I say and Lucien nods.

"Yep, all hands on deck."

20 minutes later Simon knocks on our office door with who I presume is Elias. Unlike the darker features both Simon and Lucien share, Elias is built from lighter and softer tones. Ashy blonde hair, freckles dotting across his face and deep blue eyes it's hard to not notice the stark contrast between all the guys.

"Lucien, Cyrene, this is Elias", Simon introduces as they step foot into the office.

Lucien stands to shake his hand and they come eye to eye, they may be mirror opposites but their build and height could go head to head.

"Lucien, great to see you again and join the team", he says as he extends his hand and I watch as Elias's patch work of dark ink comes through under his suite as he also extends his arm out. Underneath that freshly pressed suit is probably a whole art gallery by the looks of the ink that cover both his hands.

"Great to be here", he says, his accent soft. He stops shaking hands with Lucien and heads over to me as I extend mine forward.

"Cyrene", I say smiling as we shake hands, "welcome to the team".

"Elias, thank you for having me", he says as he's extended across the table.

"Why don't you go and meet the rest of the team. Simon here will help you get settled and go through the HR and all the boring bits with you, and then we can start cracking on", Lucien announces, clapping his hands and clearly happily we have a new team member.

"Sounds good", Elias nods, heading back out with Simon and closing the door.

"Good, good, good", Lucien says once they've left, "this is good, hopefully he lives up to my expectations".

"He seems nice", I offer and looks at me and nods as we get back into our work.

By the end of lunch, Simon has run through all the "boring stuff" as Lucien calls it with Elias, meaning it's time for the actual work to start. Abbi and Reid have welcomed him with equally open arms.

I spent some time this morning splitting up all the training between us, conscious of how stretched out Lucien is. I turn when I hear a knock on the door and nod for Elias to come in.

"Hey, how you settling in?", I ask.

"Good so far. Teams not that big so it won't be hard to remember everyone's name and you all seem great which is nice."

"That's good to hear."

"Simon said that Lucien would show me stuff first?", he asks as he looks at Lucien's empty seat.

"Yeah, he's had a last minute meeting, so I'm going to run through all that with you now. Do you think you could bring your chair and laptop over and I can show you how to get set up?"

"Sure."

A few moments later, Elias is sat next to me at my desk as I set him up on all our software and explaining the day to day and running's of our team. He's taking notes and seems eager to learn which is always good.

"Nice set of wheels", he announces as he sits down next me.

"Er, thanks", I say, not expecting the comment.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it in a way to point it out. My younger brother has cerebral palsy, so I know a good wheelchair when I see one", he admits as he rubs the back of his neck.

"Yh, you don't find these from the NHS."

"Indeed, you don't. So, how long have you been here?" he asks quickly changing the topic of conversation. I make a mental note to learn more about him and his brother, knowing first hand from the weight on my dad's shoulders about caring for someone else.

"Since October", I say.

"Oh, so not that long, eight months?", he says doing the maths.

"No, not long at all but I feel like I've been here a while. In a good way", I clarify as I think over his words again.

"Where did you work before?", he asks.

"I was finishing my degree, I had placements here and there but this my first proper job."

"How old are you? If you don't mind me asking?"

"26", I say and I see him doing the maths of me finishing uni. If he has any more questions, he doesn't ask. "You?"

"29, I was working at a few different start-ups before, but like any start up, they don't always take off and I wanted to try a different environment", he explains, fixing the glasses I found he wears to read.

"That's cool. We're all glad you're here, we really need the help. I'm sure you'll start to see it soon", I say.

"Good, I'm excited to get going", he says just as Lucien returns back from his meeting.

"Hi", he nods noting that Elias is sat next to me. "Sorry, caught up in meetings", he huffs as he takes a seat.

"Oh, don't worry, Cyrene here has run through it with me", he smiles and I watch as Lucien takes a second look at Elias.

"That's good, why don't you come over here and I can pick up the rest", he says.