The Promotion Is Mine

Prologue

PROLOGUE: ALEX

New employees Orientation, Catalyst Corp.

I sat at a table in the conference room, setting up my laptop. As I fiddled with the settings, I noticed a woman approach me hesitantly.

She was a petite woman with dark, curly hair that fell in loose waves around her face. Her almond-shaped eyes were a deep brown, and she wore a pair of small, rectangular glasses that made her look bookish and intelligent. She had a sharp jawline and a thin, straight nose, and her lips were full and pink. Overall, she had a very serious, focused look about her, as if she was always in deep thought. I guess she is attractive, in a cutely awkward way.

"Hi, sorry to bother you," she said. "I've been assigned as your partner for the orientation project?"

"Ah," I said, looking up, racking my brain to remember where I'd seen her before. I knew she was one of the 15 other new hires from the orientation, but I couldn't quite place her name. Then I remembered her sitting in a corner during the coffee break.

"Loner Lena!"

Her expression darkened. "Excuse me?"

Oh no, did I say that out loud?

"I'm sorry, that sounded terrible. I just have a hard time remembering names, so I use rhyming adjectives to help me out."

"Rhyming adjectives?"

The awkward cuteness vanished in a second. She just looked intimidating.

"Yeah, like Glasses George, Sassy Cassie, and Zombie Zoha - for her eyes... you know," I said, looking at Lena's face and hesitating. "I'm not making this any better, am I?"

"No, you just keep coming across as more and more judgmental," she said, looking no less judgmental herself.

"I'm not judging. It's just to help me remember. I'm sure you're not a loner. It's just a first impression," I said, realizing I should really learn to keep quiet.

Lena didn't look too pleased with my explanation, but she continued on. "Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself. Looks like we're going to be partners for the project."

This is going to be interesting.

LENA

Alex wasn't as bad as I thought.

He was worse.

He was like a devil on my shoulder, rapidly giving off the craziest advice with his charming smile and convincing tone. I sat in front of my computer, focusing intently on my work, while Alex kept interrupting me with silly suggestions, completely derailing my thought process. I tried to remain calm and professional, but his constant interruptions were starting to irritate me.

"Hey, Lena, I have a great idea! Why don't we add some Keanu memes to the presentation? That would be super fun, right?" Alex said, grinning.

H

e had short, dark hair that was always perfectly styled, and a well-groomed beard that accentuated his sharp jawline. His broad shoulders filled out his tailored black dress shirt, and his arms were adorned with colorful tattoos that peeked out from under his sleeves. I couldn't help but notice the way his eyes sparkled with mischief as he made yet another outrageous suggestion for their project, and I found myself almost giving in to his crazy ideas.

I gritted my teeth and tried to keep my voice level. "Alex, we don't have time for memes. We need to focus on the content of the presentation."

Alex shrugged. "Suit yourself. Stay boring. I'm just trying to think out of the box here."

I rolled my eyes and turned back to my computer, determined to finish the project on time. But when Alex stepped out for a coffee break, I couldn't resist the urge to delete his ridiculous suggestions and memes from the presentation.

As I hit the delete key, however, I realized to my horror that I had accidentally deleted the entire presentation. Panic set in as I frantically tried to recover the lost data.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," I muttered under my breath. "This can't be happening."

This is going to be interesting.