Maneater

"Only time will tell..."

Tuesday, November 12th

"Good morning, Zina." One of her colleagues kindly greeted her as she entered the building as if she owned the place.

"Hi, how are you?" She responded with a smile as she continued to make her way to her office. She slung her tote over her shoulder, carrying the papers that Judah requested from her along with a few items to liven up her work space.

"Well good morning to you, Zina." Mateo quickly addressed her as she side-eyed him, annoyed at the fact that he was greeting her so informally. Or at all.

"Mateo." She said sternly as she passed him. She finally reached her office, dropping everything down onto her desk with a slight huff of breath. As she began to array her items around her office, she smiled to herself thinking about how this would really be her new life. Good paying job, beautiful scenery, Judah. She regretted nothing about her decision to up and move states.

Zina graduated college with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, giving her free reign over whatever field she wanted to enter. Her minor in art is what landed her at a graphic design company. Before she moved to New York, she lived in a smaller town in Delaware. A very random state, but that worked to her benefit in the long run. It was an overall boring state, only being livened up by the sudden, tragic murder of her no-good ex-husband.

As she settled into her chair, the soft chime of an incoming call interrupted her thoughts. She glanced at the caller ID – Judah Nolan. With a quick swipe, she answered the call, her voice taking on a professional tone.

"Good morning, Mr. Nolan."

"Good morning, Zina. I hope you're settling in well. I wanted to discuss a few updates on the upcoming meeting. Could you come to my office when you have a moment?"

"Of course, Mr. Nolan. I'll be there shortly." Ending the call, she grabbed her notebook, along with papers he requested, and headed to Judah's office. As she approached his office, she could hear bits of a conversation through the slightly ajar door. Judah was on the phone, his deep voice carrying a certain authority. She waited patiently until he noticed her presence and gestured for her to come in.

"Zina, perfect timing. I was just discussing some project details. Please, have a seat."

She nodded, taking a seat across from him, ready to dive into the work-related discussion." I brought those papers you asked from me, as well. " He watched as she placed them carefully on his mahogany desk.

"Exactly, what I wanted to talk to you about. I apologize if this serves as an inconvenience for you, but I noticed there was an error in the projection calculations when I reran them."

"Already taken care of. I read over the papers myself before I printed the copies. I corrected the error, but you can look over it again just in case I'm wrong." She handed the folder over to him watching his confused-but-surprised expression. He opened the folder and looked over the papers, seeing that she did fix the error just as she said. He heightened his eyebrows for a split second and then nodded, turning his eyes back up to hers as he handed the folder back to her.

"If I knew you'd be this dependable I would've came searching for you myself. Your dedication is makes for a good testimony on your resume. Unfortunately, I don't think I'd be willing to let you go off elsewhere with work like this. Great work, Zina."

Hearing him compliment her only fed her twisted ego even more. "You shouldn't praise me in such a way, Mr. Nolan. If I were dizzy, I'd take it too close to the heart."