The Risk of Falling

Chapter Four: The Real First Meeting

At about ten-forty, I made my way to Luke’s office, the direction of which I’d extracted from Jillian who’d been to the upper floors where denizens of the bottom of the corporate food chain like me barely wandered into.

I did what I could about my appearance—smoothened the wrinkles on my blouse, plucked the lint off my navy blue pencil skirt and tucked my wildly wavy hair behind my ears. I wasn’t sure why I was bothering. One, he’d already seen me in much worse shape and two, he wasn’t going to care about how I looked if he was about to show me the door.

I ignored the evil eye Theodora cast me as I walked past her desk and pretended not to hear her call my name as I was about to step out the door. She was bellowing something about me gabbing her something from finance but I had a feeling she was purposefully trying to sabotage my meeting with Luke by causing me to be delayed or distracted. It wasn’t hard to assume that considering she’d spent the last near half hour talking so loudly to Shelby, her head minion, about the very strict standards the Hedenbys held their employees to. I almost blurted out that one of those standards was probably office etiquette where one didn’t spend so much time gabbing on and on about the boss instead of getting any work done.

“Hey, Max!”

I looked up as the elevator doors opened and Ryan Wilcott, the top guy for Legal, stepped out and greeted me with a grin.

Six feet tall with dirty blond hair, warm brown eyes and freckles, Ryan was considered a company-wide heartthrob. He looked like a surfer hunk and had a sweet, endearing personality to go with the good looks.

I met him three months ago after I helped him fix a paper jam in the printer at the conference room where I came in to prepare some of the materials the marketing team was presenting for a public awareness campaign. He’d shown up at some of group drinks Jillian and I had attended. He was easy company that it was no hardship to hang out with him. 

“Hi, Ryan,” I greeted back brightly. “Where are you off to? You’re not usually from around here.”

He chuckled. “I’m off to see Bryce about something. I thought I’d see you on my way over there.”

Bryce Elmers was the actual head of the marketing department, a fact that Theodora liked to conveniently forget when dealing with the lower ranks.

“I’m on my way up for a meeting with Mr. Hedenby,” I said as I stepped into the elevator which I held open, much to the impatience of a girl glaring at me as she tapped her foot noisily.

I let go of the door but Ryan put his hand out and pressed it back. “You’re meeting with Luke? What about?”

I shrugged. “Beats me.”

His brows furrowed in thought. “Is it related to the general meeting earlier?”

I bit my lip. “I honestly don’t know. But I’m running late so I’ll see you later, okay?” 

“Alright. Let’s go get coffee later with Jillian,” he said as he released the door. “Good luck.”

I glanced at the only other occupant of the elevator—the same girl who had been glowering at me—and murmured an apology. She just gave me a hateful look.

I sighed inwardly and glanced up the ceiling, choosing to ignore the urge to demand what her problem was.

Jillian and I had gotten some pretty scathing looks from some women at work whenever Ryan hung out with us during lunch or when we got coffee together. Jillian reassured me it was nothing personal—mostly just a few women nursing not-so-secret crushes on Ryan—but sometimes, they went a little too far with their hostility.