The Delivery Girl

3. The Restaurant

Callen

I tug on my coat and grab my keys as I head down the hall. Jacob wordlessly gets up from his chair outside my door and follows me. He's been an annoyingly overprotective shadow ever since that note showed up. I've insisted that I'm fine, but he simply reminds me that he doesn't need to take orders from me – he's technically employed by dad, not me. 

With my money.

Whatever.

Hayley's sitting at her desk with the phone held up against her ear with her shoulder. She's typing with one hand on her computer, and the other is quickly writing a note onto a sticky note.

"Yes Mr. Gill, the team will be there tomorrow morning," she says. Her tone is polite and professional, but I can see the anger in her icy blue eyes. "Alright, have a nice day. Bye." She shoves the phone back into the holder with more force than necessary. "Fucking hell," she murmurs.

"You alright?" I ask, leaning against the wall. "What's wrong?"

Hayley looks up and frowns at me. "It's his daughter's wedding tomorrow, and he's called five times since yesterday." She runs her hand through her smooth blonde hair and sighs. "He's just overly paranoid that the photographers are either going to show up at the wrong venue, be late, not take pictures of the right people, or just mess up, I guess."

I pause and think for a moment about our upcoming clients. "Mr. Gill... Gurpreet Gill, right? He's spending almost a quarter mill on that wedding." I chuckle humorlessly. "Keep him happy, Hayley."

She sticks her tongue out at me, the same way she would when we were kids. "I have more important shit to do," she retorts and looks at the wall of notes on her bulletin board and a long list on her tablet. "There are the gift baskets for diamond clients, I'm still looking for a new marketing agency, tons of requests for Christmas card photography, buying new office equipment for floor forty one and two, writing the annual report, and-"

"Alright, alright, I get it," I say and raise my hands innocently. "Make sure to find time to take care of yourself, at least. Have you even had lunch yet?"

I'm not exactly one to talk. I don't even remember the last time I stopped to take a break for lunch.

She looks at her watch and raises her eyebrows. "Oh, it's already one." She leans back in her chair and stretches her arms outwards. "Not yet, it's still in the fridge downstairs."

"Try not to overwork yourself," I say. "You know you don't have to be here until I leave, right?"

Most of the staff leave the office by four or five. As much as I don't want to be, I'm usually here until at least six or seven. More often than not, Hayley is still at her desk when I'm heading out.

She rolls her eyes. "I know that, but there are things that I need to do because you're still here," she points out. "Do you even know how many emails you send me in a day?"

"Er, yeah," I say and awkwardly rub the back of my neck.

"Anyways, where are you going?" she asks, as if she's just noticed I'm heading out.

I press the button on the elevator and turn back around to look at her. "Meeting over lunch."

She raises an eyebrow and looks at her screen. "With who? There's nothing on your schedule."

I sigh and give her an all too familiar look. "You know who," I grumble.

She suddenly gives me a shit eating grin and bursts out laughing. "Have fun," she snorts.