Ending

Chapter 50 - Rounds and Reappearances

"This is a lot more complicated than you made it seem."

As far as managing a town and employees goes, the work I was helping him with proved much more challenging than that on surface level.

I watched as James typed vigorously on the keyboard, his eyes not straying from the screen he was staring at.

"What's the next line say?"

I looked at the random amalgamation of numbers and letters melded together. It was hard to stare at and not get confused.

"Um, 13 11 22. Wait, not 2 it's a 4." I could feel embarrassment creep up on me as I fumbled with the prompts.

In my defence, I had already told him at least two other pages of lines and my brain was starting to protest, making all of the symbols meld and swirl together when I tried to read it.

Especially frustrating was the last line, having repeated 13 11 24 almost fifty times in between both pages of lines.

I rubbed my temple, trying to rub away the forming headache. "I'm sorry."

The once constant clicking noise halted. Looking up, I was curious as to why.

James stopped typing and looked down to the pier at the watch on his wrist.

" There's nothing to be sorry for." He mumbled.

Standing, he moved around the office, stretching a bit as he did. "We've been doing this for a while anyway."

"Come. We are going to check on everyone."

He started toward the door. Rather quickly I might add considering I had to scramble to catch up with him before he was out of the room.

I eventually found my pace right behind him as we walked to the centre of the building toward the large room of workers. James marched forward until we ended up just outside of the room. Not having gone in yet, we stood still and what seemed like deliberately quiet.

James looked on from the darker hallway. As his employees went on with their day, some talked to each other while others stood about.

I didn't understand why we weren't going in, feeling a bit weird just spying on people.

The man next to me leaned coyly against the wall, further camouflaging him in. I found myself getting closer to him, pushing myself to the wall as well when people walked past the archway. Somehow getting trapped in his scheme of not being seen.

"What's the point of this?" I said this keeping my voice just barely audible.

He leaned down, just to a point where his mouth was right by my ear.

He whispered. "Everyone is different when they think no one is looking."

I did my best to fight off the shiver then ran down my body at the feeling of his breath on my neck. And fight I did, as James was practically pressed up against me, he would have definitely felt the shiver.

"Except you. You don't act differently when I'm around."

An ever so slight note of sadness overlapped with an almost joking cadence threw me a bit as he said this.

He seemed to have moved on quite quickly as he pushed off the wall and walked into the room, leaving me with lots of questions.

The atmosphere shifted instantly. Heads turned, conversations hushed, and a few people straightened in their seats and cleared their desks.

"Good morning, everyone," James greeted, his tone professional. "How's everything going?"

A chorus of affirmations and status updates followed. Their backs were straight as a board while they smiled perfectly from their desks.