twisted | ✔️

chapter fifteen

My legs were wobbly underneath me as I stood up, thanking the people for their time and exiting the interview room. It was made up entirely of glass, so I tried to make it out of view before I visibly collapsed underneath my nerves, leaning against the wall off to the side and letting out all of the air in my lungs. I could feel sweat pooling in my armpits and on the palm of my hands, and I frantically shook the front of my shirt and wiped my hands on the front of my pants. I caught a glance of myself in the glass across the hall from me, and I barely recognized the girl looking back. She was wearing a blazer, of all things, and a white button-down tucked into a pair of slacks. I would never have opted to wear this, and I even had to dig this blazer from the depths of my closet, sending it through the dryer twice and ironing it for thirty minutes until all the wrinkles were gone, but this was the position I was in, and even though I was sweaty and nervous, I was hopeful.

I wandered down the hallway, reading the signs along the walls and following the ones that pointed toward the sales department. It was upstairs, and I pushed the button for the elevator. I was waiting when I felt a body by my side. I turned my face to the person standing next to me, and a bleach white smile was shining back at me.

"Up or down?" I asked him. He was pretty, like pretty, with tan skin and brown hair that looked like it had been faded by too much time in the sun. His gray button-down was tight on him, and I couldn't tell if it was because of his broad shoulders or because he'd purposefully bought a size too small. He was probably in his mid-twenties, and I could tell he was the type of guy who knew he was good-looking.

"Up," he said, and I nodded, not having to move to change it.

"I've never seen you here before," he said after a moment.

"That's because I've never been here before," I responded, hoping my tone would finalize the conversation. I watched the down arrow as it too slowly announced each floor it came across.

"I'm Teddy," he said.

I had to laugh, and I looked back at him, twisting my face into a grimace. "Teddy?" I echoed, and I couldn't disguise my amusement.

"Yeah," he said, laughing like he knew exactly what I was saying. "Actually, it's Theodore Alexander Roswell-the fourth," he included as an afterthought.

"Oh, yeah, Teddy's better," I said, laughing along with him. "Your parents never gave you a chance, did they?" He was nodding along with me when the elevator dinged one final time, the doors cascading open. We both awkwardly stepped inside the small space, turning to face the same direction, and he asked me what floor.

"Whichever floor Sales is on," I said. "I don't exactly know my way around here." He pushed the number four, followed by the five. "I'm Hillary, by the way," I said when we started moving.

"Are you visiting someone?" he asked. "Doesn't exactly look like you're in mid-day, visiting someone clothes, but then again, you said you didn't know your way around."

"Uh, no," I replied, "actually, I had an interview."

"Oh, yeah?" he said, turning to me excitedly. "What department?"

"Editing," I said, taken aback by his friendliness, a kind that was genuine and didn't signal that he wanted to get in my pants. I didn't know how to react to this kind of attention.

"I work there," he said, his hands out in front of him like I should take them and jump up and down, squealing like a middle school girl. I glanced up at the numbers above the door that were counting up from the floor we were just on, then back at him.

"And you think ditching out in the middle of the afternoon is going to let you keep your position there?" I joked.

He smirked at me. "I'm just running an errand for my boss." I was about to ask him if it was for coffee, but the elevator stopped, shaking the ground underneath us, and the door opened. I didn't know whether or not this was my stop, but he took a couple steps forward before turning back to look at me. "It was nice to meet you, Hillary. Hopefully I'll see you around soon." The end of his sentence hung like a question, and for the first time I didn't want to answer, didn't feel the urge to end up next to a beautiful stranger in the morning.