The Promise

eleven

Year 2014 - Spring

Lydia's POV

The buzzing of the fluorescent lights above mine and Sophia's cubicle are especially agitating today. My head aches and I'm definitely not in the mood to listen to customers complain.

"Long night?" Patrick asks when I walk into the breakroom. Patrick is always the one I go to for all the latest office gossip. I pour myself a cup of coffee and sit across from him.

"More like a long two weeks." I sigh, taking a sip from my mug.

It's been a little hard to sleep lately. It's like my mind won't stop thinking at night and just rest.

"Well," he scoots his empty plate over to the side and folds his hands in front of him on the table.  "I'm here to listen. I could definitely use a distraction from angry healthcare customers."

Usually, I'd say no. I don't really share things that are going on with many people. But today, I'm not too keen on actually doing my job either.

"That'd be great." I breathe a sigh of relief.

And so I tell him practically everything. Like, how Louis and I met and always thought we'd end up together no matter what. Right up until two weeks ago when I opened that invitation.

"Oh, honey," he reaches back across the table, next to my now empty coffee mug.

"It'll all be okay." I say, mostly to myself.

"Lydia, he doesn't know what he's missing." He gives me a sympathetic smile.

I only nod, not wanting to ask him how that can be true when he knows me better than anyone.

I move my hand out from under his, rinse my cup, and saunter back through the maze of cubicles.

"Hey," Sophia turns around, her headset's microphone pulled away from her face, obviously on a call. "Scott asked me to take this up to accounting, but I really don't want to go up there after the whole Adam thing. Will you take it for me?" She holds out a stack of spreadsheets to me.

Great. I think to myself. I have to deal with the douchebaggery of the eighth floor.

But I nod, grab the stack from her, and head for the elevator.

On my way up, I rake my fingers through my curls and smooth down my dress. All the men from the eighth floor made me feel so self-concious- like as soon as I leave the room, they're all gonna talk about me.

The elevator doors slide open and I walk out into the sleek office space. It doesn't even seem like our office should be in the same building as this one. We have white walls and gray cubicles while they have darkwood desks and vases full of flowers. I approach the huge reception desk and the dark haired woman behind it.

"Scott from customer service sent this up." I tell her, placing the stack on her desk.

"Thanks so much." She says. I feel bad that she's the only woman working up here.

"It's quiet up here today." I observe, turning around and noticing all the empty desks. This floor was always loud.

"Yeah, they're all in the conference room throwing a party for the new boss." She tells me, sorting through the spreadsheets I gave her.

Just like that, the door to the conference room bursts open and my head starts aching again at the sound of all the men laughing. They're all crowded around who I assume is the new boss in the main office. He's out of my view, but I hope he's a decent human being- unlike the last guy they had.