Curious Business (18+)

Deep Interrogation

The same feeling I felt the first time walking into the Holt building returned. The building was, in short, impressive. The same perky receptionist was at the front desk, centered perfectly in the middle. 

"Hi! Welcome to the Holt Building! If you go up the stairs to the first floor, you'll find the cafeteria, gym, café, and meeting rooms." She hands me the same sheet of paper with floor numbers and descriptions that she handed me last time, "This tells you what department is on what floor. The floor numbers in red are for employees only, unless you have an appointment."

"Yes, I do have an appointment. With Mr. Holt. He said he left me a badge here." I quickly chimed in. 

"Oh. Yes of course." Her eyes looked sad. "Elevators are on the opposite side of me here." 

I followed her directions and went into the elevator, pressing the correct button to his office. When the doors opened, the familiar workspace opened up, except it was busier, people were moving around faster, almost frantic.

"No, we will have to start from scratch now. You can't have the grey water system connected to the cities. That was the entire point of this, was to not be apart of the city, but the rest of this looks good, just find a way to fix that. Nice job besides that." I heard Elias explaining to a group gathered around a work table. 

He looked, well, he looked sexy. In control, as always. A white button up partially unbuttoned revealed his protruding collar bone. It was tucked into black chinos, he had tightrolled the ends just above his ankles. I took him in while leaning against an empty work station. 

"Look who is back!" A friendly voice shouted. "Clara, it is SO nice to see you again." Joseph approached me and brought me into a hug.

"Hello again Joseph. It has been a decent amount of time since last, hasn't it!" I tried to be excited while keeping my gaze on Elias who had finally looked up at me. He smiled, obviously chuckling at my situation. My eyes shouted, come save me. Joseph was a wonderful man, just overly excited about, everything. 

"Ms. Engel." Elias said curtly

"Mr. Holt." I replied mockingly.

"I'll talk to you soon hopefully, Clara! Lorin wants to make plans for us all soon!" Joseph called. I smiled back at him in agreement.

Elias extended his arm in front of him, offering me directions to his office.

"You look lovely today." Elias said softly, closing his office door behind him. The lock clicked shut. Uh oh.

"Thank you Elias, you chose it out." I said flattening the tight color blocked dress. The neckline was high, but had no sleeves. It was mostly black with just white and tan stripes at the hem and at the neckline. Elias suggested the belt I added at my waist. He so graciously let me pick out my own shoes. 

"No, thank you for listening to me and thank you for coming today."

"Of course. It was nice to get out of the hotel today for a 'doctor appointment'" I said laughing at the silly lie I had told my boss. " What exactly am I here for today?"

"To spend time with me." 

"No, really, what are your plans for this meeting" I laughed

"To get to know you better."

"Most people do dinner or drinks. Not make appointments at their office." 

"I've been so busy here, its hard for me to leave the office, Clara. Tell me, what do I do outside of here?"

"Uh, you tell me what to do, you exercise?" I said in as more of a question than a statement

"While those two things are correct. You really don't know much about me, and I don't know much about you. I know what makes you feel good, but I want to know YOU."