Jamie always hated meetings. She had a real aversion to
them. Most of the time they were pointless and resulted in a nonstop bitching
session. The problem with this “huddle” and God how she HATED that corporate
bullshit term was that it was taking place on the old, abandoned Mezzanine
floor.
Two years ago, when she was new to the company, she recalled
a conversation in the elevator with one of her colleagues. She couldn’t figure out if he was kidding at
the time or if he was serious. “No one ever presses the M button unless they
are invited on to that floor.” “Really? What’s there? All of the corporate
secrets?” Her colleague locked eyes with her. “It’s a regular floor. Just a
couple of offices that no one uses and a conference room.” Curiosity piqued,
Jamie couldn’t help but press the subject further.
“That doesn’t make sense. Why would you not use the space?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been on the level myself but I hear there is quite a
bit of construction going on. I guess
it’s closed off for safety reasons.” Still finding this explanation peculiar,
Jamie decided to let it go. Maybe one day she would be able to investigate the
mysterious Mezzanine floor on a lunch break. No one would know and what would
be the harm in it? If anyone caught her,
she could say she was lost.
The Mezzanine area had slipped her mind until today when she
got the invitation in her email. She put the finishing touches on her latest
project, printed it out, grabbed her coffee mug and headed for the elevator. As
she walked toward the lobby, she couldn’t help but notice that no one else was
leaving their cubicles. There were other people on the invite, at least she
thought she saw other names. Perhaps
they were already waiting in the conference room.
She pressed the elevator button and as if by magic, the
doors opened immediately. This was a rare occurrence. Elevators were a tough commodity to come by
when you were late for work. She stepped inside, pressed the large M and
watched as the doors closed.
Jamie’s office, well her cubicle (she wasn’t important
enough to have four walls and a door), was located on the 15th floor. The Mezzanine level was actually the 13th
floor but in order to not frighten people the owners of the building decided to
give it a fancy name. Her thoughts
interrupted by the doors opening, Jamie stepped out into the dimly lit
hallway. Taking a deep breath, she
looked around.
The first thing she noticed was the uncommon quiet. She had
been to many floors within this building and all of them had a buzz. Not this
one. Shrugging it off, she proceeded down the hall. Finally, she reached
Conference Room 1301. She opened the door.
In the middle of the area was a huge mahogany table with
chairs for twenty people. It looked like a typical conference room. Nothing
seemed amiss. Jamie wondered why no one else was here yet. Did she have the right location? According to her watch, the meeting was going
to start in five minutes. She could feel
a sense of panic building in the pit of her stomach.
To quell her nerves, she opened her presentation folder and
began to go over her bullet points. Her focus drawn to her notes, she didn’t
notice that she wasn’t alone in the room anymore.
“Ms. Davis?” Startled, Jamie raised her head and found
herself looking straight into the eyes of an incredibly attractive man.
Flustered, she almost knocked over her coffee mug. “Hello. I didn’t see you
come in.” The man nodded.
“I saw you were engrossed in your presentation so I thought
I wouldn’t disturb you.” “Thank you for that.” “My pleasure. I am Ian Rogers.”
“Uh, Mr. Rogers? As in CEO, Mr. Rogers?” “That is my father
who is the CEO. When he is away
attending to certain interests, I deal with his meetings.” “Oh.” Jamie scans
the vacant room. “I am sure you are
wondering why you are the only attendee?”
“You could say that, Mr. Rogers.”
“Well, I…. that is my father and I decided that you were the
only person necessary for this particular tête–à–tête.” Ian’s soft voice was
rather soothing. He’s obviously English, Jamie thought. “In answer to your
question, Ms. Davis, I grew up in London.” “Oh, I
couldn’t quite place your accent.” Did she ask him where he was from? At this
point, she was so uncomfortable she couldn’t remember.
Ian stood up and begin to walk around the room. “You have
been with this company for two years, correct?” “Yes.” “Do you like it
here? Is your work satisfying?” He
turned around, his preternaturally blue eyes scanned Jamie’s face. Taking a
deep breath, Jamie replied, “I do enjoy being here.” “Good. It is always nice to know what your employees
think.” Ian smiled. Jamie began to feel light headed. Something about his smile….
“Did you want to hear my presentation?” “No, that won’t be
necessary. I know all about it.” Now Jamie knew that was impossible because she
had finished it late last night and hadn’t shown it to any of her co-workers. “How?”
She was finding it increasingly hard to speak let alone form coherent thoughts
in her fog induced brain.
The last thing that Jamie remembered was Ian’s deep glowing
red eyes. Weren’t they blue? She felt someone gently tapping her on the
shoulder. Turning around, she saw her co-worker Derek standing next to her. “Late
night?” Disoriented, Jamie shook her
head. “Was I sleeping?” “You dozed off.” Jamie looked around and noticed most
of the cubicles were vacant. “Where is everyone?”
Derek smiled. “At the meeting.” “Meeting? We have a meeting?”
“Yes. We better hurry or we’ll be late.” “I don’t remember getting a planner for that, Derek.” Her colleague was already on the move. Scrambling to keep up
with him, Jamie tried to remember what had happened. She boarded the
elevator with Derek. “What floor are we going to?” Derek turned around and
Jamie found herself face to face with Ian Rogers. “Why Jamie, you already know
that answer.”
Oh my goodness Susan, you always leave it on a cliff hanger. Well done.:-) I loved it, cant wait for more.
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming back, Rebecca. I don't think you will be disappointed!
ReplyDeleteWow Susan! Fabulous! Mind is blown!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for reading and stopping by, Paula. I have been doing little writing prompt exercises and this blog is the result. Call it a side project, if you will. I appreciate the compliment!
DeleteOkay, I can't seem to get my replies to publish, but wow! Mind blowing!
ReplyDelete