1.
Just go with it.
Those words were once the most romantic thing Rebecca Smith had ever heard; a time when the six foot four backup quarterback of the Wildcats held her in his bed as he managed to sweet talk his way into Rebecca’s pants. To be fair, by that point Rebecca hadn’t been wearing any pants, or panties for that matter, and by the time the morning light came, the phrase just go with it had taken a turn from romantic to erotic.
But that was college.
While it ended a few years ago, Rebecca was just now feeling the jitters of dealing with the real world, after completing her graduate degree in finance and finally receiving a job offer.
The offer wasn’t what Rebecca wanted, let alone hoped for, after all the years of studying and working so many low paying, high stress office jobs. Sadly, the offer that stood was a desk job on the tenth floor of a high rise instead of the standard cubicle job on the first floor.
She had expressed her personal discontent with the job, and life in general, almost wishing she could do a full spin and try something else. However, in those precious moments of trying to regain some of her innocence, it seemed too easy to just throw things in the air and find something else. But then, right on cue, her cell phone would ring with someone who had a heavy accent that called himself Mike, looking to collect on something. Her student loan debt was staggering and without the proper mix of vodka in her body, it was too much to think about, which all lead her to opening the large gold plated doors to The HB-Ley Corporation, located in the heart of the Winston, Washington. From the outside, the city was nothing more than your average attempt at matching something like Seattle, but with a building as large HB-Ley’s headquarters, it didn’t take long for more buildings to take on the same prestigous look, thus turning it into it’s own little world.
As Rebecca walked through the second set of doors, she paused, noting the elevators to her left, the stairs to her right, and a large rounded desk in front of her. Attractive lighting glistening upon a sign told her she was in the right building.
Her desk job, to be quite honest, was shit. It was more filtering phone calls and sorting mail than actually anything pertaining to the fancy title of Department Supervisor. She had no idea what department she was supervising, only that it had nothing to do with financial formulas. But the key – as many of her friends explained to her over the past week – was that by being in the building, she would get there. HB-Ley’s was one of the largest investment companies in the world, with hands tied to everything from real estate, insurance, technology, and well beyond into the international business world.
Work hard, and you’ll rise.
Rebecca believed it as she touched her bag. She had taken a picture of herself and her closest friends and placed it in her purse. It was their last hurrah together, in Cancun for a week of sun, fun, and some experiences that Rebecca thought were going to be regrettable but weren’t.
She planned on putting the picture on her desk somewhere, as a reminder of the good times leading her to this one.
As she stood a few feet from the reception counter, the woman ignored her, looking at her with a set of mean brown eyes. She raised an eyebrow as if to say fresh meat is here and then went back to her conversation.
Rebecca didn’t plan on being late for her first day nor did she plan on dealing with anyone’s attitudes. She knew her job waited on the tenth floor and she intended to find it herself.
Worst case she would find someone who could help her.
2.
Rebecca waited for the elevator to stop. She watched the light moving along the top five floors of the building. Annoyed, she started to hit the button harder.
“Come down,” she whispered.
Finally, the elevator did.
When it opened she hurried inside, not realizing the elevator would continue to go down, into the basement of the building, where the executive parking garage was located.
“Fuck,” she said as she pressed the number ten on the panel. The button lit up for a second and then went out.
She’d have to ride the elevator all the way down and then back up.
The doors opened at the basement and no more than ten feet away sat a black car. The windows were black too and upon the elevator doors opening, the driver’s door flew open and a heavy set man struggled to get out of the driver’s seat, biting on his tongue, wrestling with his large figure. He walked to the back of the car and opened the back door.
“Mr. Bradley, the elevator is here.”
“Took long enough,” a voice said.
A moment later, a figure appeared from the vehicle. Rebecca watched him, seeing his eyes first, like two white dots coming from a pitch black night. It made her think of something animal like and she had a momentary flash of lust in her mind.