“You may as well go home,” Stacey said, “It’s probably the only day as an Alpha employee that you’ll get to leave early. Emily, Brandon, go meet John Byrne on the 35th floor tomorrow morning – you’ll report to him for the next couple of months. Jessie, Michael, Aaron, you’ll be reporting to Vikrant Patel tomorrow morning, and he’ll show you over our existing server situation. Ok then, guys – see ya.”
***
The next day, Emily and Brandon met John Byrne, who was an Investment Analyst. John explained to them that this year, Alpha Investments had decided to recruit intern analysts from non-quantitative backgrounds, to get a different approach to investment decisions. He then gave them about five years’ worth of investment reports and analysis to read through over the next couple of days, and went back to his own work.
Emily found the reports incredibly boring and quite dependent on accounting spreadsheets. But she slogged through them anyway. Most nights, she would take the files home and stay up to finish going through them.
Despite the fact that she was staying up late to finish her reading, Emily found herself heading off to work early. She always tried to get to the atrium by seven, and sat there for a while, reading through the reports, and waiting.
She tried not to wonder why she was waiting for Nate. She was scared of the answer, and didn’t want to think about it. Nate walked through her floor once or twice a day to meet other employees and go to meetings, and it always gave her a thrill to see him from the distance. He never looked at her or walked directly past her cubicle, but Emily hoped he knew she was there.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Nate must have arrived late to work. Emily didn’t see him, and headed up to her floor by 8:30. On Friday morning, Emily’s heart leapt as she saw Nate heading towards the elevator at 7:15. But she stayed rooted to her seat, too nervous to go to the elevator. Her eyes caught Nate’s as the doors closed, and she thought he looked pleased to see her.
The next Monday morning, Emily saw Nate heading towards the elevators at 7:30. She walked quickly and joined him, but two other people stepped on at the same time. Nate stood against the wall opposite her, and when their eyes met, Emily blushed, and glanced down at the floor. The other people who’d gotten on with them stepped off on the 11th floor, and Nate and Emily were silent as the elevator rode up to the 41st floor. When the doors opened, Nate stepped out wordlessly, and Emily headed down to her cubicle on the 35th floor.
***
Another week passed by.
Emily and Brandon were given the “responsibility” of critiquing new investment decision reports. Emily thought it was a bit of a difficult position – the investment decision had already been made, and she was just being asked to make some intelligent comments without offending anybody. John told her and Brandon to email him the critiques, and to cc Nate on the emails.
Emily had made some changes to her office routine. She’d stopped coming in to work so early; she decided that it was strange to try to run into her boss in the elevator. That last “chance” encounter had felt strangely awkward and electric at the same time. She admitted to herself that she had a crush on Nate, and decided to be professional about it – by ignoring it.
She’d also started having lunch with Jessie and two other girls from the IT department. They’d all meet up in the 39th floor canteen, and the lunch hour went by quickly. Alpha Investments turned out to be a fairly gossipy place – there were numerous employees and numerous departments, and office affairs and jealousies seemed to be quite common. The girls gossiped about the other employees, and Emily complained about how boring her job was.
“At least it’s not like my internship at C4 Software,” said Simone, one of the IT girls. “I was basically a glorified secretary and spent all day on coffee runs and photocopying. No-one knew I code!”
“Speaking of secretaries,” said Emily, “Does anyone know that blonde secretary who works for Nate?”
“Oh, that bitch,” said Sharon. She’d been working at Alpha for the past six months, and was friendly, outgoing and knew almost everyone there. “Tiffany. Everyone hates her. There’s a rumor she’s sleeping with Nate, and that’s why she’s so mean to all the other girls who work here. The prettier you are, the meaner she is.”
Emily felt her stomach constrict painfully. “Is she really sleeping with Nate?”
“Nah.” Simone rolled her eyes. “I think she started the rumor herself. She just wishes she was.”
The four of them laughed, and Emily felt a bit better. The topic soon turned to Sharon’s new boyfriend, who wasn’t really her boyfriend, and soon lunch was over.