It took Ariana ten minutes to pull herself together. Her heart was going to put her in a lot of trouble if she kept letting Calhoun sweep her off her feet like this.
She stepped out of her house exactly thirty minutes, after Calhoun and got a taxi that drove her down to work. If not for her alarm that went off an hour earlier than necessary, she would have been extremely late for work.
"Good morning, Olga!" Ariana greeted the receptionist. She remembered Zion had called her by that name and she always took it upon herself to know all her coworkers.
The girl beamed happily at Ariana. "Good morning, you are starting today?" She asked.
"Yes, I will."
"Congratulations. You are Miss Brown, yes?" She asked.
"Oh, please, call me Aria," Ariana said to Olga.
"Great! Mr. Lawson will be here in a few minutes you should go talk to Sarah. Good luck!" Olga told her.
"Thank you." Ariana clutched her bag and moved to get the elevator. The closer she got to Calhoun's floor, the more she got sweaty. This was really awkward and it would get even more awkward when he got here.
"Good morning miss Brown, how was your night?" Sarah greeted as soon as she saw Ariana step out of the elevator. Sarah was by the corridor, she seemed to have just stepped out of an office and there was a large number of files in her hands.
"Good morning Sarah and please call me Aria," she said sweetly.
"Ah, great. I hate last names as well. So, here are his files." Sarah handed her a bunch of paperwork. "Get them sorted, file number three is for a meeting by ten this morning. You may want to start with that-"
"Good morning new worker!" Zion's voice filled the corridor interrupting Sarah's instructions.
Ariana looked pass Sarah and saw her old friend standing by his door. "Good morning Zion," she beamed at him.
"Okay, I will leave you to it. If you need anything whatsoever, do not hesitate to call on me or anyone at all. We are all at your beck and call because if anyone fails in their duty, then Mr. Lawson gets mad at everybody..." She said before walking into the elevator, Aria had just stepped out of.
"Thank you," Ariana said.
She walked to Zion, who remained by his door beaming like a kid in a circus. "I got you coffee this morning but it has gotten cold. Why are you just coming?" He asked her.
Ariana became red as a blush crept upon her. She bent her head over, letting her hair hide her face.
"Am I exceptionally late?" She whispered.
Zion laughed, pulling her inside his office. "Technically, you are not late. The resumption time is actually eight in the morning but we have a thing in the office we resume by seven, so we can sort everything out before Mr. Lawson comes in an hour later."
Zion went around his office and sat in his chair, beaming at Aria. He was really excited that she would be working with him. It would be like in those days when they had to do an assignment together. The competition was always healthy.
"Waoh, that's a good thing..." Ariana trailed. They were actually helping each other maintain their jobs and that was an amazing thing. She was already loving the fact that she was going to be working with people like them.
"Yes, it is. And you should join the tradition... If you wish," he said with a little hesitation. He didn't want it seeming like he was forcing her to join in their little group.
"Oh, no. It's fine. I am totally interested. I will start tomorrow," Aria said.
Zion beamed happily at her. He knew that she was going to accept it. She had always been a very helpful person even as a teenager.
"Great. Now, I should ask you to seat so we can drink up the cold coffee but you need to go a work on that file Sarah pointed out before he gets here, you have..." Zion trailed off as he checked his time. "... Approximately forty minutes." He opened his drawer on his right and brought out a cup of coffee. He stretched it to her.
"Oh yeah," Ariana jumped. She took the cup of coffee that wasn't exactly cold and glared at him. "Thank you and grow up!" She smiled.
She was turning around to leave when she recalled that she didn't even know where her office was. She turned back and met Zion smiling.
"Your office right?" He asked her.
"Yes, please."
"Second door by your right," he said dangling a set of keys in his hands.
Ariana took the keys from his hands and walked out of his office. "Thank you," she called her clutching the files, her bag, the coffee and the keys to her chest.
She got to the door and tried the keys. They opened straight up and she stepped in to the place she would be calling hers for a couple of years. The office was nothing but beautiful. It was painted with white on one side and teal green on another side. A large window sat behind her desk and she quickly walked to it.
She placed the bunch of stuff in her hands on the table as she went to the window. She pulled the curtain and smiled at the view in front of her. It was the city, and the hustle and bustle always made her smile. It reminded her of a movie she used to watch as a child.
Her office at Alice didn't have any of these. In fact she barely had an office. She turned back around and gawked at her own fortune. She had a personal toilet and bathroom. There was even a fridge with everything she could wish for. The air conditioning was like in a five star hotel and everything else was too luxurious to belong to her.
As she turned around, something else, caught her attention, a glass door on the left wall of her office. She moved closer to it and her fingers stretched to open the door but before she could reach it. It opened and Carl popped his head in.
"I need the file on Mr. Walter in ten minutes," he said in a neutral voice and pulled the door close again.
Oh shit!