Finally, after a long day at work, Avery Bennett packed up her things, exchanged a few light-hearted jokes with her colleagues, and was ready to clock out and head home.
“Avery!” The intercom on her desk buzzed. “Come to my office. I have some work for you.”
Avery paused, then made a face at her coworkers who were already heading out. “Hunter’s got something for me. Looks like I’m staying late tonight.”
Hunter Brooks, the finance manager, was nicknamed “Old Hunter” by the team. Despite the nickname, he was actually quite young, only twenty-eight, and not bad-looking either. Unfortunately, he was already married, which earned him the “old” moniker.
“Hunter, you needed something?” Avery knocked on his office door. Hunter glanced up and handed her a stack of documents. “Scan these into the computer for me. I need them sent out first thing tomorrow.”
This kind of grunt work too? Avery pressed her lips together, but Hunter’s next words immediately eased her frustration. “It’s overtime pay.”
Motivated by the extra cash, Avery didn’t mind the heavy stack of papers that would take at least two hours to scan. She eagerly took them back to her desk, connected the scanner, and got to work.
After scanning the thick pile of documents, Avery thought the company really needed to invest in a more efficient scanner. Manually feeding each page in and out was tedious.
She carefully made a backup of the files before shutting down her computer. As she walked to the exit, she noticed Hunter’s office light was still on. She hesitated, then knocked on the glass door. “I’ve finished scanning the documents. Do you need me to send them to you now?”
“Uh, no, tomorrow’s fine,” Hunter replied, sounding a bit off. It was strange—he had been in such a hurry earlier, but now it seemed like he’d forgotten why he’d asked her to do it in the first place.
Shrugging, Avery didn’t think much of it. Her stomach was growling, and all she wanted was to grab a bowl of beef noodle soup.
In the elevator lobby, the regular employee elevators were already shut down for the night, leaving only the private elevator still running. Avery absentmindedly pressed the down button. As she waited, she suddenly remembered the man from this morning… he had gone straight up.
She instinctively glanced at the ceiling. The floor above was HR and Admin, and above that… was the CEO’s office. Could that man, whom she’d never seen before, be the CEO?
Lost in her wild thoughts, the elevator doors slid open silently.
Avery stood at the entrance, blinking. The man from this morning was standing quietly on one side of the elevator. The lighting cast shadows across his face, and the corners of his lips were curved in a strange, almost amused angle.
Avery’s internal alarm bells went off. She forced an awkward smile. “Sorry, this is the private elevator. I’ll… take the stairs.”
He stood inside, one hand holding the door open, the other casually tucked in his pocket. He looked at her with a faint smirk. “Really? From the 16th floor?”
“It’s fine. I could use the exercise,” Avery replied, almost wanting to cover her face so he wouldn’t recognize her from this morning’s unauthorized use of his elevator.
“Hungry?”
Huh? Avery’s stomach had been growling for hours now, and the two hours of overtime hadn’t helped.