Chapter 45

The lobby was empty when you exited the elevator.

“Hey, Becks,” you said. “I got called down by-”

“Sabrina and Gemma,” Becks finished for you. She was looking at you with a concerned expression and leaned forward resting her chin on her fists. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you three, but I’m only going to put up with so much of this - coffees or not. Got it?”

“I don’t know what’s going on yet,” you said. “But I understand.”

“Alright, good,” she nodded. “They are around the corner and down the hall on the right. Third door, it’s unmarked. Don’t-” she sighed. “I don’t want to assume anything. Just try and stay quiet.”

Now even more confused than before, you thanked Becks and followed her directions. You hadn’t ever actually explored the ground level of the office building - you’d been in the basement to fetch files from the big storage room the Firm had down there, but it turned out several other smaller businesses had offices, or remote offices, on the first floor. You’d already known that Becks wasn’t actually an employee of the firm, but rather the building - the firm just supplemented her salary for some higher quality service and more duties than simple directions for visitors and organizing maintenance.

The third door on the right was beige, inset from the faux-marble decor of the hallway. Unsure of what you were walking in on, you hesitated and then knocked.

Sabrina opened the door quickly, and looked startled at the expression on your face. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know?” you said. “You tell me.”

“What? No, there’s nothing wrong,” she said and took your hand, pulling you into the room.

It was a small space, maybe only as large as one of the Associate offices upstairs, and had a simple office desk with a laptop stand and desktop screen, but no laptop plugged into it, along with a standard office landline phone. There weren’t any decorations on the desk or walls, and you realized this must be some sort of private, generic meeting room for the other businesses down here.

Gemma was sitting on the edge of the desk, and she smiled when you walked in. “John, take a seat.”

“Alright,” you said, raising an eyebrow as you sat down in one of the two chairs in front of the desk. “What’s going on?”

“Gemma and I had a good talk,” Sabrina said. “Did everything go alright upstairs?”

“Yeah, I covered for you with Garrisson,” you said. “He came looking for either of you to do a special assignment, so he ended up giving it to me.”

“What?” Gemma asked, surprised. “Shit!”

That led to you explaining the weird assignment, and Gemma and Sabrina both being frustrated with themselves that they’d missed out on helping Garrisson and making a better impression with him.