Lexi

Shouldn’t they be out by now?

I paced around not too far from the entrance to the conference room, constantly checking and waiting for the doors to open. The child in my arms squirmed, and I bounced him lightly, making soothing noises. I looked down at him, and he watched me back with eyes exactly like his dad’s and grandpa’s.

The meeting ran longer than I thought it would. It was only supposed to last an hour, and I’d been inside for nearly thirty minutes before I had to leave. It had been two hours since the meeting started, and the door wasn’t opening yet. I was growing anxious.

When were they going to come out? Earlier, the baby had been crying because he had a wet diaper, and I’d changed it. The secretary, Felicity, who I knew worked for Alec, had left me with the baby’s bag, but there wasn’t any snacks or baby food in there. I didn’t know the baby’s feeding schedule, but I did know children had to be fed several times a day, and since I didn’t see any baby food or snacks in the bag, the child had likely not been fed for a few hours. Going by his size, he looked about two years old, but it was getting close to lunch, so he had to be getting hungry.

He squirmed again, and I shushed him.

“Are you hungry, baby?” I cooed. “Your daddy will be out soon, okay?”

Finally, the conference room doors opened. I hung back as the board members walked out of the room, but I didn’t see either of the brothers. After the last person stepped out and no one else walked through, I hurried forward and stuck my head inside. I saw Carlton and Alec there, and walked inside, but before I could speak out to make my presence known, I realized they were talking about me.

Carlton hadn’t seen me, but Alec looked right at me as he insulted me to his brother. A crap intern. He wasn’t exactly wrong. Even I knew, if not for the close relationship between our fathers, I wouldn’t have gotten the position I had. I knew other people at the office thought it, and Alec had looked at me in disdain after finding out the reason I was working there. No one had outright said it to my face before, but this should count as the same thing. He might have been doing it indirectly, but he definitely meant them for me.

What would Carlton think?

It probably didn’t even matter, he clearly didn’t remember me.

Then, Carlton finally noticed I was there. I didn’t look up as he hissed at Alec. I would have run away, if I wasn’t holding his son in my arms.

“I brought him back, sir,” I whispered softly to the man in front of me. “He’s been growing a little fussy, so I thought he might be hungry and there wasn’t anything in the bag…”

Crap.

My voice started shaking towards the end, and I sounded like I might cry. I was never good at keeping my emotions out of my voice, and in my frustration at myself and the whole situation, I felt my eyes sting with tears. I ducked my head down lower and tried to blink them away.

Carlton came closer, and as he spoke, his tone was apologetic. “I hope Sam wasn’t any trouble for you.”

“Oh, not at all,” I said quickly. “He was fine the whole time.”

So his name’s Sam?

I looked down at the baby in my arms and decided he looked a lot like his dad. He was watching his dad, probably waiting for the older man to come and take him, and I urged him on silently.

Tell Daddy to pick you up, already.

I just wanted him to take his son back so I could hurry out. Since I was just an intern, and one that got in through connections no less, I actually had a lot of work to do, and I wouldn’t be spared for being late just because I was looking after the boss’s son.

He didn’t take the baby immediately, he just stood in front of me silently until I had to raise my head to see his face.

“I’m sorry,” he said, the words loaded with meaning. “I don’t remember you, but I feel like I’m supposed to know you. Your name is Lexi, yes?”

I nodded. “It’s fine if you don’t remember. My dad was an old friend of your fathers. We did meet a few times, but it was a long time ago.”

If it hadn’t been for that old friendship between the two of them, I’d still be jobless.

Of course, the whole thing was my own fault. I was definitely serious in my university studies, when I got the chance to go, but I couldn’t stop myself from getting distracted. My grades weren’t brilliant, not by a long shot, and it was hard enough to find a job these days. I couldn’t even get people to look at my resume because positions were hard to come by.

I wasn’t surprised people were looking down on me. Plenty of people used connections, and while I never thought I would be such a person, I was grateful. Enough to put up with all the heat I got from my supervisor and co-workers. People were calling me a crap intern behind my back, but all I did was make coffee runs, run off photocopies or did a bit of typing, grunt work, basically. At least I got a salary, and I’d been promised an employee position after I’d worked for some months. But that was before Alec and Carlton were forced to take over because their dad had a heart attack. Now I didn’t know if I would remain employed for long.

“I can see the two of you are busy,” Alec drawled. “So, if you would move away from the doors so I can leave, I’ll get back to my work now.”

I stiffened, having completely forgotten that he was still in the room. Carlton shot a glare at him, but Alec didn’t look phased at all.

“You could at least apologize, Alec,” he said through gritted teeth.

Alec shrugged carelessly. “For what? I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. Ask her how she got a job here. I can’t believe you haven’t heard about it already?”

When Carlton still continued to glare at him, Alec just rolled his eyes in exasperation at his brother. I stepped aside, head lowering as he went to pass me by. Carlton cursed under his breath and finally took Sam from my arms, only to speak before I could make my getaway.

“I’m sorry about my brother.”

I winced, but I couldn’t just turn around and leave, it would be rude. “It’s fine, sir. You don’t have to apologize to me.”

“Please, you don’t need to call me sir. You know me, right? You can call me Carlton.”

I looked at him in surprise. “But… you don’t remember me.”

“It’s true that Dad helped you get your job here?”

“It’s the truth,” I said quietly, looking down, embarrassed.

“That’s not anything you need to worry about. If he gave you the job, then he had big expectations for you, or he wouldn’t have done it. He didn’t just give you a job, he gave you a chance to prove yourself. As long as you do your job well, then you’re fine.”

I bit my lip and wondered if I should tell him the extent of my duties since I stepped foot into the company. Anyone could do what I was doing. If his dad really did have expectations of me, then I’d probably failed them already.

Clearing my throat, I took a step back and clasped my hands in front of me. “If you’ll excuse me…”

“You can’t leave yet.”

I paused and looked up. “Did I forget something?”

Carlton smiled. “Do you mind getting Sam’s bag for me? I don’t know where it is.”

I blinked. “I left it just outside.”

I whirled around and went to the waiting area just a few feet from the conference room and pulled the bag out from under one of the plastic seats. I held it out for him, but he didn’t immediately take it.

“Do you mind carrying it into my office for me, please?”

What could I do but nod? He turned, and I followed him as he led the way back to his office. We passed by a few people who looked at us curiously, and I did my best not to look directly at any of them. These were people I’d been working with for over a month already, so I knew what their reaction would be to seeing me trailing behind the new boss just as soon as he’d arrived. I could just imagine the rumors that would be going around after this.

We walked into his office, and I looked around before letting down the bag on the long sofa in the office.

“Do you need anything else?” I asked without looking at Carlton.

“Could you stay?”

I looked up, surprised. “Excuse me?”

He smiled awkwardly. “I still have quite a bit of work to do. I don’t have anyone else to take care of Sam while I’m here, it would really help me out.”

“Um… I’m really sorry, but I do have some other work to do…”

Sam started fussing again, and Carlton looked down, rocking him gently to try and get him to calm down, but he was making sounds of discomfort. I was shocked to find him looking at me with puppy dog eyes, instead of looking up at his dad, arms reaching towards me, fingers curling over and over.

“Looks like Sam likes you, too,” Carlton said with a chuckle. “Look, Lexi. I’m really sorry about my brother. He can be a tyrant, but he doesn’t have the right to fire you because he’s not the boss, I am. I’ll put in a word for you with your supervisor, and you were right. I need to feed this guy, so maybe we can help each other out, if you have time for a quick coffee?”

I hesitated, but I was intrigued about what he meant. He could definitely help me, but I didn’t see how I could possibly be of help to him.