19

ALEXANDER

The day went by smoothly. I had to chastise about five workers instead of the usual eight or nine. But that was probably because if the reduced workload I had to attend to today.

Amelia and I worked in uncomfortable silence. So many times, I wanted to ask her what was going through her mind, but thought better of it. I didn’t need her to think I actually wanted to start chasing a friendship with her or something.

The tension nagged at me, coupled with her incessant surreptitious glances that I picked up on despite her best to hide them.

The moment 6pm clocked, she was out of her seat, giving me a quick rundown of the notable events that had happened. I watched her little mouth move, enunciating specific vowels and letting the rest move over her mouth soundlessly. Her accent was even better now, because when she first came, I thought she had some kind of speech impairment.

When she'd stepped into my office for the first time, I'd had my eyes so deep into my mind that I almost