The tall, all-glass building that harbored VD Ocean's headquarters was dominating me from all its height. I inhaled the last puffs of my cigarette while watching the fountain just outside the main door. This was my last day in this company, and I would have to confront GD after the dinner debacle. I wasn't looking forward to it.

My throat stung when I smoked the last drag, which was much cigarette butt and very little tobacco. I had less than ten minutes left before the start of my shift, but I was still considering whether to go in. Patricia would kill me if she knew I had deliberately ditched work. Maybe GD would feel bad enough not to report me to my employment agency? That would be counting on his empathy, which he clearly lacked.

I took two more minutes to make up my mind and eventually decided to not take the day off. But if I had to deal with Dullac, I needed caffeine. Hell, I needed vodka, but it was eight a.m. I turned on my heels and headed for the closest Starbucks, dressed in a gorgeous, black-trimmed cream suit from Sigrid's mom, and flat gold sandals, the only shoes my sprained ankle could tolerate.

I was just about to cross the road when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Where do you think you are going?"

Dammit!

It was Dullac. The old one.

"I'm not feeling well," I improvised. "I need to get something to eat."

"You are lying, Llagostera. Get to your office now and I will turn a blind eye on your poor attempt at deceiving me."

A reasonable person would have just shut up and gone to work. But a petty, angry part of me just wanted to fight back.

"No. I need food, and I'm getting it right now."

For all he knew, I could be having a hypoglycemia crisis. He couldn't stop me without potentially facing HR repercussions, and he knew it.

Since he didn't say anything for a while, I took it as my cue to leave.

"Wait," he said.

"What?"

"It would be irresponsible of me to let you go on your own while you're having a health emergency. I'm coming with you."

"It's really unnecessary."

"I insist."

I was going to refuse again but then I realized I didn't care. I didn't like Dullac Senior, but it was with Junior that I'd had an argument. He could come and waste his time if he wanted to.

I took the lead towards Starbucks but he stopped me and told me to go another direction.

"The Starbucks is this way," I said.

"I know a much better place. Follow me."

He didn't leave me time to protest and started walking in the opposite direction, so I followed him. We walked no more than two blocks before we entered a shop. It was a small independent café. I could have easily walked past it and never noticed it. It had a dark wooden floor and mustard yellow walls covered with mirrors of various shapes and sizes. There were no two chairs or tables which were identical, every single piece of furniture was unique and colorful. The ceiling was painted with an intricate, baroque pattern. The employees wore brown corduroy pants and a white short-sleeved shirt with a funky bow tie, which was different for each person. I loved this place and its uniqueness before I even had the chance to look at their menu. This café was the personification of my mind. Which made me wonder why my boss would take me there, as it was the exact opposite of what I imagine he liked: straight lines, sleek furniture, and sharp angles.

The shop was empty but for a few people, which did not stop Dullac from taking us to an isolated table for two, hidden in a corner of the room. He sat on a fluffy teal armchair, his back straight as a board and his knees pressed together, while I sat cross-legged on a mint green vinyl chair.

"I can see your underwear," he said, pointing at my crotch area.

Oops!

"Do you want me to close my legs?" I asked with an ounce of seduction in my voice because seducing my way out of awkward conversations was my specialty.

Contrary to his son, who would have blushed from his neck to the roots of his hair, Dullac Senior remained stone-faced.

"Yes. This is a public space, and you are being inappropriate."

This one definitely had much more character than his son. I uncrossed my legs and tucked both my feet under my butt.

"Better?"

"Hardly," he replied, still unsatisfied. "You're sitting like a child."

"I am sitting in the position I'm the most comfortable in."

He sighed and gave in. A waiter came to our table to take our order. He was cute. Hot, even, with his black hair, his tan skin, and his light green eyes.

"What do you want, April?" My boss asked.

"It's Abril, and I'll have tea and two scones, please," I told the waiter who seemed to have noticed me just as much as I had noticed him. "With cream and jam."

To hell with my desire for caffeine, this place made me crave tea and scones.

"What are you?" Dullac snorted. "British?"

"What about you, sir?" The waiter asked.

"Black coffee and two croissants."

"What are you? French?" I mocked my boss.

The gorgeous waiter muffled a laugh while Dullac glared at him.

"Don't you have an order to prepare?" Dullac barked at my newly found source of interest.

"Of course, sir."

He walked away and left me alone with my boss.

"So, is it customary for you to take your employees out for breakfast or...?"

"You said you were sick and needed food urgently, I'm only doing my job as an employer to ensure that you don't drop dead in the middle of the street."

He had an insolent smirk. He knew I was full of shit, but I refused to back down.

"Well, that's very thoughtful, thank you. Will you pay for it, too?"

"If you want me to."

"Excuse me, miss," our waiter said when he came back. "Would you care to follow me so I can show you our large selection of teas?"

"Can't you just show her here?" My boss sniped.

"It's all right," I told the waiter, ignoring Dullac's rudeness. "I'll come with you."

The waiter took my hand to help me out of the chair and led me to the bar. He took a wooden box out of a cupboard and opened it to reveal several metal boxes, each containing a different type of tea. I sniffed them all twice before finally opting for a black tea with red berries.

"Your date was right," the waiter said once I chose the tea that he put in a teapot for me. "I could have brought the box to your table. I just wanted an excuse to talk to you alone."

Great, at least that would be easy.

"And why did you want to talk to me alone?" I feigned being unaware of his attempt at flirtation.

"So I could give you that."

He took my hand and placed a piece of paper in my palm. I unfolded it and read the phone number I knew would be on there. There was his name, too. Blake Miller. I stuffed the note in my bra in front of his captivated eyes.

"Thank you very much, Blake. I may call you one of these days."

He smiled a sheepish smile that melted my heart. He was so cute I could have eaten him on the spot.

"I wasn't sure you would accept it," he confessed, "you seem to prefer older men."

I realized he meant Dullac.

"Him? Oh no, he's just my boss, this is a business meeting. I should go back to it, by the way, otherwise he will be terribly mad at me. Goodbye, Blake. And thanks for the tea."

I winked at him and headed to my table.

"Wait! Can I have your number?"

"No. You can just wait for my call."

"Your name, then?"

"Haven't you heard it already? It's Abril. Abby."

"Abby who?"

"Just Abby. Goodbye."

And I returned to Dullac without looking back.

"Took you long enough," he stated.

"Did you miss me?"

"This man wants you."

"I know."

"Do you, now?"

I scavenged into my bra and took the piece of paper out of it. Dullac did not blink watching me do so. Men and boobs...

"He gave me his number."

His translucent eyes grew darker.

"He's a pig. He doesn't even know you."

"So? He doesn't need to know me to share my bed."

"I didn't know you were a woman of easy virtue."

I laughed at his euphemism. I was undoubtedly a slut, and proud of it.

"I don't think discussing my sex life is an appropriate thing to do with my boss."

Unless he wanted to be part of said sex life, but I didn't say that of course.

"True. Shall we talk about why you lied to me about having a blood sugar emergency instead?"

Blake came to our table with our food and drinks, giving me a few seconds to think of a good reply to Dullac's question. He tried to catch my gaze while he served us, but I was too focused on what to say next. After he left, I spread some cream and jam – cream first, jam second, I'm not a monster – on a scone while Dullac dipped his croissant into his coffee and ate almost half of it in one bite.

"So?" He pressed.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I had low blood sugar and needed to remedy that, that's it."

The insolent smirk made an apparition again. I was fooling no-one.

"Right. Tell me, is my son really that awful that you have to pretend to have hypoglycemia to escape him?"

He made it sound like a joke but there was a hint of true concern. Like he would actually investigate if I had a legitimate complain about his son's behavior at work.

His phone suddenly rang. Saved by the bell!

"Speak of the Devil... Hello?" He said to his correspondent. "No, I'm not in my office yet, as Joy will have surely told you .... I am having a meeting with your assistant .... Yes, she's with me .... She'll come back as soon as our meeting is over .... Don't be so hostile, she seems to be already mad at you ...."

I heard GD speak indistinctly in the speaker. His pace was faster than usual.

"Listen, Arthur," Dullac Senior cut off Dullac Junior. "I will not be your messenger. You'll tell April what you want to tell her yourself. I'll send her to you when we are finished. Bye."

He hung up his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"Kids..." he chuckled. "Do you have any?"

I shook my head.

"Do you want any?"

"Nope."

He laughed louder.

"Wise choice. Anyway, April, I need you to know that, should your little health stunt be caused by my son's behavior, or anybody else's, I want to hear about it."

"It's Abril, for heaven's sake!" I snapped. "Just call me Abby if you can't get it right, it's not that difficult. And that has to be a joke because you're half the problems I have with this company."

I appreciated that he was willing to take a hypothetical complaint seriously but come on!

"What did I do?" He asked, amused.

I drank a sip of my tea and started the list. "You made fun of my hair, you assumed that I would be incompetent before seeing me work, you were unnecessarily rude when I spilled coffee on you, and then there was the insecure alpha male speech when I did not let you see your son because that's the order I had been given."

"I apologize for my remark about your hair, although it is a very inappropriate color for a corporate environment. The rest was justified. You can't expect me to be amenable when you show up late for work, ruin my clothes, and defy my direct orders. I'm running this company, rules need to be obeyed or else all hell breaks loose."

"You had reasons to be dissatisfied with me, I'll give you that. But your delivery was awful."

"Oh, Abby!" He snickered. "Don't be a child. This is the real world, not Candyland. People are here to earn money, not to be nice to you."

"You're doing it again. Just because my hair is pink doesn't mean I'm stupid and naïve. Stop calling me a child."

"My bad. But seriously though, you should consider going back to your original hair color, you would be taken more seriously, and you would be a lot prettier."

"Are you saying I am not pretty?"

Yes, I should have been more concerned about my boss making a comment on physical appearance, I know.

"No, I am only saying you would be prettier with a normal hair color. Anyway, Miss Llagostera, if your only issue is that I don't treat you with kid gloves, I'm afraid I can't do anything for you."

"I didn't ask you to do anything. I'm used to dealing with cocky bastards, I'll make do."

"Careful, Llagostera, I'm still your employer," he warned.

I scoffed. Like I would ever forget about that.

What was supposed to be a short caffeine break had turn sour very fast. All I wanted was a damn Frappuccino to get me through a day of having to deal with GD. Instead, I had ended up in an indie café with GD's dad, explaining to him why he was a despicable person. Talk about escalation.

"I'm done here," I announced.

I took my purse and jacket and left the shop, my cup of tea still half full. I saw Dullac throw some cash on the table and run after me.

"Llagostera," he said once he reached me, "you and I both know you don't have hypoglycemia. If you don't want to tell me the real reason why you tried to skip work, fine, but don't you ever lie to me again, or you'll regret it. Now go to your office and do what I pay you for."

I ignored his threat and head to the company. After that, dealing with GD almost sounded like a piece of cake. Almost.

* * *

Luck was on my side that day because I didn't see GD once. At lunchtime, he left his office after me, and he was already there when I came back. The only interactions we had were through the phone, and we didn't exchange more than what was necessary for us to do our respective jobs.

Ten minutes before clocking out, I allowed myself to go to Joy's office to say goodbye.

"It was so nice meeting you, we have to see each other again," she said.

"I would love to," I answered sincerely.

I may not have known her well, but I liked her. She had been nice to me without having any reason to, lying for me and all. We hugged each other a bit too dramatically for people who had only known each other for five days, then I went back to my office just in time to take my things and permanently leave that awful place.

"Abril, wait!" Arthur Dullac came out of his office.

So much for the luck...

I ignored him and left the room. He followed me and walked with me as I went to the elevators.

"You can't just leave like that, at least let me buy you a coffee. I... I still need to apologize for what happened yesterday, I've thought about it all night. I wasn't nice to you and—

"Leave it," I cut him off. "It's too late, and I'm done working here anyway. There's no need to fix things, we won't be seeing each other again. So please, be nice for once and let me leave quietly."

I pushed the button to call for the elevator.

"Abril, please. All I'm asking for is that you have coffee with me."

The doors opened and I entered the cabin. He entered too despite the furious glare I threw at him. He kept asking me to let him apologize over coffee and I kept ignoring him, until the cabin started to shake violently and suddenly stopped. The lights went out and the doors opened... to reveal a concrete wall. We were trapped.

"What did you do?" I shrieked. The imbecile had stopped the elevator on purpose to force me to listen to him.

"Nothing, of course! I think the elevator just broke down."

With that realization, my heart started beating way too fast for its own good. I felt my pulse in my entire body and an invisible hand squeezed my trachea and kept me from breathing. It wouldn't be long until I started lacking oxygen. My legs were shaking and my head was spinning. I could hear my blood pulse in my brain and my lungs beg for air. The cabin was only lit by the faint green emergency light, I could barely distinguish GD's silhouette in the darkness.

"Are you okay?" He inquired.

No. I was anything but okay.

Why did you waste our oxygen to ask such a stupid question, idiot?

I didn't reply because I was smart enough to know we had to save our oxygen. My hyperventilation was already making a huge dent in our limited resources. GD understood that something was wrong and came to my side. I didn't have the strength to push him away when he put his arm around my waist. Anyway, two seconds later, my legs yielded and I collapsed in his arms.

"Oh my God, Abril!" He was really worried, now. I couldn't see his face but I could easily imagine it.

Shut up! I thought. Only talk if you need to.

"You need to lie down," he stated.

I was too weak to move. He helped me down and laid me on the floor. He took off his jacket and rolled it to rest my head on it. He sat beside me and put my legs on his lap to help the blood go to my brain faster. But it was not blood that I needed; it was air. And clearly I wasn't going to get any if he just sat on his ass. Why hadn't he called someone already?

As if he had heard what I thought, he pushed the call button on the elevator panel and waited until somebody answered.

"This is Arthur Dullac. I'm stuck in the elevator A of VD Ocean's with my secretary, we need assistance right now."

I didn't make out what the person on the other end of the line said but, judging by the groaning sound emanating from Dullac's mouth, it wasn't good news.

"Three hours? This better be a bad joke!" He yelled at the interphone.

Oh no. Oh no no no no no no! I wouldn't be able to survive this long.

"I don't care that it's Friday evening! It could be two a.m. on a Sunday that I would expect the same. We are paying for twenty-four/seven assistance, every day is a working day!"

The man from the elevator company kept arguing.

"Listen to me carefully," GD said with the threatening tone that he mastered so well. "I am the finance director of VDO's and I am currently stuck in the elevator A of our headquarters with my claustrophobic PA who's having more and more difficulties breathing as we speak. If no one has come to rescue us in half an hour, I'm replacing all the elevators of this building and I'm suing you for failure to assist a person in danger, is that clear?"

Without waiting for the other man to answer, GD cut the call short.

"I'm not claustrophobic," I felt the need to specify.

"Yes, you are, Abril," he slightly laughed. I didn't even bother to come back at him. "Just try to relax, help will be here soon."

"Didn't sound like it."

"Don't worry, they will come. Those people sometimes just need a friendly reminder of who's paying whom."

What a megalomaniac thing to say. I kept that thought to myself, though, still wishing to save my oxygen. My breathing was even shallower than before, my eyes started to close of their own free will.

"No, Abril. Stay with me!"

He shook my shoulders to try to keep me awake.

"Air," I only managed to say.

"You have plenty of air here. There are ventilation grilles, and even then, the cabin is big enough to provide much more air than we need for a very long time. You won't suffocate, I promise."

As if his promises meant anything...

My mind started to get foggy and I gladly welcomed the feeling. Passing out would prevent me from panicking and breathing even more air. But Arthur wouldn't let me do that.

"Abril!" He shook me again. "Open your eyes, please. Talk to me, it will keep you alert."

"Just let me faint, please," I begged.

"Don't be ridiculous."

He pushed my legs off his lap and grabbed my shoulders to sit me up. My back rested against the wall of the cabin and he settled right next to me.

That only made things worse. The seated position made my heart race even faster and I breathed like an asthmatic person. The panic attack was definitely happening and it would just take control over me. I was going to die there.

GD put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him. He gently stroked my arm and I rested my head on his shoulder. My body was shaking next to his, like a child who had seen a big dog. I was pathetic.

"There, there," he whispered while holding me tighter. "It's going to be okay."

"Stop talking," I squeaked. "You're wasting our oxygen."

He tried to muffle his laugh but I could feel him vibrate against me. I elbowed him in the ribs; he didn't wince.

"Sorry about that," he still apologized. "But you're worrying in vain, I can assure you there is plenty of oxygen here. And anyway, people will come to help us very soon, you'll see. In the meantime, I would appreciate it if you didn't pass out in my arms."

"It would be so much easier, though. Everything would be over when I woke up."

"Don't be silly, please. Fainting is anodyne, it can be very harmful for your body."

I sighed. Of course, he was right, I knew exactly how bad fainting could be, but that didn't make me feel any better. The hand squeezing my windpipe kept tightening as the time passed. I would be unable to breathe in a matter of minutes.

Arthur took my hand and put it on his chest. It was pleasantly warm. I could feel his heart beating at a normal pace – lucky him – and his lungs slowly inflating and deflating.

"Try to copy my breathing rhythm," he told me. "Only inhale when I do, and exhale for as long as you can."

I attempted to do as I was told. When I felt the pressure growing under my palm, I took a long huff of air that I let out when GD's chest was coming down. I did this repeatedly for several minutes, and I somehow managed to quiet down my breathing.

Then the cabin suddenly jolted and I was back to square one. Worse, even. I couldn't help screaming when we got so unexpectedly shaken, and all my focus was gone. I felt like the walls of the elevator were slowly closing around me, making me their prisoner until my last breath. Arthur took both my hands in his and forced me to stay still as I grew more and more agitated, abandoning reason in favor of panic.

"That was nothing, Abril. They're probably just resetting the elevator to make it work again. It means we'll be out of here soon."

"What if we're not?" I asked in a quivering voice.

"They're not going to let us die in here, trust me. They can't afford the lawsuit my father would certainly file against them."

Surprisingly, his remark made me laugh. Due to the lack of oxygen, undoubtedly.

"Keep copying my rhythm," he said while putting my right hand back on his chest, my left one still in his.

And I did. For several minutes, which felt like hours, until the cabin restarted in another jolt and the lights went back on. The sudden brightness blinded me for a few seconds and then the whole situation appeared to me: me sitting on the floor with GD, one hand on his chest, the other in his hand. I jerked away, not believing what these terrible circumstances had made me do.

Arthur got back on his feet and kindly helped me up.

"Thank you," I finally said a few seconds before we reached the first floor, as he was putting his jacket back on. "For being helpful and calm when I was losing all kind of self-control. That was embarrassing."

"We all have our weaknesses," he shrugged. "And you're welcome. Do you think that earned me a coffee with you?"

The doors opened in a ting! that tickled my stomach. I had to make a decision rapidly before the doors closed again.

"Okay," I answered without overthinking it.

He smile a little and I saw his teeth. Bright, white, perfectly aligned teeth.

"Oh. Well, great. Can you give me a minute? I need to have a word with the maintenance manager and call the elevator company to give them my opinion on how they handled the situation."

On any other occasion, I would have argued against it. These poor people were certainly about to get fired, or at least severely yelled at, for something that wasn't completely their fault. But to be honest, after the hell I had just gone through, I kind of thought they deserved it.

"Sure, I'll wait for you in the lobby," I told him before heading to the white leather couches.

My heart was still beating a bit faster than normal so I sat down, pondering why on Earth I had accepted to have coffee with a man whom I had been in a nasty fight with just the night before. I also had made a move on him and had been rejected. That coffee thing was bond to be a disaster.

"Shall we go?" Arthur asked a few minutes later when he came back from wherever he had been to call the elevator company.

I stood up and followed him outside. We went to the Starbucks nearby, the one I'd wanted to go to that morning. I ordered a caramel Frappuccino – basic, I know – while he asked for a black coffee. Honestly, though, why would anyone go to a place as expensive as Starbucks just to order plain coffee?

He insisted on paying for my beverage and I let him.

"Thank you for having this coffee with me," he said while we were sitting down.

"Thank you for paying."

He shrugged and said nothing. I couldn't think of anything to say so I remained silent too. I slurped a sip of my Frappuccino.

"So," he eventually started, "what are your plans now that you're done with VDO's?"

"I'll have to make up for the missed hours at the clothes store, so that's going to take a while" I answered, "and then I'll wait for my employment agency to find me another temp assignment."

"Do you not want to find one permanent job?"

"No. Like I told your delightful friends yesterday, I like a bit of uncertainty."

"That is a feeling I definitely cannot get behind."

You don't say!

Somehow, he sensed my non-verbal sass and it made him chuckle a little.

"Abril, I want to apologize again about yesterday. I behaved poorly and I hope you will find it in yourself to forgive me."

Yeah, thanks but I'll need a bit more than that.

I tend to hold grudges a lot...

"I know you will need more than my words to forgive me," he kept on talking. "That's why I'd like to invite you to another dinner tonight, to make up for yesterday."

I couldn't suppress the very loud, snorty, and inelegant laughter that came out of my mouth. That was clearly not the reaction Dullac was expecting.

"Do you seriously believe that the best way to make up for last night's crappy dinner with your crappy friends is to invite me to another crappy dinner with your crappy friends?" I asked, bewildered.

"It will be different this time, I promise. It will be with other friends, my college friends. They are my age, they're nice, and they'll be much more open-minded than the people you met yesterday."

"You have college friends?" I couldn't help but show my surprise.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," I backtracked.

"So anyway," he seemed to understand my insinuation but chose to not comment on it, "we're having a get-together tonight, and I would like for you to join us. I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself."

"No offense, but you're not the best judge when it comes to deciding what's enjoyable and what's not."

"I guess you're right," he admitted, "but my friends are objectively good people, I can't think of anyone who would disagree. And if that doesn't convince you, at least come for the free food and drinks. Yesterday we didn't have time to eat anything, I still owe you dinner."

This man knew the direct way to my heart. I almost accepted on the spot but the dread of another disastrous dinner was stronger than my cheap ass's love for free food and booze.

"I'm not sure... I appreciate your effort, I really do, but I had a terrible time yesterday and I don't want to experience that again."

"You know what? Bring a friend, anyone. This way, if this dinner turns out to be the same calamity as last night, and it won't, you're sure to have at least one friend in the crowd."

It didn't seem like such a good idea, but then I remembered how much Sigrid would love an opportunity to hang out outside the frat house or our respective apartments, so I accepted. GD seemed happier than I would have expected him to be when I eventually told him that I'd go with him. It was just a dinner with friends, after all.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A/N: Next chapter on Friday, it'll be a loooooong one. Please vote and comment!

Love,
Charlie.