His Office, My Secret

Chapter 5 – WHO IS N?

I hurriedly closed the message and logged out of his email. I heard the sound of footsteps approaching and I could catch a whiff of Asher’s fragrance in the air. I was right. It was Asher. My heart skipped.

“Hey, babe! What’s popping?”

The tab refused to close. The mouse pointer seemed to be stuck at one place on the screen.

“I’m o-k-a-ay…” I stuttered, still fiddling with the mouse frantically. It finally moved and I closed the tab. I exhaled deeply in relief. I still couldn’t believe what my eyes had seen. Could it be that… No! I immediately had to rule out that possibility.

“Are you okay? You look quite drawn.” He said, reaching out for my face.

“I’m fine. Just a little bit of stress, but I’ll definitely pass.” I wiped a sweat off my brow.

“Have you had lunch? This is almost midday. How about we go grab something to eat together”

I just couldn’t get why he was being this unusually nice to me. Lunch was free for all members of staff at the company’s café, but in all the time I had worked at this firm, I had always had lunch alone. Now, Asher was offering to get lunch with me. I could smell something fishy.

I know you’re probably upset by what happened yesterday. But, I mean the best for you, baby. For us. Don’t you see it?”

“No, I don’t.” I retorted immediately. All that filled my mind and mind were the images of what I had just seen.

“C’mon Naomi.. I’m sure this will all make sense with time. Let’s go grab something to eat.”

***

We walked past Naomi on our way out and from the corner of my eyes I could see her mouth tighten in a grin.

“Hello, Naomi.” She said curtly as she walked past us. She only winked cutely at Asher.

Asher ordered pizza and milkshakes for the both of us.

“So, what’s up with the new project you’re working on? How far have you gotten with it?” I looked up from my plate, surprised. My chewing stopped abruptly.

How did Asher know about the project I was working on? From the way, Henry Vance had explained it, this wasn’t some normal project. It sounded quite off-the-book. He had even asked me to report directly to him.

I resumed my chewing gently so he wouldn’t notice my hesitation.

“So far, so good. I’m making progress.”

“So, what’s your analysis?”

I remembered the boss asked me to report directly to him. I wasn’t sure if this excluded Asher. I had always worked on and reviewed projects with him before now. But with my recent discoveries, I wasn’t sure if I could even trust him.

“I haven’t really built up an analysis yet. Still going through stats and infographics.” I had to change the topic immediately.

“Who is N?” I blurted out before I even knew it. Asher frowned, arching his perfectly curved brows. He obviously didn’t hear me. Or did he?

“Who is what?’” He asked, giving me this cursory gaze.

“I meant.. wh-who is en-titled to the revenue generated from this café?”

“Oh that?” he asked, visibly relaxing. “The café is free for staff and visitors alike. You see, there’s still a lot you are yet to know about this place.”

-

A call came in at that point and he looked up at me. “We should get going now. Lunchtime is almost over.”

Although I couldn’t explain why, I spent the rest of that day feeling on the edge. While I reviewed the file Henry gave me the previous day, I kept looking over my shoulder, unable to get over that feeling of being watched. I fought hard to conceal my worries and the fact I was uneasy.

***

“You’re still here?” It was Nelissa. She was standing at the door of my cubicle.

“Just about rounding up. I didn’t realize it was this late already.”

“Okay then. I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that, she walked away wearing a quite expressionless face, her heels clicking against the marble-tiled floor.

The time said 7:04. I had spent the rest of the day after lunch building up my analysis. I didn’t realize that I was the only one left on that floor. I quickly saved my work, and packed up my bag. I was about stepping out of my cubicle when an idea flashed in my head.

***

The secretarial office was quite dark, but I could still locate the light switch and I turned the light on. A wisp of cold air from the air conditioning system hit me as I made my way to the desktop computer. My heart beat faster than normal and I could feel a trickle of sweat run down my back even with all the chilliness in the room.

I figured out that for whoever sent the mail to Asher to have sent it to his work email, then that person had to be a staff of Vance Innovations. Otherwise, what happened to Asher’s personal email? Staff’s working email were always used for official purposes. Secondly, the email was signed off by a mysterious person named ‘N’; which made everyone who bore any ‘N-related’ name a potential suspect.

That explained what I was doing in Nelissa’s office.

During my first week of work, Nelissa had let me log onto her computer to upload some files. All I needed was to check if I could see any relevant information that could prove she was the sender of that mail. Honestly, the chances that she had sent the mail with her office computer (assuming she was the sender) were quite slim. However, I wasn’t going to take any chances.

I turned on the computer and the Windows welcome sound startled me. I hurriedly typed in the password and held my breath as the computer initialized. I heaved a sigh of relief as the system let me in.

With trembling fingers, I opened sss. I closed my eyes and ran my hand over my hair as I waited for the application to open. A thousand thoughts ran through my mind. The sound of the door jolted me to reality.