Chased By The Billionaire

Four

Monday.

It was the first day of the week, and Alex Smith ran bustling in through the doors of his new office on the 30th floor of HP Motors, 5 minutes late and sweaty. Employees glanced at his way, wondering who was causing all the ruckus. He walked to the desk closest to the entrance, where a young woman in her 20's sat. Her long brunette hair was tied into a high ponytail, that swayed as she snapped her head towards Alex. This must be Anna.

“H-hi, I’m uh, the new temp. Alex Smith?” he nervously said, adjusting his glasses clumsily.

“So we’re going for that play, huh?” Tee said into his ear, sounding amused.

“You’re late,” the woman said with a flat expression as she continued to place folders from one pile to another.

“S-sorry, I got lost. The building’s huge and I’m new in the—”

The woman stood up. “Follow me,” was all she said before she started walking, her heels clickity-clacking on the floor. Alex hurriedly took out a pen and a notepad.

“I’m Anna, Mr. Yamada's assistant. You know who he is, right?”

“The director?” he looked up from his notepad.

“Right. His office is over there, at the end. There are our analysts, brand strategists, content, product marketers, social media, partners, communications, digital, and research,” she said, pointing at the directions of the staff she was talking about. Alex jotted down everything, even though he didn’t need to. “You’re a temp, so you basically do grunt work all around. There are the copying machines and printers. Do you know how to use those models?”

Alex took a look at the equipment. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good.” Out loud, she said, “Everyone, this is Alex Smith, our new temp.” Barely anyone looked up. To Alex she continued, “There’s a pantry over there, but the coffee sucks. You’ll be asked to get coffee from time to time. There’s a bunch of restaurants on the lobby and second floor. Over there are the restrooms, and there by the corner is your cubicle. Work is 8 to 5, lunch break is at 12 and you have a twenty-minute break at 3. If you have questions, ask me. Clock in and clock out by the door using your ID. Is everything clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Alex stood up straight. Anna looked at him from head to toe and nodded to the direction of his desk.

“Go on, then.”

Alex scurried away, casually glancing around as he made his way. Phones rang, keyboard noises could be heard, and printers worked. People were already busy and the first day of the week had just started. They barely even glanced at Alex, who often caught attention without trying.

“Geez,” Tee whispered. “Corporate really seem like a bunch of zombies, don’t they?”

He didn’t bother replying, because as soon as he took a seat, a large pile of folders were placed in front of him.

He could hear the tech laugh mischievously. “Oh, you poor thing,” he cooed. “Bet you wish now you’d been a tech instead of an agent, huh? Try not to get fired.”

Alex sighed. It was going to be a long day.

***

“Ace.”

“…”

“Ace!”

“…”

“Mr. Alex Smith!” the booming voice jolted Alex awake. He quickly sat up and wiped the drool off his face as he wildly looked around, only to find Mr. Yamada standing over him.

“Oh, you’re done for, Ace,” Tee laughed in his ear.

“Sleeping on the first day?” his boss narrowed his eyes down at him. “The copies? Where are they?”

“S-sorry, sir,” Alex stuttered, scrambling to find the papers Mr. Yamada was looking for.

“The ones with the graphs that Anna gave you, dummy,” Tee sighed. “You’re really not made for a white-collar job.” Alex found them, smoothed them over, and handed them to Mr. Yamada, who only groaned and shook his head before walking away.

“You should’ve woken me up,” Alex hissed under his breath. The employee sitting in the cubicle beside him glanced at him. Ryan Donovan, 26 years old, 5’10", blonde, wears prescription glasses, and one of those that handles the local company’s social media presence, as Alex recalled.

“Man, I’ve been calling you for two minutes now. Don’t blame me,” Tee replied. “Don’t worry, you’ve got like, 10 minutes left before go time. Try to stay awake until then.”

Ryan rolled his chair towards the divider between him and Alex, then cleared his throat. “New guy,” he whispered.

“M-me?” Alex looked around. Ryan gestured for him to come closer so he did.

“Don’t worry too much about Mr. Yamada. If you wanna doze off, there’s a smoker’s lounge on the 35th floor that’s quite big. There’s a bench there in the garden, behind the plants. Just bring some papers when you leave the office so it looks like you’re going out for an errand.”

Bingo, Alex thought. Just what he needed, an ally inside that he can get close to and get information from. This Ryan would have to do.

“Thank you,” Alex bashfully smiled. “I’m Alex.”

“Ryan, from Socials.” He held out his hand on top of the divider, which Alex weakly shook. “Welcome to the team, newbie.” Then he rolled away to, as Alex noticed, play Solitaire on his desktop.

As soon as the clock struck 5, everyone collected their things and started making their way out. Alex also began to pack up, but just as he got out of his cubicle, Ryan motioned for him to follow. Confused, Alex still did as he was told.

“This is Aly, Derek, and Jaya,” Ryan introduced, and the three looked up and smiled at Alex. “This is Alex, the temp.”

“New blood,” Derek said, shaking Alex's hand. “Welcome, Alex.”

The girl named Aly looked at Alex from head to toe, and he couldn’t help but think she resembled a vulture. “Alex, huh? Not bad,” she said, pursing her lips and nodding approvingly. He looked down at his feet and scratched the back of his head, pretending to be embarrassed.

“Target is going out of his office,” Tee suddenly informed him. “Are we chatting with co-workers today or…?”

“We’re headed out for dinner, you wanna come with?” Derek asked.

“Uh, s-sure,” Alex bashfully smiled.

“Chatting, it is,” Tee concluded. “Have fun.”

Derek and the others chose a small restaurant a block away, and Alex followed, leaving his car behind.

“They seem like a happy bunch,” Tee commented with a yawn. “Anyway, I’ll be sleeping for a second, if you don’t need me. Watching you doze off during work had me wanting to do the same.”

“Uhuh,” Alex muttered in response, pretending to clear his throat. In front of him, Derek, Aly and Jaya sat. Beside him was Ryan, who seemed to be the leader of this little friend group.

“So, Mr. Yamada comes in and I had to crumple the papers under my desk. I couldn’t let him see I spilled coffee all over this month’s report!” Ryan was saying. “Good thing I had back-up copies of it on my phone, so I rushed out of the meeting, shoved Carl away who was using the printer, then got back to the meeting so fast with the report freshly printed.”

The others laughed, with Aly shaking her head and saying, “That’s such a close call, Ryan.”

“Hung on by a thread! Anyway, let’s hear from the new guy now,” Derek leaned forward. “Where are you from, Alex?”

“And is your name short for Alexander or something?” Aly asked.

“How old are you?” Ryan piped in.

Pretending to be overwhelmed with attention, Alex went on to tell his cover story. 27 from a small town, who recently moved to the city to try and make a living.

“Well, you’re in luck,” Ryan said, “I was also a temp just a few years ago before I got regularized. HP Motors is one of the best ones out here. Good benefits, too.”

“Really?” Alex replied with large, innocent eyes. “I assumed that because it’s a large company, there’s bound to be some sort of…y'know.”

“Nah,” Aly disagreed. “It used to be that way, where employees had to go on strike to get proper bonuses. But ever since Mr. Torque became CEO, things turned up.”

“I guess it pays to have a younger guy at the top,” Derek thoughtfully said.

“I’d like to have him “on top.”” Aly snickered.

Jaya gave her a look. “He's gay, Aly,” she reminded him.

“Doesn’t make him any less hot, though,” Aly shrugged.

“Ladies, please,” Ryan chuckled, “let’s not show how thirsty you are yet to the newbie. Try to make a good impression, yeah?”

Aly waved him off and leaned forward to Alex. “So, temp, what do you think of Mr. Torque?”

“Are you straight, Alex? Or into guys? Both?” Derek offered.

Alex scratched at the back of his head, then fiddled with his glasses as he nervously chuckled.

“He can report you to HR, you know,” Jaya said as she sipped on her drink. “You don’t have to answer that, Alex. Anyway, why don’t we—and by we, I mean Ryan—why don’t you order us a round of drinks? It’s on you, right?”

Alex shot her a grateful look, as Ryan sighed and said, “Fine. First round’s on me. Waiter!”

***

It was a bust. Alex walked back into the lobby of HP Motors at 8 o'clock, tired after a whole three hours of talking and pretending to be a nervous, stammering new kid, only to get no useful information whatsoever. As much as he tried to direct the conversation towards Cassian, the only office gossips they seemed to be interested in discussing were the ones within the Marketing division. When they did talk about Cassian, it was all about how his flavor-of-the-week looked like in the gossip websites. If anything, they even looked up to him for having the time to juggle both work and his personal affairs.

They had wanted and tried to drag Alex to another round of drinks—this time, at a proper bar. He had only managed to escape when he told them that he had to go feed his nonexistent dog. After that, they let him go, and Alex found himself walking back into the building to go get his car from the parking lot.

He tapped on the hidden device in his ear. Tee had been quiet the past few hours, except for the occasional snoring that Alex could hear.

“Whatever,” he murmured to himself as he pressed the elevator button going down. He had to get close to Cassian somehow, and with all the cameras and bodyguards surrounding him, Alex knew he had to think of another way in.

He ran a hand through his hair and slightly tugged on it to wake himself up. Just then, the elevator doors parted, with no one but Cassian Torque inside.

Speak of the devil.