My CEO

The Tour

Liam tugged his navy blue jacket over his shoulders, the brisk fall air ticking his neck and ears. He felt goosebumps racing across his skin as his shoes clicked on the sleek floors of the building he’d been dreaming of his entire life.

He walked through the large, gold plated revolving doors into the even larger reception area, following a group of peers led by a professor. Many of the people around him he recognized from various classes business majors are required to take, but Liam considered them all his opponents for a spot in the internship program. All except Max of course.

“Man I can’t believe you dragged me out so early for this…” The slightly shorter male complained as he stepped into the building beside Liam. Despite his complaints he cleaned up nice, his blonde hair styled with a bit of gel and the gray suit he wore making his ocean eyes pop.

Liam himself made sure that he was dressed to impress, choosing his special navy suit that he only wore during important occasions. He shined his black dress shoes the day before and that morning spent nearly half an hour deciding on what to do with his dark brown hair. He couldn’t risk looking like the sweaty mess he actually was under his clothes.

“If you really didn’t want to be here you wouldn’t have signed up.” Liam retorted while nudging his friend’s arm. “Working for one of the biggest tech companies would be awesome for you, you know that.”

Max rolled his eyes, shoving his hands into his jacket pocket. “I would be fine working anywhere, I’m only here for you.”

“Everyone may I have your attention?” The professor at the front of the group suddenly announced, drawing all eyes toward him. “This will be our tour guide for the remainder of the day, so for all of you prospective job seekers, pay attention to her!”

The professor stepped aside, revealing a small woman in tall heels, black blouse and wine colored pencil skirt standing just behind him. She clutched a folder in her arm, her lips clothed with deep red lipstick pulled back into a tight smile. Curly auburn hair framed her face, stopping just at her shoulders.

“Hello everyone, welcome to SanTech! My name is Amanda Fiores, just call me Amanda, and not only am I this location’s general manager, but I will also be your tour guide for the day! I see many eager faces that are excited to tour our offices that may be your future workplace, so let's get this started!”

The woman spun on her tall heels and started walking, the small group of students hesitantly following. Liam and Max brought up the rear, as Liam was too entranced in actually being inside the magnificent building that he’s only seen in google images.

“Did you hear that? She’s the general manager of this location…” Liam mumbled, turning to Max who seemed uninterested in the woman. “That must mean she has like, meetings and stuff with Kellian Santos! She gets to talk to him at least once a month!”

“Or once every 6 months.” Max retorted. “They have a ton of locations, I doubt Kellian is that invested in his own company to meet with all of them that frequently.”

Liam rolled his eyes, ignoring Max’s comment. He was too excited by the sleek interior of the building that was obviously built to impress. 40 some floors of modern offices and people bustling about, all working cogs to the bigger machine, it was impossible to contain his excitement.

The group followed Amanda into the elevators that just fit all 13 of them. They went up to floor 5, starting their tour in the many offices that floors 2-4 all replicated. Seeing people typing away at their desks, filing papers, making calls and sending fax; it was hard to imagine that just one person started all of this from nothing.

“Hey stop daydreaming, come on.” Max nudged, tugging Liam along after he had stopped and stared at an empty desk, imagining his name on it. “I really don’t get how you can dream of a job that's  sitting at a desk all day.”

“Wouldn’t that be your job too?” Liam pointed out.

Max faltered, his cheeks flushing red. “W-Well, computer science majors could have a variety of jobs, okay!? I only sit behind a desk and type code all day because I want to.”

“And I want to feel normal, working here…”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Let’s just catch up.”

The group was led around the office space and looped back to the elevator, going up a few more floors to expire the rest of the building. Max had been somewhat disinterested, up until they reached the office spaces of the tech developers; rows and rows of high powered computers and professionals sitting behind them hard at work. Max got caught up geeking out at the specs of some of the equipment, and Liam ended up having to drag him along to keep up with the tour.

The group was only allowed to go so far up, and the higher they went the nicer the spaces and more important the employees. They stopped in a break room to have lunch catered by chefs who work specially for the company. 

Liam felt as if he were in corporate heaven, having a simple ham sandwich while dressed in a business suit in the middle of a billion dollar company. He couldn’t even fathom it.

“Listen, everyone!” Amanda exclaimed, catching everyone’s attention. She had left for a bit to take care of other business while the student’s dined, but returned to them rather quickly. “Next on the itinerary is to divide the group up by interest, as you know we have internship spots open and we would love to have you all here working with us! But before that, there is a special greeting from an unexpected guest!”

Amanda started clapping, which directed everyone else to clap as she walked toward the door to fetch whoever was there. Liam glanced at Alex who shrugged, neither of them sure who might be behind that door. It was just a minute later that Amada returned, holding the door open for the person behind her.

“I’m sure you all know him, especially those of you considering the internship! Our very special CEO, Mr.Santos himself!”

Liam’s hear fell into his stomach as he watched the tall, handsome man himself walk into the break room. His jaw fell open, eyes raking over Kellian Santos, the man he’d been only dreaming off up until now. Liam wasn’t even sure if the guy was real, he'd only seen pictures and read a ton of articles, yet there he was, Kellian Santos, in the flesh. He had short auburn hair, a few stands framing his face which drew attention to his gorgeous hazel eyes. He was quite tall yet strided so smoothly into the room, a bright white smile adorning his short shaved face. He was dressed business casual, a dark blue blazer over a V-neck, matching pants and black sneakers; the entire look forgivable since he was in fact the CEO/owner. Even the way he waved seemed perfectly effortless; the room was so shocked that anyone could hear a pin drop.

Not even Max could believe it, he leaned over and frantically tapped Liam who was still trying to wrap his head around the godly man walking across the room. “Dude! Doesn’t he live in like, a totally different part of the country? Why is he here!?”

Liam shook his head, he couldn’t possibly know. In fact, his brain stopped working, all he could think about was how gorgeous that man was and-- his smell. He could smell him just from where he sat, it was sweet but fresh, he smelled so good. 

Liam didn’t even notice himself drooling.

“Cool it wolfie, you’ll make a mess of your suit.” Max whispered while jabbing Liam in the arm.

The latter couldn’t even get mad at being called ‘wolfie’ as Max sometimes does just to annoy him, as he was too focused on Kelian freaking Santos standing a mere 10 feet from him. 

“Hey everyone! Thank you all so much for coming out and checking out the company, I happened to drop in on a flight suddenly this morning and heard there was a tour going on. I love seeing excited students ready to work!”

“I told Kellian it would be a wonderful idea to meet some prospective employees, I hope meeting him encourages you all to apply for the internship!” Amanda added. “He’ll be back in town around the time we make final decisions, so hopefully by the next time we all meet, it will be as dedicated members of the SanTech company!”

Kellian smiled, nodding along to Amanda’s words. A knock on the door caught his attention, there was another woman clutching a laptop looking urgently in Kellian’s direction.

The CEO glanced at her and nodded, then looked back among the group. “I’m so happy to meet you all, I wish you luck! I have some emergency business to take care of, so I must go for now but, see you all around!”

Liam was completely starstruck as he watched Kellian head out of the room. He didn’t know dreams could come true, that he could be in the same room as Kellian Santos, listening to his voice and breathing the same air. 

He thought he had to have hit his peak at this point, nothing in the world was better than the moment he saw Kellian Santos in person.

Or so he would have thought, until his day got remarkably better-- just as Kellian was leaving, he glanced back at the group, his eyes seemingly landing on Liam. It happened in almost slow motion; as they made eye contact, Kellian’s eyes sparkled, the bright smile on his face nearly blinding Liam. The younger felt his heart pound against his chest, every nerve he had standing on end. 

Maybe Max was right about his “wolf senses” tingling every time he saw Kellian, as the feeling of transforming felt just like weird tingles he got from making direct eye contact with the man of his dreams.

At that point, Liam could only see one thing; his ticket to finally living the normal life he so craved.