Chapter 23
1879 Words
Summer’s POV
The elevator moved.
Slowly.
Painfully slowly.
I watched the numbers above the doors change.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then stop.
I stared at the number.
Surely that couldn’t be right.
I glanced at the doors.
Then at the number again.
Nothing.
The elevator had stopped.
I frowned.
Beside me, Andrew remained completely still.
He looked down at his phone.
I tried not to look at him.
I failed.
He was standing with one hand in the pocket of his trousers, the other holding his phone loosely.
Calm.
Unbothered.
Completely comfortable.
Meanwhile, I was suddenly far too aware of the fact that I was standing alone in an elevator with the owner of the company I worked for.
Again.
The silence stretched.
I looked at the number above the door.
Still the same.
How long did it take to move between two floors?
I had used this elevator hundreds of times.
It had never felt this slow.
Maybe it was broken.
Maybe it was deliberately torturing me.
Maybe the universe had decided that I hadn’t experienced enough awkwardness for one day.
I shifted slightly.
Andrew looked up from his phone.
“Have you worked here long?”
I blinked.
The question caught me completely off guard.
I turned toward him.
“Sorry?”
His eyes met mine.
“How long have you worked at Knight Constructions?”
I stared at him for a second.
It was a normal question.
A perfectly normal question.
There was nothing strange about it.
And yet, I couldn’t stop wondering why he was asking.
“Almost two years.”
“Almost?”
I nodded.
“I started in September.”
He looked thoughtful.
“Two years this September, then.”
“Yes.”
His gaze moved briefly toward the elevator doors.
“What made you choose Knight Constructions?”
I wasn’t sure what to say.
It wasn’t every day that the owner of a company suddenly decided to conduct an informal interview in an elevator.
“I applied.”
The moment the words left my mouth, I regretted them.
Andrew looked at me.
I cleared my throat.
“I mean… I had heard good things about the company. I was already working in interior design before I came here, and Knight Constructions was… a good opportunity.”
“A good opportunity?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“It’s a big company.”
One of his eyebrows lifted slightly.
“That sounds almost like an insult.”
I stared at him.
Then realized he was joking.
I laughed softly.
“No. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“I know.”
There was something about the way he said it.
Almost amused.
I looked at him again.
He wasn’t smiling exactly.
But there was something softer in his expression.
I found myself wondering if he was always like this.
I had always imagined Andrew Knight as someone much more intimidating.
A distant figure who existed somewhere above the rest of the company.
A name attached to the building.
A face in business magazines.
Someone who made decisions that affected hundreds of people without ever having to know their names.
I had never imagined him asking an ordinary employee how long she had worked for him.
“What department are you in?” he asked.
I looked at him.
“Interior design.”
“Commercial or residential?”
“Both, technically.”
He nodded.
“But mostly residential?”
I paused.
“How did you know that?”
The question came out before I could stop it.
His gaze returned to me.
For the first time, something almost unreadable crossed his face.
Then it was gone.
“You mentioned it.”
I frowned.
“I did?”
“Just now.”
“Oh.”
I looked away.
That made sense.
Except…
I was almost certain I hadn’t mentioned it.
But perhaps I had.
I had been nervous enough that I couldn’t remember half of what I had said.
He continued.
“What kind of projects do you work on?”
“Mostly high-end residential projects.”
“Renovations?”
“Some.”
“New builds?”
“More of those.”
He nodded slowly.
“And you design the interiors?”
I smiled slightly.
“That’s generally what interior designers do.”
The corner of his mouth moved.
“Generally?”
“Sometimes we just stand around looking at fabric samples and pretending to have strong opinions about beige.”
His eyes flickered with amusement.
I wasn’t sure if I had just made a joke to my boss.
I had.
I definitely had.
I suddenly wished the elevator would start moving again.
It didn’t.
Instead, Andrew looked at me.
“Do you have strong opinions about beige?”
“Absolutely.”
“Should I be worried?”
“That depends.”
“On?”
“Which shade of beige you’re using.”
For a second, we simply stared at each other.
Then he laughed.
It was quiet.
Low.
Unexpected.
I stared at him.
I had never heard Andrew Knight laugh before.
I had barely heard him speak in real life.
And somehow, hearing it now felt strangely surprising.
He looked different when he smiled.
Less distant.
Less like the man whose photograph appeared in business articles.
More like an actual person.
I quickly looked away.
This was becoming strange.
Very strange.
He was asking me questions.
I was making jokes.
He was laughing.
And somehow, we had gone from never having a conversation in two years to discussing the emotional importance of different shades of beige in an elevator.
I glanced at the number above the door.
Still nothing.
I frowned.
“Is this elevator always this slow?”
Andrew looked up.
“Usually not.”
“Wonderful.”
He looked back at me.
“Are you in a hurry?”
“Not exactly.”
I hesitated.
“I just have somewhere to be.”
“Where?”
I looked at him.
“I’m going to pick up a file.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“A file?”
“Yes.”
“For my supervisor.”
“Which supervisor?”
I told him.
His expression remained neutral.
“Is he expecting you?”
“I think so.”
“You think so?”
I nodded.
“I was actually supposed to go and see him earlier.”
“Then what happened?”
I stared at him.
There it was again.
Another question.
A simple question.
But it felt different from the others.
More personal.
I wasn’t sure why.
“Nothing happened.”
He waited.
I sighed.
“I just had to get something first.”
“What?”
“A file.”
His mouth twitched.
I narrowed my eyes.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re laughing at me.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I assure you, I’m not.”
“You absolutely are.”
His gaze remained on mine.
Then he said, very calmly, “You seem to have a complicated relationship with that file.”
I stared at him.
Then laughed despite myself.
“I don’t even know you.”
The words came out casually.
The moment they left my mouth, something shifted.
It was barely noticeable.
A pause.
A slight change in his expression.
I didn’t understand it.
Andrew looked at me for a moment longer than necessary.
“No,” he said quietly.
“You don’t.”
There was something strange about the way he said it.
I couldn’t explain it.
I didn’t know why the words suddenly felt heavier than they should have.
I looked away first.
The elevator finally started moving again.
I watched the numbers change.
Relief washed over me.
At last.
We passed another floor.
Then another.
I began wondering whether I should say something.
The silence had changed.
It no longer felt awkward exactly.
But I had become aware of something I couldn’t quite name.
Andrew was interested in me.
Not in a romantic way.
I wasn’t foolish enough to assume that.
But he was asking questions.
Genuine questions.
He wanted to know when I had started working there.
What department I was in.
What kind of work I did.
It was more attention than I had ever received from him in two years.
And I couldn’t understand why.
Maybe he was simply being polite.
Maybe he was trying to get to know more employees.
Maybe I had just happened to be the person standing beside him in the elevator.
That had to be it.
There was no reason for Andrew Knight to be interested in me specifically.
I was just Summer Rivers.
An interior designer.
One employee among hundreds.
I wasn’t a department head.
I wasn’t a senior executive.
I wasn’t someone who attended meetings with him.
I had never even been in the same room with him long enough for him to remember my name.
And yet…
He had asked how long I had worked there.
He had remembered the month I had started.
I looked at him again.
He was staring at the elevator doors.
His expression was unreadable.
I wondered what he was thinking.
Then, as though he could feel me looking at him, he turned.
Our eyes met.
I immediately looked away.
My heart gave one strange, unnecessary beat.
Ridiculous.
He was my boss.
That was all.
My boss.
A very attractive, extremely wealthy, intimidatingly powerful boss.
But still my boss.
I had just gone through a divorce.
I was not about to start developing a ridiculous crush on the man who owned the company I worked for because he had asked me what department I was in.
I had better things to do.
Like collect a file.
And survive the rest of the day.
The elevator slowed.
Finally.
I looked up.
The number above the door changed.
This was my floor.
The doors opened.
I stepped forward.
Then paused.
I turned slightly toward him.
“Have a good day, sir.”
Andrew looked at me.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then his gaze moved over my face.
That same strange, focused look returned.
“Summer.”
I froze.
He knew my name.
Of course he knew my name.
I had introduced myself at company events before.
Perhaps he had simply remembered it.
Still, something about hearing him say it made me pause.
“Yes?”
His eyes remained on mine.
“Welcome back.”
My fingers tightened slightly around the strap of my handbag.
I smiled.
“Thank you.”
Then I stepped out of the elevator.
The doors began to close.
I walked a few steps before glancing back.
Andrew was still looking at me.
The doors closed between us.
I stopped.
For a moment, I simply stared at the closed elevator doors.
Then I let out a slow breath.
What was that?
I shook my head.
Nothing.
It was nothing.
Andrew Knight had probably said the same thing to dozens of employees returning from leave.
Maybe hundreds.
It was a normal thing for a boss to say.
Completely normal.
I continued down the hallway.
But despite everything I told myself…
I couldn’t stop thinking about the way he had said my name.
Or the way he had looked at me.
- Writer
