Midnight Lovers

Long Haul Weekend

Grace stretched her arms over her head and yawned. Looking at the clock on the wall, she noticed that it was nearly midnight. Mr. Stevens was still in his office even though it was the weekend and hadn't even budged from his office since he had stepped inside that morning.

She had been working late hours the past few days. She was up early and late to crawl into her bed to sleep before having to repeat the process once more. Even though she had known about the weekend shifts, she hadn't thought that they would be so rough. She had been preparing documents and letters for the past two days.

She wondered if there was some big company merger or something going on because all the documents had to be copied at most five times and put in order. The last two afternoons, Mr. Stevens had been in a private meeting with the board members and talking on the phone in brisk uh-huh, grunts, and other noncommittal sounds.

Standing up, she grasped her mug and left the desk to refill her cup with coffee from the staff lounge just off to the side. She was grateful for the dark liquid. It had fueled her through the grueling tasks she had been given by Derrick. She wondered how the elderly woman before her had even managed this kind of hard work. Despite her brisk demeanor and positive attitude, the woman had been in at least her early to late 60s.

She sipped on the heavenly liquid in her cup as she returned to her desk. Instead of sitting, she paced the small office space, needing exercise after being at her desk most of the day. Her eyes were sore from staring at the screen for so long as well, so she closed them and just let her eyes naturally readjust as she made small pacing movements and sometimes stretches.

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Derrick stood watching his secretary pace the inner office for some time. He had heard the movements and wondered what she was doing. The moment he had opened the door, he had found her walking up and down the room with her eyes closed and holding a cup with a spill-proof lid on it. No doubt filled with the liquid gold of coffee.

He leaned against the doorframe, he had to admit as he watched her go back and forth that her choice of shoes was superb. If it hadn't been for the occasional grumble, he wouldn't have even known that she was even moving around. She wasn't stomping or clacking like most secretaries did and it was a welcome relief.

"What are you doing?" he asked her briskly.

The pacing stopped and Grace gave him a disgruntled look.

"I'm pacing, I need exercise and a break from the computer before I end up needing glasses from staring at the screen all the time," she replied as she brought the cup to her lips and took a sip of her coffee.

Derrick looked at the clock and noticed the time. It was really late, and even though he had been working non-stop this morning before they signed the papers to make this huge merger happen. He was well aware that Grace had been lugging the most important jobs on her own and not even making one complaint about the workload.

"Go home and get some rest. Everything else can wait until the morning," he declared finally, after some thought.

Grace's face almost beamed as bright as a lightbulb, she hurried to her desk, shut down the computer and gathered her purse all the while uttering the words of Thank you and I'll be in bright in the morning.

He watched as she rushed to the elevator and jabbed the button numerous times in hopes that the elevator would make it to the floor before he tried to change his mind. He just smirked as she lurched into the widened doors and gave one last good bye before heading back into his office.

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Grace was back in the office bright and early, feeling rested and at peace. That is until she saw the chaos on her desk. Papers and files were strewn all over the desk. Her computer was still off, but her pencils, pens, and some other items were all over the place. It was as if someone had been hurrying through the items looking for something.

She quickly grabbed her phone and dialed the number for the security office and told them to review the tapes. She noticed that one of her usually locked doors on her desk was open. It didn't hold anything of value, thankfully. She didn't touch anything and in a matter of minutes security were guiding police officers to her desk to start an investigation.

She carefully stayed out of the way as the small task force searched her desk, dusted for prints and even asked questions about the contents on her desk and their nature, wondering if they were important and such. Thankfully, all important papers were either locked in the safe or on the computer.

Derrick arrived to chaos in his office and listened as a security guard explained that Grace had called them about a possible thief of being in the building.

Grace looked at her boss, who looked less than pleased at the interruption to his day, but she didn't care. His office was in even bigger disarray than hers.