The Witness

Chapter 5

As they neared the elevator she was getting more nervous. But being outside his building half the night like a creepy stalker, she was cold and needed to use the bathroom.

And for some reason, she felt like she could trust him. At least for now.

The tension between them grew. She couldn’t tell if he was as nervous as she was because he stood motionless and stared up at the elevator sign indicating the numbers.

She took a longer look at him. He was tall, broad shouldered and fit. This she knew from when she crashed into his chest. How do rich, successful guys have time to work out? She thought to herself. His features were masculine and he had a shadow of a beard, he hadn’t shaved yet. It made his jawline even more sharp and his green eyes were almost dark green in this light. He was a vision in his grey sweats, hoodie over his dark tousled hair. She felt her cheeks turning red from just looking at him.

As on cue, Sebastian sharply tuned his head and caught her looking. Anna quickly turned her eyes away from him and felt her cheeks blush even more. 

The elevator doors dinged, and opened and as Anna entered the elevator she looked up into a massive mirror and saw a faint smile on Sebastian's face. He pressed the button up to the penthouse and as they rode up Anna started to panic a little. I’m going into a strange man's home, my phone is shattered, no one knows where I am about to relay some damning information to the most powerful man i've ever met. What the f**k was i thinking? Anna picked out her phone from her hoodie pocket and tried to restart it. Again. But it seemed to be dead. 

“I’ll replace it,” he said simply.

Anna turned even more red, this time from anger “I don’t need your charity, i can replace my own phone. Thank you very much!”

She saw he was taken aback by her anger. Good. I am not here for charity. I came to do the right thing. Not to gain material items. It was high time to replace the phone anyway she thought. But that was a problem for another time, when she was finished with what she came here to do she could let herself worry about the phone.

The elevator doors opened and he stepped into his penthouse apartment. Anna took a step in and stopped dead in her tracks. She had never seen an apartment like this before. It had huge glass windows along one side with a piano and a black dining room set for 8 people looking out. The white sofa, coffee table and tv were placed on the other side along with the kitchen and a kitchen island. Sebastian went into the kitchen and started the espresso machine. The kitchen was designed to be black and white, like the rest of the apartment.

Anna stood motionless, unsure of herself when his green eyes turned to her. “Please. Come in. Take a seat here at the kitchen island. I’ll make us coffee.”

As she started to tepidly walk over to where he was, thankful that the kitchen island was between them he asked “Cream and sugar?” 

“Yes, both. Please. Thank you.” Before she sat down, she remembered she needed to use the bathroom. “May I use your bathroom?” she asked. He looked at her for a short second and nodded. “Walk in behind the kitchen, first door on the right”

Anna made her way in and as she was about to close the bathroom door she saw the bedroom across the hall. The door was open and she could see a bed in massive wood, painted in black with bed poles on all four corners of the bed. She flushed, unsure why, but the thought hit her of all the things you could do in there.

Jesus stop it you weirdo. This is your boss you're thinking these thoughts about.

But she couldn’t deny as she sat down to pee that the man was ridiculously hot. It wasn’t even funny how the man just oozed sexappeal. He moved with the grace of a large cat. He reminded her of a lion for some reason, as he walked with confidence.

As she came back out she was unsure of how the conversation was going to go. Anna slipped up on the barstool and poured cream and sugar into the mug he handed her. She smiled and thanked him. “I’m all of a sudden unsure of where to begin.” 

“I’d appreciate it if you told me more of who you are. It's odd that we've never met” he said

Anna smiled and said “We have met Sir. I accidentally walked into your office one night, to clean up, and you were still sitting at your desk. You seemed so mad, I thought for sure I was fired.”

He laughed at her words when the memory came back to him “You almost were! I hate interruptions and can be very rude when caught off guard. But you slipped out so fast I didn't have time to say anything”

“Well lucky for both of us I guess. I needed the paychecks but with what I’m about to tell you I’ll for sure be fired.”

He looked puzzled and asked “Why would you say that?”

Anna sighed, took a deep breath and started “As i said, I’m Anna Dane. I have worked for your company as a cleaner for about six months. I've luckily got the nightshift, it pays better.” She shot him a meaningful look before continuing “I was working last night, finishing up and had just the bathroom and your office which i have learned from experiences i should finish up last” he smiled and looked at his coffee mug at this.

“I opened the door to the men’s bathroom when I heard Rick, your personal assistant on the phone. I was about to leave to wait for him to finish when I froze in place with what I heard.”

Anna started to get nervous and bit down on her lip. A nervous habit she had. But Sebastian frowned when she did this so she looked down at her cup, that she was holding between her hands and kept talking, she rushed the words to get it all out “He was on the phone with a man named Charles. He said he had gained your trust by sucking up to you and this had earned him access to some passcodes. He was talking about something going down in a week or so, and that when the takeover was finished he wanted to negotiate the terms of his employment and that he didn’t want to be screwed over”. 

Anna held her breath when she looked up to see Sebastian's reaction. 

It was fear. Fear all over his beautiful face. “How do you know who Charles is?” he asked.

“I don’t. I am just relaying the information as I heard it. What I could make out was the takeover. He came out of the booth and I took off after that. He crashed into my cleaning cart and that gave me a few seconds to get away. I left all my stuff in the locker room except my phone and keys, I ubered home but got nervous that he’d find me there so I packed a small bag to leave town. I couldn't leave before I tried to warn you. It felt like the right thing to do.”

He was quiet. Too quiet. Anna looked in his eyes trying to read him but there were too many emotions in there.

He closed his eyes and stated “I need a shower. Stay here.” and then he turned and left.