Adrienne and Leo have been dating for three years now, and things are getting a bit... predictable. Or at least, that's how Adrienne sees it. She confides in her best friend Kate about her plans to potentially break things off with Leo. Leo, on the...
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As the elevator creaked open for the third time on a floor that was not hers, Adrienne Kuo couldn't help but audibly groan. Of course she'd managed to choose the absolute slowest elevator in the entire Burkins' Publishing building on the day where she really couldn't afford to be late. Shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot, she checked the time on her watch again. 1:59. Technically, she didn't need to be checking in at the front desk for her interview, for another minute, and the lift should certainly be able to travel three more floors in that time — if fewer people would stop choosing the floors just below the one that she needed. She counted out the seconds it took the doors to shut. 1... 2...
"Hold the elevator!" a voice shouted frantically. Adi's stomach dropped, and she was halfway tempted to slap the 'close doors' button before any of the other three passengers could react. Instead, the person standing closest to the control panel, a middle-aged woman with her blond hair pulled so tightly against her scalp that it gave her a mini-face-lift, hit the 'open doors' button, and they were forced to wait.
Not two seconds later, a young man, maybe 25, all but ran into the elevator, his dark hair mussed and his tie slightly askew. "Thank you so much," he breathed out, putting a hand over his heart as he tried to catch his breath. What could he have possibly been doing in a publisher's office building that made him need to gulp in air like a goldfish? "Seventh floor, please." The button was already pressed, thanks to Adrienne.
When the doors finally slid shut and the elevator continued its ascent, the only sounds were the tacky instrumental rendition of Uptown Funk (seriously? Was this an attempt at being 'cool' on the publishing company's part?) and the sound of the man's labored breathing. The last stop before hers came and went more quickly than the last, but Adrienne couldn't help but get more antsy. It was now 2:00 and a couple seconds, and by her count that was late and therefore unacceptable. As soon as there was enough space between the elevator doors for her to squeeze out, she bolted from the enclosed space and to the desk just to the right. 2:01.
"I'm here for an internship interview with..." she frowned and dug through her purse, searching for her notepad with all of the information she needed for this interview on it. "Edward Haskins?"
The woman at the desk smiled serenely at Adi and began typing away at the computer in front of her. "Do you have a form of ID I could see?"
She pulled out her driver's license; the woman at the desk glanced at it briefly, and handed it back. "That's a good picture of you." Before Adrienne could thank her she continued. "Mr. Haskins hasn't returned to the office yet. If you'll take a seat just over there, I'll let him know you're here, and he will be with you as soon as he's able."
Add smiled and thanked her, heading over to the nice seating area she had indicated, but inwardly, her spirits sank. He wasn't even at the office? She'd rushed up here for nothing. She figured she'd at least review her talking points while she waited, but she had barely read the first bullet point when the receptionist's perky voice carried over to her. "Oh, Jared, there you are! Is Mr. Haskins in, then?"
