Henley
The smell of flowers was beginning to make me sick.
As I walked into my office Thursday morning, another vase of flowers met my sight. This time holding peach, pink, and white roses, solidago, thistle, and craspedia. The scent made my stomach churn. This was the fourth time this week someone had left flowers in here. My locked office. They'd have to have left it sometime during the night while no one was on the floor.
I inspected the rest of the room for signs of disruption, feeling paranoid. Who kept leaving me flowers? No notes. Just flowers.
Part of me wanted to believe it was Bennett, sending me gifts while he was away on his business trip, but he would have asked if I'd got them five minutes after I was supposed to be surprised. He was that type of person. I debated about texting him and asking him anyway, but if it wasn't him...
I thought about everything that was happening around him and sighed. He was already stressed out enough. He'd said it himself the night we'd gone out for dinner with everyone last week, but it'd only gotten progressively worse as more work-related issues had come up in the time since then.
Mainly because Lee had decided to put a stop to the Wailea resort. He'd made the executive decision himself to stop the construction that was steadily progressing, ordering for it instead to be taken down. The reason for his decision made senseâ he'd realize just how much of a negative impact tourism had on the natives of Hawaii and didn't want to add to it, wanting instead to put funds toward conservation resources instead.
It was safe to say not everybody was happy. It was a lot of money squandered. But the way I saw it, the company had a lot of money to waste, anyway. Hence my salary that by no means should have been as high as it was.
I folded my arms across my chest, gnawing on my bottom lip. Was this some kind of harassment because of that? But how would anyone know how much money I made? And why flowers? They weren't exactly intimidating.
I thought back to the night of the dinner again. Someone had texted me from an unknown number. And not just any text message. I swallowed as I pulled out my phone, tapping to the text message.
Hello, Gorgeous. I have a surprise for you next week. Please look forward to it.
So, was this it? The surprise? It had to be, right? How had this person gotten my number? There'd been no texts from them since. Wouldn't they mention it if it were them?
"Ugh, who am I trying to fool," I said, sitting down at my desk chair, placing my head down on the desk.
It was definitely this person. Leaving me notes, flowers, finding my phone number...
I didn't want to deal with this.
Whoever it was had to know I was with Bennett, so what was the point? Why me? I wasn't anything special. I was lucky Bennett somehow ended up liking me. Who the hell thought I was attractive enough to stalk?
Thinking that word made me freeze. No. It wasn't that bad yet. No one was stalking me. They were just trying to get my attention. Like a secret admirer. But leaving me no way to respond. No way to say thank you, but I'm happily taken. The attention was just making me uncomfortable.
I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. I didn't have time to worry about it. Although Bennett was gone, I still had a lot of work to do. I had about a hundred e-mails to respond to, expense reports to double-check, and a few meetings to schedule for Bennett. And if I had time I wanted to take over some online customer complaints. I wanted to earn my salary. If didn't feel right to do the bare minimum. Especially when there were employees who did much more than me for way less.
Opening my laptop, I clicked open Gmail, trying to ignore the permeating scent of roses.
Come lunchtime, my eyes burned. I blinked rapidly, yawning, impressed with my progress. I managed to get way more work done when Bennett wasn't popping in or calling me every ten minutes.
My stomach growled, and I closed the laptop, deciding to go grab lunch. Lee hadn't texted me, so I figured he was too busy to eat. Maybe I could bring him something on my way back in. He really liked the sushi place around the corner. I grabbed my jacket and slung it on, triple checking that I locked my office on the way outâ a habit at this point. I didn't want any more flowers appearing.
The hall was deserted as I started down it, heading for the elevator, my heels clicking on the tile. A second later, I heard a pair of footsteps join mine. I glanced behind me, confused who would be down this way with Bennett away, but no one was there.
I stared for a moment, smiling wryly. What was this?
I turned back, my speed picking up a bit. The footsteps came back. Was I still being paranoid? Deciding to ignore it, I hurried to the elevator, pressing the down arrow. Once in, I hit the lobby button, and then rapidly pressed close door. It closed slowly with no sign of anyone getting on and I rolled my eyes at myself.
What did I think? Someone was following meâ
My eyes flew open as a hand flew between the doors at the very last second, preventing them from closing. I moved toward the corner of the elevator as someone dressed in all black stepped on, keeping my gaze averted.
From the corner of my eye, I could see they at least a foot taller than me and slim, but that was it. A hood covered their head and face and they didn't turn to look back at me. Their hands lay at their side, relaxed, with palms open.
"Um, what floor do you need?" I asked, trying to keep my tone casual.
They didn't answer.
I didn't move as the elevator door shut, a cold feeling snaking down my spine.
Relax, I told myself. I'd gotten myself all worked up with the ridiculous thought of a stalker.
The person next to me remained still, not saying anything, not even glancing at me. They obviously weren't interested in me. I didn't understand why someone would come to their office with a hood on and dressed so casually, but maybe I was just too used to being around Bennett, who dressed formally even on his days off.
Brandon wore his hood all the time, even when I told him not to. It wasn't unusual for people to wear their hoods.
I smiled a little as I realized how ridiculous I was being.
All of a sudden, the person moved toward me, their arm swinging out. Startled, I fell back a step, my ankle twisting and sending me to the floor of the elevator ass first. I bit my tongue as I landed, only adding insult to injury. I groaned, sitting there for a moment, and then gasping as I realized my legs were spread and I was wearing a skirt.
I quickly shifted so that I was kneeling, reaching for the bar of the elevator to hoist myself back up. When I gathered my courage to glance toward the stranger, who had stepped back to their original position, I noticed they'd pressed the button for the basement floor. Had they just been reaching for that?
A flush crossed my face. "Sorry. You startled me."
When they didn't answer, I peeked at them, tensing as I realized they were staring straight at me. But they were sunglasses and a face mask, completely covering their identity.
Again, a crawling sensation came over me, but luckily at this point, we'd reached the lobby floor. I barely waited for the door to open before hurrying out. I went the opposite way of the entrance, heading for the employee exit instead. My ankle hurt, but not enough to slow me down. That person was definitely not an employee. Who were they? Was it the person who left flowers?
No. That was definitely me being paranoid. So what if someone left me flowers? Was it wrong for someone to like me? I couldn't label them as a creep like that. That person on the elevator was probably just lost.
Even over the thudding of my pulse, I could make out the sound of footsteps following me closely.
I didn't turn back. It wasn't that person. I was just being paranoid because of the text message and the flowers. It wasn't anything bad.
I pushed open the door leading to the employee exit. One more hall and I'd be outside in the public eye. I sped up as I didn't hear the door close behind me. Only a few more steps. Then I could get lost in the crowd. Andâ
A hand enclosed around my arm, pulling me back.
I gasped, whipping around, ripping my arm back. "Don'tâ"
Brandon blinked back at me, holding his hands up innocently. "Woah. Sorry, Henley. I didn't mean to scare you."
I pushed him to the side, looking behind him. No one else was there. "Where did you come from? Did you see someone else here?"
"I came from the stairwell. And no. Just you. Why?"
I stared down the hall for a second longer. "Nothing..."
"Are you sick or something?" Brandon asked, putting the back of his hand to my forehead. "You're pale and sweaty."
I swatted his hand away. "You just scared the crap out of me. That's probably why."
"Such a baby."
"Shut up."
"It's rare I run into you at work. What are you up to, Ms. Personal Assistant?" he asked, putting his hands in the pockets of his custodian uniform, and grinning.
"Probably because you're in the basement where you belong," I said back, brushing by him and heading toward the stairs.
He quickly fell back in step with me. "Ouch. What's happened to you, Henley? Now that you're rich you're mean and you make fun of my job?"
"I'm not making fun of your job. I'm making fun of you," I corrected him. "And I'm not rich."
"Hey, you've got a middle-class income now. I'm still stuck at low income."
I stopped, turning to him, frowning. "What? How much money do you make?"
"I'm not even salary. I make $17 an hour."
"What?"
"What? That's pretty average for a custodian," Brandon said, shrugging. "It's still a decent amount of money."
"I mean, yeah, it definitely is, but..."
I was getting paid double what Brandon was. It didn't make me feel good. How many other employees did I make double than for having absolutely no skills?
"Oh, don't look so upset," he said, laying an arm over my shoulders. "I'm just messing around with you. I'm actually happy with my job."
"Really?"
"I get to keep to myself mostly, which is nice. Listen to music. Also, cleaning is oddly cathartic."
We pushed through the doors and stepped into the cool March air. Brandon retracted his arm from around me, wrapping it around himself instead. "Where is your jacket?" I asked him, noticing his cheeks were already red.
"Inside," he said. "Me following you was a spontaneous decision."
"Is it okay for you to leave?"
"I'm on my lunch. Where are we eating?"
I had planned on just getting it to go and then returning to the office, but if Brandon was offering to join me, maybe I would eat out. Give some time for that person to leave. "How about a poke bowl?"
He hooked me a thumbs up. "Sounds good."
As we walked, I looked at Brandon, seeing his muscles in his shirt as he cradled himself from the cold. He'd kept working out and was well built. He could easily intimidate someone. He was also pretty easygoing. He probably didn't have a lot of things stressing him out.
"Hey, Brandon," I started, hesitating. What would he think?
"Hmm?"
"Have you ever had a secret admirer?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Is that even a question? Of course. I'm hot and I have a great personality. The true question is how I've been single for this long."
"Uh, probably because you were in jail?"
His eye twitched. "You little..."
"I didn't ask that to hear you compliment yourself," I said, pulling open the door to the poke shop. "I think I might have one."
"D'aww, you're at that age, aren't you?" he cooed, mussing with my hair.
I scowled at him. "Can you be serious for five seconds?"
"I could be, but that isn't very fun, is it?"
We walked to the counter and ordered, Brandon getting such an absurd amount of food in his bowl the worker could barely fit it all in. I paid for us both and made sure to leave a good tip because they probably lost half their product to Brandon.
We sat down at one of the tables and Brandon wasted no time in ripping open his chopsticks and shoveling the food into his mouth.
"How do people even like you?" I asked.
"Ask Ariana," he responded with a mouthful of food.
"If Ariana really liked you so much, she wouldn't also like Sebastian," I told him. "I love Bennett. I can't imagine ever falling for anyone else. And if I did, it would mean I didn't love Bennett as much as I thought I did."
Brandon stopped eating, his hand falling to the table.
I realized what I said then, eyes widening. "Not that it's definitely that case with Ariana."
"I know that," Brandon said quietly. "I know that's what it looks like. And I know she probably will choose Sebastian."
My chest tightened. "I'm sorry, Brandon. I really didn't say that because I meant it. I was justâ"
"It's fine though," he cut me off, smiling a little. "I'm okay with it. She's not my property. And Sebastian is a good guy. It's not like Ariana will be ending up with some asshole. If she's happy, then I'm happy. And it's just a bonus if Sebastian is the one who makes her happy."
"But she liked you first," I said.
"And I led her on for years. I could have asked her out, and I didn't. That's on me. If I missed my chance, then that's my fault," he responded, digging at his food again. "I hope I still have a chance, but if I don't, I'm not going to cry about it. I'll suck it up and move on. That's that."
I frowned at him, not sure what to say. His maturity always surprised me. And it was trueâ he'd had so long to ask Ariana out. But Ariana also had that time to ask him out. To me, they both just had been too shy or nervous to take the next step in their relationship. And now it was looking like it was too late.
"However, that's not your problem," he said. "Don't worry about me. What were you saying about your secret admirer?"
I couldn't tell if he was purposefully trying to change the topic, or genuinely curious. I set my chopsticks down. "In your experiences," I began, getting inexplicably annoyed as a proud smile crossed his face, "did you ever have a secret admirer who left you notes and flowers and stuff?"
He didn't seem weirded out by my question. That was a good sign. He nodded. "Sure. I think that's a typical approach. They're too shy to let you know who they are right away."
"Okay, that's what I thought," I said immediately, relieved. "I think I was overthinking it."
His eyebrows furrowed. "Why would you?"
"I don't know. The flowers seem to appear in my office when it's locked. But maybe a custodian is helping them."
The humor slipped off his face. "What? They're entering your locked office to do this?"
"Well, there's nowhere else to really put it, so doesn't it make sense they'd ask someone to unlock it to put it in there?"
"I mean, I guess." He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll ask the other custodians to be sure. Are they doing anything else? This secret admirer?"
I debated on bringing up the text message. How would Brandon react? He didn't seem to like the idea of this person coming into my office. "I think they have my phone number," I said, deciding it was better Brandon know it all.
"What?"
"They texted me. I think it was them, at least."
"How would they get your number?"
"Is there some kind of work directory?" I asked. "I might have put my number somewhere. I put it down on the application when I filled it out."
Brandon drummed his fingers on the table, adjusting his position. "Possibly. Can you ask Bennett if that's a thing?"
"Uh..."
"Henley. You have to tell Bennett about this."
I pursed my lips. How did Brandon figure me out so easily? "It's not really a big deal," I said. "He already has so much going on. His mom, his dad, the company breathing down his neck because of Wailea. I don't want to add to that if I can help it."
Brandon's expression clearly showed he didn't agree with me, but he sighed a moment later. "Fine. I understand that. Then you have to make sure to tell me if anything changes."
"I will," I agreed. I could tell Brandon. He was stronger than Bennett, anyway. If something were to happen and Brandon was around, I'd be fine.
"You can get into all that computer stuff, can't you? Try to see if your number is anywhere," Brandon said. "I'll ask around and see if anyone is letting people into offices at night. Oh, I guess it could be a custodian too. I'll ask anyone if they like you."
I grimaced. "Maybe don't do that."
"Why not?"
"Do you think they'd actually tell you?"
Recognition crossed his face. "Ah. You think they'll be too scared to tell me they like my baby sister? You're right. I'd be scared to tell me, too."
"I didn't mean..." I trailed off, not even bothering to use the effort to respond to that. Instead, I ate some of my poke bowl.
I had a start. If I could find my number in the system, I'd feel a bit better. The notes and flowers weren't really that bad. In fact, as someone who had never really had people have a crush on them, it was almost flattering. Almost. I personally wouldn't be so overbearing.
I smiled a little. Well, the idea was still nice.
"Why do you suddenly look so happy?"
"Someone liking me is kind of fun."
"I hope you realize your boyfriend likes you. Like, probably a lot."
I waved Brandon off. "Bennett doesn't count. He didn't like me at first, anyway. But this person hasn't even met me and seems to like me. That never happens to me."
Brandon shook his head. "Don't get too swept up in it, Henley. We don't know what this person is like yet."
"I won't," I told him. "Besides, it's not like I'd actually want anything to do with them. Bennett is the one for me. I wish I could turn them down sooner rather than later."
"Maybe they'll get over it themselves," Brandon responded. "I guess there's a chance they haven't realized you're with Bennett. It's not like you two are super lovey-dovey in front of people at the hotel."
I packed up the rest of my poke bowl, nodding. "Yeah, that's true. If they contact me again, I should let them know."
Brandon watched me for a moment. "If you do, let me know. I'll hang around."
"Why?"
"Just because."
"Okay?" I said, standing up from the table. "I'm going to pick Lee up something before my lunch is over. Do you want to come with me?"
He thought about it for a moment and then stood, picking up his empty bowl. "Might as well."
We walked to the sushi place together where I picked up Lee's favorite meal and then we headed back to the hotel. Brandon walked me all the way to Lee's office for some reason and didn't leave until I was inside.
Lee looked up at me as I approached his desk and I frowned at the deep purple bags under his eyes. I held up the bag of sushi. "Lunch?"
"Oh, thank you," he said, smiling tightly. "You can put it right there. I have to finish this first."
I glanced at the massive piles of manila envelopes and papers on his desk. His hair was mussed up, as if he'd been running his hand through it over and over again. "Can I help with anything?"
"No. I'm okay. Thank you, though," he said, his eyes trained to his laptop screen, his fingers gliding across the keyboard.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm good, Henley," he said a little brusquely.
I took that as my sign to leave. "Okay, let me know if you do," I said quickly before heading out the door.
I headed back to my office, my hands clasped in front of me. Poor Lee. It was clear he was as stressed out as Bennett, if not more. I didn't know how I could help him. There really wasn't a lot I could do besides what was already assigned to me. I didn't have the skills or knowledge.
Sulkily, I opened the door to my office. Maybe I could ask Henry for suggestions. He used to be Lee's assistant. He could give me some pointers. I closed the door behind me, pressing my forehead to it, sighing for the hundredth time.
"Hello, Henley."
My heart nearly leapt out of my chest at the sound of a voice behind me. I twirled around, my hand going to the door handle, gaze landing on a figure sitting in my office chair.
Eli Calloway smiled up at me. "I've been waiting for you."
Author's Note:
I mean... technically it's still Sunday where I am. So I am on time ð