Power & Pleasure

Chapter 1

Every morning I walk into the café for my latte and a glimpse at him -- not that I'm stalking him or anything. It just happens that my office building has a café, the office building that he also works in. I walk in at 8:20am, order my Cinnamon Dulce Latte, wait the three minutes it takes for them to make it, then walk out as he walks in. I never know what he orders, but I always get the brief smell of his cologne -- it's manly and husk. He smells like a million dollars, which he is. This has happened every morning since I started working here about four years ago. Our schedules are like clockwork, the same thing happening every morning.

But this morning is different, due to the fact that I'm late. I make good money, but not enough to live in Manhattan; so I settled for the next best thing: Brooklyn. I take the 2 train from Brooklyn Heights to the Financial District, then walk five minutes down the street to my office building. Like I said, everything is like clockwork, except today. The train was late, 13 minutes late actually, which means I'm all thrown off schedule. As I get off the subway, I start running to work, hoping that I get there in time. Just as I arrive, I run to the elevator (thankfully the doors were already open) and press the button to the 14th floor. As the doors shut and the ride starts, I look at my watch which reads "8:33am", and I take a deep breath as I lean my head against the wall.

"Great" I think to myself. I have two minutes till the meeting with the board. Being one of the six presidents of the company means that I get to attend all the board meetings, which typically happen around lunchtime on Friday. But instead it's today, Tuesday, in the morning. 8:40am to be exact. Just as the ride slows down and the doors open, I decide to go straight the conference room -- nervous that I may be late. When the doors open, the five other presidents are walking towards the conference room, and I join right in. Just as I begin walking with everyone, my coworker/best friend/roommate, Catalina, looks at me with a confused look.

"Is the, Antonella García, late to work" She says with a chuckle as we walk into the conference room. I've known Catalina since we were nine, and we've been through everything together. She knows I hate being late -- which is the opposite from her. She's almost always late to everything; drives me insane. Just as we sit down, I begin to breathe. At least I got here with everyone else. All the other presidents like to be early to the meeting, since we never know what to expect from the board.

"Train ran late this morning, causing me to not be able to get my latte," I say to her with puppy dog eyes. I love my latte in the morning. Everyone gets settled, putting our phones on silent, taking out laptops to be ready for notes, and some people rush to eat their breakfast. All the presidents are good friends with one another, each of us having a unique set of skills. As I lean back in my chair and take a breath, the CFO and his assistant walk in, chatting about something that I assume is work related.

"Good morning everyone, glad to see everyone could make it. The rest will be with us shortly," Jorge says as he sits down, unbuttoning his suit jacket. His assistant, and my good friend Christina, sits down next to him, smiling at everyone and getting her little stack of papers ready. I've known Christina since our college days, and she's actually the one who introduced me to the company. She's a great friend, and she even lived with me briefly after her awful breakup. Just as everyone gets settled, the rest of the team walks in. The members of HR walk in first, followed by two people from management who I don't really know. However, I did email with one of them briefly about our Christmas party last December. And last to walk in is him, Mateo Hernández, CEO of the company and the man who never fails to make me break a sweat every morning.

"Good morning everyone, thanks for coming on such short notice. I know everyone is very busy so we will try to make this quick," Mateo says as he sits down at the head of the table, unbuttoning his suit jacket and letting it hang at his side. He leans back in the chair as he taps his pencil against his lips, analyzing everyone. When he looks at me, he smiles? Then shakes his head -- as if he was in a trance for one second to long. I look down at my dress, softly blushing from the smile.

"We have some exciting news for everyone!" One of the HR members, Josefina, says. I've become good friends with her, especially since she is the member of HR who works closely with the presidents, helping us with whatever we need. She's an older lady, in her early 50s, and reminds me of a mother -- my mother specifically. I sit up straight and stare at her, interested in what she's going to say.

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Author's note:

Hi there! Thank you so much for taking an interest in my story, it means a lot :) I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!

This actually started out as a school assignment; we were assigned to write the beginning of a story. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to continue it. I hope you enjoy.

Stay tuned for the next chapter ;)

xoxo,

Ashley