Unseen Strings

Chapter 7

"Because why not?" He gazed at me. "Also it takes too long for me to take you home then go back. You can wait in my office."

"Y-your office?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, where else?" He took Sharp curve.

My heart began to beat rapidly. How could I go into an office building looking like this? How could he be so calm about it? Why did I even think about it? JJ was always calm, he might raise his voice, but he never displayed any other emotion around me. He barely talked to me in honesty. JJ pulled the car into a garage and parked immediately. My eyes popped at the sign on the spot. In neat black letters on a large blue plaque read "Chairman." My eyes whipped back to him, how could he be...a chairman? He wasn't that old...was he?

"What're you staring at?" He called, getting out of the car. "Let's go!" He came over and opened my door.

"T-Thank you." I felt my cheeks redden. How could JJ be a chairman?

My mind was blown. Did Laci know?

"Come on." He gestured for me to follow him as he walked. His long strides made it nearly impossible for me to keep up and I started to jog after him.

He shoved the doors to a skyscraper open. The sign in front read "Won Industries." As he breezed by the front desk, some women bowed to him. I was in a momentary state of shock and froze by the desk.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" One of the ladies asked.

"Angelina." He called.

The front desk ladies all stared at me.

"Ahm..." I couldn't form a sentence, "hehe," I waved as I ran past them.

"Don't lag," he was waiting down an open hall, "you'll get lost in here." He patted my head as I joined him.

I just nodded at him as we got into an elevator. He pressed the 25 button and the doors closed. The swift ride up was silent and awkward. JJ moved fast as he got off the elevator.

"Thomas," he stopped by the desk immediately by the elevator. "Are they there?"

"Yes, sir." He nodded, "we are just waiting on a couple more from advertising and finance."

"Good," JJ said as he turned his eyes to me and gestured for me to follow.

I could feel Thomas's eyes on me as I passed him by. I felt rude as hell not to say anything, but as JJ rushed off, I felt the need to hurry myself up. I was also dreadfully embarrassed by my appearance; all of these people were in suits and dresses and fancy stuff...

"You can chill out here while I go to my meeting." JJ opened a wooden door and held it for me.

I wiggled my way past his large frame and felt my heart fall into my stomach. There was an old, large, wooden desk in the back center of the room. A computer and a few folios were all that sat on top of it. The walls were lined with books and a TV sat on the side of the wall facing the sofas and chairs...all of which seemed to be prime materials. The room was decorated in a sort of modern Asian fusion...and it looked definitely more lived in than his own house.

"I'll tell Thomas to check on you." JJ ushered me to the couch. He started to bend down then stopped. "Don't break anything, don't go behind my desk, and don't bother Thomas unless he comes in here." He ordered, his eyes boring holes into mine.

"Yes," I nodded quickly.

"I'll be back soon." He stood up and rushed off, the door closing behind him.

My eyes blinked in astonishment. In a short time I had learned a great deal more about JJ than even his sister knew. He was a chairman of a business called Won Industries, and he clearly held a lot of sway and power over everyone here. They also all seemed surprised to see me following behind him, which meant he definitely had not done something like this before. As my mind raced, a knock brought me back.

"Hello?" Thomas called as he cracked the door. "May I come in?"

"Uhm...y-yes?" I answered in a more questioning speech. It wasn't, after all, my office.

"Hello ma'am," Thomas came in smiling. "Would you like coffee or tea?"

"Uhm..."I began.

"Perhaps a bite to eat? The Chairman didn't know if you had eaten." He kept smiling.

I cringed a bit at the words "The Chairman." "I...ahm...maybe I could....eat?"

"What would you like?"

"F-Flautas!" I said the first thing that came into my mind.

"Chicken, beef?"

"C-Chicken." I started slowly. "And-I want Coke...I-I don't like tea or coffee." I shrugged.

"Yes ma'am." Thomas beamed as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

I rose from the couch and approached the wall of books. Countless titles lined the shelves, some so rare I hesitated to touch them. I traced my fingers along their spines, softly reciting the titles:

"Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes Saavedra, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Animal Farm by George Orwell, and The Odyssey." My eyes lit up at the sight of familiar favorites, some I'd read countless times: "The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, War and Peace and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell."

The shelves held a vast array of books, from novels to non-fiction works on finance and technology. A knock on the door startled me.

"Ma'am," Thomas called. I quickly pulled my hand away from the books, plopped onto the sofa, and feigned a nap. "Oh! Sorry to wake you!" He apologized.

"No worries," I said, pretending to stretch.

He wheeled a small cart into the room.

My eyes widened at the sight of handmade flautas, red rice, chips, and a cold Coke. "Thank you so much!" I beamed.

"Of course, ma'am," Thomas replied, smiling. "I'll be back for the cart later. Oh!" He paused and returned. "Here's the TV remote." He opened a drawer in a nearby table and placed it on the cart.

"Thank you!" I said, taking a long sip of Coke.

He waved as he left, closing the door behind him.

Taking a bite of rice, I turned on the TV. It initially displayed what looked like security footage from around the office. I flipped through channels, encountering a gray screen requiring a password. I clicked past it, landing on regular programming. A wave of contentment washed over me as I ate and watched TV, waiting for JJ to return. Within the hour, Thomas returned to take the cart, bringing me another Coke.

"Here you go, ma'am," he said, offering a pillow and blanket.

"Why are you—" I started to ask.

"Well, ma'am, one never knows how long the chairman can be, and I figured it's better safe than sorry," he explained, placing the pillow on the couch and the blanket behind my head.

I noticed he never touched me, not even to hand me something. When I reached out to stop him, he subtly avoided my touch.

"Yes, ma'am?" he asked, still smiling.

"Could you turn off the lights?" I asked. "I don't know where the switch is." I shrugged.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, nodding as he left.

The lights clicked off, leaving only the TV's glow.

My phone buzzed nearby, but I ignored it. I kicked off my shoes, rested my head on the pillow, and unfolded the blanket. It was thick and warm, and the couch was incredibly comfortable as I settled onto my side. I hadn't realized how cold I was until I snuggled into the blanket. As an old movie played on the TV, a sense of calm settled over me, and my eyes drifted closed.