A Charitable Scandal

The Empty Office

"I don't know," I said with a frustrated sigh. "I wanted to talk to him some more on Friday, but something about my whole encounter with that awful woman Tamara got him upset. Plus we've been busy..." I stopped when I caught Emily's mischievous grin that was threatening to tear her face in half. "What? What is it?"

"You're legitimately disappointed that you couldn't talk to him."

"You're smiling too much..."

"You are upset that he isn't showing you attention. You're worried you did something wrong. You like Mr. Radcliffe!"

"It would sound less creepy if you would just call him by his first name."

"But he's our boss," she said with snarky glee. "It wouldn't be appropriate to call him Alec. That would be so scandalous..."

"I'm going to revoke your friendship license."

"So you won't deny it?" Her smile was ever widening, her eyes wild with glee.

"I won't confirm or deny anything."

"Come on," she said, her eager eyes pleading. "I trusted you with that whole thing with Theo, I think I deserve the same."

"Fine."

I sighed as Emily scooted to the edge of her seat, her hands clasped tight in her lap to quell the anticipation buzzing through her. With some hesitation I began to tell her about my night on the patio. As my tale wore on, she started to lean forward until she braced her elbows against our table and rested her gaping mouth in her palm. Finally I ended with our evening sharing tea in the Pit.

"Wow, way to go Lex."

"Way to go nothing. I wasn't trying to accomplish anything, it just sort of happened."

"Maybe you weren't trying before, but you sure are trying now."

I can't say whether I agreed with that or not, but I did know that the conversation had long ago gone off course and it was well past time to get to work.

"I think that's up for debate. For now, can we table it and get back to researching the charity."

"Right, because that would totally prove that you aren't trying to impress Alec."

I put on my best pout for Emily, who simply giggled as she rose up from her chair. I followed her example and we both continued to poke fun at each other's silly love life as we mapped a route to the address Emily got from Carmen. That ended up being a good hour's walk thanks to all the circles we made. The GPS on my phone had a severely difficult time trying to pinpoint the building and we spent the majority of our walk retracing our steps. It probably had something to do with the fact that the office building was hidden in the dark recesses of some shady alleyways. Still, we made our way inside and eventually found ourselves outside a door named by the address from Accounting. We could only assume the address was right since there was a paper sign taped to the door proclaiming it "Coding a Future." However, had that not been there, I would have had my doubts. Most of the rooms in the building were vacant and the lights in the hall flickered at a nauseating rate.

"I suppose this is it," said Emily with a shiver present in her voice.

"It certainly says it is. It also says that it is still under construction."

Just below the first paper sign was another that read, "Do Not Enter. Renovation in Progress."

"Well, that was useful," I said with a groan and a roll of my eyes.

Emily sighed and glanced around the floor. I too took another good look at our surroundings. The walls looked yellow with age and, based on the lingering scent, decades old tobacco smoke. The carpet had little burn holes in it and I couldn't fathom it's original color since it fluctuated between tar black and puke brown. The lights buzzed and popped above us, while the sound of the autumn breeze bellowed through the old vents.