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Alice placed the last cardboard box on the floor and looked around the small apartment in a simple neighborhood in London.  She was proud of herself for the small achievement of buying her first property at age 30, after years of saving as much as she could.

The apartment was simple, with a small entrance hall where there was a closet for jackets and shoes.  To the right there was the bathroom, which had been renovated by previous owners but still retained the vintage feel of the rest of the place. The big white bathtub was the big attraction that made Alice interested in the apartment and made her imagine herself lying there, in a bubble bath with a book in her hands, after a day at work.  To the left there was the kitchen, with gray cabinets, a small black granite countertop near the sink and through the window, there was a view of a lake, which was now frozen in places due to the cold winter.

Leaving the kitchen, there was the small living room, which gave access to a balcony that Alice already planned to decorate with plants and flowers when the temperatures improved, and the next room was the bedroom, with an old wardrobe in the corner, matching the bed  with details on the headboards and feet.

Alice sighed and noticed when someone touched the door handle.  She left the middle of the room, where she was, and walked to the hall.

"I think you forgot the most important thing in the car."

Alice smiled at her childhood friend, Leslie, who was carrying her cat, Venus in a transport box.

"Oh, I would never forget my baby."  Alice said taking the transport box to the middle of the room and opening it, letting Venus go free to explore her new home.

"Do you need anything else, Liz?"  Leslie asked, looking around and seeing boxes piled up and bags scattered on the floor.

"No, thanks. You already helped me a lot by bringing the last boxes and Venus. Let's have some tea before you have to go."  Alice offered, knowing that her friend would be leaving soon for her work.

Leslie worked as a nurse at London's central hospital, and her hours were "crazy", as she said, but whenever Alice needed, Leslie helped her.

"Are you sure you'll be okay here? The apartment is almost empty!"  Leslie sat in one of the boxes in the kitchen carefully, while Alice made tea for the two of them.

"The most important thing is already here, which is the bed. I can now come home after a day at work without having to worry about sleeping on the floor."

Leslie smiled and took a sip of her tea.

"When do you start?"  She asked.

"Monday. That gives me the whole weekend to organize much of this mess and make me try to calm down."  Alice replied.

"But why are you nervous?"

"This company asked me for absolute secrecy about everything that happens there. The only one that knows where I'm going to work is you." Several companies where Alice worked before also had the conduct of keeping their business confidential.  But during Alice's interview, the emphasis on this subject was so great that she thought it was something illegal.

But nothing that a few minutes on Google to get those crazy ideas out of her head and she now could go more smoothly for her new job.

"What's the name of the company again? I don't even remember it anymore."  Leslie said casually.

"Promethean Productions."

____________

The following Monday, at seven fifty-five in the morning, Alice was already in front of the Promethean Productions building for her first day at work.

She wore a wide white shirt and skinny jeans, with ankle boots and low heels.  Practicality, your name is Alice.

To protect herself from the cold, Alice wore a long, dark coat that covered almost her entire body.  Her hair was tied in a loose ponytail and, even though she was not a fan of makeup, she made an effort and applied a little mascara and blush to her pale face, which even in the summer, she couldn't get any color other than the famous'  shrimp-red '.

Before leaving home, she looked in the mirror and liked what she saw.  Now, when she saw her reflection in the glass of the door of the building where Promethean's office was located, she was no longer so sure.  Her nose was red from the cold and her hair was damp, from the fine drizzle that was falling and she just wanted someone to arrive soon and open the blessed door for her to enter the building.

As if their prayers had been answered, a black car approached and two tall, sturdy men got out.

The tallest of them approached and greeted her with a nod, opening the door with a code shortly thereafter.

The second, a little shorter but much stronger, greeted her with a smile, but Alice could not see his face completely because he wore a beret that covered his eyes.  The only thing she could think of was that he didn't seem strange to her.

The three entered the building in silence and headed towards the elevator together.  The two men were talking in low tones, and Alice continued to think she knew one of them.  Crazy!  she thought.  She didn't know anyone on that side of city, except for Leslie.

She realized that she would go down on the same floor as them and started to suspect that they also worked at Promethean.  Had she seen the man in the beret the day of the interview?

"You must be the new secretary. Alice, right?"  The taller man asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.

Alice cleared her throat before answering, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Y-yes, I'm Alice Sinclair. The new secretary."

"Nice to meet you, Alice. I'm Charlie Cavill, one of the directors and this is my brother, Henry."  While Charlie introduced himself and greeted her, he pointed at his brother by his side.

"Hi, I'm Henry Cavill."  Said Henry, shaking her hands and smiling the same way he did at the entrance to the building.

How could she not recognize that smile right away?  Alice had a reputation for being disconnected, but that was too much!

And how to explain to Leslie that one of her bosses was Henry Perfect Cavill?  She could already imagine her friend's hysteria and did not expect any of it.

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