The Four

Chapter 8

It had been five days since the group night that the four of them had had and currently they were counting down the hours to the movie night they had planned last night while texting. Sure it was a bit juvenile to create a group chat but they didn't care. Sometimes it was the only entertainment that they had during boring hours at work.

    Melanie paced back and forth in her office at the main Thorson Industries office. Today was the first time she was able to host one of the development meetings since her dad deemed her ready. She nervously read over all of her notes and ideas once more before opening her office door coming face to face with her dad's right hand man, Alan.

    "Alan?" Melanie gave the man a weird look as she tightened her grip on the folders she was carrying in her arms.

    In her opinion the man was a dick. He made inappropriate jokes about the women in the workplace and about his own ex-wife. Melanie had always despised the man since she had met him when she was young.

    "Melanie, sweetheart!" Alan grinned at her as he held his arm out for her to take, "Ready for the meeting?"

    "Mhm." Melanie hummed as she brushed past his arm walking ahead of him.

     The man gave her an obnoxious sigh as he jogged to catch up to her, "Stubborn as always," He laughed as he nudged the woman in her side.

    "Annoying as always!" She whispered to herself as she tried to speed up to get away from him.

    Melanie tried her hardest to be nice to him to his face but he was truly testing her patience. She had no time to bother with men who acted like five year olds. Today was the day she finally proved to her dad that she was ready for more responsibility at the company and could take it over one day. But if Alan continued to bother her she was going to snap.

    Alan raced ahead of her and held the door open for her with his usual wide smile plastered on his face. Melanie managed to give him a fake one in response when she walked past him.

    She let out a sigh in relief when she saw Rose already sitting at one of the tables. Rose Chambers had been a friend of Melanies ever since high school when she became Alan's unpaid intern. The girls were practically cousins since Alan was Rose's uncle and he chose to stay close with Melanie's father throughout his racing career.

    Rose looked up from doodling on her notepad and gave Melanie an enthusiastic thumbs up.

    Melanie motioned for Rose to help her at the front of the table. The other brunette and the only other woman in the room jumped out of her seat to go help her.

    "Is your uncle drunk again?" Melanie murmured to Rose as they both leaned down to type on the laptop to get the presentation set up.

    "What do you think?" Rose rolled her eyes as she looked over at him, "Once you become in charge, please fire him."

    "That will be my first order of business." Melanie assured her as she glanced over her shoulder to make sure the projector was working.

    Rose hated her uncle as much as Melanie hated him. He had cheated on her aunt and resented him, but he did manage to get her a job at her dream company when she was only sixteen, so like everyone else in the office she played nice to his face.

    Melanie jumped when she felt a pair of hands on her waist and almost twisted the arm of the person holding her only pausing when she realized it was James.

    "Hi!" Melanie breathed out with a small laugh as she let go of his hand.

    James chuckled and kissed her forehead, "Hi."