The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 35

She was picking at her nails, distracted, when something caught her eye. She turned to the floor's lobby seating area to see a vase of long stemmed, white calla lilies on a side table, their mustard yellow pistils peeking from their stark white delicate, swooping curls. The flowers looked almost like a small candle flame, pointed at the tip and lively in their stillness, as if ready to rustle under a breeze unlikely to come.

Kat stopped, staring at them. They hadn't been there the day before. And she'd told Jove about her middle name, about her father. She bit her lip, frowning. She didn't want to read too much into this but she couldn't help herself, couldn't stop the possibilities from clawing to the front of her mind. Had he gotten her flowers? Was this his version of that? They were beautiful themselves, but also part of the most beautiful bouquet Kat had ever seen, bunching with gorgeous, paled leaved stems of filler that left the ornate vase full and the expertly selected foliage nearly spilling over.

She shook her head and continued on to her desk, resolved to ignore it. It didn't matter if he'd gotten her flowers, if he was trying to impress her. She was surprised he'd remembered that detail, surprised he'd cared to remember, but it meant nothing. The flowers were probably picked out by some personal assistant of his, were probably expensive, probably wasteful. I don't need his meaningless gestures, she told herself. I need real change.

2:30 rolled around to find Kat pacing in front of the stairwell door nervously, far too early. She couldn't enter the floor until 2:37 exactly, which meant she had 7 minutes of nervous pacing to go. The time passed agonizingly, each minute marching arduously by as if it were smuggling several more in its backpack.

Finally the clock on her smartphone clicked to 2:37 and she opened the door with a bit too much force, wincing in hopes that it didn't hit the wall. She grabbed the handle quickly and no bang was produced, then she headed straight for the processor, her sense of direction a product of the schematic descriptions of the floor she'd spent two hours translating from the guard handbook.

Her heart was pounding in her ears so loudly she was afraid it could be heard from outside her body and she took a deep breath, willing herself to be calmer. She saw no guards and heard nothing, her eyes darting from right to left to confirm she was truly alone. She turned a corner and the guard standing in front of the processor door came into view, his face stern.

Kat took another deep breath. "Hi," she called as she approached him, "Hi."

"Ma'am this is a classified area," he responded without giving her a second look.

"Yes, yea I know, I'm sorry. She held up her badge, knowing the guard would immediately recognize the border surrounding her title that indicated all floor clearance.Still a few levels below the clearance she'd need to enter, but notable nonetheless.

He looked at her more squarely now and she wanted desperately to close her eyes, to do anything she could to keep her face from growing hot.

"I'm Mr. Tillibentons assistant. He told me he wanted me to update the handbook?" She said with a shrug as if the task were nonsensical. "It's endless," she continued with a laugh she hoped didn't sound practiced. "Anyways, I'm supposed to be confirming the employee processor maintenance schedule?"

The guard nodded evenly and stepped aside, revealing the laminated and color coded schedule next to the door. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture, taking two just in case.

"Perfect, thank you!" she said, turning heel to go the way she'd come. The timing. In her excitement at getting the schedule she'd forgotten that she needs to wait two minutes before leaving, that her goal was to ensure she could get out without being seen. She freezes.

"You know what," she begins, unsure of where she's going with the statement but forging ahead regardless. "It's just been so crazy," she said, turning back to the guard. "I mean, half the handbook is in these weird acronyms and if I stop typing for so much as two seconds he's like, on me."

The guard nodded, a hint of sympathy in his eyes.

"Is it ok if I just send a text really quick?" she asked. "I haven't had a break all day."

The stoic guard nodded again and she shot him a smile that was, in all actuality, born of relief. She leaned against the wall and tapped at her phone nonsensically, waiting for the readout to strike 2:39.

"Thanks!" she called, and walked away quickly, hoping the guards eyes weren't at her back.

She rounded the corner again, head on a swivel. This was the dangerous part for whoever would be infiltrating, this was the smallest window and the most suspicious action, the most likely reason for a guard to ask to scan a badge. Nobody in the building used the stairs. She hurried without running, careful to keep in mind that they wouldn't be able to run, and reached the stairwell door again without seeing anyone. She pushed the door open a crack and slipped through, pulling it shut silently behind her.

No one. So sounds, no feet running towards her, no guards throwing open the door to see who'd just slid past it. She took another deep breath. It worked. It actually worked, they could make it in and out. You did it. The hard part is over, she told herself, knowing it was anything but.