give a little get a little (a hosie music au)

Part 3 "Good afternoon, ladies."

A/n: don't forget to educate yourselves on basic human rights issues. you have a right to protest. you have a right to live. speak up when you see injustice, especially when it's scary. if the black lives matter movement is making you uncomfortable, assess your privilege and grow.
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Hope was struggling to carry the tray of coffee in her hands, her purse and phone in the other. She had just finished her lunch break (not that she had actually used the whole hour, only the last twenty minutes) and was making her way to her office. Or at least, the office she worked in. She shared it with her long-time work friend Alyssa Chang. They didn't talk outside of work, but Hope was sure that's what Alyssa wanted. Honestly, she wouldn't even call them friends. Alyssa did treat Hope the best out of everyone, if that was any consolation.

"We have five minutes." Alyssa said from her desk without looking up. She was typing something very quickly on the keyboard, filling the room with a constant tapping sound. Hope set everything down at her desk with a huff, pushing the strand of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail back into place.

"Any last minute emails?" She asked, sitting down in front of her computer and opening up hotmail. Alyssa makes a grunting noise.

"Sebastian's usual rhetoric, don't bother. It's a waste of time."

Hope looked at the watch on her wrist, collecting her things and the coffee at the same time Alyssa gets up. They both silently make their way to conference room C, lovely referred to by some staffers as the 'bored room'. This room was notorious for being warmer than the rest of the the floor in the summer, and didn't have many decorations. The walls were beige, the table in the middle was one of the ugliest wood stains Alyssa Chang had ever seen in her life. Most meetings that happened in this room were also cursed. One person would always fall asleep at the end of a meeting. Most of the time it was Landon because he didn't want to be there anyway. On rare occasion it was Hope, usually after a needlessly long shift. The one and only time Alyssa had fallen asleep she had accidentally punched the poor intern tasked with waking her up. He got a bloody nose and almost sued, but HR was able to dissuade him. The only good thing to come out of that day was that the previously beige carpet was replaced with a darker colour.

Hope set down the coffee, taking them out of the tray and placing them on the Table. Alyssa took hers and sat farthest away from the front, looking over the folder in her hands with the moodiest of expressions.

"Good afternoon, ladies." Landon said as he walked in, accepting the cup offered to him with a gracious smile, muttering something about 'my precious' as he went to sit down.

"Ah, Hope." A slim young man with a wicked smile said as he swaggered into the room. Today he was wearing a pink collared shirt with white trousers, his usual chunky gold rings gleaming in the light as he directed the intern behind him to set down the stack of folders they had been carrying. "I just wanted to thank you again before the meeting, for finding this girl. She's going to be a hit, I can feel it."

"Thanks." Hope replied curtly, awkwardly standing near Sebastian as he set out the folders. She didn't know how to take his words. He had already praised her a few times in the emails sent to their team discussing the pitch ideas. Personally, she felt like it was getting unprofessional. But she also had a sneaking suspicion that if this Josie Saltzman girl turned out to be a flop, Sebastian would waste no time bringing up the fact that Hope had been the one to find her. Though any success they were sure to create he would take credit for.