"I don't have the time to waste on you," he said. "I refuse to sit here while security bumbles around like idiots before coming to remove you from my office and from this building. I am leaving, though. I trust you enough, just barely, not to destroy my office. Once you've finalized this charade in your head, lock the door on your way out."
He snatched his laptop off his desk and stomped towards the door and out of his office.
Before he shut the door, I screamed at him. "Asshole!"
He left and I was alone and it hurt. This was all I had now: my purse, its contents, myself, and some vague memory of Lucent and I, confined and trapped inside of my mind like we'd been trapped inside of the library.
I didn't want this. I needed something else. I had no way of getting it, though.
Unsure what else to do, I returned to sitting on his couch and waiting.
...
Lucent was correct in that I couldn't wait in his office forever. I should've left, but I refused to completely do that, too. I did need to leave, though. I needed to use the restroom and get something to drink. Unfortunately I had no idea how to find either of those. Also, I fully expected his office door to lock me out once I left.
Perhaps that last part was irrational. I fidgeted with the door, attempting to figure out the lock, and it seemed simple enough. A button on the knob clicked to lock and unlock it, like most regular locks on most regular doors, but for some reason I doubted it. I needed some way to insure I could get back inside. Just in case.
If I left, got trapped out of the room, what would Lucent say then? I imagined him returning in the morning and seeing me huddled outside his office, my back to his door. In my mind, he smirked at me, and offered some snide, condescending remark. "Can't even stick to your word, Miss Tanner? Get out of here, you trash."
Was that it? Was that what I was to him? Because I wasn't his perfect submissive, I was nothing? He'd watched me, wanted me to be something I wasn't, and upon meeting me for the first time, he realized it. He toyed with me, treated me like a game, tested me to see how I stood up to his ideals. And he found me lacking. I was nothing to him.
Well, he could just go away then. Not really go away, but he needed to fix himself, because I didn't want to go away. I just wanted him to act the same as he had before because it was nice. We were nice together. I enjoyed all of it. My memories sustained me.
I really needed to use the bathroom, though. I slid a chair across the carpet towards the door. Opening the door, I slipped the chair between it and the door frame so it couldn't shut and lock me out, then I snuck into the hallways.
The drone of some nighttime cleaning person and his nighttime cleaning machines echoed down the hallway. What if he closed the door on me? I mean, if I were a nighttime cleaning person and I saw a random door propped open with a chair, I'd likely close it, too. I needed to leave a note.
I snuck back into Lucent's office, stole a piece of paper and a pen from his desk, then wrote a note. I had no way of hanging it on the door, so I left it on the seat of the chair instead, and made my escape once more.
In the middle of the night, stubborn beyond belief, probably the worst potential slave in the history of Master/slave relationships ever, I defied everything and searched for the bathroom. Also, I hoped I found a water bubbler or a vending machine or anything. I brought my purse along just in case.
...
I found a bathroom nearby to a breakroom. This provided some much needed relief.
The breakroom had a sink and a TV and some comfortable chairs, plus a corporate-style water machine(with nozzles for hot and cold water). I borrowed a cup from atop the water machine and filled the tiny paper thing with water. I drank it, filled it again, drank, filled, drank.
The breakroom had a vending machine, but it didn't have anything decent in it. Candy, mostly. On a whim, I opened the refrigerator and found an assortment of leftover food. I could eat this, I thought. Find something nice, like a sandwich, and eat it. Except none of these things were mine, and I didn't want to upset anyone, especially when they didn't know me. If I were in the library, I'd do it and tell the person later, but this wasn't the library.
What the heck was I doing in Landseer Tower? I knew what I was doing, and why I was doing it, but thinking about it more made me somewhat unsure of how any of this had happened. I should leave, except I didn't want to leave.
I thought, perhaps, I was having an existential crisis. I needed to leave and stay at the same time, and be two things at once, in two separate places, two entirely different people.
I was only one person, though, and if I kept bothering myself like this, I'd never figure anything out. Don't think, Lucent had told me once. It seemed so long ago now, but it happened this past weekend. Don't think, Miss Tanner. Just feel.
I did that. Having fixed my bathroom and thirst problems, I scampered through the halls like some audacious thief and returned to Lucent's office. The cleaning man stood near the door, staring at my note and the chair, clearly unsure what to make of it.
I offered him an apologetic smile and hurried inside. "Sorry," I said. "It's a late night tonight. I won't bother you."
He blinked at me, uncertain, but I closed the door behind me before he could comment on my strangeness.
...
"Elise."
I must have been dreaming, because I could've sworn Lucent was kneeling next to me with his hand on my shoulder, acting nice. It was a nice dream, though. Yawning, somewhat disoriented, I reached over for him and touched his face. Through sleepy, half-lidded eyes, I smiled at him.
He returned my smile with one of his own, but his brow creased with worry, too. "Did you stay here all night?"
"What?" I asked. This was an odd dream. Where was I?
"It appears," he said, sighing, "you've taken up occupancy within my office. You shouldn't sleep on couches like that. It's bad for your back. Here, get up."
I shifted on the couch, feeling lazy. I didn't entirely know what was going on, or why Lucent wanted to act nice to me all of a sudden after being a jerk before, but dreams were dreams and it didn't need to make sense. He helped me off of the couch and I lay on the floor with my head resting sideways on my forearms.
Lucent knelt beside me and pressed his fingers into my back, easing away the slight kinks of backache from my night on his couch.
His couch, I remembered. In his office. Which was here. Where we were. Currently. Right now.
I woke up with such immediate force that I thought I could surely cause a natural disaster if I knew how to harness this power. I didn't, nor did I want to do anything like that, but now I was angry. I rolled away from him and slapped at his hands and pulled myself off the floor. Glaring at him, refusing to accept his sudden kindness, I plopped onto his couch.
"Good morning," he said with a wry grin.
"I'm not speaking with you," I said.
"Did you stay here all night?" he asked. "I'm not sure what to think of that. You shouldn't have. You should have left."
"Yes, well, I didn't." I lifted my nose at him, haughty. "I intend to wait for my interview, Lucent. Please excuse my appearance, as I've been dealing with some annoying people."
"Like me," he said.
"Actually, yes, exactly like you. I wish you wouldn't be so annoying."
He frowned. "Miss Tanner, I can't interview you for the personal assistant position."
"Why?" I asked. "Just tell me why, then?"
"It's complicated."
"I don't understand how you can think it's complicated. Ask me some questions. Even I know how an interview works."
Removing himself from the floor, he took a seat on the couch next to me. "Have you eaten anything?"
"What kind of interview question is that?"
"It's not an interview question. I'm worried that you're going to do something foolish and refuse to eat."
My stomach wanted to grumble in protest, but I ordered it not to; it ignored me.
"No, then," he said.
"As a matter of fact, no. I haven't eaten anything," I said.
He stood and held his hand out to me. "Come."
I took his hand without thinking and let him lift me up off the couch. He squeezed my fingers tight, holding my hand, and led me towards the door to his office.
"Lucent, I..." I couldn't! I couldn't leave. I was mad at him still, and if he thought that acting nice to me momentarily would fix that, it wouldn't.
"I'll interview you," he said. "You're too stubborn and difficult by far, and so I'll interview you. Over breakfast."
"You're taking me for breakfast?" I asked, perplexed. "What time is it?"
"Early," he said. "Seven-thirty."
"Oh. I thought you said you came to work later now."
"Yes," he said. "Typically I do, except I feared I might have to deal with an obstinate woman wreaking havoc in my office."
"I didn't wreak havoc," I muttered.
"You're still obstinate," he countered.
"I hope you know you just said you're afraid of me."
"Yes, that's probably correct." He tugged on my hand, urging me out of his office and into the halls. "Come."
Lucent was scared of me? Odd. I didn't know what to think of that. What did he mean?
...
He marched me down the halls of Landseer Tower and to the glass elevators. We waited quietly and entered silently. No more talking now. I needed to talk. I wanted to say something, but I didn't know what to say.
He still held my hand, too. He confused me so much.
And onwards, downwards, outwards. We arrived outside Landseer Tower, hand in hand, and he marched me once more. We walked side by side, but I felt like he was pulling me along more than anything else. This was all so strange and I didn't know how I felt about it. Well, I felt strangely, but that wasn't enough for me. I wanted to know more, to feel more.
After a brief walk, words eluding us, we reached the front door of Sam's Delicatessen. I stared at the door, frowning. They were closed now, and they wouldn't open for hours; they opened at eleven in the morning for the lunch crowd, then stayed open until seven for people on their way home.
Also, they were expensive. I never understood how a deli could be so expensive when they basically just served sandwiches, but honestly they were really good sandwiches. Not the paltry fare typically found in the average sandwich, but hearty chunks of real meat, cooked and seasons to perfection, with real, fresh chopped vegetables and homemade sauces spread throughout. I'd eaten here once because of a special occasion at the library, but otherwise I barely even walked by. I couldn't afford it on a casual basis.
"Lucent," I said, "I think they're closed still."
Or, I knew they were closed. The sign on the door said as much.
This didn't deter Lucent, though. Striding forth, he knocked on the door. Not a regular knock either, oh no. It sounded like some secret club special knock, something or other.
And, sure enough, someone opened the door. A man wearing a pristine white apron and a brilliant smile greeted us and welcomed us inside the deli.
Lucent nodded to him. "Thank you, Sam."
"Anytime, Lucent. You haven't been by for breakfast in so long. It's just you, today. You and...?" Sam gave me a curious smile.