The CEO – Adrian
THE CEO
ADRIAN
Two Weeks Later
Iwalked into the security room at the book printing warehouse, hoping to steal a glance at Summer before I called it a night.
I’d missed seeing her at the store or slipping out on her lunch break, and I was pretty sure that was because of the private book signing Slow Burn had hosted earlier.
Why couldn’t you be someone else? Why did you have to own Slow Burn?
“Good evening, Mr. Sinclair.” The guard tipped his hat at me. “What can I show you tonight?”
“The usual,” I said. “Row eighty-three.”
“She’s working seventy-two tonight,” he said. “She came in early to cover for one of her coworkers.”
“I’m assuming she’ll be leaving soon, right?”
“Doubt it.” He tapped his keyboard. “She’s been working overtime all week.”
I made a mental note to have Benjamin look into that later.
Summer suddenly appeared on the main screen, hunched over a box of Harry Potter books. She picked up five and carried them to the end of the aisle.
Yawning, she stretched and looked over at a sleeping coworker.
She rubbed her eyes before reaching for another box.
“Why am I paying these people to sleep on the clock?” I asked aloud. “We have robots…”
“Yeah, but the robots tend to damage the books.” He shrugged. “The previous owner said he’d rather eat the cost of an hour of sleep here and there than lose money on a damaged shipment.”
Makes perfect sense…
“Thank you,” I said, stepping back. “Do me a favor in about fifteen minutes.”
“Yeah?”
“Have the café next door deliver dinner and coffee to Miss Connors,” I said. “And her coworkers. Obviously.”
“She gets the premium menu, though.” He smiled.
“I’m aware.”
“I’ll get it done,” he said.
“Don’t ever tell her it was me.”
“You tell me that every night, sir.”