Her Always Choice

Chapter 1

Mel slid into the conference room, ten minutes ahead of schedule. She was a bit surprised when she took note of the people already in it. Her boss was always running behind for meetings and the look on his face told her the kind of day it was going to be.

“Where the hell have you been?” Henry demanded.

“I’m sorry Mr. Tracks; you said the meeting was scheduled for noon, and no one had made the changes to the packets you wanted,” she stated aware of the others in the room throwing looks at her ranging from appreciative to apologetic to intrigued.

“You still should have been here by now. We were waiting on you, again.”

She gritted her teeth to keep from throwing out a nasty retort.

She couldn’t afford to lose this job. It was the only thing keeping a roof of any sort over her head and if she did, she didn’t know how easy it would be to trick someone else.

She could only manage to work an irregular schedule to keep up with everything else, and she didn’t want this one to go away.

“I apologize then, sir,” Mel said putting a polite smile onto her face as she hurried to distribute the materials for the meeting.

She paused beside the computer, and her fingers flew across the keys as she brought up the same material that was inside the packets she’d just finished reprinting.

Then made her way around the other side of the room handing out the papers and was thankful when one of the men there sent her a polite smile instead of the leering ones she was used to seeing like on several of the others’ there.

“Thank you,” he stated and she felt a real smile pull at her lips.

Mel gave him a nod and finished, handing the remote to Mr. Tracks to begin the meeting.

Why she had to be included in it she didn’t know.

All he wanted was to give these men a chance at bidding on the construction of the new facility he wanted built.

Her stomach churned as the minutes went past, reminding her she’d missed both breakfast and lunch now in her attempt to get here on time.

“Melinda…wake up girl,” Mr. Tracks stated nearly an hour and a half later and she was conscious that she’d just written that down on the notebook along with the other fifteen or so pages she’d been taking on her half-size memo pad.

“Sorry, Mr. Tracks I was just finishing up the notes.”

“Would you please see that these gentlemen find their way out?” he ordered giving her his dismissive look.

“Of course,” she answered hoping to stave off anything else he was about to say. She attempted to walk to the door, but he stopped her beside him as he grabbed her arm.

“I can easily replace you Melinda. I only allow your work schedule the way it is because we have plenty of business that comes in during the evening. I won’t hesitate to end it if you don’t start paying more attention.”

“Of course,” she answered again, pulling her arm away from him resisting the urge to wipe away the grimy residue from his hands. She couldn’t stand the man or his attitude. They both grated on her last nerve, and she had enough of that in school.

Mel ignored the urge as she led the group towards the exit, a daunting task with the illogical space.

Whoever put the office together had to have been smoking something illegal because it was the only explanation as to why things were arranged the way they were, she mused as they started out.

She wound her way through the maze and nearly ran into Ryan who was coming back from lunch down the narrow hallway that she was certain was not within the ADA compliance requirements.

He took one look at her face and smiled at her sympathetically. “At it again?”

“Later,” she mouthed, as he turned so his back was against the wall to let the group pass. Several others called out hi to her as she eased them through the mess and she responded with her usual smile conscious that the men were staring at her ass as they followed her out of the suite.

Mel stopped, holding open the door when she reached the lobby.

The receptionist smiled at her, and she knew she’d seen the guys checking her out.

It was the main reason she’d been hired for the job.

Mr. Tracks liked having someone pretty sitting beside him at meetings.

He hoped it would distract the others and give him an advantage.

The last one through was the man who’d been polite to her, Jordan Holmes, she remembered.

He paused beside her and sent her another smile.

This one wasn’t just a polite social one, yet it wasn’t the same as the others, and it made her stomach clench in a way that had nothing to do with hunger for food.

“A pleasure to you meet you, Melinda,” he said holding out his hand as the others made their way towards their vehicles.

“You too Mr. Holmes, if there’s anything you need, feel free to call me. My number’s in the packet. We’ll be looking for your bid.”

“Please call me Jordan. Mr. Holmes makes me feel ancient. You don’t like your boss, do you?” he added a bit out of the blue surprising her.

“What makes you say that?” she asked, glad he hadn’t asked her out forcing her try to find an excuse to turn him down, because she honestly didn’t know if a no would come out of her.

“You keep wiping your arm where he touched you.”

She glanced down, unaware that she was doing exactly that, and dropped her arm. “You caught me, I detest the man.”

“Why work for him?”

“Because he lets me make my own schedule. I take care of my grandmother and have to wait until the nurses can get there to take over before coming into the office,” she told him sticking to the lie she’d created when she first took on this job.

“I see, well if you ever decide you’d like to make a switch career wise give me a call. I think we can rival their employment packages, or if you’d like to just call me to talk…” He trailed off, handing her his business card with his personal number on the back of it.

“I…”

“Mel, glad I caught you and didn’t have to come up,” Tate said, surprising her with his sudden appearance as he slid his arm around her waist.

“What are you doing back here?” she asked aware of Jordan’s curious and disappointed look. The curiosity part was normal, the disappointed piece though, touched something else inside her she really didn’t want to feel.

“Can’t have you starving, can I? Oh, come on Mel, I could feel your stomach growling when I dropped you off, we could have swung through somewhere on the way in, you had at least ten minutes.”

“Tate enough,” she said with a smile towards him as she took the bag of food and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”

“I should get back to the office if I’m going to work up a bid,” Jordan said stepping away from them. “Again, it was nice meeting you Melinda.”

“You too Jordan, thank you for the offer as well,” she replied waiting for him to go.

“Alright what was that?” Tate asked shooting her a curious look as he led her across the street to the small park. “Don’t tell me he wants to sweep you off your feet and carry you away to his castle in the sky.”

Mel couldn’t hold back the grin or the laugh that followed and dissolved into tears. “Oh yeah that’ll work really great until it’s time to fill out the marriage certificate and he notices that I’m only sixteen.”

“For two more days now. So spill, how was the meeting?”

“Awful, I swear every time I leave here I feel like I need to shower to remove the grime.”

“Then quit and find a regular teenage job, Mel. It’s our junior year we’re supposed to be living large, not living the corporate life,” Tate said making her snort a bit and he shot her a look only a best friend could get away with wearing and not raise someone’s ire.

“Oh yeah sure. Do you really think that working at the McDonalds for four or even six hours a night is going to keep me in my apartment, with electricity, internet, and water? It’d barely keep me eating—definitely not eating healthy just barely eating.”

“You know you can move in with me; Dad will agree to it with ease. Why keep this a secret from everyone? Your mom ran off two years ago tomorrow.”

“I know, but if anyone found out that I was on my own at fifteen I’d have been put into foster care, and I wasn’t going to do that Tate.

Jesus…you’ve seen how guys look at me. Now put me into a home with four or five of them and tell me what’s bound to happen.

Now, they’d likely try to throw me in a detention center for keeping quite the last two years or else into a group home with others that really have issues to worry about on top of everything else.

Once I turn eighteen, they can’t do anything about it.

I have a year to keep up the pretense and it’s not like you were complaining when I bought those steaks last week,” she added trying to push aside the reminders of things she detested thinking of, especially if she had to go back in and deal with Henry again.

“Alright I admit they were pretty awesome, you’re pretty awesome Mel, but you hate this guy.”

“I know and I’ll deal with it my own way. I couldn’t pull this off without you. Now you need to get back to school so I don’t get fired or found out.”

“Remember we’ve got our AP test tomorrow; promise me you won’t stay up all night studying.”

“I’ll try,” she agreed before hurrying back over to the building and slipping inside for the rest of her hours. It would be a long afternoon if Henry kept up his tirade.

“You and Mr. Yummy still together?” Joelle inquired as she walked past her.

“Yup, what can I say? Tate’s my best friend and considering the fact that he just kept me from passing out from starvation…”

“Lucky girl,” she said giving her a huge grin.

If you only knew, Mel thought heading back upstairs.