1
Lydia
I sat at a table near a window facing the street and took a small sip from my large to-go cup, closing my eyes for a moment to savor the sweet, hot coffee.
I came here every morning to calm down before work.
When I first started nearly a year ago, I was ecstatic to find this place right across the street.
It was perfect, though my boss thought I was insane to be there an hour before work every day for no reason.
I had reasons, multiple reasons, but she would never understand, so I just did what I always did—I shrugged, and she accepted it as another one of the harmless, weird things I do.
I liked her—Madelyne Cooper, Head of HR. She was kind and efficient and fair, and she seemed to like me, too. Still, we were friendly but not friends, which was why I was surprised to see her name flash on my phone. We had never spoken outside of work hours before.
“Hey Madelyne, everything ok?”
“Lydia! Yes, yes. No, actually. Please tell me you’re at the café.”
“Yeah, just sat down.”
“Well get up, I need your help. Please.”
“Sure. I’ll be right there.”
I took a second, bigger sip and sighed before getting up and leaving.
The HR department was on the sixth floor, which was where I spent the last year as an office assistant, helping all the other HR managers with whatever they needed.
I had expected to find Madelyn waiting for me there, but she was standing by the front desk when I entered the building.
To anyone who knew her, she looked like she was about to tear her own hair out of her head, but to a stranger, she probably just looked like a very well-put-together forty-five-year-old woman.
She always stood straight and had an expression on her face that meant ‘I know exactly what I’m doing.
’ I thought her style choices contributed to that as well, as long as you didn’t look too hard at the way she fidgeted with her bracelets.
Today, she was in a sleek, tailored, navy blue skirt and a matching blazer over a light blue buttoned shirt.
Her hair was down to her shoulders and looked like she had just had a blowout, same as always.
Next to her, I probably looked utterly boring.
I preferred spending as little time as possible on the way I looked and focused more on comfort and functionality.
As much as I appreciated the way she and many others in the office looked, my goal was to draw as little attention to myself as possible.
Doing that for years also meant I never actually learned how to apply makeup properly or make better stylistic choices, so I just kept things simple.
Today, I wore black slacks, a white buttoned shirt, and a black blazer.
My hair was tied back in a sleek bun without a hair out of place.
No one could tell how long my hair was or that it was wavy—all anyone could see was that it was dark brown except for a thick white streak starting at my right temple.
It had always grown that way, along with the edges of my eyebrow and eyelashes that were also white on that side.
Unlike Madelyne’s beautiful blue pumps, I wore simple black loafers because I had no idea how to walk in heels, and I liked having something I could run in, just in case.
When it came to makeup, she usually had a bold red lip and eyeshadow that shaped her eyes perfectly, while I stuck with nude lip gloss and black mascara.
And even the mascara was only to hide the white parts in my eyebrow and lashes.
Madelyn waved me over and hugged me, which I tolerated because I liked her, though it still took a bit of effort to stop myself from flinching.
“Oh, thank god. Annie’s in the hospital!” she said when she was done crushing me.
I automatically looked behind Madelyn to the empty chair at the front desk, where Annie usually worked.
“What happened?”
“Car accident, now, on her way to work! Well, an hour ago. Her husband just called to let me know she’s okay, but—”
“She won’t make it to work, obviously.”
Madelyne shook her head and grabbed my shoulders with both of her hands, making a lot of rattling noise with the thin gold bangles on her wrists and her long pearl earrings.
“No, and maybe Mike or Daryl might be able to fill in if we had more time, but this is so last minute and you’re always here early and you were there when we trained Annie.”
“I’ll be happy to fill in, Madelyne.”
Her eyes lit up. “You’re a lifesaver! Rick is just there by the elevators. You can ask him if there’s anything you don’t know how to do. Shift starts now, an hour earlier than the rest of us, and ends the same.”
I nodded and went behind the desk to take my seat, mustering up a friendly smile and waving a little hello to Rick. Madelyne looked like she was going to say something else, and then just nodded and left.
It was hard to just start the day without having that hour beforehand to prepare myself, but shit happens, and I’ve always been the kind of person to adapt.
Otherwise, I would have probably died years ago.
At least it was Friday, which meant I would have the weekend after this.
Then again, there tends to be a lot of foot traffic on Fridays for some reason.
***
Madelyne kept checking on me throughout the day and even brought me another cup of coffee and a sandwich for lunch.
I was okay drinking coffee at the desk, but I couldn’t eat because people kept approaching.
Eventually, Rick stepped in and covered for me so I could eat in peace in an empty meeting room.
I was just about to call it a day when a courier arrived with a thick, padded envelope.
“Delivery for Daniel Mason.” He smiled at me and gave me the package and a clipboard to sign.
He was handsome, early thirties maybe, and his smile was very flirtatious, but his eyes weren’t.
Something about him seemed out of place, and I hesitated to take the package.
I exchanged looks with Rick, getting only a nod of encouragement.
He probably just thought I didn’t know what to do with couriers.
“I’m just going to need you to sign here, Miss…” He sounded like he was flirting with me, but his soft and playful voice didn’t match his face. When I looked at him, at his eyes, a part of me recoiled, the part that I had learned to listen to over the years.
“Davis.” I said, smiling politely as I signed the document, not looking away from him.
His eyes were light brown, pretty on his handsome features, but they were also cold, angry, violent, and scheming.
I had been on the receiving end of eyes like those too many times not to know what was in front of me.
Still, there wasn’t anything I could do—he hadn’t done anything wrong.
Shortly after he left, I was going to grab my bag and go home, when Daniel Mason, the CEO of Mason Corp and everyone’s boss, marched into the building and headed right for me. I looked up at another set of cold eyes, though his dark brown ones didn’t seem as malicious as the delivery guy’s.
“Who are you?” His tone wasn’t rude, but it was too commanding for my liking.
“Lydia Davis, Mr. Mason. I’m filling in for Annie.”
He frowned. “I’m waiting for a package.”
“Yes, it just arrived.”
I handed him the envelope and hesitated to let go when he grabbed it, making him frown and step closer to the desk.
Most people were tall compared to me, but Mr. Mason looked like a giant, especially when I was sitting behind the desk. There was something threatening about him, with his furrowed eyebrows and a muscular build that screamed ‘fighter’ more than ‘bodybuilder.’
Why aren’t I scared?
“I’m sorry, Mr. Mason, it’s just… the delivery guy was—something was off.” I let go, realizing how stupid I sounded, and was surprised when he didn’t look annoyed.
“Off, how?”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.” I shook my head. This was why I stayed quiet and in the shadows, and Madelyne had to put me in the most public-facing place in the building.
You didn’t have to open your mouth, you idiot.
I thought he would dismiss me or at least tell me that he was sure it was nothing. Instead, he called Rick over and asked to see the footage from the security cameras. Maybe when you’re the head of a cybersecurity company that provides services to the military, you don’t take any chances.
While Rick used the front-desk computer to find the recording, Mr. Mason turned his attention back to me.
“Describe what you saw. What felt off?” His voice was softer than before, but still impatient, like he was talking to a child.
“When he walked in, he looked out of place. The way he walked, and how he looked around. It felt weird. Also he…”
I was a very straightforward person. My cold tone and direct way of speaking came naturally to me, and I usually owned it, but I wasn’t sure how to say what happened without sounding like an idiot.
I sighed, accepting whatever reaction would come.
“He flirted with me, smiled a lot, but his eyes were wrong. They didn’t look like he was flirting, they looked like he was a predator. ” And I was prey, I didn’t add.
“Got it!” Rick said, turning the screen around so Mr. Mason could see the short interaction.
“Shit. Scan the package.” He left the envelope on the counter and muttered a couple more curses before taking out his phone and making a call. When he took a few steps away, I grabbed my bag. “I think I’ll go, Rick.”
“Of course,” he beamed, “I’ve got this. Next shift is coming in about an hour to replace me, don’t worry.”