4

"I think that's the point of a reward," Gemma said. "You earn them by being a good worker and a good person, Eric. Not just because you want them."

"Whatever," Eric said. "Fine. Leave me and Gemma and Andy to do all the real work. We'll make sure to leave your shares waiting for you."

"You do that," you sighed. "Later."

Eric grunted. Gemma smiled, just a touch of jealousy in her expression, but she waved and gave a little wink.

That wink would have carried you on cloud nine all day on any other day. Instead, you barely registered it as you left the intern bullpen with your messenger bag slung over your shoulder and headed towards the elevator.

"Got everything?" Sabrina asked as you met her there.

"Yup," you said. "Eric is super jealous."

"Hah, good," Sabrina laughed. "Maybe he'll put in a little more work instead of checking his phone all the time. He is obsessed with Hinge."

The elevator dinged and opened, and Andy came stumbling out. Andy was the kind of tall, shaggy-haired kid who you assumed was either going to drop out of school to go become a tech mogul, or drop out of school to become a burnout in whatever bumfuck suburb he'd rolled out of. Unfortunately for him, it was looking more and more like it was the latter.

"Hey guys," Andy said, then put a hand to his mouth and stifled a burp. He looked like shit, with dark rings under his eyes and slightly pale. "Am I late?"

"Five minutes," you said, checking the time on your phone. "Not as bad as yesterday."

"Anyone been looking for me? I had a rough morning."

"Not yet," Sabrina said. "Try not to throw up on your way back there."

"Nice," he said, and offered a raised hand for a high five.

You winced, but couldn't leave him hanging with that expectant, idiot look on his face. You slapped his hand, which was unfortunately weak-fingered for a guy offering the high five, and you and Sabrina moved past him into the elevator.

Andy was halfway around the corner, and the elevator doors were closing, when he stopped and blinked, then looked back at you. "Hey, where are y-"

The doors shut, cutting him off.

"That guy really needs to get his shit together," Sabrina said.

"How many times do you think Gemma is going to have to wake him up today?" you asked.

She made a show of pondering for a moment, pursing her lips to the side and tapping her cheek.

God, she's cute, you thought.

"Hmm, I'm thinking three times this morning, then five this afternoon unless they move him somewhere else in the office. That room gets so warm in the afternoon."

"I was thinking four total, but only because he leaves work sick by lunch," you said.

"Ooh, good point."

The elevator reached the ground floor quickly and you two walked out.

"Hey, Becks," Sabrina said to the secretary. "Guess what? John and I get to go do some work outside the office!"

The secretary, who until now you weren't even sure had a name since she was so unengaged from you every day, looked up and her usually stony expression flickered into a smile. "Hey, that's great, Sabrina. Congratulations. You too, John."

Sabrina waved as you two left the building and stepped out onto the downtown street. It was only 9:30, but the sidewalks were busy and the summer sun was already well on its way to turning this into a hellishly hot day.

"That might be the first time she's ever even looked at me," you said.

"Who? Becks? Aw, she's so sweet though," Sabrina said.

"Yeah, maybe to you," you said. "I say hello to her every morning and she never even looks at me."

"Well, come on," John said. "Maybe we just need to work on your Secretary-whispering."

You two headed off, winding your way through downtown towards the Benthouse building.

*****

It was a ten-minute walk through downtown before we got to the Benthouse building. The immense structure was one of the old style of skyscrapers, with lots of fancy stonework around the modernized revolving glass doors, and way far up you could see the same stonework on the upper corners of the building. They'd even shot a scene of that latest Batman movie on top of it, featuring one of the gargoyles as Bats himself looked out over the city.

Benthouse was a 32-story edifice, and as you and Sabrina walked through the doors, you were greeted by a big, two-story entry hall with vaulted ceilings that looked like they would have been more at home in a museum than an office building.

"The registry is over here," Sabrina said, and you followed her over to the big plaque on one of the walls near the elevators. There were easily fifty businesses listed, etched into little black metal plates. You searched for a moment and found Chambers Architecture up on the 24th floor.

You and Sabrina went over to the elevators and you pushed the call button.

"Things aren't weird between us now, right?" Sabrina asked you quietly.

"Hmm?" you hummed. "Oh, um, no, I don't think so. Are they weird for you?"

"Well, I was just thinking... you've, like, well you looked at my content, right?" she asked.

"Yeah," you said. "I, uh, yeah I did."

"So you've seen... yeah..." Sabrina said.

"Yeah," you agreed. You'd seen her naked. You'd seen her giving blowjobs to a dildo. You'd seen her secretly flashing in public. You'd seen her come on her fingers, and using her dildo. You'd seen her trying out a buttplug.

The elevator opened and you moved inside.

"So-"

"Hold the elevator, please!" someone called.

You hit the Open Door button, and a trio of younger businessmen trampled into the elevator. They were maybe in their mid-twenties, all dressed up in suits but looking a little worse for wear like they'd been running.

"Thanks," said one, as the other two were panting.

You hit the 24th Floor button, then the 18th at the request of the least-winded Suit.

"So, did you like watching the... movies?" Sabrina asked once the elevator doors were closing.

She wants to have this conversation here? What was she thinking?

"I did, yeah," you said, carefully choosing your words. "They were a lot of fun. And the endings were, ah, satisfying."

"Oh," she said, and blushed. "Well, that's good to know."

"Are you two movie people?" asked one of the Suits. "What movies?"

"Um," Sabrina said, lost for words.