2| Good Morning (Matthew)

I went out last night to find a one-night-stand, and clearly, was successful in my mission. My last assistant quit after she found out that I slept with her sister, so I have to interview for a new one.

The stress of the office has been getting to me, which is why I went out in search of an easy land last night. Usually, I find a girl and take her home, ‘get in, get off, get out,’ was my motto when it came to women, and it seemed like last night was no different, except that evidently, I missed the ‘get out’ step.

I don’t drink too often, so when I do, it hits me hard. I don’t remember much about last night but looking at this brunette beauty standing tall and proud in front of me, I landed one hell of a looker.

She had only a towel wrapped around her, slightly hiding her curves from me, but if my fuzzy memory serves me correctly, she had some nice ones that she showed off in that little dress last night.

Her hair was wet and draped to one side and she tilted her head as she questioned me, showing off the hickey that I gave her on her neck, I couldn’t help the smirk that came to my lips at the sight, this girl won’t be forgetting me any time soon.

She walked away and I hurried to put on my clothes and run out to catch a cab to my place and get changed.

Last night was casual and I wore a simple plain t-shirt and jeans, nothing fancy, and certainly nothing that I would wear to the office. I needed to stop by my place and hurry through the shower and get a suit on.

The girl said that it was 6 AM, and I needed to be in the office in no later than half an hour to prepare myself for the interview this morning that was set to be at 7. The office is only ten minutes from my place, but I had no idea how close the apartment I was currently in was to it, so I hurried as quickly as I could.

I was still getting my shirt thrown on when I exited the door and noticed it looked incredibly familiar to me, so I slowed my steps. Wait, this is MY apartment building. Do we live in the same building? But I’ve never seen her before, is she new?

No time for questions, I hurried to the elevators to get to the right floor and reach my apartment. I checked my watch and it said 6:10 AM, which means I have twenty minutes to get somewhere that is ten minutes out of my way, so I only have ten minutes to shower and get a suit on. Possible, but not ideal.

Wait, why am I stressing so much? The person I’m interviewing is supposed to be stressed out to make a good impression on me, not the other way around, so it’s fine if I’m a few minutes late.

I took a deep breath with this thought and calmed myself, no big deal, just wash off whatever perfume the whore was wearing and get dressed and go, you’ll be fine.

Curious, I lifted the shirt I was wearing by the collar towards my nose and inhaled lightly to see if I could smell her perfume on me. It was fruity but airy too, not overwhelming, but light and sweet.

I called her a whore this morning, dammit. I think these things to myself but I never actually say it to the woman! It’s true, I never let them stay over, I always kick them out of my place or leave theirs as soon as I was finished, and my half-asleep state must have spoken my thoughts out loud to her.

Oh well, it’s not like I’m ever going to see the whore again. Wait… we live in the same building, so it’s quite possible that we would run into each other again at some point, I should find her and apologize, otherwise, this could make me look awfully bad, and my reputation was everything for me.

I’ve got the reputation as one of the best fashion designers in the country, and one who was very often reached out to by women for multiple reasons. The first reason is that I am incredibly handsome, the second reason is that I’m straight and known to be single, and the third reason is that I am said to be one of the kindest and most thoughtful designers that the clients have ever known, tapering to their every wish, and always executing flawlessly – I couldn’t afford to let one harlot jeopardize that for me.

I grabbed my keys out of my pocket and opened the door to my apartment, heading straight to the bathroom to jump into the shower. I inhaled the steam from the water and let it drop down my face, calming me from my rush.

I remembered the hickey on her neck and smirked again, then looked down to see if she had by chance done the same to me, but no, my skin looked flawless as always.

I was never a fan of getting hickeys anyways, it meant that I wouldn’t be able to score again for at least another week. No woman is going to want to go home with a man with love bites all over him, that just screams “man-whore.”

Besides, hickeys are like mankind’s version of marking their territory. It was a sort of, ‘I gave her a love bite so she’s mine,’ type of thing, and I’ve never liked it when a woman did that to me.

I am my own person, a man of his own free will, not tied down to anything or anyone and successful with the help of no one, I was an accomplished person who didn’t want anyone to claim as “theirs,” I am Matthew Greene and I belong to no one.

Stepping out of the shower, I wrapped the towel around my waist and hurried to the closet to find a suit. Brown would have to do today, it’s the closest one to me and I don’t want to be too late.

Checking my watch, it’s 6:25 AM now, I’m handling my time exceptionally well, in my opinion. I’m only going to be a couple of minutes late getting out and I can still manage to get there before the time for the interview.

I combed my hair, brushed my teeth, dried myself, and dressed in my suit, deciding to fix my tie as I was in the cab to save some more time.

It was 6:40 by the time I exited my apartment and locked it behind me, I would get to the office with ten minutes to spare at this rate, do I have time for breakfast? Probably shouldn’t push it, so I opted not to.

By the time that I hailed a cab, it was 6:50, damn New York cabbies, you’d think they would see the suit and think ‘hey, he’s got money,’ and stop for me, but no luck this morning, it took a full ten minutes to catch ones attention that wasn’t already in use, and I would be really cutting it close time-wise to get to the office.

I’m not even going to have time to sit down before I have to go to the conference room for this interview. It doesn’t matter that much, I don’t have too much to do today anyway.

While this isn’t necessarily the first impression that I wanted to make, I think I’ve done rather good for waking up hungover in a stranger's apartment to getting into a cab on the way to work in under an hour, I would say that’s pretty impressive.

The cab arrived at the office and I paid him what I owed before getting out and hurrying to the elevators.

I pressed the button for the floor I needed to be on and as soon as I was in I pushed on the ‘doors close’ button, preventing anyone else from getting on it and slowing down my ride. I watched the hand on my watch tick second after second as I rode my way up.

The elevator reached my floor and I exited quickly, turning to the left where the receptionist's desk is and the conference room just past there.

“Good morning, Mr. Greene,” said the receptionist, Mindi, and I smiled at her.

“Good morning, is the interviewee here yet?” I asked as I rested my forearm on the high desk.

“Yes, sir, she is in the conference room now,” she moved her body towards the conference room in question.

“What’s her name?”

“It’s Emma Anderson.”

I looked through the window of the conference room and saw a tall figure standing there, looking out the window at the sunrise, she was slightly backlit so she was nothing but a silhouette to my eyes but her curves looked familiar.

I noticed her arms were bent and together in front of her, she was probably nervous and fiddling with her fingers in there waiting for me.

I checked my watch one more time, 7:01, not too shabby. I took a deep breath and walked over to the door to the conference room.

I opened it, and the silhouetted figure turned to me with expectant eyes, which quickly faded as she saw me and said to herself quietly, “Oh, fuck me.”

I smirked, “I believe I already have,” I lifted an eyebrow at her and shut the door without looking away from her.