Chapter Seven

“Such a jerk!!” Ava murmured with a scoff.

    Emily could do nothing but bite her lips in guilt. 

  She had conveniently omitted the identity of the arrogant traffic man during her narration.

  Unaware of her brother's involvement, Ava continued.

  “He's lucky it wasn't me. I would have yelled back and showed his arrogant ass how bad a road rage can be.” 

    Emily swallowed hard in guilt. She wondered how her friend would react if she knew her pompous brother was the asshole.  

 “I'm just glad I'm finally here.” She said,  hoping it would put an end to the conversation.

  It worked.

   Ava's brows dramatically tweaked up,   

“Ready for your first day huh?” she asked with a wide grin.

  

  Emily took in a shaky breath. “Yeah”

    Ava had her assistant take Emily to her new office.

        The open office had low-walled glass cubicles that demarcated working spaces.

    She scanned the faces who were all glued to her figure while the assistant made the introduction.

  It was brief and soon Emily found herself in her own Cubicle, buried in work.

  She read and edited different works, feeling a sense of pride with each completed piece.

  “Emily,” the sound startled her from her work hours later.

  Emily looked up to see three of her colleagues smiling down at her.

“We're going for lunch, we thought you might want to join us. I'm Lydia by the way, this is Anna and Sean.”

    

     Sean quickly spoke up. “Look, we get this is your first day but it's totally unacceptable to work during your lunch time.” 

  It was at this moment that she realized every other person had left for lunch.

  “My God!! I didn't even realize it was lunch time.”  

  “That's because you've been buried in those manuscripts since you came. Heck,  you're right next to me but you've not cast a single glance.” 

   

  Emily felt her cheeks turn red in embarrassment.

   “I'm sorry about that.” she whispered out in a sincere tone.

    

  “You'll join us then.” Lydia spoke with a sure glance.

  Not wanting to come off as a snub, she immediately jumped to her feet in agreement.

   

The  company's cafeteria reminded her of a high school's cafeteria where people hung out with their cliques.

  After grabbing lunch, the group led her towards a table with people from their office.

  She found a spot and quietly took it. The table  was lively with chatters, just like almost every other table in the cafeteria.

 

    Emily munched her meal with a. silent smile, enjoying the lively banters of others.

  The conversation twirled towards the topic of employment letters.

  Emily could only stifle her laugh as some people shared hilarious stories of how they got into the company.

  “I got mine at the grocery store.” someone announced.

  ‘What!!” another exclaimed.

“Yeah, I was in line waiting to pay this obnoxious cashier. I got the email, dumped  my groceries and ran out. I'm pretty sure I looked a hell lot of crazy.”  

    The table erupted in cackles at his dramatic gestures.

      “What about you, Emily ? What were you doing when you got in?” 

  Emily froze as all attention turned to her.

   “Ummh, I was….I was home.” the words stumbled out of her mouth.

   

  “So, where did you work before here?” Anna asked aloud.

  Emily felt her cheeks almost light up in shame. 

   

  “This is my first job. I've never worked anywhere.” she said as casually as she could.

  “What!!!” The reaction came from multiple people.

   

  “I thought the company doesn't hire anyone without work experience.”

  “I heard it happens in rare cases with fresh graduates from top colleges. You still have to be the best graduating student though.” 

  “And you have to work from the bottom up.” 

    The whispers flew around the table, not bothering that she was sitting right there.

    Finally, someone gathered the courage to ask her. “Where did you graduate from?”

      “Westbrook” 

  

  The curious faces turned to glances of approval and head nods except from one person.

  Lydia regarded with a sharp gaze. “My little cousin just graduated from Westbrook, I don't remember seeing your face among the graduating students.”

   All approvals vanished and everyone turned back to her with curiosity and suspicion.

  “That's because I graduated about four years ago.” 

  Emily's phone couldn't have chosen a better time to ring.

   She quietly excused herself and walked away, not waiting for their reactions.

   It was Ava who had called to check up on her.  After their brief conversation, she decided against returning to the cafeteria and made her way back to the office.

    By the time her colleagues returned, the air was different.

    

  Each of them cast her suspicious glances and didn't bother to hide their gossips.

  “I bet she slept her way to get this job.”

  “Right, there's no way in hell she could have been hired.”

    

   “What qualifications does she even have?”

  “I bet she doesn't even know what she's doing with those manuscripts.”

  Emily heaved a huge sigh before blocking out the noise.

  Her first day at work and she had managed to make herself an enemy to everyone.

  “Well done Emily! ”  She whispered to herself.

  As soon as work was over, she packed up her bags and ran straight to Ava's office.

    “Hey, I was just about to ring you.” Ava muttered as soon as she walked in.

She quickly added, “How was your first day by the way?” 

  Emily thought about her colleagues and the running gossip. She decided her friend didn't need to know all that.

“It was great.” she murmured with a slight smile.

“Where are you going?” she asked, noting Ava's packed documents.

  “That's why I was going to ring you. I have a meeting with Alex. It might take a while, hope you don't mind going home alone?” 

  

    “Of course not. I'll see you when you get home.” 

    They walked out of the office together,  making small talks until the parted ways.

   

Emily walked out of the company slightly exhausted with the events of the day.

  All she needed was to get home and jump into a warm bath ASAP.

  The dream was cut short as a figure blocked her path.

  “Emily Byrce.”