No Escape

Chapter 4: Current Day

The next day, Laura walks into the office with her coffee, as Adrian walks next to her in the elevator. “Long night?” Laura asks Adrian. Adrian glanced at her for a moment and smirked, “You could say that…” He said in a husky tone of voice.

“Adrian, I need those financial reports on my desk at 10amI asked for them yesterday and they were not on my desk… that is not like you…” Laura said. “Yeah sorry…The meeting isn’t until 11am, can’t it wait?” Adrian said. “Sorry is not good enough, I need those reports so I can collate them with my documentation to present to the board….in preparation for the meeting, I needed them yesterday and they wasn’t on my desk….” Laura said with a self-controlled tone of voice, not to lash out at him in the elevator in front of the other people that were there.

Adrian sighed, “fine, I will have them on your desk in an hour….” Adrian said, being 9am as he walked out of the elevator, arriving at his floor to work.

Laura sat back against the wall and sighed, “it’s going to be a long morning….” Laura thought to herself.

As Laura is at her desk, Adrian brings her the financial reports, without even looking at them and went straight away to present to the board meeting, “Aren’t you going to go over my work?” Adrian asked her. “No need” Laura said professionally. Both Adrian and Laura walk into the board meeting room together to make their presentation to the board.

“good morning, gentlemen, I am Laura Acer, and this is my colleague, Adrian Blake. He will be assisting me in our presentation to you regarding the budget request for the new training recruits for next month.” Laura said professionally to them, “Laura, how is your partner doing?” said one of the older board members. Laura froze for a moment, not knowing how to answer, as she put on a fake smile, “he is doing well…thank you for asking….” She responded. Adrian saw her sudden reaction, which sparked his curiosity further, then glancing down to pass her his documentation for their budget request.

As Laura is presenting their budget request on her PowerPoint presentation, Adrian just watched her as she presented professionally with confidence, believing what she was presenting, almost inspired him.

“And that, gentlemen, is why our budget needs to be approved. More training and more employees will increase productivity within the company and increase profits by more than 50%” Laura said presenting her presentation. This made the members of the board think about her proposition.

“And when would you need these funds by?” Asked one of the members of the board, “By next week, this will allow time for allocation of training funds to budget” Said Adrian suddenly. Laura looked at him for a moment, then looked at the members of the board.

The board members speak amongst themselves for a moment, and the leader of the board looked at Laura with a smile on his face, “your budget request is approved and the funds of $100,000 will be in your trust account by start of next week. I will have my PA email you the confirmation of this next week. This meeting is adjourned.” The members of the board said and ended the meeting. “thank you very much. I will email you and your team also the confirmation of where the funds have been used.” Laura further stated. “Yes, we will need those, have a good day, Ms Laura.” Said the members of the board as they left and signed the budget approval, Laura escorted them out of the meeting room and Laura’s assistant escorted the board team to the elevators. It was just Laura and Adrian in the meeting room together. When they left, Laura was quiet. “you alright?” Adrian asked her concerned. Laura glanced at him, “Yes, never better” Laura smirked.

“Why didn’t you check my work before we got into the meeting? That was a risky move” Adrian asked her suddenly. Laura looked at him, “It doesn’t matter what type of background we all come from, as long as we put in hard work and dedication, that is something that is trustworthy in an employee, and if you have put your heart and soul into gathering this information, then I almost didn’t need to go over it, just looking at the first few pages of these financial reports, I can see the attention to detail that went into this when you prepared these for me, so I trust the person who put this together.” She said smiling briefly, then looking away to walk out the room. “Good job, Adrian, I wouldn’t have gotten this without you today” she looked back and smiled at him. “… I am going now to report to the boss, please tell our team to prepare for next month’s training of new recruits and the computer software that we need.” Laura said and walked out the office room.

“Yes, Ma’am” Adrian responded professionally.

That night, after work, everyone went for drinks and dinner, Adrian and Ashleigh, along with Jennifer, Tom and Laura, all went out to enjoy dinner and drinks, “Congratulations team, well done on a successful budget approval!!” Laura cheered her team.

“Thanks to you, our fearless leader!” Techy Tom and Jennifer cheered. “Thanks guys, but a special thanks to our newest recruit, Adrian Blake! Thank you and thank you team for your help in achieving this goal, you all have worked very hard this month to get this far. Please enjoy yourselves tonight, dinner and drinks are on the company. Enjoy!” Laura cheered her team and Adrian with Ashleigh. They eat and drink the night away.

As everyone eats and drinks, they ask each other about their personal lives to get to know each other well. “Well, me and Jennifer are dating.” Tom said straight out of the blue. Laura neatly coughed when she heard that in shock. “Since when?!” Laura exclaimed in shock. “Just… recently.” Tom smirked. “Oh… well congratulations” Laura smiled at them softly. Ashleigh also came out about the news of her and Adrian, “Adrian and I are going out as well.” Ashleigh smirked as she put her arms around Adrian in front of them all. “Yeah, we all figured that out already, hahahaha” Jennifer and Tom laughed at them. “hey!” Ashleigh blushed. Laura just watched her team enjoy themselves, being with their lovers. “two sets of couples… why do I feel left out and… I am their boss” Laura said to herself anxiously.

“Whilst we are having dinner and drinks tonight, please stay safe as you all go home, drink responsibly, and have a good time.” Laura cheered as she got up to leave the table, “Hey wait, where are you going boss?” Jennifer and Tom asked her, whilst Adrian glanced at her as she got up. “I am going home early, it’s been a busy few weeks. Enjoy your night, food and drinks are all covered. Goodnight guys. See you Monday morning…” Laura smiled softly at them and left for the evening.

“She doesn’t talk much about her private life, does she?” Adrian commented as she left. “I heard her husband left her.” Tom commented. “She’s married??” Adrian said in shock. “Yeah, was. They were married for a few years, that’s all we know at this stage.” Tom said as he took down a drink. “How do you know this?” Jennifer asked. “It was stated in her company file. Hey, I am the tech person who updates the electronic records. I had to change her status to single, maybe about a year ago.” Everyone went quiet, when Adrian suddenly remembered the comments from one of the directors from their board meeting that afternoon, “How is your partner?” “Well” Laura smiled softly, which was a half-hearted fake smile.

“That… explains why she looked like that today….” Adrian thought to himself.

“Well guys, lets enjoy the fruits of our labour, before we go back to work on Monday morning haha!!” Ashleigh cheered everyone.

Meanwhile, that night, Laura returned to her apartment, and flopped on the bed, “Its done!!” She exhaled as she breathed in and laid there on her bed, looking out the window of her apartment and ordered pizza and chips, although she was a top-ranking executive, she still was humble enough to order pizza and chips every Friday night as a night in, and on weekends, she would visit her family.

“I felt so… lonely tonight…. I wonder why….?” Laura thought to herself, just staring out at the night lights of the city.