For a long moment, Harper just stared at her apartment door, after Oliver left. Glen cleared his throat breaking the silence. "So…" he says teasingly. "You finally got a boyfriend?" Harper casually takes a sip of her coffee before answering, "Yeah." Glen moved to stand beside her, opening a kitchen cabinet and reaching for a box of herbal tea. "We have known each other, what? Three years… All that time you never had a boyfriend," he says meaningfully. "Yeah," she replies deep in thought. "Relationships never seemed to be worth the effort, until now." She places the coffee mug on the counter and takes a box of instant oats out of the cabinet. "Wow, so you are serious about him?" Glen says half surprised as he takes out a mug from the cabinet and places a tea bag in it with a spoon fill of sugar. "Yeah," she says quickly as she crouches down to get a bowl from one of the lower cabinets. "He is different." She tears open the instant oatmeal packet and placed the content in the bowl.
"He is so work focused and nerdy," she starts as she scoops sugar into her bowl, while Glen pours warm water in his mug and stirs slowly. "At first, I thought it was the who 'he is my boss thing' and the suit." She pours warm water in the bowl and stirs carefully. "But even when he took the suit off and he wasn't acting as my boss…" she blushed lightly and moved over to the glass dining table and sat down with her coffee and instant oatmeal. "Bless my soul," Glen breathed out and put away the herbal tea box. "I wish I could find something like that." He sat down across from her. "It sounds really specially," he added as he lightly blowed his tea. "We watched MacGyver last night," Harper said feeling slightly giddy. "God, I feel like one of those stupid high school girls who would rather make out that go to calculous." Glen laughter lightly. "I cannot picture that." He says with a bright smile. "Neither can I," she said with a distant look.
When Harper arrived at the front lobby of ThreadFroms, everything felt the same as always but not completely. She knew she would be reporting to Marius from not on, in the advertising department, on the second floor. She entered the elevator and pressed the button for the second floor. She had been to the advertisement department a few times in the last six months and honestly Marius gives her the chills. She does not know why, he always acts friendly, too friendly… the elevator door opened to the lower level of a multi-level office interior with an open-plan layout and a clean, minimalist aesthetic. On the lower lever there were several workstations arranged in clusters. Each station consists of white desks paired with black office chairs that have blue accents. The desks are organized in small groups, suggesting collaborative workspaces that isolated cubicles. Computer monitors sit on the desks, and the layout feels orderly and spacious, with clear walking paths between each cluster.
The walls are predominantly white– contributing to the bright, airy feel of the space– and large windows along the top bring in natural light. Several large screens are mounted on the walls, displaying colourful visuals, which add contrast and a bit of vibrancy to the otherwise neutral environment. At the back, below the upper level that overlooks the lower floor, there are additional enclosed rooms for meetings and private discussions. Harper looks up at the upper level, the mezzanine-style area also contains desks and chairs arranged in a similar fashion. Along the railing, Marius stands, talking to a blond employee. He looks down to sees Harper. Something about his smile gave her chills but she smiled softly. He was wearing a sharp, tailored three-piece suit. The jacket and trousers were a dark charcoal with fine vertical pinstripes. The jacket appeared to be slim-fit, hugging Marius's shoulders and tapering at the waist for a structured silhouette. No matter how she felt personally about the man, he has good taste in suits.
Underneath the jacket, he wore a light grey waistcoat, with a clean row of buttons running down the front and a low-cut neckline that reveals the tie. The lighter colours break up the darker suit, creating a layered, sophisticated look. The shirt underneath is crisp white, providing a strong contrast to both the dark suit and the grey vest. The tie is black with a subtle texture, tied in a neat, symmetrical knot that sits snugly at the collar. Marius quickly said something to the blond beside him, who looked over at Harper with an expression of dislike. Marius then made his way further back, until Harper couldn't see him anymore. A few minutes later an elevator in the right corner, beside the private meeting rooms opened and Marius came out and approached Harper. "Harper," he said with a friendly tone of voice. "I was not expecting you so early. Did you net get my email?" Harper looked at his confused, her brow furrowed, and she took her phone out of her purse. She quickly turned it on and opened her emails, lightly shaking her head. "No," she said softly. Marius looked up at the blond still standing against the railings on the second floor.
"Well, there much have been a communication error then," he said with a gruff voice. "Basically, all it said was that you can take half the day prepping Oliver's new secretary before we finalise your transfer here. We still have a few kinks to smooth out…" Harper took a silent deep breath. "Alright, makes sense. I will head on up to the fourth floor then," she said in a professional tone. Marius smiles casually. "Tell Olie I said hello," he turned and walked back to the elevator in the corner. Harper slowly returned to the elevator and pressed the fourth-floor button. She hopes it will not be this awkward everyday… At Harper's desk, or her old desk, the new secretary was already seated.