It was only at 4:45 that Emilia finally badged back into the office. Quentin had set up a notification on his laptop to tell him when she got back, which didn't stop him from manually checking every ten minutes or so. What could possibly have taken them so long? Or were they just out messing around on company time. The badge system was part of a larger security system, so he could easily click the button to see the elevator interior, where Em and the weasel were heading up to the dev floor. He wasn't trying to invade her privacy or anything. He just wanted to make sure that she was okay. Who knows what that man would try to do to her in an enclosed space? They were standing there laughing about something, and when the elevator doors opened Em linked her arm with his. Quentin frowned.
The security cameras in the Marketing office had audio enabled. He could just click a button and see what it was that they were laughing about. Sure, it was uncommon, but at the end of the day he was entitled to hear anything they talked about in the office. Em would be upset by it, so he'd have to be careful not to mention it to her in any way. He wouldn't have to be cautious if he didn't listen… but in the end his curiosity won out.
The video was clear but the audio was a bit shaky, given the distance between the microphone and the conversation. It took him a moment to fine-tune the settings, making the conversation as clear as possible.
"There's no fucking way." The other woman whose name he couldn't quite remember had leapt out of her chair. "There's nofucking way."
"Jenny, watch your language! There are cameras." Kate was admonishing her employee, but still smiling. Strange.
"Nobody ever watches that shit. Also even if they were, they'd also be screaming because there's no fucking way!"
"Fucking way, bro! Fucking way!!!" The weasel was bouncing on the balls of his feet. Jenny raised her hands for a double high five and the weasel grabbed them instead, spinning her around. "And it's all thanks to our irresistible Em."
"You're making it sound different than it was." Em said.
"I'm definitely not. You all should have seen the way he was looking at her…"
"Who?" Jenny practically screamed again, which made Quentin wince.
"Pause." Kate said. All three of them fell silent and looked at her expectantly. "I definitely do want to hear this story, but first I need to confirm some things so I can send updates to finance. So… do we really have a conference room at the Pavillion?" Quentin did a double take. He'd stayed at the Pavillion a few times, and booked rooms for guests there as well, so he knew exactly how much it cost. Not to mention, their event spaces were reserved for months ahead of time, sometimes years. He must have misheard it.
"We do! Holy shit, it was so cool, I cannot wait for you guys to see this space, it's insane." Em squealed, unable to contain her excitement. "I think the hallways are literally gilded."
"You already went?" Kate asked.
"The event coordinator wanted to meet with us right away to get all the details locked in. It was insane. He asked what our budget was, and then offered us the room at exactly that. There's no way you can rent that room for less than ten thousand dollars." The weasel was typing something on your phone. "We have a signed contract and everything. I just sent you the write-up."
"Oh, this is perfect. You guys are amazing. I'm going to start working on this email right now." Kate walked over to her laptop, picked it up, and then sat back down in Em's chair. She set her things down on the table and looked up at them. "So?" Jenny rolled her chair over so they were sitting next to each other.
"Oh, Em, you sit down too. I'm telling this story."
"Why? I'm good at stories."
"You're terrible at telling stories. You leave out all the good stuff. Now sit!" He pushed her down into a third rolly chair, and dropped his bag on the floor. Of course he was being reckless with company property. Quentin made a mental note of that.
"Who's 'he'" Jenny asked.
"I'll tell you, I'll tell you, but you've gotta get the context first. Let me do the exposition."
"Is that really necessary?" Em asked.
"Yes!" The weasel and Jenny spoke in unison.
"Okay, so we'd been looking at venues all morning and basically begging people to help us out and nothing was available. We finally ended up taking our lunch break in this cafe downtown, though we ended up working through lunch anyway because we had a week till the event and no venue. Anyway, we're sitting at this coffee shop when we hear a crash. So we both turn and there's this little girl who just spilled hot chocolate all over this guy…"
"Him?!?" Jenny was on the edge of her seat.
"Shut up and listen. It was a guy wearing this fancy suit…"
"It was Tom Ford," Em added.
"A fancy Tom Ford suit. He literally was like the main character from a kdrama, you don't even understand. I've never seen a more prototypically attractive man in my entire life."
"You can just say he's hot, AJ. It won't make you gay." Jenny rolled her eyes.
"Saying he's hot wouldn't be enough. I swear to god I'd switch sides if that man wanted me. I was sitting at that table questioning my whole identity, it was crazy. Anyway, he was standing in front of the little girl and now he's got hot chocolate all over that fancy shirt."
"It wasn't that much. Most of it spilled on the floor."
"And of course Em stands up immediately and walks over to help this little girl. The kid had some kind of cut on her feet from the glass so Em brought her over to our table and cleaned her up, like she does. And of course, the hot guy was also apparently super sweet because he came over and talked to the girl and helped make her feel better, and he and Em immediately had chemistry. I swear I've never seen Em flirt before…"
"I wasn't flirting!"
"You were doing something, because that man was eating it up. The kid was all fixed up and she ran off somewhere…"
"Was she okay?" Kate asked.
"Irrelevant. We are getting to the good part, right? Because after that, Em offers to help him clean off his shirt in the bathroom."
"You suggested that, AJ?"
"You agreed!" He put a finger right in her face. "You would have said no if you didn't want to." Jenny cackled.
"That's like an actual kdrama plot, with the kdrama male lead. I should have known you were the main character, Em." She grinned wildly at Em.
"I'm really not, and it isn't like that. He was nice, so I wanted to help him out."
"Yeah, 'help him out'" Jenny winked, and Em rolled her eyes.
"Oh please. If this story was that interesting I wouldn't be telling it at work." At that, Jenny rolled her eyes.
"Well, what did you do then?"
"I literally just helped him clean off his shirt."
"When they came back from the bathroom he was like, bright red, I swear. Bro was tweaking just from being in an enclosed space with you, Em, I swear he was so down bad."
"He was not 'down bad'"
"Okay, but if he wasn't down bad, why would he hook us up with the event coordinator for The Pavillion and get him to give us an insanely good deal? You don't do that for someone you just met unless you're super into them." AJ was waving his hands wildly at this point. "He literally saved our asses and we didn't even ask for his help. Who does that?"
"Dom, apparently."
"Oh, it's just Dom now?"
"He told us to call him that."
"He told you to call him that."
"Dom?" Kate asked.
"Short for Dominic." Em pulled the business card out of her pocket. "Dominic Cole."
Quentin's heart stopped in his chest. There was no way. He must have misheard. Or perhaps it was a different man. It was a common name, right? He hadn't heard it in years, ever since…
"Oh, he works at Aurora!" Kate said. "I use that site all the time."
Quentin grabbed his monitor and threw it at the wall, immediately shattering it. He heaved, his eyesight blurring. Someone ran into the room, kept trying to talk to him but he couldn't form words, couldn't think at all. When his mind finally did clear, there was only one thought left.
He was going to kill that slimy son of a bitch.