Inside was a reception desk with gleaming marble and an abundance of shadows. Not a single light was on. The setting sun left enough glow for her to spy an elevator in the corner and what appeared to be an office door beside it. She hesitated, looking around her before walking forward cautiously and knocking.
She shifted her weight in the silence and tried the handle to find it locked.
A speaker buzzed, and she jumped, one hand coming to her mouth.
“Third floor,” it said. The audio was terrible and sounded like it belonged in a horror film instead of the chic, classy building she was in.
The clock on the wall read 7:10, and she pushed the elevator button, stepping inside and selecting number three. It lifted immediately, and she clutched the handrail. Sunlight spilled in, and she turned around to find a back wall entirely made of glass. She’d been lifted above the palm trees to a glorious glimpse of the ocean and winding stretches of coastline. It was a view of Santa Barbara she’d never seen before. She had the strange feeling that she’d left her childhood home in a portal to another, more luxurious land.
The doors opened, and she heard voices. Edging forward, she hoped to hand off the papers and leave without causing too much of a stir.
“Hello?” she whispered, walking through more typical office space, although it was still magnificent. The hall went down the center of the floor, with large, glass offices on either side, big enough to be apartments.
Through seams in the glass and office furniture, she spotted Kayson Blake. He stood with his back to her, one hand gesturing while he spoke. His suit coat hung on the chair in front of him, as if he’d recently gotten to his feet. It gave her great hopes that she wasn’t too late.
She walked forward quickly, keeping herself erect and professional, and made sure to glance at her reflection in one of the many windows she passed on the way. She ran her fingers through her hair.
When she reached the office, she froze. The long table with a dozen chairs surrounding it was empty. Kayson stood at the head and glanced up at her briefly as he spoke to an open laptop on the table.
She relaxed, realizing it was a video presentation, and she couldn’t be seen. She edged forward quietly and handed out the papers, but he didn’t take them. He tilted his head and looked back at her in silence for half a second. Her arm wavered in the air, and she tried to decipher the expression on his face.
“Yes, in fact, I have her here now to present it to you,” he said, smiling widely at her.
She frowned and shook her head, shaking the papers at him like she was about to drop them to the floor.
“I thought you might enjoy hearing from her directly.”
He held his hand out to her, and her eyes widened, but there was no time for anything else. He stepped aside her and wrapped his arm around her back, coaxing her forward with him. His smile looked genuine and calm, and she doubted her expression matched in the least.
When she looked back at the laptop screen, it was divided into six squares with successful-looking men and women staring back at her. Unlike Kayson, they weren’t smiling.
Elayna cleared her throat and looked down at the papers that were now half crumpled in her hands.
“We’d love to hear what you’ve done with this lens that would qualify it to lead the marketing for this new project,” a woman’s voice said. Elayna glanced around the screen but couldn’t tell who had spoken. And what project was she talking about? Was it the same thing Kayson had mentioned earlier? She couldn’t be sure.
Kayson patted her back and stepped aside a fraction, giving her the obvious lead. She wanted to punch him. Again. What was it with this man?
“Well,” she started, feeling immediate regret for having opened her mouth. The superior stares didn’t change in the least, and she felt like a grubby worm in their presence. It would have been smarter to just toss the papers in the air and run for it. But how was she supposed to know this would happen? “The only difference is the size.”
She wished she’d brought a prototype, but if Kayson had wanted her to be professional and perhaps a tiny bit prepared, he should have given her some notice. She held up the back page to an image of the lens, moving it closer to the screen. “I apologize for not having a prototype on hand, but as you can see from this life-size image, it is very small, about the size of a marble or a quarter.”
She took a shaky breath.
“Most lenses with this level of strength are massive, requiring great effort and expense to move them from one place to the next. The majority are simply assembled on-site at their new home and never leave. But this one would be easy to transport and would provide an experience like nothing your clients have ever seen before. Not only would they have access to this technology, but it would be theirs to purchase and show off as they wished.”
Elayna stepped back and nodded, unsure if anything she’d said would work in context. But Kayson was the one who wanted to gamble by throwing her into it, and the thought had her quietly enraged.
She made a point of ignoring him while she set the papers down on the table in front of the six faces that remained borderline hostile. “Thank you,” she finished, escaping the room and leaving no opportunity for Kayson to snatch her up again.
She strode out of the office that was now glowing in vibrant orange and hazy purple tones in the bright West Coast sunset. It wasn’t until the elevator door had closed that she lifted her eyes. She pulled in a heavy breath and held her hand to her chest, breathing deeply and feeling her heart race. Her legs shook, and she wanted to slide to the floor before she fell off her stilettos. But she managed to stay upright, and when the door opened again, she straightened up and walked out, just in case there was a camera watching her.
Fine. Let him watch her. Whatever he was planning next, she had a big, fat no waiting for him.
Chapter 4
Her breathing had finally evened out. She switched lanes and prepared to turn into her quiet neighborhood. It had taken over half an hour to get from the billionaire’s office to her place, but she guessed that was fitting. Who was she to mingle with billionaires after all?
She smiled to herself and pulled into her carport slowly. Even with her compact car, it was a tight squeeze. But it kept the rain off, which was all she wanted. A thought flashed through her mind of glossy sports cars and servants scurrying about. What would it be like to live like that? To brush the trivial things off for someone else to do, while giving attention to only the most important, impressive tasks.
With a quick shrug of her shoulders, the images vanished. A life without the little details would just be blurry and out of focus, like a lens set at the wrong angle. Instead of clear insight, there would only be gray fuzzy lines.
A scurry of miniature paws on linoleum welcomed her home. She peeked around the kitchen counter to see a small lump of furry brown, two beady black eyes, and a tiny adorable nose covered in whiskers.
“Hello, Benjamin,” she said softly. “And how was your day today?”
She crouched down and opened the door to a large crate, letting the little otter stumble out and crawl across her lap. It weaved up and over her legs, circling her back and climbing across her lap again, always on the move.
“Looks like you’re ready to return to the ocean.” She stood, scooting him off her legs first, before pulling a bag of chopped trout from the freezer.