Discovery

Elle had been having an awful and busy morning when she returned to work on Monday. After enjoying a peaceful remainder of her weekend she returned to work where she was suffering from one complication after the other. When she finally glanced at the time it was already well past noon. Elle leaned back in her chair and let out a long sigh.

Her afternoon was full of meetings and she still had documents to prepare for them, her to-do list was a mile long, and all Elle really wanted to do was go home.

"What if I call in sick and skip work tomorrow?" Elle wondered aloud. "Could I get away with it?"

The fantasy of skipping work to sleep in was a nice one but Elle knew it was an impossible dream. Even if she did do it she would only delay the inevitable. So she gathered her courage and left her office to het herself a quick meal and a large coffee in anticipation of the horrible afternoon ahead of her.

~~

Adam's day was going about just as well. His own work was piled up as tall as a mountain so it didn't help that he also ended up needing to clean up other people's messes. One of his managers was currently in his office reporting on the issue with Amelia's contract which still remained unsigned.

After Amelia spoke to her manager her office had refused to sign her contract with MK and the two sides had been in a stalemate ever since, unable to come to an agreement. After listening to the manager for a while Adam's patience finally ran out.

His hand came flying down onto his desk. Both David, who was also in the room, and the manager flinched at the sudden movement.

"What is the point of having managers if they can't even resolve a simple contract issue?" Adam asked coldly. "Do you really need to involve me in this?"

David shuddered. It had been a long time since he had seen his boss in this bad of a temper.

'It's my own fault.' David reflected to himself as Adam continued to reprimand the pitiful manager. 'I got used to his good mood. I shouldn't have taken it for granted.'

A few moments later the manager was hurrying out of the office before anything more could be said. David watched as Adam leaned back in his seat, shut his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Would you like me to follow up on this issue going forward?" David asked.

"Sure." Adam replied tiredly. "Tell them they have one month. If they can't come to an agreement and resolve this within four weeks let the contract go and find a different model instead."

David hesitated. "Are you sure?" Amelia was someone from Adam's own circle after all. Wouldn't it be strange to just drop her after coming this far?

"I'm sure. We can't waste our time and resources on a single model. If they can't come to an agreement then so be it."

"If you insist."

After a moment of quiet contemplation Adam got up suddenly.

"Cancel all my meetings for the next two hours. I'm going out."

With that Adam grabbed his coat and left the room, leaving David scrambling to do as he was told.

~~

Elle was just returning from her quick lunch break in which she ran to the cafe across the street for a sandwich and a coffee when her phone began to ring. She was walking towards her building but stopped to answer Adam's call.

"Where are you?" Adam's voice sounded from the other side of the line.

"I'm outside my building."

"Really? Where?"

Elle looked around at her surroundings. "By the benches." She replied, noting several wooden benches to her left.

"Wait there." Adam instructed before promptly hanging up the call.

Elle's eyebrows furrowed but she did as she was told, waiting for only a few seconds, before Adam appeared in front of her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked with surprise. "Shouldn't you be at work?"

"I'm here to recharge." Adam replied as he pulled her into his embrace.

"Are you having a bad day too?" She chuckled.

"You know how it is. New day, same mess."

"Come, let's sit down for a bit."

Elle led him over to one of the benches. She was a bit worried that someone might recognize him at first but was reluctant to bring it up with him. As it turned out everyone was too occupied with their own busy routines to pay any attention to two strangers.

"You haven't eaten yet right? Here have some." Elle said. Her lonely meal for one suddenly became a picnic. As they talked she became more relaxed and slowly stopped paying attention to her own surroundings.

If she had paid attention she might have noticed that Abby, who was walking out of Tae's building after stopping by to have lunch with Jacob, had spotted Elle as she was exiting the building. And more importantly, she had spotted the person whom Elle was with.