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“Back that way is the break room. There’s a fridge in there for your food, and we have drinks and snacks available. Did you bring a lunch today?” He asks me, pausing outside of the breakroom door.
“No.”
In truth, I brought two granola bars. It was the only thing that we had available at home.
I’ll need to go grocery shopping tonight,I think with a sigh.
My body feels tired already just thinking about running to the store after work. I’m weary, tired down to my bone, and I shouldn’t be. I’m only twenty-three. I have my whole life ahead of me, but it doesn’t feel like that. It feels like I’m stuck, trapped even, and I don’t know how to fix that.
“We’re back here,” Levi says, leading me to the left side of the floor. There’s a wall just past the conference room, and he leads me over to a desk situated outside what must be his office.
“This is us. You can get settled here, and I’ll pull up the paperwork,” he says with a kind smile.
“Thanks.”
I set my purse down on the desk and take a seat. The chair is super comfortable, and I adjust it down a bit so that my feet can touch the floor. I drop my purse into the bottom drawer of the desk and look around. I didn’t bring any trinkets from home because I wasn’t sure if they were going to really hire me. Maybe, if I make it through the paperwork, I’ll bring in a picture or two from home.
I turn in my chair, and my eyes lock with Levi’s. He gives me a small smile, and I stand, heading into his office.
“Ready to start signing?” He asks, and I nod.
I sit down across from him. His office is decorated modernly with dark blue walls and shelves filled with gadgets and books.
“So, here’s the employee contract, a non-compete agreement, and a standard nondisclosure agreement,” he says as he sets three stacks of paperwork in front of me.
I look down and want to groan when I see that the first question is name.
What the heck am I supposed to put down? He keeps calling me Nichole, so do I write that? What last name do I put?
I grab the pen and chew on my bottom lip as I start signing Pia Lucian to all of the forms. I’m hoping that he won’t look too closely. Maybe I can make up some story and ask him to call me Pia instead of Nichole. Surely someone else here could be named Nichole, too, and maybe I can use that as an excuse to change my name. I’ll just say that it’s a nickname.
Reading through and signing all of the forms takes longer than I thought. By the time I pass them all back to him, it’s already after noon. He’s been working, taking calls, and answering emails while I signed, but I know I felt his eyes on me more than a few times. I avoided his gaze, worried he would see the deceit written across my features.
“All done?” He asks me, stacking them neatly on the corner of his desk.
“Yep.”
“Perfect. It’s lunchtime. Why don’t I take you out for a quick lunch? Welcome you to the team, and I can show you around the building a little bit,” he offers.
My stomach growls, and I blush a beet red. Levi just smiles as he pushes to his feet.
“It’s settled then. Come on. My treat,” he says, and I can’t resist that. This might be the only whole meal that I get today.
“Thanks,” I say as he holds his office door open for me.
We walk side by side back to the elevator and step on.
“Have you lived in Los Angeles long, Nichole?” He asks me as we ride down to the lobby.
“Pia,” I blurt out, and he frowns.
“What?”
“Um, everyone calls me Pia. It’s been my nickname since I was a kid,” I lie.
“Pia,” he says, and my name rolls off his tongue like warm honey.
My body warms, and I have the strangest urge to ask him to say my name again. I’ve always kind of hated my name and thought it sounded strange, even childish. When Levi says it, though, I feel different. I feel special and desirable.
