Borrow My Seat novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: The Seat Beside Me

On Monday at 8:48 I pushed through the revolving door in my navy blazer, and the lobby was empty.

The lobby was never empty at 8:48.

The receptionist's chair was pushed in.

The security guard was gone from his desk.

All eight cameras stared down from the ceiling, their little red lights steady, and the glass was very clean.

I stood in the middle of the white floor with my badge in my hand.

"Hello?" I said.

My voice carried up to the mezzanine and came back.

I looked at my watch.

At 8:52 the elevator chimed, and the doors slid open.

It wasn't Tobias.

Thirty-one people came out in white shirts, walking in a line.

The woman with the green streak in her hair came first.

Behind her walked the finance partner, in a white shirt that fit him badly, holding one end of a long white banner.

The man beside him held the other end, and together they unrolled it across the width of the lobby.

It had red letters, eighteen inches tall.

CAUGHT HER.

I stood still.

I stood still for a moment, because my body remembered, and thirty-one people watched me do it.

My face went cold, and my hands began to shake.

Then the woman with the green streak lifted her phone and said clearly, "Boss rule. May we film this?"

I looked at her.

At her face, which was not laughing at me.

At the finance partner's, which was red to the ears.

"It's a very flat banner," I heard myself say. "You should have used a heavier fabric."

Somebody snorted.

The woman grinned.

"He chose it. Tobias said you'd say that."

"Yes," I said, and my voice only wobbled a little. "You can film."

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