It was another office, but I'm confused. I pinched my eyebrows together wondering why he's showing me an office attached to his. He sees my expression, "I'm sorry, I forgot to explain that your office is actually connected to mine. Nate's is connected as well but on the other side there." He pointed to another door across the room.
Holy crap, I did not expect to be working on the C level with my bosses let alone having an office connected to theirs. I wondered if this was normal.
"I like to have my designers on the same floor so we can work more efficiently, and this office happened to be open so I thought it would be a good one for you. You're new here so if you have any questions or need help with anything we will be more accessible this way. Plus, you, Nate and I will be working closely on the project we discussed." He added.
I probably looked like a deer caught in headlights. I shook my head to clear my mind, "Oh, that makes sense. Um thanks, I appreciate that and will probably be in with many questions."
He smiled, "Great! Shall we continue with the rest of the tour?"
Oh wow, I'm getting the whole tour. I figured he would hand me off to someone else for this part and not do it himself. I continued to be intrigued by Alexander's actions.
"Yes, I must confess I've always been curious about this place." I said.
After that he walked me through the building showing me where everything was. My favorite part was the espresso machine as well as the fact that the break room had bean bag chairs and video game consoles with a pretty sweet set up. You could even play VR and dancing games for some fun exercise. I couldn't hold back my joy when I saw that and squealed like a child. I ran over and plopped down on a bean bag.
"You know I really did my research on your company before I applied here so I knew that other Artists loved working here but now I truly see why."
He looked at me with an amused smirk. Sitting on the chair beside me. "So, you enjoy video games, which ones are your favorite? We are working on getting into the video game design world so this will also be a testing area for those games."
I had to think for a moment, "Well that depends on which system we are talking about but lately I've been playing World of Warcraft on PC and The Witcher 3 on the PS4." He looked at me surprised. I shrugged "Hey, if Super Man can play them so can I."
"I suppose that's a fair point. I just didn't expect you to be a gamer. You don't look like any female gamer I've ever met so it surprised me." He stated so matter of factly.
"Then how do I look, Alexander?" I asked fluttering my lashes at him then giving him a cheeky grin.
"I...um...I don't think I can answer that in a way that is work appropriate." My jaw dropped. He stood quickly walking back toward the door changing the subject. "Come, we should probably resume your tour."
I closed my mouth and followed him out the door taking a moment to recover. Now I really did want to know what his answer would have been. After about an hour we arrived back at our offices. "Our offices," that was going to take some getting used to.
"Well, I'll leave you to get acquainted with your office." He disappeared into his office coming back with a piece of paper and a key. He handed them to me. "Here is your company email and password information. I'll email you the details of the charity project shortly." I thanked him and he left.
The first thing I did was check out my computer and desk. I wanted to see what programs and goodies it had. I was like a kid in a candy shop. I had all of Adobe creative cloud available at my fingertips as well as a tablet and stylus set up. When I looked in the closet I saw a camera, sketch books, canvases, paints, charcoal, graphite and various other art supplies. My desk even turned into a freakin' easel! I was going to love it here. I heard an alert from my computer. It was Alexander emailing Nate and I the details of our project. He wanted each of us to come up with some design concept ideas for the presentation. We would be meeting this afternoon to discuss them.
I had several ideas running through my head, and I wanted to make the donors see a day in the life of someone else's shoes. I was going to have to map this out to tell a visual story. I pulled out a sketchbook and started on paper first. I also had an urge to get a canvas out and paint a portrait in the colors of the emotions I wanted to portray. I decided that was a side project and could wait until I got my sketches uploaded, digitally finished and formatted into slides ready for presentation. I ordered in and had lunch in my office so I could make sure I had everything ready to go before our meeting. I was very nervous but so far, my first day here has been awesome considering I walked in thinking it was only an interview. The intrigue I felt toward Alexander helped too if I was being honest with myself.
At 2pm I heard a knock and Nate entered through our shared door with his tablet. I grabbed mine as well and we headed into Alexander's office for our meeting. We saw he had pulled a projector screen down in his office so we could see better. I didn't notice he had one in here earlier but I'm sure he has a ton of cool hidden gadgets in here being the CEO and all. Nate and I had emailed our slides to Alexander, so he had one of them up and ready to look through. Thank God it was one of theirs and not mine first. We looked through all 3 and some of our ideas overlapped so that made it easier for us. Feeling confident with our work we decided that tomorrow we would go out to gather photos to use for our project. I checked the clock, and it was already 6pm so we called it a night.
I had so many missed calls and texts from Lily. I hadn't had time to tell her I got the job today, so she had no idea and was worried. I called her immediately and explained the situation.
"Oh, thank heavens nothing happened to you. I was about to call the police. I'm so excited about your new job though! I'm ordering pizza so you pick up some good beer on the way home. You can tell me all about it when you get here."
I smile, "It's a deal! See you when I get home!"
I was so happy to finally be able to tell her that evening. We had a girl's night in where we pampered ourselves to celebrate. It was just what I needed to wind down so I could get to bed early since I had to work in the morning. That night Alexander starred in my dreams, but it wasn't like I thought he would. I'd hoped for something a little sexier, but I had a nightmare and in it he was fighting off creatures. He was covered in blood, but I don't know if it was his or theirs. I couldn't tell what they were, but it left me chilled to the bone when I woke up in the middle of the night gasping for air, sweating and afraid for him. I somehow managed to get back to sleep after that because I was so exhausted, but my dreams were still odd. I saw the man with the sword again only this time he had someone behind him glowing with a blinding ethereal light. They were charging into battle with the same creatures I saw attacking Alexander tonight. I wasn't scared this time because I knew it was a dream, but I still woke up with my heart pounding in my chest when my alarm went off. This isn't the first dream I've had about these creatures. They plagued my dreams as a child causing night terrors, but they hadn't shown up as often since I'd hit adulthood. I chalked it up to the stress of starting a new job and talking about my parents the day before.