Lucas stared at her, mouth agape. He'd seen no one so put-together in his life.
It took him a moment to remember how to form words.
"Uh, hi," he managed.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Tara Collins, your appointed executive assistant by the headquarters."
Lucas stared at her with suspension, after few seconds, his expression changed and he approached her with a smiling face .
"Look, miss, this has been fun and all, but can we drop the act now? You are doing very good for a prankster, but I now know that this is a prank. And Did oliver put you up to this?, where is he?"
Tara's professionally pleasant expression morphed into one of confusion. "I'm sorry, Mr. Walker, but I don't understand. What prank are you referring to? And I'm afraid I don't know any person with the name Oliver."
Lucas sighed and started to wave his both hands in the air while looking for hidden cameras.
" Ok oliver, you outdid yourself this time buddy, but I did not want to become subject of laughing on the internet so Stop now."
Lucas started looking behind curtains and under furniture, fully expecting to find his friend and a camera crew ready to jump out and yell, "Gotcha!" But the room remained stubbornly empty and quiet.
Nothing, he found nothing.
While Lucas was doing his detective work, Tara keep standing near the door looking at her new boss who was doing weird things.
"Guys?" he called out, his smile fading.
"This isn't funny anymore. Well, it is, but in a 'I'm starting to freak out' kind of way."
Suddenly He tripped over something on the floor. It was a thick file folder. Papers spilled out across the carpet as he fell flat on his face.
He sat up, rubbing his nose, and picked up one paper.
His eyes widened as he read:
"Congratulations Mr. Lucas walker on your appointment as CEO of Next gen Innovations…"
Lucas stared to look at more documents, there were documents with pictures of him with some business tycoons, he remembered another photo he saw on the phone and the same message as these documents.
Lucas felt a bead of sweat roll down his back.
This was getting too real and weird.
He looked towards tara.
"Come on," he said, a note of desperation creeping into his voice.
"This whole CEO thing. It's a prank, right? Because if it's not, I might have to sue someone. I don't know who, but someone's getting sued."
Tara's confusion deepened. "Mr. Walker, I assure you, this is no prank. They appointed you as the CEO of Next Gen Innovations yesterday. Don't you remember the board meeting? The contract signing? The champagne toast?"
Lucas felt the blood drain from his face. "I need to get out of here," he muttered, pushing past a bewildered Tara and out the door.
He burst into the hallway, ready to make a run for it, only to screech to a halt.
He saw a line of serious-looking men in suits stood at attention. As one, they turned to him and bowed.
"Good morning, Mr. walker," they chorused.
As soon as Lucas saw this, he did the only thing a sensible person could do in such circumstances.
He turned around, walked back into the penthouse, closed the door behind him, and let out a scream that would have made any horror movie victim proud.
"Who are those people outside?"he asked tara.
"bodyguards"she answered with a flat tone,
"for who?"
"you"Their interaction was brief
" give honest answer, what's happening here?"
Not giving him any answer, Tara typed something on her iPad, and give him.
"Here, look yourself".
There were dozens of news articles Lucas started to read articles one after another.
Lucas felt his knees go weak. Every article was about himself about getting appointed as CEO.
This was way too elaborate to be a prank.
"Oh, sweet mother of invention," he whispered as the realization hit him like a truckload of computer parts.
"I'm actually the CEO," shocking him. "How in the world has this happened?"
Tara, still standing at the entrance of the room, raised an eyebrow to his reaction.
" If you not feeling well,Shall I cancel your 9 AM meeting, sir?"
Lucas slumped against the door, looked up at her with wild eyes.
"Tara," he said weakly, "I think I'm going to need a very large coffee. And maybe a miracle. Got any of those."
Tara's lips twitched in what might have been the ghost of a smile.
"I'll see what I can do, Mr. Walker."