2
After that day, Amber started watching me. Secretly.
Sometimes, I’d feel her presence and find her standing right behind my desk, trying to read my phone over
my shoulder.
Just then, a message from Mr. Evans, one of the general managers, popped up.
Mr. Evans: Ms. Kim, The Grand Astoria is doing a new buffet brunch. Would you care to join me?
Mr. Evans must have figured out who I am. Ever since I started this internship at one of my family’s subsidia- ry companies, he’d been engineering “chance encounters” and asking me out.
I was typing out a polite refusal when I felt that prickling sensation on the back of my neck.
I whipped my head around. Amber. Peeking at my screen again.
I instantly locked my phone and stared her down. She just picked up her water bottle and walked away as if
nothing had happened.
Once she was gone, I texted Mr. Evans back, telling him to focus on his work. Then I replied to a message
from Alex.
As luck would have it, a friend from college was having a birthday party at an event space right next to The
Grand Astoria. She’d invited both me and Alex. Alex was texting to coordinate a time to pick me up.
Before leaving work, I touched up my makeup.
Gita winked at me. “Getting all dolled up for a hot date?” she teased. “Guess we won’t be seeing you tomorr-
ow morning, huh?”
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12.44
As I applied my lipstick, I realized we might be out late, maybe even hit an after–party. I nodded. “I might be late tomorrow. Could you do me a huge favor and clock in for me?”
“You got it.
#
The second the clock hit five, I was downstairs, sliding into the passenger seat of Alex’s Aston Martin.
From her electric scooter, Gita watched us go, sighing wistfully. “A rich, handsome boyfriend. Some girls
have all the luck.”
A few feet away, Amber watched us pull away, a thoughtful expression on her face. Then she hopped on her own scooter and pulled up a map on her phone.
We partied until almost 11 PM before a few of us decided to hit up a karaoke bar. As Alex went to get the
car, I glanced across the street and saw a familiar figure emerging from The Grand Astoria. It was Amber.
Was she having dinner there?
Alex pulled up to the curb, and the thought vanished. I got in the car, and we drove off.
