Chapter 8: Love at All the Wrong Times
The months passed fairly quickly for the two younger lovers. Christian visited Alexia almost every weekend. The times that he couldn't visit, she would go to him. They managed to keep their relationship a secret from their closest friends and even their family. Christian still went out with his friends and dated a few girls but it never went any further than that. For company functions, he would ask one of his good female friends to go with him. As for Alexia, she used her last relationship as an excuse not to get involved with anyone. Her friends accepted that and ceased to bother her any more with blind dates.
It was mid-April and Alexia was a month away from graduating. She had already sent in her application to Christian's grad school and was awaiting their reply. Everything was ready for her to march. Now the only thing she had to worry about was their dance. Alex wasn't really sure if she wanted to go or not. At the beginning of the term her and her friends decided that they would all go together but that had changed. Each of her friends was now in serious relationships.
Taking Christian had crossed her mind but she didn't want that much attention brought on her. Her real close friends knew her brother and always drooled over him. Alexia worried about how he would act; like a brother or like a boyfriend? She decided just to stay home and relax with her family who would be in town. Besides, if she wanted to dance, she could always go to a club.
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Christian busied himself with making sure he didn't have any type of work for the middle of next month. He wanted to spend that time with his baby sister. They planned on spending her graduation weekend with their parents and then the next two weeks they would go on vacation. So he was doing extra work to cover for the time he would be away. This month, there was no time for weekend visits.
Everyday after school, Christian would go straight to his job and stay there until at least midnight. His administrators were concerned that he was overworking himself but admired his enthusiasm for his job. They often asked him if he wanted a day off or maybe even a week but he always refused. By the first week of May, Christian had enough work done to cover until mid June.
When he handed over the finished product, his supervisor praised him. Christian only smiled and said his thanks. His boss had known why he over worked. And as promised, he granted Christian with not two weeks off but a month. Christian was excited but kept his calm face on. Then they waited while his boss's superior came to talk to them. The head executive promoted Christian to a higher position, which gave him a bit more work, but also his own office and a personal secretary.
They granted him the privilege of picking his own secretary and he knew exactly whom he wanted. Not only did he have a better job awaiting him when he returned but also did his sister. He decided that the job would be another graduation present from him. Christian returned to his workspace and cleaned it up. Mr. James came over to Christian as he was cleaning up his area.
"Well, are you ready to see your new office, Christian?" Mr. James asked smiling.
"Yes sir I am as ready as ever," Christian responded picking up his box.
"Then follow me."
Mr. James walked down to the elevators and pressed it to go up. Once it arrived, he and Christian climbed on and went from the 15th floor to the 24th. When they stepped off, they went left and around the corner. This floor was filled with nothing but large offices, secretary desks, and lots of employees. There were no cubicles like on his old floor. Mr. James stopped in front of a corner office that had no name on it yet.
"When you get back, your name will be here." Mr. James said pointing to the blank space before walking into the room.
Inside there was a large cherry wood desk and a large black chair behind it. In front of the desk were two smaller wood chairs. There was also a large filing cabinet on the left side of the room. On the desk were a phone and a file holder. Christian walked over and placed his box down on the desk.
"It's so large," Christian said, looking out the window.
"You deserve it. Since you've been here, you've done more than your share of work."
"Thank you very much Mr. James. I appreciate it so much."
"No Christian, thank you for being such a great employee. You enjoy your time off; we'll see you back here in June."
They shook hands and parted. Christian put his things away as he marveled his new office. Then being pulled out of his haze, his phone vibrated. He pulled it out of his pocket and check to see who it was. Damn...it was his mom and dad.
"Hello."
"Hey there Chris, it's Mom. Where are you?"
"I'm still at the office finishing up. You guys there already?"
"No where about 90 minutes away. We just called Alex and she said that she hasn't heard from you."
"Yeah I didn't get a chance to talk to her yet. I'm actually on my way out to my car. All my stuff is packed inside, so I can just head straight over there."
"Well that's good. So you'll be there before us. Oh, your father says hello. Ok then Chris we'll see you there. Love you."
"OK Mom, love you and dad too. See you guys later."
Christian ended the call and sighed. At least he would get there before they would. He wanted some private time with Alex. Stepping out the elevator, Chris headed to his car. He took off out the parking lot and onto the road. Since his headset was still on, he dialed up his sister to let her know that he was on his way.
