the elevator, and I smiled weakly as I took in her appearance. She was in comfortable looking sweat pants and a shirt that looked two sizes smaller on her with a Dora the Explorer theme splashed all over her chest area.
“It’s my little cousins’. I couldn’t find my favourite home shirt, so I used hers…” She trailed off, flushing slightly as she looked up at me with a sheepish grin.
“Well, it looks very nice. I think it’s not far off from becoming the next big thing in fashion!” I laughed, joining her amusement on the topic.
“Not to sound blunt or rude or anything, but… why are you here? I don’t get visitors often; especially people as important as you.” Anna explained quickly, trying to back up her side of the story before I had the chance to get offended.
I waved her off. “You don’t sound rude. Quite frankly, I’m surprised you even let me up here.” I smiled awkwardly. “I, uh… I wanted to talk to you about… some things.”
Surprise once again flashed through Anna’s eyes, before she immediately stepped aside. “Oh, yeah! Of course, come in!”
“Thank you,” I mumbled quietly as I stepped past her into her apartment.
Apparently, working at Kingston Corporation compensated well. So well, in fact, that Anna’s apartment was almost as nice as the penthouse Adrian and I were currently living in. White walls and floors extended throughout the open space, and a black and lavender coloured scheme was splashed all over the apartment in places which highlighted the expense of the place even more.
“Wow, your place is amazing,” I stated truthfully, still taking in the bright home.
“Thanks. Do you want me to make you a coffee or anything?”
“No thank you, I’m okay. I can’t stay long,” I explained with a small smile.
“Oh, okay. So… What did you want to talk about?”
I took a seat on the edge of one of the black sofas in the living room and Anna sat across from me, placing a lavender pillow in her lap in the process.
“I… I’m so sorry.” I blurted, blushing once I realised I sounded like a 5-year-old who got caught stealing candy.
“Sorry?” Anna repeated with a confused expression.
“It’s my fault. I assumed you were working with David Walter and you only apologised to me to get information from me and give it to him because of some kind of revenge thing you had against me and I told Adrian who freaked out and fired you. I mean, I tried to tell him not to because I wasn’t sure and then I found out that it was Rita all along and you had absolutely nothing to do with it and I’m so sorry because now you have no job and it’s all my-”
Anna cut off my rambling apology. “Whoa, whoa, Emily! It’s okay, you don’t need to apologise! Adrian told me everything; and the letter David Walter was trying to give me on the night of the dinner was bribery money. He wanted me to get you to go outside but I didn’t accept it. I don’t think you saw that part. I’m also the one who found out where David was keeping you. I followed him one day because I was really angry with him once I found out that he had taken a friend of mine and did the same thing that he did to you. I told Adrian my theory once I realised where you might be and they did further investigating.”
“Oh my god,” I breathed, looking at her with wide eyes. “Oh my god I am so, so sorry. I didn’t know… I’m so sorry-”
Anna cut me off again with a short laugh. “Emily! It’s okay; stop apologising. I don’t blame you for making those assumptions about me. I was kind of the biggest bitch to you. But everyone hated you at that time, I didn’t want to be the only one defending you or else I’d be hated by every one of those girls as well. Trust me, you’d do the same thing if you had to see them the next Monday in the marketing department.” She shuddered at the thought, before giving me another smile.
I laughed nervously, trying to lighten up the mood. “You could’ve always escaped up to my office. My door offers standard security against jealous co-workers,” I joked.
Anna laughed. “That was probably the lamest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
I laughed in response before throwing a lavender pillow in her direction. “Shut up,” I mumbled with a