dark bob swishing. Whatever it was, it was important.
“I’m really sorry. Something urgent has just come up. Janna will be in touch to reschedule.” She hung up before her client could even reply. This had better be good. “What is it? What’s happened?”
The possibilities ran through her mind. Someone else had been fired? Meredith had heard about the gala, and Lacey was about to be fired?
The thought wasn’t quite as unbearable as it had been a few weeks before. But if she had to leave, she wanted to be the one who made the decision. Not have it made for her. She could always quit before she got fired if it looked like it was heading that way.
“You’ve been summoned up to the fifty-first floor. Immediately.”
“What? What’s on the fifty-first floor?” Langham took up floors nineteen and twenty of their building. She didn’t even know who the other tenants of the building were, apart from the large law firm that had naming rights and took up at least ten floors.
“Apparently, we have an office up there.” Janna tilted her heard and raised her eyebrows with meaning.
“We have an office on the fifty-first floor?” Lacey was on her feet, pulling on her jacket as she struggled to process the words. “Who summoned me?”
“Guy’s EA. She said your key card will work for the elevator, and once you’re up there, you want …” Janna consulted a scrawl on her hand. “Suite 5101.” Her PA looked at her with shiny eyes. “I think this is it, Lace. I think they’re calling people in.”
Surely it had to be good news, right? Surely she wouldn’t be summoned like this to be told she hadn’t made the grade. She grabbed her portfolio, checking to make sure it was a Langham & Co pen slipped into the side. She didn’t need to check anything else. Her hair and makeup were always set to last until at least mid-afternoon, and she hadn’t eaten anything yet today, so no need to check her teeth.
“Go!” Janna flapped her hands like she was sixty-seven, not twenty-seven.
Within a few minutes, Lacey was thirty floors up. The elevator doors opened with a swish, and she stepped out into plush gray carpet, the kind she could imagine babies sleeping on as an advertisement.
Muted classical music played. An expensive chaise lounge and a table with fresh fruit sat just across from the elevator bank as if the people who graced this floor were too special to even stay on their feet a couple of minutes as they waited for an elevator.
Apart from that, there was nothing. No one. Just a hallway, with an occasional indent for a door. Lacey took a stab and turned left. The first door she reached was labeled 5050. The next was 5101. She paused for a second, then knocked firmly on the paneled wood.
“Come in.” Meredith. Lacey’s spine prickled as she pushed open the door, making sure to close it firmly behind her before turning to the room.
A large suite faced her. A board table for about twelve was on her right. Floor-to-ceiling windows held a view of Central Park. In front of the windows, two leather lounge couches sat facing each other, separated by a glass coffee table with a large fruit bowl.
“Come, sit.” Meredith gestured to the lounge chair across from her. “Coffee?” She was dressed in a royal purple pantsuit. It would have looked garish on anyone else, let alone someone with Meredith’s flaming hair. But of course, on her, it looked chic and elegant. Lacey felt shabby in her designer shift dress.
The carpet swished beneath her as she made her way to the lounge suite and perched opposite Meredith. “No, thank you.” There was already a tall glass of water on the coffee table in front of her, so Lacey picked it up and took a sip, just for something to do.
Meredith leaned back on her sofa, crossing one leg over the other, and studying her for a few seconds. Lacey let the awkward silence sit, determined she wasn’t going to be the one to crack. She took a few moments to rehearse her pitch if this ended up being some kind of gotcha job interview.
“I have some people you need to meet,” Meredith said in her usual brisk tone. Before Lacey had a chance to say anything, ask anything, Meredith looked over Lacey’s shoulder and raised her voice. “You can come in now!”
There was a click. A door she hadn’t noticed opened, and Bradley O’Donnell