ADAM
09:44 AM

"Hello, IT here."

Adam heard Cooper answering the phone and, given his scarce will to work that morning, he was actually quite happy with that. But the bad news arrived almost immediately, when Cooper turned towards him.

"It's for you," he announced while transferring the call to Adam's number.

Usually, when someone called the IT office, there were no preferences on the solver. They just ranted random things like 'Internet Explorer is not working'.

Adam picked up the phone. "Hello. Cook here."

"Adam Cook?" The voice on the other end of the phone line was metallic and severe. "You came to my office the other day. It's Edgar LeRoy."

Oh, fuck.

"Mr. LeRoy." Adam did his best to sound pleased to hear from him, failing pathetically. "What can I do to help you?"

"Today they unpacked my fax, but it seems there are problems with the set-up."

Adam was burying his head in his hands.

"I see. Do you want me to come up and fix it?"

"Yes – just not right now. I'm having a business meeting here in a few minutes. What about this afternoon?"

I hate this man. I really, really, really hate this man.

He could definitely imagine him, caressing his shiny black hair while looking bored at the other meeting participants.

"Of course. See you this afternoon, then." Just for his own satisfaction, Adam hung up the phone before LeRoy had the chance to say another word.

MCKENNA
10:23 AM

McKenna was not feeling that great today. She was wearing a new white sheath dress, but even though the spring day was not particularly breezy, she was having the chills. She had lit a cigarette, but she had put it out the very minute after because her throat was bothering her.

Hugging her legs to her chest, she was currently lost in reading the usual stupid words that people used to carve into the walls – and in that corner of the abandoned yard, people had eventually unleashed their imagination. Tags, names, hearts, dates, small drawings, dedications – most of them stupid and badly written. But there was a phrase in particular that stood above the others.

"O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb"

It was not signed, but there was a date under it – something like two years ago. She knew that quote – Shakespeare. She giggled. Funny thing was, she would have give anything to swear by the moon – she would have given anything to change monthly.

Instead, two years had passed from the day she had laid her eyes upon him for the first time, from the day that some desperate lover had carved those words into the wall.

And she was still completely wasted on Edgar LeRoy, fixed and unchanging as the sun.

EDGAR
10:26 AM

He had gathered information about copper hair girl. Her name was McKenna Dunne, she had been working at Lezarc for more than two years, she was Spencer's pupil, and he had just promoted her to junior manager.

Apart from that, the white dress she was wearing that day was beautiful, Edgar had to admit.

Yet, she didn't seem okay that day. She was not even shooting her furtive looks up at his windows. She was staring at the wall instead.

And since when has this become a problem?

Maybe he'd imagined it all. Maybe she had never looked up at his window intentionally, maybe she'd been smoking cigarettes in the backyard for ages.

Maybe he should start to believe in coincidences.

Or maybe – just maybe – he should take the elevator and go down and talk to her.

Or maybe not.

ADAM
03:04 PM

Setting up a stupid fax while being scanned by 'I'm the CEO I'm your God you're just a crawling worm' Edgar LeRoy was surely one of the worst working moments of the last months, Adam reckoned. Between a glance and another, LeRoy kept ignoring phone calls while examining what seemed to be a balance sheet on his laptop screen.

Adam could have sworn there were white powder's traces on the wooden table, not very far from where he was locating the malfunctioning fax.

Damn drugged asshole.

While walking around the table, Adam's eyes fell on the back yard so many metres below. Seeing it from this new perspective was almost confusing – from the basement window, to the last floor window.

This is how he sees the world – from top to bottom.

Just a moment after, McKenna entered the backyard. The afternoon sun lighted up her copper bob, and she was definitely dressed to kill.

Than it happened.

McKenna looked up.

Now that Adam was here, everything fell inexorably into place.

What the hell is she doing in the backyard? I've never seen her here in two years.

I wonder - what the hell is she looking at?

Well, now he knew, and he was about to burst into laughter.

She is dressed to kill – just, not to kill you.

MCKENNA
05:38 PM

So it was final: McKenna was not feeling well. The coldness she felt was getting worse, her bones had started aching too, along with her throat.

I'm afraid I've got a temperature.

The throat ache was still preventing her from wanting to smoke, and even the hot tea she was holding in her hands was not making it any better.

But she came there in the backyard anyway – mostly to escape from the noises of the office, and from the sexist jokes of her colleagues about her dress, and about the fact that she had been promoted to manager just because she had slept with Spencer.

Every chance was good to bring back that topic.

By the way, she hadn't slept with Spencer. But no one really cared about the truth, especially if it was less interesting than the lies.

What if I pass out now? She was starting to think nonsense, maybe it was the temperature, maybe it was just her childish part that liked to daydream. Would he come down and help me out?

She stared absently at the hot tea.

God, she was sad.

EDGAR
05:41 PM

Acknowledging her existence and gathering information about her was one thing. But now, punctually studying her from his window every time she appeared was another thing – a thing he didn't really like.

He usually didn't care about his employees' private life, not even if they were managers. He had always managed to stay above it all.

Yet now, seeing that girl so regularly was having an unexpected effect on him, and he found himself wondering if the rumor he had heard that she was manager because she was fucking Spencer was true, wondering if the IT guy who had immobilized when she had appeared in the back yard in his window's view had a crush on her.

The more you get close, the more you get stuck.

That was his life motto.

He moved away from the window, reaching for his personal Nespresso machine, which his assistant had finally retrieved from its box. It was his sixth coffee of the day, but he definitely needed it.