Adrian's POV
When I walked into the office Friday morning, Ava intercepted me before I could even reach my door. My secretary had been with Apex Galaxy for fifteen years and earned the right to speak her mind. At nearly sixty with a solid marriage and steel-gray hair pulled into a tight bun, she was immune to my usual charm and kept our relationship strictly business.
"Mr. West, your desk is drowning in urgent matters and these messages came in this morning." She thrust a stack of pink slips held together with a paper clip into my hands.
"Emmanuel, do these people start working at dawn?" I muttered, already feeling the familiar weight of stress settling on my shoulders.
"They start at eight, but you rolled in thirty minutes late, so the calls piled up." Ava's tone carried just enough disapproval to make me feel like a scolded schoolboy. "Enjoy your day!"
