Liam stretched his arm towards the half of the bed where Emily was supposed to be but he only touched an empty space. With difficulty, he opened his eyes and realized that she wasn’t in bed at all.

That was strange. Perhaps, she went to the toilet. He thought, and turned to his side. Checking the time, he realized it was just a few minutes after five AM. He was glad that he still had time to sleep.

They’d gone back to Liam’s house the previous day, Sunday, so as to get ready for work that morning. They always spend time at each other’s apartment.

He checked the time again, what could she be doing in the bathroom to have taken her that long?

He straightened up.

“Baby!” he called out, but there was no response.

Out of curiosity, he checked, opening the door of the bathroom, but it was open, and no Emily.. Reluctantly, he gathered his blanket up with him, rubbing his sleepy eyes to stay awake.

“Where could she be this early morning?” he thought to himself before leaving the room. He thought probably she was in the kitchen. He checked but still didn’t see her. Soon, he came back to the room, picked up his phone and called her.

It rang for a while before she picked up. It sounded like she was on the road.

“Hi, babe,” she said.

“Where are you, babe?” he demanded. “Are you in the car? Where are you going?”

“Oh, didn’t you see the note that I left?”

“What note? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, I left a note, check the bedside table or maybe it dropped to the floor.”

“Okay, but since I’m calling you, where are you?”

“Well, I’m on the way to work, I didn’t want to wake you up and...”

“Baby! It’s not even six yet and your meeting wouldn’t start till nine!”

“Yea, I know, but you know, that Monday traffic can be so unpredictable and I don’t want to make any mistakes… I gotta go, love, kisses.”

Liam shook his head as the call ended. He threw himself back on the bed, put the phone on the bedside table and then pulled the blanket over him.

Emily shifted uncontrollably in her seat and checked the clock for the hundredth time that morning, it was just a few minutes past seven and she was still the only one in the conference room.

“Please can you come out, miss, I need to clean the room.”

She looked up and was surprised to see the cleaner addressing her.

“Oh! I’m so sorry, please carry on,” she said quickly before getting up and leaving the room.”

She went to the reception and realized it was still being cleaned too, so she headed outside and got into her car.

This was embarrassing. What had she been thinking, coming here so early? She thought about calling Liam but kicked against the idea, she needed to let him sleep. The only reason why she didn’t wake him up when coming in was that she knew he would definitely make her change her mind and stay. And that this could have worked better for her than her present situation. She thought of resting her head against the wheel for a while, just for a while.

She’d hardly slept when she heard a tap at her window. She raised her head and found of her colleagues, Lucy, knocking on the glass. She raised her head squinting her eyes for the brightness which hit her suddenly. She pressed a button to roll down the glass.

“What are you doing here, the meeting has already started!”

For a while, she didn’t understand a word she had just heard.

“Emily, did you hear what I just said?”

Emily shook her head.

“I said, the meeting has started, what are you doing in here?”

For a while, she thought she was dreaming, it was 7am when she’d rested her head a little and… her eyes landed on the time on the dashboard -9:20

Oh crap! She bolted out of the car like lightning and ran inside pushing everyone in her way until she got to the conference room.

As she came in, everyone already seated shifted their attention to the latecomer. She heard some chuckle while others just seemed surprised.

Mustering all her courage, Emily headed towards the only seat that was vacant and settled down, ignoring the pairs of eyes that accompanied her.

Joe, the boss who was addressing the nominees, checked his wristwatch. “I’m glad that you were able to join us, Miss. Emily Larry, we thought maybe you weren’t coming.” He was in his mid-fifties, bald, and usually friendly.

“Oh, I…got here on time, seriously, you can ask the cleaners, just went to my car to rest for a while and I fell asleep...” she stopped abruptly she’d said too much and now everyone was looking at her like she was crazy. “I’m sorry, Joe,” she added and Joe continued with what he was saying. When it was time for questions, one of the other women raised a hand.

“Yes, Nancy.”

“Just out of curiosity, may I know the standard that was used for the nomination because clearly if it were for standards of experience, success and education, there are some people here who clearly are not yet qualified.”

Emily swallowed, realizing her colleague was talking about her. Nancy had always been one of the top successful, single and relatively young women in the company and even though they never had any business together, Emily had never liked her much. She was full of herself.

Joe smiled and thanked her. “Well, Nancy, you’re right in part, but the nomination was also based on the number of successes that each of you have had within a very short time. Now, I know you are talking about Emily here and the truth is, yes, she has only spent a few months here but she had been performing wonderfully. Now I know you might have a problem with that but you shouldn’t. Out of the six of you, only two will be picked eventually, so you need to start on more hard work ladies and gentlemen. This is where I rest my case. Have a great day, and do good work.”

Emily watched as each of her colleagues walked out of the conference room, some glared at her while others just ignored her. Finally, it was just Emily and Joe remaining in the room.

“Emily, don’t you have an office to go to?” Joe asked, and she nodded.

“Yea, thanks for reminding me Joe but out of curiosity, do you really think I have a shot at this? I’m out of mind with nerves about the whole thing.”

The older man smiled. “If you don’t have a shot, you wouldn’t be here, you know. Besides, you work as hard as all the other nominees, I would advise you to keep it up.”

She nodded gratefully with a smile. “Thanks, Joe.” Without further ado, she grabbed her bag and walked out of the conference room. As she walked to her office she ran into Liam.

“Baby?” Liam started, until she flung herself to him and he hugged her tightly. Soon, they pulled away.

“Are you okay? You look rattled. “

Emily sighed and holding his hand, pulled him along to her office and shut the door.

“Baby, you have no idea what happened to me this morning,” she started.

“What?” he asked, ‘are you okay?”

“You won’t believe it! I got to the meeting late, even after all my effort.”

Liam looked taken aback. “Really? That’s hard to believe, did they start at midnight or what?” he teased, but Emily wasn’t laughing.

“I’m serious babe, stop laughing. I slept in the car, I was just trying to take a rest and I was so lucky that Lucy came to wake me, else, I would have never made any of it.”

Liam smiled. They were standing close already, but he pulled her closer to him, resting her head on his chest.

“You need to take things in your stride, darling, all you do is go, go, go. Don’t stress yourself out.”

Emily pulled away. “I need to go-go-go right now Liam, I can take a break once I’m partner. You know what this would do to my career if I get it, right?”

Liam nodded, “Yes, but...”

“No buts, baby, please, I need to push myself harder and I would be so happy if you didn’t try to pull me back.”

“Okay, okay. I won’t pull you back but I won’t let you stress yourself too much either. I’ll see you at lunch, got to go.” He kissed her on the cheek and later left for his office.