My Soul to Keep

Terra found herself staring at the bottom of her empty coffee cup. It was her second cup since she'd walked through the door to start her day. Her eyes had grown tired quite quickly, but she had to press on. She rearranged her folders on the corner of her desk before she logged onto her laptop. She checked the time to see that it was almost lunch and came to the realization that Matt hadn't come in yet. Grabbing her phone, she navigated to her contacts list and found the number she was looking for.

“What is it Terra?” Richard's raspy voice rolled through her earpiece. He was the doorman at the building and was usually very observant.

“Have you seen Matt? He's usually not this late.”

“He showed up at six this morning.”

“Did you happen to speak to him?”

“No. Nothing besides a greeting.”

“Alright, well thanks.”

Hanging up, Terra became very curious about why Matt would show up at six in the morning and not come to his office. She shoved herself away from her desk and to her feet. She smoothed her black pencil skirt out before she stepped around her desk quickly. Terra wanted to find out where he was and why. As she reached the door she was graced by the sight of him coming toward the office.

He looked clearly upset about something. His lips were pulled down into a deep frown, his eyebrows were pulled together, and his eyes were red. Terra backed away from the door to allow him enough space to get in. He pushed the door open and then stopped to stare at Terra with the same angry face.

“She's taking all the fucking credit!” He yelled as he slammed the door behind him, making it rattle the entire glass wall.

“What-? Who's taking the credit? What's going on?!” Terra followed him to his desk as his door slowly came closed behind them.

“Parsons! You know the bitch we work for!” He threw his briefcase down on his wooden desk. Matt came to rest his hands on the dark top of his desk with a sigh. “I've been here since six o'clock trying to fucking finesse Mr. Smith into a five hundred thousand dollar account. Right as I closed the deal, Mr. Mathews calls and She takes all the fucking credit!”

“Wait a minute,” Terra rounded the desk to stand on his left side and lowered her head to his level. “Mr. Mathews? Mr. CEO called the office?”

“Yeah. Do you know any other Mr. Mathews?” Terra knew he was irritated, so she ignored his last statement.

“That doesn't sound...off to you?”

“Why would it?” He walked behind her, brushing against her, to sit in his chair and rub his eyes.

“Think about it. Mr. Mathews never calls this damn office unless something is extremely wrong.” Matt pulled his hands away from his face and stared up at Terra. “Usually when someone is about to get fired.”

“So...someone's getting fired?”

“Or she was about to get fired and had to cover her own ass.” Terra finished while looking in Matt's eyes.

“Oh, this is fucking rich.” A grin adorning his features for a moment. His phone chimed and he looked down to check it, his smile dropped instantly as he continued to stare at his cellphone. “Listen, I gotta go. Cover for me?”

Terra crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Yeah sure, it's not like anything interesting is happening.”

“Thank you!” He kissed her cheek as he stood to walk out. “I owe you one.”

She watched him quickly disappear out of sight, all the while hiding her cheesy grin.