Assistant to the CEO

Chapter Thirty-Three: I Missed You

Clarke and I stayed at the dining table reading for what must've been a couple of hours. I wasn't sure we found anything too useful either. I wasn't sure what would we'd be looking for either, but we kept trying. I mean, who would want to kill Henry? What benefit did that have? I guess that was the question and probably the question the police were trying to answer too. Motive.

I pulled Clarke away from it all and we sat on the couch together. We were both silent for a minute and it was super awkward. We hadn't seen each other in weeks, hadn't spoken a word, and now Clarke and I had been brought together by some awful tragedy. It was strange because whenever we were alone like this we would be close, super close, but now we sat with inches apart from each other.

"I think it's time to turn my phone on," Clarke sighed as he pulled out of his pocket. "I've been ignoring everyone all day was not a good idea."

"There's probably like twenty missed calls by me by the way," I said as I saw the screen light up. "I tried calling before I used Trevor to get into this building."

I saw Clarke smile. "You're the only one who didn't just give up when they couldn't reach me. I thought Parker might try to force his way in."

"I...I just knew you shouldn't be alone," I muttered. "I know you, Clarke, and I know you want to shut everyone out, but I also know you handle it better when someone is there."

"Thank you...Rory I-."

Clarke looked at me and I could see he wanted to stay more, maybe even something important, but before he could his phone started going insane. Clarke looked down at the phone and sighed. I could see the notifications rolling in constantly. I caught some of the names, like Parker, myself and even Malcom. I had been so worried about emotions that I had forgotten what news like his might do to the company. I knew it was nothing good.

"Malcom wants to see me," Clarke muttered. "I don't want to go there, not today anyway. I don't think I can handle it all yet. Our stocks are falling and there's pressure for me to a do a press conference. Who knows if it'll be enough to stop the company losing money though?"

"I agree going there will be hard, but sadly I don't think you can afford not to," I told him. "Tomorrow, first thing. I think that's the latest you can leave it."

"Tomorrow, okay. I can do that," Clarke nodded. "The police want to talk again too. Well the detective wanted to see me today. I don't want leave my house right now so I think I'm going to tell him to come here."

"That's fine, I can-," I started to say looking at the door.

"No, you can still stay though," Clarke stopped me. "Please."

I looked back at Clarke and saw the desperation. He didn't want to be alone. "Of course."

The afternoon felt like it went by slowly. Clarke was on the phone for quite some time, he told the detective to come over, and then he spoke to Malcom for quite some time. From what I could tell it was about the company and that he needed to make a statement. I heard him say he would tomorrow. I even heard him talk to Parker, and Clarke insisted it was fine and he could stay with Ava for now, and that I was here so Clarke wasn't alone. The detective showed up not much later after that and I didn't sit down with them. Instead I cleaned up, something I don't think had been done, since it was clear Rosa hadn't been here for a bit. They didn't talk about much though. They had no new leads from what I had heard, and they were going to interview everyone who saw Henry the day he died. The detective left not long after that.

Before I knew it, it was getting dark outside. I stood by the big long glass window that covered the lounge room wall. It looked out right over the city and it liked the view. I could see lights slowly coming on in each apartment building. I think it was easy to forget how many people actually lived here. It had to be a lot, there were thousands of apartment buildings to see, and I bet each one of them had their own problems.