*DISCLAIMER* I DO NOT own The Phantom of the Opera, its storyline, or its characters. Please R&R.

I ran out of the room with tears streaming down my face. I had no idea how I managed to find, get in, and ride the elevator down the one level where Meg and Nadir's offices were located. As soon as the elevator reached the floor, I got out and ran into Meg's office. As I barged into the room, Meg looked up at me and quickly got out of her chair to hug me. "What's wrong Chrissy? Are you okay," she asked.

"It's ruined! It's all completely ruined. I thought everything was finally looking up! I got this amazing internship offer, a boss who believed in me, and all of these perks offered to me because of it. Now, all because of the stupid mistake I made, it's all going to get taken away," I cried. She managed to get me seated at one of the chairs in front of her desk and sat in the one next to me. "Okay, Christine. Hold on a sec, I need you to calm down and explain everything to me. What exactly happened," she asked.

"Well, after you left, I went down to the lobby to get the coffee I was asked for. After I got the coffee, I headed down to the basement to look for the Psycless Copy Room that that evil woman wanted me to look for." I took a couple of tissues from the tissue box on Meg's desk and blew my nose before continuing.

"Well, I looked around for what felt like hours, only to run into the security office. After asking the security guard for directions there, I found out that the stupid copy room doesn't even exist in the first place! So I went back upstairs realizing that I forgot my phone and didn't know the time, by the time I got upstairs I checked my phone to see that the meeting had already started 10 minutes before! I looked around my desk and couldn't find my pamphlets and I assumed that you had brought them to the conference room for me. I ran to the conference room late and ended up getting yelled at by that evil lady for making HER coffee a priority and being late for looking for the room SHE told me to look for. To make matters worse, Erik didn't even do anything about it and told me it would be best if I left. Not only did he humiliate me as well, he told me to call him Sir again! Oh Meg, I don't know why but that hurt more than you know," I finished crying into my hands.

Meg sat in her chair trying to understand everything that I was saying. She had that look on her face that I would recognize anywhere. She made that face whenever she tried to figure something out. Before I could say anything else, Meg got up and pulled me out the door with her. We made our way to the elevator and she pushed the button to get all of the way down to the basement of the building. "Where are we going," I asked. She had a large grin on her face that always came off a little creepy to me. "We're going to go visit your security friend and ask him a couple of questions."

I walked with Meg for a while, retracting my steps in the basement until we stumbled upon the security office. Meg quickly walked up to the window and knocked. "Excuse me," she said. The same security officer from earlier today, was seated in the office looking at camera footage. He looked up at us a little startled by Meg's loud announcement. "What can I do for you ladies," he asked. Meg pointed towards me, " I am Meg Gutierrez and my friend here was looking for that fake copy room earlier today. Did you help her?"

The security officer and Meg talked back and forth for a little bit. "How long have you been working here," asked Meg. "Why I think I've been working here for almost 4 years," he replied. "Have you ever heard of some Centola Aziz-Khan lady," she asked. The security guard sat for a little while and thought about it for a second. "Well if it's the Centola girl I think you're askin' for, she is Mr. Nadir Khan's cousin. She's had the hots for the big boss, Mr. Erik Destler for as long as I can remember. She ain't the nicest gem either… before she knew Mrs. Sorelli Martin was engaged to be married to Mr. Martin back at that time, she tried pushing Sorelli as far away from Mr. Destler as possible. Now you didn't hear it from me, but I think she won't rest until she's got a ring from Mr. Destler on her finger," he said.

Meg and I looked at each other in shock. Could it be that Centola saw me as a threat? He was my boss and it would be completely unprofessional for us to be together in a romantic way. There's no way that Mr. Destler even thinks of me in that sort of way, especially now. Who are you kidding Christine, you've got the hots for Erik but you're too afraid to admit it to yourself. "No I don't," I exclaimed. Meg looked at me with a confused look on her face. "Are you okay, Christine?" I smiled back, "I'm perfectly fine."

Meg turned back to the security guard once again. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name," she said. "Oh, it's Richard. Richard Firmin," he replied. "Well Richard, before we head off… I was wondering if you had access to the camera showing Christine's desk," said Meg. Firmin looked around trying to assure that no one was listening in. "Certainly, ma'am. Mr. Destler takes his security anywhere very seriously and has cameras everywhere in the building making sure that no crevice is left off of footage," replied Richard. "Interesting. Do you think you could email me the footage from Christine's desk, from around 7:55-8:15," asked Meg. "You can expect an email from me soon, Ms. Gutierrez.

With that, Meg and I rode the elevator to the lobby. "I should go, Mr. Destler told me to take the rest of the day off," I said. "Okay, Christine. Please don't blame yourself too much. If you ask me, something fishy went down this morning and as your best friend I am going to get to the bottom of it. Oh, and don't worry about Mr. Destler… I'll take care of him for you," said Meg. "What are you going to do, Meg?" She had a big smile on her face, "Nothing, I'm just going to send him an email," she replied.

Once the meeting was over, Erik headed to the restaurant for lunch with the rest of the board of committee. He just wanted to make it through lunch and head back to his office to work on a couple of things. Even more, he hoped that he would find Christine at her office so that he could apologize to her.

Lunch lasted for about an hour and a half with the committee. After paying, he drove himself back to his company with Nadir in tow. "Erik, now that I've got you alone… don't you think that you may have been a little harsh with Christine," he asked. Erik looked at Nadir, raising his visible eyebrow in a way that expressed his want for Nadir to elaborate. "Look, I know that Christine… and I don't think that she would purposefully miss that meeting for the world. You didn't hear it from me, but I think that she really looks up to you and feels some sort of need to impress you," he continued.

Erik scoffed at Nadir's words, letting out a small chuckle. "Nadir, you've only known her for a couple of days and you think that you know her so well," said Erik. Nadir gave Erik a serious look before continuing. "Okay, and you've known for a little longer than I have. So you should know deep deep down in the cold, cold heart of yours that Christine wouldn't just miss a simple meeting for something as stupid as coffee," he replied. I hate to admit it but Nadir DOES have a point. God, I hated when he was right. "Well, whatever did happen, I am making sure to get to the bottom of it," replied Erik.

They both arrived to work shortly after and made their way to their respective offices. Erik took a seat at his computer and began to make preparations for their business trip coming up. After situating proper hotels, flights, and expenses he noticed that it was well past 6 o'clock and almost everyone in the building was already gone. Noticing that he had a lot of new emails in need of his response. Deciding that it could wait until tomorrow, he left work to get some rest after such a stressful day at Destler LLC.

I had decided to take a nap after coming home from work. I woke up and checked my phone to see that it was almost 6 o'clock. I actually slept for about 6 hours… how was I going to manage to regulate my sleeping schedule now? I decided to head downstairs to the kitchen and make myself some dinner. As I had finished making my dinner and was setting it down on the table, I heard a chime coming from my cell phone with an incoming text.

Meg: Gurl! I found out what happened to your pamphlets!

Me: What?! WDYM?

Meg: Is typing…

Meg: Is typing…

Meg: It was that Centola bitch! Richard got it on security footage, so there is proof!

My jaw dropped down to the floor. Why on earth would she even do that to me? If she wanted Erik, she could have him as far as I was concerned. I was at Destler LLC for one purpose, and on purpose only now… to do my job. I was in no way trying to seduce Erik Destler…