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

I woke up to my alarm on my cell phone blaring off of the speaker on my nightstand. I jolted awake from my sleep and looked at my phone. It was 6:30 AM and I woke up just on time. I turned off my alarm and looked through my notifications. I had a text notification from Meg, a text notification from Nadir, and three text notifications from Raul. I decided to read Nadir's text first as he was pretty much my stand in boss ever since Erik went AWOL on me.

Nadir: Hey, Christine. I have a bit of work for you to do today, I hope that you were able to relax after yesterday's incident. If the workload is too much for you to bear, let me know and I can have Meg help you out. -N.

I replied to Nadir's text and then opened Meg's text after.

Meg: Hey, Chrissy! I'm stopping at Starbucks before work and I'm going to get you your usual and a brownie. Please come to work hungry. Love you! *kiss emoji*

I "loved" Meg's text and then dreadfully opened Raul's text messages.

Raul: U up? Sent at 3:00 AM

Raul: Christine. I let me coime obre *kiss emoji* Sent at 3:02 AM

Raul: I just wvana tvlk Sent at 3:15 AM

I decided to ignore his drunken text messages and moved on with my day. I made my way to the bathroom for a quick shower. Afterwards, I headed to my closet to pick out my outfit for the day. I hardly ever wake up on time to doll up and go to work now a days, so I decided that today would be the day. I decided to wear a black turtleneck bodysuit and a chestnut colored suede high-waisted skit that fell just an inch above my knees. I threw on some black pantyhose and I went with black suede heeled ankle boots. I made my way back to the bathroom and did my hair and makeup, I decided to straighten my hair and do a natural glam make-up look as well. I then threw on my deep grey wool lapel trench coat and made my way out of my house.

Erik woke up at 4:30 AM, if he was to sneak out of his apartment without Christine knowing, he had to do it within the early hours of the day. He got out of bed and changed into sweatpants and a sweatshirt, he would be showering in his hidden apartment inside of his office. He was determined to sneak into his office and do some work hidden from Christine and leave after she had gone home for the day. He was still unsure as to what he was going to say to her and felt that he needed to take this day to figure that out.

He arrived at the office at 5:00 AM, he was the first one their and had to unlock and re-lock the main entrance as to not gain an suspicions from any of the maintenance workers. He snuck into the elevator and rode it up to the office. Once he arrived to his floor, he couldn't help but look around. Christine's desk looked as neat as it always did before. He noticed that the main waiting area looked nice and tidy, it had to have been Christine's doing. He made his way to his office and we he walked in he noticed that it looked like he was gone, but the signs of his absence were nowhere to be found. There was no dust build up on any of his furniture and the magazines on his coffee table were up to date. Someone must have been keeping his office clean while he was gone. Surely it wasn't Christine, he had a feeling that she was too mad at him to even clean his office. He locked the door behind him and made his way over to his desk, he was going to be there all day and he might as well make himself at home and figure out what he's going to say to Christine.

I got to work at around 8:00 AM, I made sure to say hi to nice security man who was always at the front entrance of the lobby and then I made my way to the elevator. Once I got onto my floor, I made my way over to my desk. I found a sticky note from Nadir on my desk, it read:

Christine,

Please complete the following:

Respond to Filmoimages, Conecpts., and LiteTch's emails.

Go over meeting notes from last week.

Print next weeks meeting itinerary, make copies for all attendees.

Create logbook for ınventory and go though ıt.

Contact and set up meetings with potential prospective partner companies(Filmoimages, Concepts, and LiteTch).

Arrange meeting and meeting date with company managers and me, send out notifications.

-Nadir.

After reading through Nadir's note, I got to work. I was going to have a long day ahead of me, so I had better get started sooner rather than later.

Meg came down a couple of minutes later, with a drink carrier and Starbucks drinks and a bag of Starbucks goodies. "I have your hot cocoa! And your brownie," she said as she set everything down on my desk. What are you up to? I'm just responding to some emails right now, I have quite a few things to go through today. "Nadir has you working hard today, too? He gave me a list of about 20 things to do today," she said rolling her eyes. "He only gave me 6, but I know that it'll take me my entire shift if not more to finish it all," I said.

We talked for a little bit and drank our drinks. After a while, Meg looked at me with that worried look she uses every time she is about to bring up my situation. "What?," I asked. "Nothing. It's just that, I'm wondering when you're planning on talking to you dad and the rest of your family," she said. I stopped, I hated talking about this because I didn't want to tell anyone before telling Erik himself. "I don't know… I told Addison yesterday while we were shopping," I said. Meg nodded, "well I hope your planning on telling them soon, Chris. You're starting to show a tiny bump," she said as she pointed at my belly.

I got up and bent over to get something out of one of the drawers on my desk. I pulled out a cleaning spray and a rag and headed toward Erik's office. "Where are you going?," Meg asked. "I'm going to go clean and dust Erik's office," I said. Meg rolled her eyes. "Oh my god. Why? He gets you pregnant and then leaves and never once returns any of your texts or calls," she said with her hands in the air. "Well, he's still my boss and he's eventually going to come back so I'll at least make sure his office is clean when he does," I replied calmly. I was able to make my way down the hall and to his door without Meg saying anything else. I stopped to get my keys out to open the door, but I stopped before doing so. I could've sworn that I heard the faint sound of someone typing on a keyboard. You're going crazy. Just open the door.

I put my key into the keyhole and twisted it, my key got stuck as I unlocked it and I had to work hard to wiggle it out. Once I finally got it out, I opened the door and walked in. I could have sworn that I saw Erik's chair move just a little but I passed it off as a fragment of my imagination. I grabbed the duster and started dusting all of the furniture. "Well regardless, Erik is still a giant dick for what he did. Just leaving you like that and letting you fend for yourself without him. And without any explanation at all may I add," she said angrily. "Meg. He is still your boss," I said. She rolled her eyes, "well, technically Nadir is. But I guess he is my boss boss. Whatever I don't care, he's still being an ass." I laughed and made my way over to his desk to dust and clean it off.

Erik had been hard at work for a while. He had started to make a slight progress into his long long list of work, before he heard sound on the other side of the door. He dismissed it as a fragment of his imagination, until he saw the lock twist and the doorknob turn. He heard keys rattling and before the door could open, he quickly shot out of his desk and curled into a ball underneath it. He then heard footsteps come inside of the office. He peered through a small space in his desk and saw Christine and Meg in his office. Christine was cleaning and dusting and Meg was just there with her.

He listened to their conversation quietly. So I am an ass, then Miss Gutierrez? He was a bit taken aback and got a bit angry at her… until he reminded himself of his actions. He would have considered himself an ass and worse if he was looking from the outside-in. On their way out, he couldn't help but look at Christine once more. She looks absolutely beautiful, I didn't think she could get any more beautiful than the last time I saw her. She's glowing.

Meg headed back to her office after I finished cleaning Erik's office and I continued through my work. I got a little more than halfway through Nadir's list when I started to feel a bit hungry. I decided that it would be the perfect time for me to take my break. I texted Nadir to let him know that I was on my break in case he came up to look for me. I then grabbed my things and headed down to the lobby. I decided to go to a small coffee shop called "the Melting Grind Cafe" that was across the busy street to Destler LLC.

I arrived after running across the street as quickly as I could. I opened the door and walked in, right up to the semi-long line of people waiting to order. I was looking at my phone when the person in front of me in line turned around and started speaking to me. "Christine? Is that you, what are you doing here?," they asked. I looked up from my phone, shocked to see Raul standing there. "Oh, um. Hi, Raul how are you?," I asked. Not because I cared, but because it was what was usually said to someone when you greet them. "Good, good. What are you doing here?," he asked. I looked around a bit. "Um, I worked around here. I just came here quickly for my break," I replied. He nodded in understanding. "I'm stopping by quickly as well. I was hopping that we could meet up soon, so that I could properly apologize for those texts I sent," he replied. "Okay, we'll see," I said.

He left right after he had gotten his order, I stuck around for a bit and had my sandwich and lemonade drink before heading out. I gathered my things and made my way out the door. I was about to cross the road when I heard my phone ringing and realized that my dad was calling me. "Hey dad, is it okay if I call you back? I'm done with my break and I'm about to head back into work," I said as I began to cross the street after making sure no one was coming. "Okay, honey. Give me a call when you're done with work. I love you," he said. "I love you too," I said and hung up the phone. When I looked up and to my left, I saw a car's headlights right in front of my eyes and then just a light. After what I imagined to be a while, I could hear faint sounds of an ambulance and then everything went completely dark.

They had been waiting for her ever since she walked into that coffee shop. They were determined to get to her, this couldn't wait any longer. They had known Erik to be back and it may be only a matter of time before he professed his love to Christine. They had been sitting in their car in a parking lot, where one could clearly see the coffee shop across the street. Waiting, waiting, and waiting.

After a while, they saw her make her way out. They began to drive to the exit of the parking lot, and stopped when they saw her stop and speak on the phone for a bit. As soon as she hung up, the sped up and out of the parking lot and onto the road. Never losing eye of their target. When she looked up, they had been just inches away and then… BAM. After hitting their target, they backed up immediately, made a u-turn and sped away never looking back with a wide grin on their face. The distant sound of an ambulance was heard just as they managed to make their escape.