Alex

"Ivanov Corp did business with playboy?" Derek shot out. I glanced up from the files I was currently skimming over, to glare at him.

Christian just shrugged. "Playboy did some sort of shoot in the nineties, and approached the company for use and promotion of its products. It was a solid collaboration that got us featured in a few magazine articles."

"Oh, but I'm the weird one for watching porn at work." Derek grumbled.

"Yes you are, you dipshit." Joan shot back. "Ain't nobody else out here watching a girl get her back thrown out in between service calls."

I glanced over at her. She was sitting next to Brad, also drowning in paperwork. Her and Brad were probably the only two people fully focused on skimming meticulously through the files. Christian and I were half adding it at best. I was just trying to keep my eyes open, I was so tired.

I saw Brads face twitch up into a smile at Joan's comment.

We had started off sorting through boxes at Christian's desk... but eight hours and 100 files later, everyone was now spread out on the floor of Christian's office, surrounded by department boxes and papers.

Christian explained to me that it would take too long for us to pull up each individual file on the computer, so he was requested the boxes from storage. It made me wonder how the authorized user had opened so many files in such a short amount of time. Most of the boxes we received from storage hadn't been touched in years, so they were covered in layers of dust.

Christian was sitting besides me, doing his best to stay concentrated. I was doing my best not to stare too much. He had loosened up his work clothes a little by taking off his tie and undoing the top three  buttons of his shirt. It gave me a front row seat at the few tattoos that showed beneath his dress shirt. My eyes shot up to his lips.

I wanted his lips on mine again, I thought to myself. Like badly.

As I glanced between Christian and Brad, I noticed just how similar the two men were, when they worked. They had this weird sync... it was almost like they knew exactly what the other was going to ask or do. Brad would call out a companies name every so often, and Christian would immediately dive in to explaining what that particular deal entailed. Watching them work together made me realize just how close they were.

Within these last few hours, I managed to learn more about this company than I thought was physically possible. Anna had sunk her teeth into just about every company you could think of. She damn near created an empire during the early nineties.

The company was involved in almost everything. They started with manufacturing their products to private vendors, then their own stores began opening up. They promoted just about every sport product you could imagine. One of the files had images of Anna standing next to Andre Agassi, a renowned tennis player during the nineties. He was wearing Ivanov Corp gear.

"Jesus, your mom is fucking iconic." I whispered under my breath. I hadn't even known that Christian heard me, but he let out a chuckle.

"I've never met a woman more determined than her. Whatever she set her eyes on, she made happen. Her and my father were an iconic duo."

"They were true mitochondrion." Derek added. We all looked up to see what this motherfucker was talking about now.

"What the hell?" Joan asked.

"Mitochondrion. You know... Mitochondria?The powerhouse of the cell?" Derek explained.

My hands went up to my temples this time, as I did my best to massage the confusion out. You just never knew were Derek's mind was going to wander, and these last few hours showed us just that. Christian and Brad, on the other hand, burst out laughing. "I can say with no doubt, this is the first time anyone has compared my mother to an organelle." Christian added.

"As much as I don't want to relate this to whatever bullshit Derek is going on about, your mother was a beast." Joan chimed in. "I'm just reading up on the first Gala she hosted for Ivanov Corp. This woman donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to non profit organizations, took trips to less fortunate cities in Russia. Donated back to her own community. Shit, this woman is my fucking everything."

Christian and Brad smiled at her words. I noticed Brad's eyes lingered on Joan just a little longer.

Unlike Derek, Joan was doing a good job at not embarrassing me. She was phenomenal at staying focused and being thorough.

"And she's summertime fine. Like goddamn just looking at that woman makes me melt."

I was about damn ready to choke this shithead out.

"Derek, go take a walk. Grab us a few waters from the break room, will you?" Joan asked. She made it sound like a sweet request, but that woman's face said it all. If no one else was going to do it, Joan was going to punch our sweet friend in his throat. Derek lacked a filter at times, and only god could know what the rest of the night had in store for us.

"So far we've got a few scandalous files, but nothing major." Brad said with a deep sigh. He ran his hands aggressively through the already abused locks.

"We've made it barely a fraction of the way through this pile, and it's already getting late. I'll have to send you all home soon." Christian added with an equally depleted sigh.

"I don't mind staying." I blurted out. "I don't mind the hours, and I've stayed here pretty late before. Plus I can try and configure my software system to search through the files electronically using key phrases. It would cut down the irrelevant documents."

"I can stay too." Joan chimed in. "Alex was supposed to come over tonight so if he's staying, I don't see why I can't. Plus, once he gets into that computer stuff, he's going to need a pot of coffee running round the clock. I think we could all use a jolt of something in our system. Alex can forward over the more important files to us, for us to look at. I think that would be more efficient.

Christian gave both Joan and I a nod. "Thank you both, seriously. What about Derek?"

"We don't speak for that man." Joan shook her head. "He's dating this new psycho that'll probably skin him alive if he doesn't make it back to her before midnight... And when I say psycho, I mean psycho. Just waiting on the day they break up and the bitch pulls a drive by. We must treasure the time we have with Derek. Any day could be his last."

Christian, Brad, and I all cracked up at that.

It was slightly concerning how accurate that statement was.

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