Page 32 of Some Things Never Change

“Ta da! I’m finally here!” I said, as she threw her arms around me.

We both gave each other a tight squeeze before pulling away. She eyed me from head to toe with a sassy smirk.

“Holy shit, girl! You look so darn good!” she exclaimed. She twirled me around as I let out a giggle and she clicked her tongue. “Yup. That waist is slimmer, and that ass got bigger.”

I let out another laugh just as someone cleared their throat softly behind me. We turned to see Andy was still standing there. He gave us both his iconic bright smile, clearly amused.

“So,” I said as I approached him, with Cindy following slowly behind me. “Cindy, this is my friend, Andy. Andy, this is the friend that got me this job, Cindy.”

“Friend?” was her immediate response. I could tell from her bright eyes and the wider grin she flashed between Andy and I that she was thinking of something completely different.

“Childhood friends,” I quickly said before her brain could jump to any further conclusions.

“Sure, Julie. Whatever you say,” said Cindy. She sounded unconvinced. “I gotta say, I’m surprised. Andy, right?”

“Andrew. But you can call me Andy like Julie does,” he said. Cindy cocked a curious eyebrow at his statement, making him laugh. “Only close friends and family call me Andy.”

Cindy let out a small laugh, flattered. “Sure thing. Nice to finally be introduced to you, Andy.”

“It’s nice to finally know your name, Cindy.”

“Right? We always bump into each other in the elevator,” she excitedly exclaimed, as she pointed her index finger at herself and Andy. She continued to flash him a blinding smile. “How insane! I would have never thought that you’re Julie’s childhood friend.”

“Or that you’re her friend,” he quickly added.

“So, you two bump into each other in the elevator all the time?” I asked.

They seemed familiar with one another. We all start walking toward the elevator to head up.

“Not all the time. Just sometimes,” said Cindy.

“I guess we just have similar hours, right, Cindy?” said Andy, as he pressed the elevator button for us.

“Yeah,” she responded. Her answer was light and sweet.

She was smitten, and I smiled to myself. I needed to check in with the receptionist in the lobby for a visitor’s pass first before I could go all the way up. Once I was situated, we were back on our way to our floor.

Andy kindly waited for the two of us despite just listening to us chat about our internship together and reminisce about how long it’s been since we’d last worked together. We recounted our long hours in the office back when we were interns together. When we finally got to the tenth floor, we both bid Andy our goodbyes.

“I’ll see you later,” I said, smiling. I gave him a small wave.

“Later,” he said, waving back. He flashed me a smile before the elevator doors closed between us.

Once we were in front of our company, I couldn’t help but notice the company name across the common area from the lobby for our design firm. J.A. Carnegie. That was the same finance firm Andy worked at. My jaw dropped. We shared half of this floor with them?

“You didn’t know? They have at least ten extra floors above us. This is just their lobby and where the receptionists are, but most of the workers are on the other floors.”

“Andy mentioned it, but I completely forgot.”

“So, what does he do at J.A. Carnegie anyway?”

“He’s a big shot financial consultant there. He even worked at another big financial firm in New York City, but left that job after a while. I guess the cold was too much for him.”

I didn’t need to tell Cindy the truth about why Andy suddenly came back from NYC. But I was still proud of him for being great enough to work in the financial capital of the world. I always loved tooting his horn every chance I got.

“That’s unfair. Your childhood friend is hot and smart as hell too?” Cindy laughed as she motioned me to the posh common area. “It’s too bad I always get so bored whenever I overhear those finance bros talk about their jobs in the elevator.”

The common area looked industrial, with lots of black metal and wooden tables for guests and employees to sit by. It wasn’t too cold where it felt off. Instead, it was balanced with lots of wooden accents to bring warmth to the cool black. Cindy took a seat on an expensive faux leather couch.

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