They woke early to the sound of Wang's alarm clock and grabbed a hasty breakfast after spending too long in the shower exploring each other with the passion of new lovers before heading into work. They were held up by a breakdown making the peak hour traffic even more of a carpark than usual. It occurred to Changying that she actually should have brought her own car in case Wang needed to work late but by the time she thought about it they were already running late.
"I'm going up to see Mario this morning just let my PA know would you? Tell her you ran into me in the lift if it makes you feel better about people here not knowing about us just yet," Wang murmured as they rode up in the lift. He had placed his hand behind her, caressing her ample ass and smiled down teasing her. "Or you can tell them the truth."
"Sure," she smiled back up at him answering both questions with one word and ignoring his last statement.
"I won't be long," he said and passed her the heavy family-history book still in its box as she went to get out at her floor. "Not that you will notice once you start work, my little research mouse," Wang said with a grin. The lift doors closed before she could answer and Changying went to put her bag and the book in her small office before walking towards Wang's office at the end of the hall, to deliver his message.
Changying walked around the corner to face Chen and stopped in her tracks. Instead of the vain and egotistical Chen she came face to face with her friend Louisa who was beaming at her. Louisa looked stunning. She was in a business suit and wore make up with a new hair cut, but it was unmistakably Louisa. Changying couldn't find the words she needed to say anything, so surprised was she by the sight of her friend sitting here of all places and looking amazing. "Wang has gone up to see, Mario," she said in a voice stilted with shock.
"Great gives us a chance to chat for a minute," Louisa said. She stood up and walked around to where Changying stood open-mouthed and wide-eyed.
"How? When?" Changying babbled as she stood stunned in her friend's embrace, trying to make sense of Louisa being here rather than the snooty Chen.
"Let's see. Friday afternoon, Mr Wei came down to the dungeon. He told me there was an opening for a PA and that you had told him I was looking for a change. He asked if I was interested. I don't know what you told him about me exactly, but I can't thank you enough. Can you believe this?" Louisa was just about jumping out of her skin as she hugged Changying again.
"What happened to Chen?" Changying realised in that moment that Jack had told Wang what had happened Friday morning between Chen and herself and felt sorry for the girl, though she couldn't work out why.
"She got a promotion up to one of the higher levels of exec's," Louisa grinned. "So here I am being retrained. This will be perfect we can have lunch together and gossip about the office. It will be such fun," she enthused as she once again hugged Changying, showing her happiness.
"I am sorry I was just stunned to see you. Congratulations!" Changying finally returned the girl's hugs and joined in her happiness. "I have some things I need to do first thing this morning, but we will have lunch together you and me, in my office where we can talk properly, how about that?"
Changying had felt relief that Chen had been promoted and not fired as she had first thought. Then she laughed at herself as she walked back to her office. "Of course he wouldn't fire a perfectly acceptable secretary because she had inadvertently hurt some little research assistant's feelings. Even if he did love that little research mouse." He had listened to her though, when she had spoken of her friend, and had hired her as Chen's replacement and for that she was grateful to him. It would be nice to have a real friend up here.