Work Text:
Adjusting her jacket, Lily approached the front desk, after finally making her way up twenty floors to get right to the top.
“I’m here to see Fleamont Potter, I’m the new intern.”
The receptionist nudged up his glasses and stared Lily up and down, his legs relaxing atop the large mahogany desk.
“No.”
Lily frowned, waiting for him to continue talking but instead he turned back to his phone.
“Pardon, but what do you mean ‘no’?”
The man rolled his eyes, barely glancing at her, “I mean no you’re not. We have enough interns, you’re not needed.”
“But I got an email saying I was accepted.”
“Well, it’s wrong.”
“I turned down five other internships for this one!”
“Not my problem”, he shrugged, scrolling back on his phone again.
Lily huffed and straightened up.
“Excuse me”, she tried to get his attention again.
He ignored her.
“I said excuse me.”
The receptionist smirked but didn’t look up.
Lily huffed again and reached over the desk, grabbing his phone from him.
“What the fuck?” He looked over at her, completely bewildered.
Lily folded her arms, “I’d like to speak to Mr. Potter.”
The man grinned, leaning back in his chair, “You are.”
“What? I’m not talking to one of the greatest cosmetic chemists and entrepreneurs of our generation, I’m talking to a pompous twat!”
The large office door behind the desk opened, the head of Fleamont Potter poking out, “Oh, You must be Miss Evans, yes?”
Lily turned, instantly switching her demeanour back to professional.
“Yes, that’s me, Hello, Sir.”
“Please, call me Monty”, he held out his hand, which she quickly shook, “Come in, come in.”
Lily followed, turning around to give a satisfied smirk to the receptionist and slid his phone back onto the desk.
He glared at her, head resting on his cheek.
-
Lily walked into the office building early the next day, dressed in one of her new suits she had bought just for the job. She yawned as she made her way to the lifts, clicking the button to the top floor, vowing to grab a coffee as soon as she settled in. She still had half an hour until Fleamont had requested her to arrive.
The lift doors began to shut and she leaned against the wall, closing her eyes for a brief moment, when a hand shot out just before they could close, and stepped into the lift with her. The smell of coffee wafted into the air. She squinted her eyes open, only to see the person coming in was the rude receptionist from before, holding a cardboard tray with two coffees.
She immediately shut her eyes again.
The lift began to rise, the two standing on opposite sides, as far apart as they could possibly get.
By the sixth floor, the lift jolted slightly. Lily ignored it.
By the eleventh, it suddenly came to an abrupt stop.
“Dammit”, the man swore, frantically pressing the help button.
“Does”, Lily glanced at him, “This happen often?”
“Nope”, he leaned against the wall, turning to Lily as if she was responsible, “It’s never happened till now."
Lily huffed, “It’s not like I had anything to do with it!”
He tilted his head as if genuinely thinking on it, “First time it breaks in twenty years, and its you in here.”
“I was here yesterday and it was fine”, she threw her arms up, “I’m not cursed!”
The man laughed, “You’re so easy to rile up.”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
Lily groaned, “I’m not playing such juvenile games with you.”
He grinned, “... Are too.”
Lily bit down a smile, turning away, only to come face to face with a mirror, seeing his reflection staring at her.
“Fleamont Potter is very nice. Must be a good boss, right?”
The man shrugged, “He’s alright, I guess. Hires people he doesn’t need, though.”
Lily turned back around, “What is your problem? I got an internship, get over it! Did your mate go for it and get rejected or something?”
“No”, he moped, turning towards the door.
Lily huffed, ignoring him back.
A few minutes passed in silence before the receptionist spoke up again.
“I did.”
“Huh?” Lily turned.
“I went for your role and got rejected.”
“But you already work here?”
“Yeah, as his receptionist”, he moaned, “I wanted to learn more about how to actually run things, be in the meetings and stuff, come up with new product ideas, not just answer phones.”
“Oh”, Lily stared at the wall awkwardly, “Sorry.”
He shrugged, “I don’t care.”
“You clearly do.”
He shrugged again.
“Did you study chemistry?”
“No, why do you ask?”
“Oh”, Lily frowned, “Why would you want an internship to learn about cosmetic chemistry?”
He turned to her with a laugh, “Do you really not see the resemblance? People always say we look just alike.”
Lily narrowed her eyes, looking at him in confusion. And then with a sudden realisation she noticed the delicately purposeful messy curls of black hair, the large brown eyes with long lashes, the thick eyebrows, the dimples with the left just slightly bigger.
“Fuck, are you his son?”
He laughed, “James Potter, nice to meet you.”
Lily laughed, “God, how on earth did I not notice that. Wait, why are you his receptionist? I mean it’s a very respectable job, but shouldn’t you be like… preparing to take over the company?”
“I wanted to be a footballer.”
“What?”
“As a kid, I always wanted to be a footballer, and my parents were very supportive, put me in a school for it and everything, almost went professional. Then I broke my foot on my mate’s bike and it never properly recovered so my dad just gave me a job here for something to do.
“But you don’t care about it? About the business?”
“Well, no. But I have zero qualifications so who else will hire me without nepotism in play?”
“So”, Lily sat down, looking up at James, “You really don’t care about chemistry? It’s so interesting!”
James laughed, following suit and sitting opposite, “Nah. I was always more into biology.”
Lily hummed, “I think there’s a place for that in cosmetic chemistry.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. It’s for use on people after all, you need to understand how the human body works and how the products will affect it.”
James smiled, “You really care about this business.”
“Of course, it’s what I want to do. I’ve been using your dad’s products since I was eight.”
“So has everyone.”
“Maybe”, she slid forwards, “But I used to read all the ingredients on the back and work out how to replicate the products myself.”
“Wow”, James tutted, “Cheating my dad out his money.”
“Oh, I’m sure he has plenty without”, Lily smiled.
James laughed.
Lily yawned again, “God, how long is this gonna take?”
“Here”, James reached over and passed her a coffee, their fingers brushing for a few seconds longer than necessary.
“Thanks”, she smiled, their hands slowly retreating.
Both inched forwards just slightly.
“You’re maybe not as pompous as I initially thought.”
James grinned, “I’m plenty pompous, I assure you, just thought I’d give you a break for now.”
“Very considerate”, she laughed.
They smiled at each other in silence for a moment.
“Hey”, he brushed a hand through his hair, tousling it, “When we finish work-”
The lift jolted into action, beginning to rise again.
“Thank God”, Lily sighed in relief, standing up.
“Yeah”, James coughed, slightly red, “Finally.”
The lift doors dinged and opened, Fleamont stood outside them.
“James, Lily, good to see you again. Problem with the lift, is there? I’ll have to call someone to check that out.”
“I’ll do it”, James said, stepping out the lift, handing Fleamont the second coffee.
“Really?” His eyes followed his son in confusion, before turning back to Lily, “I love that boy, but he’s never answered a ringing phone here unless it's his own cellphone. Anyway, Lily, I know you just got up here but when you can, make your way down to level six to see I.T to set up your company email and all that online stuff, it’s all very confusing.”
“I’ll head down now, Sir.”
“Monty”, he smiled.
Lily nodded, “Monty.”
Lily turned back to the lift, pressing the button.
“Oh, hopefully it doesn’t break again”, Fleamont frowned, just as Lily got in.
James glanced up from his desk and quickly jumped over the desk, dashing over to the lift.
“James, what-”
“Forgot something, I’ll be back!” He slid through as the doors just began to close.
The doors shut behind them and the lift began to move back down.
He turned to Lily.
“What did you forget?” She asked.
James grinned.
The lift came to a stop again, jolting after a few floors down.
“Might be a while”, James hummed.
“Hmm”, Lily nodded, cheeks growing red.
They took a step closer to each other.
-
