The Little Mysteries Between Us

Chapter 1: A shy intern and the CEO’s quiet assistant who solve office mysteries together.

On her first morning as an intern, Lily found a silver key inside the office printer. She stood holding it, wondering whether finding strange objects counted as work experience, when a quiet voice spoke behind her. “Third drawer in the conference room.” Noah, the CEO’s assistant, pointed toward the hallway. “Someone’s been looking for that since Friday.”

Lily smiled down at the key. She had spent the morning rehearsing simple questions before asking them. Noah seemed equally comfortable saying very little, which made him the first person in the building she wasn’t nervous around.

Their next mystery arrived on a rainy Tuesday. The meeting-room clock kept disappearing, then returning before lunch. Lily noticed it missing while delivering folders; Noah found it beside a desk upstairs. Together, they discovered that an employee preparing for a presentation had borrowed it to practise her timing. Noah quietly ordered her a small desk clock, and the meeting-room clock stayed on its hook after that.

Soon, Lily began stopping by his desk with things she had noticed: an unsigned birthday card, a parcel addressed to someone who had left years ago, a trail of muddy footprints outside an unused office. Noah always moved his work aside and listened. Over coffee, they worked out the answers. The card belonged to the receptionist, the parcel contained a forgotten book, and the footprints led to a caretaker tending a bird that had flown through an open window.

Lily grew braver with each small discovery. She began asking questions in meetings and offering ideas without apologising first. Noah noticed. Whenever she glanced toward him after speaking, she found him listening with a slight, encouraging smile.

Then a small bunch of daisies appeared on Lily’s desk. There was no name on the card, only a message: Good luck with your presentation. You know more than you think.

For once, Noah offered no useful clues. “Perhaps someone noticed how hard you’ve worked,” he said, looking unusually interested in his computer screen. Lily studied him for a moment, then carried the flowers back to her desk.

On the last day of her internship, she learned she had been offered a permanent position in the research team. She hurried to tell Noah, but stopped outside the conference room when she heard him speaking to the receptionist.

“Do you think asking her for coffee would be awkward?”

“You’ve had coffee together every day for three months.”