Office Duties Box Set #1(6)

The prep talk worked until she got out of her car in the underground parking garage beneath the office building. Then her heart plummeted and she dragged herself into the elevator. She almost wanted to stop the ride at her usual copy room job, but the number clicked past that floor and went uninterrupted to the last stop on the machine, the nineteenth.

Slinky was waiting for her when Sam slunk into her cubicle. She slung her arm over the wall as she peered down at her nervous friend. “Where the hell did you go yesterday? I waited for you for, like, thirty whole minutes, and you still didn’t come back to grab your purse.” Slinky made it sound like those minutes were each an eternity, but Sam appreciated the concern.

“I had to go up to write down some stuff for Mr. Davies-”

“Wait!” Slinky interrupted as she held up a finger. “Wait just a second. You said you went up and actually saw Mr. Davies?”

“Yeah, why?” This whole conversation was making her more uneasy. “You said we worked for him and the President, too.”

“Yeah, but no one gets to actually see them. Oh sure, we sometimes hear from them on the intercom or in a newsletter or a written report asking for stuff, but we never get to see them.”

“What about all those people up there? Don’t they see him every day? Slinky seemed to know everyone in the building, why not them, too.

Slinky was genuinely confused as she gave her friend a worried glance. “What people? I’ve never seen anyone go up there.”

“Don’t they take the elevator or go through that door?” Sam asked.

“Our elevators don’t go up that high, remember? It’s only to the nineteenth story. I heard they have their own private elevator and some hidden emergency stairs to keep with code.” Slinky looked over her shoulder in the direction where Sam glanced when mentioning the door. “And what door are you talking about? Through one of the offices?”

“No, that one at the end of the hall. The one that doesn’t have a nameplate.”

Slinky waved her hand dismissively toward the entrance. “That’s just a janitor’s closet.”

“It’s not a closet, it’s a staircase.” Sam realized she was getting a little frantic, and she gave herself a moment to breath. Then she stared directly into her friend’s eyes and her lips were tightly pursed together. “Mrs. Winkle took me through that door yesterday and up a flight of stairs to the next floor. She showed me a long hall with a couple of people at some desks and I went to the end and spoke with Mr. Smith.”

“Mr. Smith? Didn’t he have a first name?”

“I think he did, but I can’t remember it.” She didn’t really think it was important, anyway. She knew what she saw. Her clothes and keys told her it was true. “Anyway, I go in to Mr. Davies office, write down what he wants and leave.” The last bit was a lie, but a white lie.

Slinky raised an eyebrow. “So he had you staying late just to listen to him talk?” This was frustrating because neither one could convince the other they were telling the truth. “Well, how about this. We open the door and see what’s inside, and whatever we find decides who’s crazy and who isn’t.”

Sam took the suggestion as an insult. “I’m not crazy.”

“No more arguing, young lady,” Slinky playfully scolded. She took her friend’s hand and led her to the door.

“But we can’t, Mrs. Winkle has the key,” Sam pointed out. She remembered watching her take it out of her blouse pocket.

“How about we just pretend I have a key and not tell my dad about this cute little skill I have.” Slinky pulled out a credit card and began toying with the knob. “You just watch out and make sure Mrs. Stick-Up-Her-Butt doesn’t catch us doing this.”

“Do you really know how to do this?” Sam asked while she played lookout. The coast was clear for now, but their supervisor had a habit of showing up at the wrong time.

“Well, it looks easy on tv.” Slinky scowled when the knob jam refused to budge. “I think we’re going to have to chock this one up to a mystery unsolved.”

“And get out of here,” Sam hissed. “Mrs. Winkle is coming!”

The two friends were too late to scramble away this time, and instead they leaned up against the door as Mrs. Winkle came up to them. Their supervisor had her usual scowl of the day on her face as she glanced between the two guilty-looking women. Slinky looked defiant but Sam’s face was pale and her eyes shifted from Winkle’s face to down the hall.

“What are you two doing away from your work?”

“Just taking our break, Mrs. Winkle,” Slinky slickly replied. “And Sam here was wanting to know where the janitor’s supply closet was, just in case she spilled her coffee or something.”

“If she doesn’t need the supplies than you’d both better get back to work.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Slinky saluted and hauled Sam back to their boxes. Mrs. Winkle watched them leave with narrowed eyes and her mouth set in a firm, thin line.

They made it safely back to their cubicles. “Man, that was too close for comfort. What say we try that again later?” Slinky commented as she collapsed into her chair. Sam slunk over to her own area. She wasn’t so sure about her friend’s crazy ideas anymore. They always ended up with them skittering back to their safe squares.

“I’d really rather not.” Sam turned on her computer and began looking over the calendar of events. “I just need to get some work done right now.”

Slinky peeked over their wall with one of her eyebrows raised.

“You’re joking, right?” Sam tried to ignore her, but Slinky was persistent. “You know this job is easy, right? A kid could do it if most of these old guys wanted to deal with them.”

“I’m still going to try to do the best I can at it.” There was nothing exciting going on in scheduling, so she looked to the spreadsheet program for some work. She needed to learn more of the basic formulas, anyway. Slinky watched her for a minute or two until she couldn’t take it anymore and glanced up at her coworker. “Did you want something?”

“No, but you seem different than yesterday.” She leaned closer and her eyes narrowed. “You change your hairstyle or something?”

“I just didn’t sleep well. Bad dreams.” They weren’t so bad if her job wasn’t on the line, or if her boss hadn’t tried to hide that it ever happened.

“Nah, it’s not something like that, though your eyes do look a little puffy.”

Sam hung her head and grit her teeth together. “Thanks, I really needed that.” She was turning out to be a not-so-great friend.

“Hey, I mean it. There’s something really different about you.” Slinky looked down at her chest. “You get a bigger bra or something?”

That made Sam drop her hands to the side and glare at her. “Did the last girl in this cubicle quit or go postal because of you?”

“Neither, actually. She was fired by the higher ups for fiddling around with someone.” As if Sam couldn’t feel any worse, Slinky proved her wrong. Slinky noticed her friend in the chair paled. “You feeling well? You look like you’re about to throw up.”

“I’m…I’m fine. Just tired, like I said.”

“You want to go home? I can cover for you if Mrs. Bitch asks where you are.” It was a kind offer, but not really a good idea.

“Even if I was feeling bad I’d probably better not. It’s only my second day,” Sam pointed out. “Bugging out wouldn’t be a smart career move.”

“Well, if you need anything just ask me or your garbage can.” This made Sam smile.

“Thanks…I think.”

“Always glad to be of service.” Slinky saluted and disappeared behind the wall.

Sam was finally left alone for some piece and quiet, other than the occasional strange noises coming from the cubicle next door. By the soft sounds of swearing, Slinky played a lot of games on her phone that she wasn’t very good at. However, Sam’s mind wandered a lot to the locked door and her friend’s insistence on it being a janitor’s closet. She wondered who spread that rumor, because she already knew who benefited from it. Their boss, Mr. Davies. He certainly had a nice, hidden pad up there that nobody could easily get out because they didn’t even know that entrance existed.

Such speculation, however, only made her head hurt and Sam focused on her few tasks. When noon came Sam was going to bring out her lunch bag, but then she remembered where it was. On the counter in her kitchen. She’d been in such a hurry to make it to work on time that she’d forgotten it. Her stomach grumbled and she patted it with a sigh.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to go find something to eat, stomach,” Sam replied to its gurgling.

“Yours complaining, too?” Slinky asked as her head popped up over the wall. “How about I take you to a nice cafe I know close by? It’s where all the uppities go when they wanna mingle with the lower people.”

“So what are you doing mingling with the uppities?”

Slinky slumped over the wall. “My dad. Sometimes he takes me there to make himself look cool with his daughter or have me meet a young, eligible client.” She rolled her eyes and dramatically sighed. “The things I have to put up with.”