by J. S. Cooper
“Wow. So then what happened?”
“Well, obviously Jane and the janitor both got fired. But get this.”
“There’s more?”
“Guess who the janitor was actually dating?”
“Um, I don’t know. Finn’s sister?”
“No.”
“Mr. Winchester’s mother?”
“No, girl. He was dating Gloria.”
“Oh, no way.” I couldn’t believe it. I stared at her in shock. I didn’t know what surprised me most, that Gloria was dating a janitor or that she dated at all.
“Girl, I don’t know what happened. But yeah, it was absolutely crazy. Gloria was pissed, and I guess that’s why she has an attitude now and is trying to make you sign a contract.”
“This is absolutely ridiculous. So now she just hates anyone that works in the executive office.”
“I guess so.” Shantal shrugged. “But yeah, um, that’s what you’re dealing with.”
“Girl, why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Well, I didn’t think about it before.”
“Girl. How did you not think about it before? That was juicy.”
“Oh, trust me, Marcia. You ain’t heard juicy yet.” She grinned, and then she looked at her phone. “Girl, what time were you meant to be back in the office?”
“Um, at noon—Oh, shit,” I interrupted myself. “I’m late. Okay, I got to go. I’ll speak to you later. Bye, girl.”
“Good luck,” she called after me as I ran to the back room. I was breathing heavily when I reached it.
Gloria was standing at the desk frowning. “You’re late. I told you you had fifteen minutes. You’ve been gone twenty minutes.”
“I’m sorry. I—”
“You were up at the front gossiping again, weren’t you?”
“No, I was—”
“I saw you, Miss Lucas.”
“I’m sorry. And I’m sorry about everything else.”
“Excuse me?” Her eyes narrowed as she stared at me.
“I understand now why you want me to sign the contract. I was a bit offended previously, but now I understand.”
Gloria rubbed her forehead, took a couple of deep breaths, and then stepped towards me. “I don’t think I know what you’re talking about, Miss Lucas.”
“I’m saying that I understand why you might think that I, as a young, somewhat attractive woman, might be a—”
“Miss Lucas,” she interrupted me. “I don’t care if you’re young, or if you think you’re attractive.” She gave me a derisive once-over. I felt myself shivering slightly at her glance. She could have worked in a prison, she was that austere. “I’m going to make one thing very clear to you, Miss Lucas.”
“Yes, Gloria.”
“I did not come up with the idea for the contract.” She stared right into my face. “I couldn’t care less about you having a contract. In fact, as I’ve let you know previously, I don’t even think you’re right for this position—or any position—at Winchester Enterprises. However, this has come directly from the CEO.”
“What?” My jaw dropped. “What do you mean it’s come directly from the CEO?”
“That’s all I can say. He wants to make sure that it’s very clear that you’re not to attempt to seduce or come onto him in any way whatsoever. Now, are you ready to get back to work?”
“Yes, ma’am.” I went and sat down at the table, feeling angry and annoyed. What the hell? Why would Mr. Winchester think I’d have absolutely any interest in coming onto him? Was the man absolutely crazy? I knew one thing was for sure. When I finally got to meet him, I was definitely going to put him in his place.
Ten
“Susie, I am so pissed off right now. I don’t even want to have to go back to the office tomorrow because Gloria sucks, and obviously, Mr. Winchester sucks. Like, who the hell does he think he is that he thinks I’m going to try and seduce him?”
“I do agree that he sounds very egotistical, but I guess he is a billionaire, and I guess someone did try and seduce him already.”
“I mean, yeah, but that wasn’t me. I’m not Jane. I never even met her. She sounds like an absolute desperado.”
“You know what I want to know?” Susie asked.
“No. What?”
“I want to know if she couldn’t tell that she was with a sixty-five-year-old man as opposed to a young, hot—How old is Mr. Winchester again?”
“I think he’s thirty-five. Why?”
“Well, do you really think a sixty-five-year-old man has the same sort of cock as a thirty-five-year-old?”
“Girl, I don’t know. I’ve never been with a sixty-five-year-old man, and hopefully never will.”
“What about when you’re sixty-five?”
“Well, I mean, when I’m sixty-five, sure. But maybe I’ll trade in my husband for a boy toy.” I laughed.
She giggled. “You’re so silly.”
“I have to be. I’m just so annoyed right now.”
“Well, I have an idea,” Susie said. “Something I was reading about in a psychology book.”
“What psychology book?” I stared at her in surprise. “I don’t know you to read psychology books.”
“Well, it wasn’t technically a psychology book,” she giggled. “It was an article in a fashion magazine I was reading that was about psychological stuff.”
“That’s very different, Susie.”
“I know, I know. But listen, it said when something’s upsetting you or you’re feeling pissed off, instead of reacting, just write it down.”
“What do you mean, write it down? Like in a journal?”
“Yeah. You can write it in a journal or on a piece of paper. You can write it as an email. In fact, they say that one of the best ways to let go of anger and hurt is actually to write a letter to the person.”
“I’m not writing that guy a letter.”
“You don’t actually send the letter. You can even just draft an email and then delete it when you’re done, or leave it in your drafts and just reread it.”
“Um, I guess. That doesn’t really sound like a great idea.”
“Trust me. Supposedly, what it does is allow you to process your anger without actually saying something directly. After you write it down, you can see if you still want to proceed.”
“I guess.”
“So maybe, right, if you get angry or upset again, you can just do that.”
“Okay, I’ll be like, ‘Gloria. You’re a bitch.’”
“Well, is it really Gloria you have the issue with, or is it Mr. Winchester?”
“Well, I’ve never met Mr. Winchester, so it’s Gloria.”
“Yeah, but didn’t Gloria say that it was Mr. Winchester that said you have to sign this contract?”
“Yeah, she did. But who knows? Maybe she was lying.”
“Why would she lie? She doesn’t seem like the type to mince her words.”
“That is true,” I agreed. “She has been quite clear about the fact that she didn’t really want me to get the position, so I guess she probably would have told me if it was her that wanted me to sign the contract. I just think it’s so rude. Like, what are they trying to say? That I’m a gold-digger just because I have no money?”
“Girl, don’t take it on. Let’s be real, right? There are gold-diggers all over the place.”
“Yeah, but I’m not one of them.
“Yeah, but they don’t know you, Marcia.”
“I know. I guess that’s upset me. And then having to take this vocabulary test and all these other tests.”
“All what other tests?”
“I’m not sure exactly. I just figured I would focus on the vocab.” I picked up the three books I’d gotten at Barnes & Noble.
Susie picked up one of the books and flipped through it. “Girl, I don’t know what half these words mean, and I sure can’t spell them. We can do flashcards if you want.”
“How are we going to do flashcards for 5,000 words?”
“Well, I guess not,” she laughed. “When’s the test?”
“It’s in two days. I’ve got time to prepare. Yay, me.”
“Girl, you were always a good last-minute crammer. You can do this.”
“Yeah, but you know I suck at vocabulary. Like, am I applying to be an English teacher here? What the frig?”
“I guess if you’re going to be mailing letters and sending out emails?”
“There’s spell check for that shit, and dictionaries, and thesauruses. I don’t need to have to know to spell everything myself.”
“I know. That’s really quite annoying, and it seems so archaic.” She shook her head. “But everything about Winchester Enterprises seems pretty archaic to me.”
“Oh? Why’d you say that?”
“I don’t know. Just a feeling I get. But who knows? Maybe you’ll really love the other people you work with.”
“I wish I was working with Shantal and Lilian.”
“You are.”
“Not in the same office. Like, I might be lucky to see them at lunch and after work.”
“True. But maybe the people in your office are going to be amazing, and maybe Mr. Winchester’s also going to be amazing.”
“From what I hear, I’m not even going to have any direct contact with him. Literally, I’m going to be the assistant to one of his assistants,” I sighed.
“Girl, I mean, let’s be real. He had a Maury situation at his office, right down to the pregnancy test. I understand why he would go to such lengths.”
“I guess so, but it just seems ridiculous. The whole thing seems ridiculous.”
“I know. I wonder if the janitor and Jane are still together?”
“You asked me that before, and I have no clue. I’ll ask Shantal when I see her.”
“You could always ask Gloria,” Susie giggled.
“Oh, hell no. Now you’re just being mean.”
“I know.” She stood up. “Okay, I need to go and do the dishes.”
“Hey, Susie?” I followed her to the kitchen.
“Yeah?” She looked back at me.
“The other day, you said you were going to tell me something about a job you were offered, but we forgot to talk about it.”
“Oh, yeah.” She made a face. “I don’t really know if I’m going to accept it.”
“Why wouldn’t you accept it when we need the money?”
“I know, but this job just really doesn’t seem like me.”
“Being a temp doesn’t seem like me.”
“Yeah, but…” she sighed, “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Oh, shit. What’s the job?” I stared at her. “You didn’t apply to be a stripper, did you?”
“Of course not.
“An exotic dancer?”
“Girl, stripping and exotic dancing are the same things.”
“I mean, I know that, but I didn’t know if you were going to say that they were two different things now that—”
“Now that nothing, Marcia. No, I’m not going to be a stripper.”
“Are you going to work at, like, Hooters or something in some skimpy outfit?”
“No.” Susie rolled her eyes. “I’m not.”
“So then what is it?”
“I told you, it’s like a telemarketing job.”
“So? What’s wrong with telemarketing?” I pause. “Oh shit, it’s not it’s not phone sex, is it? Are you going to have to be one of those phone sex operators?” I lowered my voice. “Hi, thank you for calling 1-800-IM-HORNY. How can I help you today?”
“Oh, Marcia, stop it.” She hit me on the shoulder. “You’re awful.”
“So, are you going to be Dr. Susie Love, or is it Dr. Susie Sexy?” I teased.
“You’re stupid, Marcia.”
“I know. So tell me, what’s the job that you got that you can’t take?”
“Fine. It’s to be a psychic, okay?”
“To be a what?”
“To be a psychic. You know, predict the future?”
“How are you going to get a job up as a psychic if you’re not a psychic?”
“Exactly.”
“Oh, so it’s like a con.”
“It feels like a con, yeah.”
“Does it pay well?” I asked her.
“Does it matter if it pays well?”
“I mean, you could do the job for, like, a couple of weeks ’till you find something new.”
“Girl,” she sighed, “I just feel like it would be wrong to pretend that I’m psychic when I’m not.”
“I mean, if people believe you’re psychic, then that’s on them.”
“I guess. So you think I should take it?”
“I mean, if your heart is really telling you no, then don’t, but if you think you could suck it up for a little bit, then take it, just until you can find something else. I, um, didn’t want to tell you this, but I saw the landlord the other day, and he told me that he’s going to give us notice to vacate within thirty days if we’re late on our rent.”
“What? But we’re not going to have enough by …” She paused. “Oh, gosh. I have to take it, don’t I?”
“I mean, will that really make a difference?”
“Yes. We get paid weekly.” She ran a hand through her hair. “Okay. I’ll take it. But…”
“Yeah?”
“You’d better not mess up at Winchester Enterprises. You’d better pass that vocabulary test, and you’d better sign that contract.”
“I will.”
“And if Gloria or anyone else gets on your nerves, just write an email, get it out of your system, and continue on with your day.”
“Fine. I will.”
“Good,” she said. “Now help me with the dishes.”
“What? It’s your night.”
“Please, Marcia?”
“Fine,” I said. “Want to play some music while we listen?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Eleven
“Oh my gosh, how am I going to remember all these words?” I moaned as I walked towards Winchester Enterprises.
Today was the day of my vocabulary test. I thought the whole thing was demeaning, but seeing as I needed the money, I had to take it, and seeing as I’d made Susie take the job as a psychic, I couldn’t really turn away from this opportunity. It was a paycheck, and I needed a paycheck.
“Okay, okay,” I said to myself, “Excruciating. E-X-C…” I chewed on my lower lip. “Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it. Okay, okay. New word. Don’t panic, Marcia. Don’t panic. Here’s an easy one: panic. P-A-N-I-C. Panic.” I grinned to myself. “Okay, at least I’ve got that one.”
I stopped outside of a coffee shop and decided to get myself a coffee and a donut. If I was going to have a test, I might as well be sugared up. I was going to need all of the energy I could get.
I walked into the coffee shop and looked up at the menu for a few seconds. I was debating between getting a mocha, a cappuccino, or a matcha latte. I didn’t really like matcha, but it seemed like it was healthier for you.
“Cat got your tongue?” a deep, familiar voice said.
I looked up, surprised, into a pair of green eyes. “It’s you.”
“Yes, it’s me. Are you following me, Marcia?”
“I was about to say the same thing.” There were butterflies in my stomach.
“Oh really? So, are you going to say it…?”
“Actually, no.” I looked up at his handsome face. It was like fate. It was like a window of opportunity on a horrible day.
“… What’s your name?” I asked.
“Um, what?” He blinked at me twice.
“What’s your name?”
“You want to know my name now?”
“Yeah, I want to know your name. You offered to give me your name, and now I’m asking.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“I guess I was just thinking that…” I paused.
“You were just thinking that
I’m so adorably handsome that you couldn’t resist, right?”
“… No, I was just thinking that if I ever bumped into you again, it would be nice to know your name so I could say, ‘Hey, it’s you again, X,’ as opposed to, ‘Hey, it’s you again, Mr. Green Eyes.’”
“Oh, so is that what you call me in your head when you’re in bed?”
“I don’t call you anything in my head when I’m in bed.”
“Oh, really? So where did Green Eyes come from?”
“It’s just a way of describing you because you have green eyes.”
“Uh-huh. I don’t think of you as Brown Eyes.”
“That’s because you know my name’s Marcia.”
“I don’t think of Marcia either.”
“Then what do you think of me as?”
“I think of you as Miss Prim and Proper Lucas.”
I snorted. “Why?”
“I don’t know. So can I buy you a coffee?” he asked.
I looked at my watch. “Um, I would say yes, but I’m actually in a hurry. So I’m going to say no, but thank you for the offer.”
“Why do you have to hurry?”
“Because I have to be at work, and it’s a very important day for me.”
“Oh, a lot going on in marketing?”
“Huh?” I remembered my lie. “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We all have a meeting with, um, Mr. Winchester today, all the presidents of the company, and it’s very, very important because, you know, we’re going onto the stock market soon and—”
“What do you mean you’re going onto the stock market soon?”
“Well, you know, he is doing an IPO or XPO… you know.”
“No.” His lips twitched like he might be on the verge of laughing. “I thought Winchester Enterprises was a private corporation. I thought Finn Winchester said he would always keep it private.”
“Oh?” I stared at him, nonplussed, “I guess I must have missed that part.” I shrugged, “You know I’m president of marketing, not president of accounting.”
“Uh-huh,” he nodded. “So, how is Finn, by the way?”
