Super

by Jones, Princess

  I locked my computer and headed to the conference room along with everybody else. Inside, some people sat in the seats around the table while everyone else stood around the table. Mellie took a spot in the back. Normally, we’d be next to each other, whispering inappropriate things to each other. But that wasn’t happening today. Instead, I took one of the last seats at the table.

  A few minutes later, Larry came rumbling into the room. He looked sweaty and excited. Cammie followed him in, looking as calm and put together as always in a linen skirt and pink top. In one hand she held a Starbucks cup that I was sure contained an overpriced coffee drink at exactly 210 degrees. Larry stood at the head of the table, smoothing his balding head with his meaty hands and Cammie stood a couple of steps behind him. He cleared his throat. “You all must have heard by now about the Green Bank. I don’t have to tell you what this means for us.”

  All around me there were murmurs but I had no clue. I put on my concerned face and hoped that no one realized I wasn’t in on whatever had happened.

  Cammie stepped forward and put a hand on Larry’s shoulder. “Maybe we should just summarize everything for the group so we’re all on the same page.”

  Oh good, I thought.

  Larry nodded. “Yeah, that’s a great idea. How about—”

  “Audrey,” Cammie finished for him. She motioned for me to stand up.

  Oh fuck. I stood up. “Ummmmm. So. Well. Uh—”

  From behind me, I heard Cammie snark “If you don’t know, just say you don’t know, Audrey.”

  We knew where this was going so I didn’t even hesitate. “I don’t know.”

  “Sit down, Audrey,” she said. I sat down. Larry looked disgusted with me. Cammie looked pleased.

  “That’s okay. I’ll do it,” she went on. “Last night Green Bank was robbed. The thieves didn’t take any money, they only took paper. Cleaned the whole place out. Now, we all know that the whole mission of GB is to provide luxury banking services with the smallest environmental footprint possible. They need paper and it has to be someone local.”

  From the back of the room someone commented “I thought they had a paper supplier.”

  “They did,” Larry said. “It was Empire Paper. Last week they had a fire in their plant that put them out of commission. GB needs solutions now and we’re the only ones ready to go. This is a huge potential account for us. They do a lot of things electronically but they still need paper for account statements, receipts, notices—the list goes on and on. If we become their paper provider that will mean a lot of opportunities.”

  “Not just for the company,” Cammie added. “There will be opportunities for all of us, too. Expansion. New positions. More money. Larry has meetings all day with GB trying to make this happen. He’s got that handled.” She winked at him. He flushed. I gagged. “But that means the rest of us need to do everything we can to get ready. Now would be the worst time for anything to go wrong for us.”

  Larry held up a piece of paper. “Everyone will receive a memo like this. It’s a list of tasks to complete based on your department. It consists mostly of good security habits that you should be following anyway. Your supervisors may also have additional special tasks. Other than that, just give 150 percent to your jobs. It’s the small things that count. We want to look as good as possible to GB while they’re deciding whether they want to go with us.”

  Larry handed the memos to Cammie and she passed them out. I skimmed my copy. It was mostly about updating my passwords, making sure my security ID was current, and not talking about BK Paper with anyone outside of the company. After Larry dismissed everyone, I got up to leave with the rest of the employees. But he pointed to me and said “Not you. You stay.”

  ***

  “Do you just not want to work here?” As soon as all of the other employees had left the room, Cammie shut the door and Larry laid into me. He was still sweaty and excited but he was also mad. “Wh-what do you mean?” For some reason I didn’t think the answer he wanted was “Yes”—No matter how true that might be.

  He went on. “I told you to help Cammie. It’s important. She’s heading the merger and now with BK Paper possibly getting an account as big as Green Bank, she’s got even more on her plate.”

  I furrowed my brows. “I am helping her.”

  Cammie made a face. “You went out on an errand on Friday and never came back.”

  “Not true. I was held up by a robbery at the Starbucks. I did come back. You weren’t here when I got back.”

  She ignored me. “And you haven’t answered any of my texts or emails.”

  She had sent me a few messages this weekend. But I ignored them because I wasn’t at work. “I just got back to work today—”

  Larry interrupted “I’m getting tired of these excuses, Audrey. I’ve made it clear that your performance on this project will determine whether you keep your job. You need to step up and show us what you’re made of. Above and beyond, you know?” I didn’t know, but I nodded anyway.

  “Cammie has a list of things for you to do. Get them done. Don’t leave until you do. Do you understand?” I nodded again. Larry left the room.

  Now it was just me and Cammie. “You really need to learn how to follow instructions, Audrey. It’s important that you do what you’re told.” She handed me a piece of paper from her folder.

  I read it softly to myself. When I got down the page a bit, I saw a couple of items that mentioned the warehouse in Red Hook. “You want me to do all of this in one day? Even the warehouse?”

  One of Cammie’s eyebrows lifted and her face crumpled into a pout. “Let me see.” She pulled the paper from my hands. “Oh, not the warehouse. I’ll handle the warehouse.” She whipped out the same pen she’d been playing with on Friday when I met her. With a few deft strokes, she put several magenta lines through the warehouse tasks. Then she handed the list back to me. “You’ve got enough to do, don’t you?”

  Chapter 16

  I left Cammie in the conference room. Walking back through the cubicle jungle, I could see the vibe had changed completely. Everyone was sitting a little straighter in their chairs and hitting the keys on their computers a little harder. At my desk, I slumped in the seat and took another look at the list. It was weird that Cammie had taken on the warehouse stuff but I wasn’t in any position to question it. I was just grateful. Now I just had to figure out how to get the rest of the stuff done.

  The easiest task seemed to putting up notices on the alternate entries to the office. BK Paper didn’t actually own the building. We rented space like all of the other businesses in the building. For security purposes, we were only supposed to use the key-card-slot equipped front door to get in rather than the side doors. That way, the door couldn't get accidentally left open for anyone to wander through.

  I logged into my computer and opened up the word processor. What should I put here to make it clear that people shouldn’t use these doors or leave them unlocked? It took me a few minutes and a handful of Gummy Bears but I finally figured it out:

  DON’T USE THIS DOOR. DON’T LEAVE IT UNLOCKED—MANAGEMENT

  I ate a couple more Gummy Bears, printed my masterpiece, and headed to the copy room. The office copy room was really more of a closet. It had an industrial copier and printer standing side by side in it. I sifted through the pages on the printer until I found mine. Then I turned to put the page in the copier. Before I even lifted the lid, I saw a blinking red light on the panel. Out of ink.

  “Figures,” I grunted to myself. “Whenever I need to use it, there’s never any ink.”

  I grabbed a replacement ink cartridge and using my teeth, I tore open the wrapper. When I reached into the ink compartment to pull out the old cartridge, I found it stuck. I yanked at it few more times. Still stuck. Then I felt a sharp pain. “Fuck. Why are there sharp pieces in here? That’s dangerous.” I pulled back my hand back, felt my index finger catch on something again, and then an intense stabbing pain.

  When I got my hand
le out, there was blood all over my fingers. I looked around for something to clean up with and finally found a napkin in the trashcan. As I wiped away the blood I finally realized what had happened. The tip of my index finger had been cut so deeply it was hanging onto the digit by a thread of skin.

  “Audrey?”

  I whirled around, hiding my hand behind me. Mellie was standing in the doorway holding a stack of paper. “Hi there.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing. I’m not doing anything.” Behind me, the mishap where my finger used to be throbbed.

  She looked at me suspiciously. “Do you mind if I use the copier?”

  “Sure.” I moved away, keeping both of my hands behind me. One hand was palming the bloody napkin I’d used to hastily wipe up the mess. The other hand had my healing finger, with the reattached stub standing at a right angle.

  Mellie walked over to the copier. “Figures that the ink is out just when I want to go use it,” she mumbled under her breath. She picked up the full cartridge I’d dropped a minute earlier. “Is this new?” I just nodded and watched her deftly pull out the old cartridge and drop in the new one.

  Oh so that’s how it’s done.

  Mellie turned back to me once she’d gotten her stack of papers into the copier feeder tray. “Why are you being so weird?”

  Behind my back, I was holding my wonky finger with my good hand, trying to make the finger point straight. If I didn’t do something quickly, it would heal crooked. “Me? I’m not being weird. Everything’s cool.”

  Mellie rolled her eyes at me. “You and I have different definitions of cool.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Did you think getting Omar to agree to that was easy? Does he seem like the kind of guy who needs to be set up?”

  I grimaced. “What are you saying? That you had to beg him? That I am the kind of person who needs to be set up?”

  “I’ve known you for over a year. I’ve never seen you with a guy. I’ve never heard you talk about a guy. So. . . “ She trailed off.

  “I didn’t ask for your help, Mellie. You basically hounded me until I said yes. And now you’re mad because I, because I—”

  “Because you just ditched him. He’s mad at me now. Thanks a lot for that.”

  “Dude, you barely even know him. He’s like a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend! Why do you even care?”

  “Because I care about how my friends see me, Audrey. I care because connecting to other people is important to me. I know you don’t know what that’s like. Your world is just you. You don’t care about what you do affects other people. You walk in here late every single day like that doesn’t look bad for me, the person who got you this job.”

  Now that shocked me. “Did Larry say something? About me?”

  “He just asked if you were this much of an ‘under performer’ at your old job or if it was something new that just started,” she said, using her fingers as air quotes. “So not directly but definitely implying that I’d made a mistake in recommending you.”

  “Well, I don’t know what to say about that.”

  “How about an apology?” She raised her hand in a stop motion. “Wait. I’m tired of trying to explain to you how to be a human, Audrey. I’ve done everything I can for you. I got you a job. I lend you money. I try to introduce you to other people so I’m not your only friend. I’m tired. I’m done sponsoring the weirdo.”

  That hurt. It hurt worse than almost losing a finger in the copier. “I never asked you to fix anything for me. I’m just fine. I don’t need any of this shit.”

  “Are you kidding me? You’re a walking, talking problem. But I don’t need this shit, either. Friendship done.”

  “Fine. You just lost your work friend.”

  “You just lost your only friend.” She gathered up her papers and walked out, leaving me alone to try to figure out what happened. I looked down at my still bloody hand and noticed that finger looked good as new. At least my finger had healed.

  Me and Mellie? Not so much.

  Chapter 17

  After posting all my signs, I decided to take lunch. I grabbed a couple of slices of pizza and wolfed them down as I walked over to the cleaners. The bells on the door made their familiar music as I walked in. “You’re back,” Tommy said, without looking up from his magazine.

  “I’m back. And I have my ticket,” I added. Even I heard the smugness in my voice.

  He didn’t seem to care about that, though. He just nodded into his magazine and pushed the tray out through his bulletproof bubble. I dropped my ticket in and slid it back. For the first time, Tommy looked up at me. He was scowling but at least he was looking at me. Then he looked down at the ticket and moseyed over to the rack of dry cleaning.

  I’ve never seen anyone in the world move so slow in my life. “It’s that one,” I said, pointing out my suit on the rack. He grabbed it and put it down on the counter.

  “Six dollars.”

  I pulled a fifty-dollar bill out of my pocket and we repeated the whole thing with the tray. He grabbed the bill out of the tray and said, “What am I supposed to do with this?”

  “You really don’t know?”

  He slid the bill back to me and pointed to the sign on the glass that said NO BILLS BIGGER THAN $20. “I can’t break this.”

  “Wait!” I pushed the tray back. “I need that suit, man. You don’t understand. I don’t have anything smaller.”

  He slammed the tray back at me. “And I need you to pay for it. With something I can take.”

  Tommy put the suit back on the rack and went back to his magazine with an air finality that told me there was no use in arguing with him. I grabbed the bill, flung open the door, and left amid a jangling chorus of bells.

  I tried to break the $50 bill at the QuikCopy next door but they told me that they didn’t have change for it and wouldn’t take if they did. I tried a couple more of the other stores along the street and got the same answer. I didn’t have much time left and I still had to walk back to work. I finally gave up and went back to the office.

  Chapter 18

  The walk back to the office did nothing to improve my mood. Seeing Mellie sitting at her desk when I walked in didn’t help, either. I decided to do the one thing left on my list that didn’t require me to be in the office--check the security videos.

  Our building housed a lot of businesses renting offices. We took up half of one floor but there were ten overall, with office spaces of varying sizes. There were all sorts of businesses renting space. Building security services were included in the rental prices.

  I went down to the main floor security office and asked if the head of security was there. OJ was a large, bald guy with dark skin and the whitest teeth I’d ever seen. I guess the world saw him as imposing but I just saw him as the guy who replaced my security key card seven times. As soon as he saw me, he groaned and said in his Brooklyn accent “Audrey. Please tell me you didn’t lose that card again.”

  I dangled my card from its lanyard to show him I still had it. “Nope. Not since you brought me this handy lanyard. I’m here on official business.”

  He looked relieved. “Shoot.”

  “The boss has his panties in a wad over beefing up security. He wants me to take a look at the footage. Check for anything suspicious and all that.”

  “Why? We already do that.”

  I shrugged. “Because my time is worth almost nothing to him? I don’t know. I know I need this job, though.”

  OJ turned and motioned for me to follow him. “Okay then.” The next room had a big wall of television monitors catching the various goings on around the building. There were a few desks with computers as well. One desk held a takeout container of Chinese food that smelled fresh. My stomach grumbled in response.

  He gestured to one of the chairs strewn around the room, indicating I should sit down. “What footage do you want to see?”

  I slumped in the chair. “I don�
�t know. Maybe from the last month?”

  “Sure.” OJ sat down in one of the chairs and wheeled over to the computer. He did some typing and then said “I’m assuming you only want footage from the cameras from your floor. So from the last month, I have about 720 hours of footage on three cameras.”

  “What?! I don’t have 720 hours to do this, OJ.”

  “The cameras run 24 hours a day. It’s not like you have to watch it in real time. Depending on how hard you’re looking, it could take you a few days to get through it all. You don’t have to do it all in one day.”

  I thought about Larry’s instructions to get it all done “I kinda do. What about from the last week?”

  OJ did his typing thing again and then said, “That’s 168 hours. You could probably look at that in about 8 hours.”

  Still sounded like a lot. “Three days?”

  Typing sounds. “72 hours and you might be able to do that in maybe 3 hours or so.”

  “Sold.”

  OJ chuckled and pulled up the footage I needed. He pointed me to three monitors in a row and told me to watch them. I pulled my chair closer to the screen to get a better look as the videos started playing. Meanwhile, OJ went back to his Chinese food. “You mind if I eat, Audrey?”

  “Nope. Not as long as you have a fortune cookie for me.” I held out my hand and he threw one to me.

  For the next half hour I watched the video and OJ did some work. The only sounds in the room were our chomping. Finally, I broke the silence. “This is boring.”

  OJ grunted. “Pretty much. It’s faster if you split it up. Why didn’t you bring your shadow with you?”