I had been in the shower for thirty-five minutes and I still had to dry my hair, put my make up on, eat breakfast, and get downtown by seven-thirty. I scurried around my apartment pulling on clothes, plucking rogue eyebrow hairs, cramming stuff into my coveted leopard print Betsey Johnson purse, all while shoving a Poptart in my mouth. I grabbed my keys, sprinted to my car, and pulled onto the interstate.
By the time I arrived in the parking deck I was in a panic. I’d almost died three times on my way in and now I only had ten minutes to get into the building. I jumped out of my car and was yanked back in. In my haste I hadn’t unbuckled my seatbelt. Freeing myself from the restraint, I stood up and shut the door. I jogged toward the building, my black high heels clacking on the cement as I approached the entrance.
When I stepped off the elevator, I glanced down at my watch and breathed a sigh of relief because I had made it on time and in one piece. The secretary looked through the glass at me as I came in, then pushed the window back.
“Can I help you?” she said, peering over her teal glasses. Her voice was harsh, it sounded like she had smoked plenty of cigarettes in her day.
“My name’s Brooke Davis. I’m the new research coordinator.” I paused and she continued to stare at me over her glasses. I continued, “Today’s my first day.”
She started to speak, but was caught by a coughing fit. It sounded painful and full of mucus. I backed away for fear that pieces of lung tissue may fly out of her mouth at any moment. “Go through the door on your left,” she managed to get out before she started wheezing.
Crossing the room, I opened the door. I stood there, not exactly sure where she wanted me to go. Then I felt a presence.
“Brooke, good to see you, how was your trip in?”
I faced my right and there he was, Dan Stanley.
I had forgotten just how disgusting this little man was. He was standing in the middle of the hall with a ridiculous looking smile on his face. The sweat on his forehead glistened in the fluorescent lighting. His hairy little arms looked so frail hanging out from under his billowing sleeves, and the buttons around his mid-section loosened with each breath he took.
“It was fine, thanks for asking,” I replied.
“Come on, let me show you where your office will be. At first I was thinking of putting you in with Ashley. She’s another one of the coordinators here, she handles the depression studies, but I think it would be better if you shared on office with Peggy. And as luck would have it, that office is right across from mine! We’ll get you all settled and —” Dan paused and leaned his butterball self into an opened doorway, “Good morning, Ashley,” he sang into the room.
I heard a very annoyed voice mockingly sing back, “Good morning, Dan.” He motioned for me to come to the entrance of the door.
“Ashley, this is Brooke. She’s our new coordinator. She’s the one who will be working on the pharmacology studies with Dr. Hunter.”
Peering in, I saw a beautiful girl with silky, reddish brown hair and large brown eyes.
I smiled. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too,” she said and shot a nasty glance in Dan’s direction.
Dan took off down the hall and Ashley shoved her pointer finger down her throat, making a gagging sound. “Welcome to the office.” She sighed and turned around, pulling out a shiny pink compact and applying a fresh coat of lipstick.
I continued to follow Dan down the hallway and we stopped at the last door on the right. He pulled on his lanyard and fumbled with some keys. Reaching in the door, he flipped the light switch. The fluorescent lights blinked, buzzing softly as they warmed up.
“Well, here’s your office. Peggy doesn’t get here until eight o’clock, so you’ll have some time to get settled in.” He pointed at the back wall, “The desk by the door will be yours, and this silver filing cabinet is yours too.” He tapped the top of a cabinet and a cloud of dust floated up into the air.
Dan pulled out a handkerchief from his pants pocket and blotted the glistening dew from his forehead. “My office is right here,” he stepped out into the hall and tapped the metal doorframe of the room directly across from mine and Peggy’s office.
“Well, go ahead now and get yourself situated. We’ll have a staff meeting at nine o’clock and I’ll introduce you to everyone. Then we can get started on training. We’ll just use my office so we won’t disturb Peggy,” He smiled, showing his dingy little teeth surrounded by his grossly thin lips.
“Great,” I replied. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to hide how revolted I was by his presence.
I looked around at my new home away from home. The walls were a pale yellow. There was a slender window that overlooked the main boulevard on the far wall. Two potted plants sat in the windowsill. The leaves were dry and brittle and all but one of the petals from the flower had fallen to the ledge. The carpet was a brown color bearing several stains of unknown origin. My desk was bare except for a phone and computer monitor. I pulled the black swivel chair out from the desk and took a seat. I glanced over at Peggy’s desk and the monitor was covered in sticky notes. She had a picture taped up on her credenza; it was that picture of the kitten clinging to a rope with the inspirational words “hang in there” typed on it. I bet she needed that little kitten picture just to get her through the days with Dan Stanley.
Footsteps trampled down the hall, accompanied by the sound of bags rustling.
As I peered out the door, Peggy popped in the doorway. She threw a plastic bag, a very large purse, and an umbrella in the floor by her desk. Peggy looked pretty disheveled; her mousy brown hair was all over the place and she had on mauve pants and a light pink blouse.
She flung herself down into her seat and yanked the chair up to the desk. Jerking a pen from her caddy, she started furiously scrawling something on a notepad. She didn’t say a word to me, or even acknowledge my presence. I thought for a moment and decided I would be the one to break the ice.
“I’m Brooke.”
“Yes, I know. I’m Peggy,” she said dryly, rummaging through her purse.
For some reason I could just see her being a hoarder. I pulled out my red lipstick to touch it up before the meeting when the lights suddenly went out. I looked up at the ceiling, then over to Peggy who was staring at her computer screen. The only light was the light from the hallway and the sunlight that was coming in through the window.
“The artificial light gives me headaches,” she said, typing on her keyboard. She didn’t even look over at me.
I sat in the dark, staring at a computer screen that I had no password for, not really sure what to say.
“Let’s congregate,” Dan’s voice boomed down the hall.
I glanced out the doorway. “Congregate? Who the hell says that?” I muttered under my breath.
Peggy rolled her eyes, huffed, and walked out of the room. She was just a bright ray of sunshine dressed in mauve polyester pants.
Stepping into the conference room, I looked around for a place to sit. I noticed Ashley pat an empty leather chair next to her.
Oh, thank God. At least the normal person is trying to be nice and interact with me.
I plopped down in the chair and Ashley leaned over to me. “Welcome to hell,” she whispered. “This place sucks ass.”
Those are definitely the words you want to hear on your first day. So far I had realized that the daily commute was going to cause me to have panic attacks, my boss was creepier than I had remembered, I was sharing the office with some odd, cave-dwelling person, and now the only normal person I had met so far told me the place sucked ass.
I left the office at four-thirty, experienced rush hour traffic on the way back home, and realized I was officially a grown up.
On my way into my apartment, I grabbed my cat Simon, buried my face in the comfort of his long white fur, and started crying. I didn’t like working eight hours, I didn’t like having to wear stuffy professional cloth
es, and I knew I wasn’t going to like my new job at all.
Damn it! Why did being an adult have to suck?
Chapter Four
Brooke
June 27, 2014
The first week went by and was pretty boring. I spent just about all of my time in Dan’s office and by that Friday I had decided I pretty much hated him. He was disgusting and he was absolutely narcissistic. There was no reason training should have taken as long as it did, but since he couldn’t seem to shut up about how awesome he was, I think I only had about an hour’s worth of training each day. By the end of that week I knew more about his personal life than I needed to. I also learned that he really didn’t like anybody from the office.
Dan voluntarily and cheerfully informed me that he couldn’t stand Peggy. According to Dan she was always late and she didn’t know what the hell she was doing. He also made it clear that he despised the Program Director, Dr. Scott Knight, and one of the neurosurgeons, Dr. Gavin Hunter. Dr. Hunter was, according to Dan, “an arrogant, manipulative dickhead.” Dr. Knight and Dr. Hunter had been at a convention in Fort Lauderdale, and from the image I had of them I was not looking forward to meeting and interacting with them any more than I did Dan.
By the end of my first week I was exhausted and felt I was now able to understand why people lived for the weekends. Friday morning I trudged through the main office and back to my desk. I sat down and looked at the clock, hoping that the next nine hours would somehow fly by and I could enjoy the freedom the weekend promised. There was a large stack of papers on my desk that needed to be copied. I grabbed a pile of them and made my way down to the copier in the large conference room. Opening the door, I found a man bent over trying to free some paper from inside the copier.
“Damn you, you stupid contraption,” he mumbled as he angrily flipped the side of the machine down.
I couldn’t see anything other than khaki pants and a crisp blue dress shirt, but this man had a British accent which automatically made him sexy in my book.
Brushing my hair behind my ear, I took several steps toward him just as he pulled a tattered piece of paper free from the copier. He turned around and my heart fought to keep a normal rhythm. He was absolutely gorgeous. His long, loose brown curls were falling slightly in his face; he had large, intoxicating green eyes and perfectly shaped, perfectly kissable lips. His jawbones were accentuated by a slight five o’clock shadow. I didn’t dare glance down to see what his body looked like for fear I may let out a small whimper.
Please, for the love of God let him belong here.
I was in awe of the Grecian-like god that stood before me. Just as my gaze was instinctually drifting down his abdomen I realized this was the man from the elevator I’d been completely taken with the day of my interview. I had never in my life seen such a beautiful man, never. There was something about him that was irresistible. Looking at him, I almost felt possessed.
He pressed a button on the copier and it snatched the paper from the feeder.
“I’ll be done in just a second,” he said as he pushed a brown tendril of his beautiful hair behind his ear. “I’m Gavin. You must be the new coordinator Dan has been raving about, aye?”
I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to form words and remember my name. “Yes, I’m Brooke Davis.” I paused, staring at him like an idiot. “So, you’re Dr. Hunter?”
He laughed, “Yes, Dr. Hunter, but please just call me Gavin. Doctor seems so pretentious.” Grabbing his copies from the machine, he glanced down at me. “So, how’s your first week been?”
“It’s been great. I love it here.” Lies poured from my lips, but I just wanted to keep him talking to me so I could bask in his beauty.
“That’s good.”
I noticed my mouth was hanging open and shut it. We stood staring at each other in an awkward silence. Then Gavin rolled the copies he’d made up and tapped them against his palm. “Well, it was nice to meet you, Brooke. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to come ask. My door’s always open.” He headed toward the door.
Say something to him, you idiot.
“Thanks, Dr. Hunter,” I called out, my cheeks blushing.
“Gavin.” He smiled at me, revealing perfectly straight, white teeth, and walked out of the room.
I fell against the copier for a minute to regain my composure before placing my documents on the glass and pressing the button. A slight giggle escaped me as I thought that I’d just found my little piece of heaven in this hellhole. I could so put up with Dan Stanley if I could gaze at that beautiful British man on a daily basis. Doctor or not, I didn’t care; I planned on thoroughly enjoying looking at him as often as possible.
“Yeah, he’s pretty hot, isn’t he?” Ashley commented as she came into the room to get a cup of coffee.
“What?” I tried to play dumb.
“Dr. Hunter. He’s a cutie.” She opened a container of creamer and poured it into her Styrofoam cup. “He’s considered the most eligible bachelor at the hospital.” She smiled and swirled her stirring straw around in her coffee. The way the steam rose from the cup and framed her face made her smile almost seem devilish.
“Yeah, he’s all right.” I felt like a thirteen year old girl again trying to lie about a crush. I knew I was in trouble because I’d never had a man affect me the way he had.
“Yeah, all right? That man is a hot piece of ass!” Ashley tossed the stirring straw into the trashcan beside her and stared at me. “You want him. It’s okay. It’s your rite of passage. We’ve all had the hots for him.” She pulled one side of her mouth up and cocked her hip out, placing her hand on it. “Sadly, that man is so ethical there’s no way in hell he’d ever date a coworker.” She took a sip of her coffee. “If I thought I stood a chance with that man I’d turn in my notice this very minute. I could be poor, but rich in love.” Her eyes strayed off to the doorway momentarily. The glazed-over look melted from her eyes and she abruptly changed the topic. “Let’s go get lunch today? I need to fill you in on the office. Dan’s been holdin’ you captive and I haven’t had much of a chance to talk to you.” She raised both of her perfectly arched eyebrows as she said, “This place is like a looney bin, and there are some definite things you need to know.”
“Okay. Maybe around noon,” I said.
“Yep.”
I took my copies and turned down the hallway. I was trying my damnedest to burn Gavin’s image into my memory.
Sorry, Channing Tatum, but I think you just lost your leading role in my shower fantasies.
While I was deep in my daydream I literally ran into Dan. I dropped my papers and his coffee splashed up onto his shirt.
“I’m sorry, Dan,” I said as bent down to pick up the pile of papers I’d dropped.
“It’s okay.” He lowered his voice to a whisper and knelt down while I was picking up my papers, “We should make it a habit to do that more often,” he snickered. His eyes twitched and his head bobbed up and down before he rose to his feet.
Oh, my God, was that an attempt to hit on me?
I stopped and glared at his back as he pranced down the hall to his office.
Ashley peeked her head out from the doorway. “That’s one of the things I need to warn you about.” She rolled her chair back to her desk and began typing.
I carried the shuffled-up papers to my office and flicked the light on. I was agitated and no longer willing to sit in the dark. I attempted to re-organize the papers, which now had little splatters of Dan’s coffee all over them. As I was fanning the papers in the air, the light went out. Peggy had reached over and flipped the light off. Again.
I sighed, walked back over to the wall, and slammed the switch back up.
“Is something bothering you?” Peggy twisted her head around and glared at me.
“Uhhh, yeah,” I snapped at her. My inner-waitress-who-is-tired-of-crap overcame me. “You see, I can’t work in the dark, it gives me a headache — so we are goin
g to have to figure something out.”
Peggy turned back to her computer and continued typing. I stared at the side of her head, willing it to explode and heard a tap on the metal doorframe.
“Brooke, you ready for a day of enlightenment and wonder?” Dan popped his hideous face in the doorway, snickering at his witty remark.
I was becoming conditioned to throw up in the back of my throat anytime I heard his creepy little voice.
“Sure, I’ll be right in.”
Rising from my desk, I grabbed my pen and pad and walked to the door. I flicked the light off as I left, leaving the cave creature in the dark.
Dan drug a vacant chair right up next to him as I entered his office.
Did I really have to be so damn close to him?
I sat down and he typed something into the search bar at the top of his screen. He looked over and smiled, pulling up a local radio station on his computer. “Have you ever smoked pot?” he leaned in close to me and whispered.
Of course I wasn’t going to admit that I had to my supervisor. “No.”
“Do you think I have?”
“I don’t know. I’m not really good at judging people.”
As dorky as he looked, I figured he hadn’t done anything daring like that. I was certain the hardest thing he’d ever done was drink a four pack of wine coolers.
“Oh, I was quite the daredevil back in my heyday, not to mention quite the ladies man,” he winked at me as he leaned back in his chair.
I sat there just staring at him with a blank expression on my face.
“I did all kinds of fun things. I’m still a load of fun. The ladies all love going out with me. I don’t like to brag, but I make some pre-tty big bucks here. I love to spend it on other people, especially pretty young ladies like yourself.”
“That’s nice,” I replied. I could feel my disgust with him creep across my face.
I was beyond relieved when there was a knock on the door. Peering over my shoulder, I saw Dr. Hunter push the door open.
“Sorry to interrupt here,” Gavin said as he stepped into the office. “But I need a meeting set up with the research team regarding the new Quantum CXE study this afternoon. There seems to have been some serious adverse effects and we’ll need to suspend any further enrollment and cease all administration of the drug itself.” He moved his eyes over to me and turned the corners of his lips up.
Bound to the Fallen (Prophecy #2) Page 4
