Riley opened his eyes and sat up in bed. It was three o'clock in the morning, and still pitch black out. Squinting slightly, he read the LED numbers off his alarm clock, before lying back down. He'd been having nightmares these last few nights. Mostly anxiety-ridden dreams about his lack of money, and about his new job. He lay back down on his bed, sinking his face into the pillows. He still had a few more hours to go before he had to officially get up. Pulling his blanket over his head, Riley drifted off into sleep again.

When he arrived at the office building a few hours later, he was dressed in a tie, brown cordoroy pants, suit jacket, black framed glasses, and his trusty black converse hightops. His brown hair was combed down neatly, and he looked really good.

Today was his first day at the office, and he was given a quick tour along with all the other newly hired workers. There were about a dozen people on the tour. Riley stayed near the back, so he could observe all his new coworkers. He felt a little overdressed, because most of the guys were only wearing polo shirts or white dress shirts. Everyone was much more casually dressed, since He was the only one wearing a tie, and a suit jacket. This didn't go unnoticed by the the group. A few people were giving him sidelong glances, but so far nobody had talked to him.

There were two women in the group. The first woman was quite a bit older then Riley, about forty or fifty. She had grey-streaked hair tied back in a ponytail, and a slight frown on her face. The other woman was much younger, about eighteen or nineteen. She had black, frizzy hair that was cut short and halo'd around her head. She was wearing a short skirt with forest green tights. She turned her head away from the tour and caught Riley watching her. Her eyebrows raised a bit, but he looked away, flustered.

He turned his attention back to the man at the helm of the tour, who was droning on with a really monotous voice. The crowd moved on from the lobby to the rows of cubicles. The man continued to explain various company policies, while everyone followed behind him.

"Ughh... this tour is so boring."

Riley had been zoning out while staring at an empty cubicle, when he heard the whispered voice right beside his ear. He jumped a little, and turned his attention to the girl with the black, frizzy hair.

"Uhh...Hi...Yeah it's boring." He responded, whispering back. She was standing really close to him, close enough for him to smell her apple scented shampoo.

"I'm Elise Faulkner. Why are you dressed so fancy for? I thought it was more of a casual workplace here."

"I didn't know. The last time I worked in an office environment they were pretty strict about what we could wear."

"Nah...not here. It's different here, they are pretty lax. What's your name?"

"Riley Poole. I'm twenty three."

"Riley. Nice name."

"Umm... how old are you?"

"Nineteen."

They were still whispering back and forth, completely oblivious to the fact that the tour of the building had continued onto the next floor. The last stop was the break room, which also had lockers for personal use.

Riley was the first to notice that they were the only ones left of the tour. Looking around, he couldn't see anybody from the group anymore.

"Uhhh... Elise? "

She noticed as well, and quickly strode over to the nearest occupied cubicle. Leaning over the divider, she smiled at the young man working.

"Hi. sorry to disrupt...do you know where our tour went?"

The man looked up at her, then nodded.

"Mr. Lorenzo usually ends the tour in the break room. That's on the top floor."

Elise grabbed Riley by the sleeve, and started to speedwalk toward the elevator. He jogged to keep up to her.

"Wow, what a great first impression on our first day. Losing the group. Holy Lord, I hope nobody notices we are gone yet. I really need this job."

When they got to the break room, everybody was milling around. Some people were sitting down in small groups, while others were texting on their phones. Riley snagged two chairs beside each other, and they both sat down quickly.

Shortly after, everyone that was on the tour was assigned a cubicle to go to, so they could get some hands-on training.

Right before everybody split up to go to their respective cubicles, Elise slipped a handwritten note into the pocket of his jacket.

"Riley, give me a call, willya?"

After she had left, some of the guys started talking about her, mostly commenting on the fact that she was the hottest girl in the office so far. Some of them were shooting a few envious looks towards Riley, who at this point went from slightly pink to beet red. He took the note out of his pocket and unfolded it.

Hiya Riley,

We should meet up for beers after work. Good thing we didn't get in trouble today, haha.

Elise

The note included her phone number, and the name of the bar down the street. He carefully refolded the letter, and put it back in his pocket.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur, as he met with his cubicle buddy Mike Cho, who started to train him on the basics of working at the office. Most of this stuff was relatively easy to Riley, since he'd had a few jobs that were similar in the last few years. Filing, writing emails, answering phone calls,etc.

When it was time to leave for the night, he had a stack of paperwork he had to read, a manual to memorize, and a slight headache.