"HEY!"
A voice coming from the entrance of my cubicle jolts me awake, dropping my mug of coffee in the process, staining the ugly black carpet.
"Wake up, and get back to work, I ain't paying you to doze off."
a chuckle came from the cubicle next to me.
"Yes Ma'am.." I groaned
"Don't give me that tone, I should've fired you a while ago, don't let me catch you sleeping on the job again, capiche?"
"Yeah, don't worry, i'll be well rested up tomorrow." I groggily said, uncertain if what i'm saying is true or not.
"Good. Now,get back to work. Please?"
I turned around to face my computer, as a sign of approval, listening to the thuds of the carpet slowly turn to silence.
I couldn't help but sigh, Even if it was for 30 minutes, I managed to escape into the abyss of my mind. Come to think of it, was I dreaming? I heard somewhere that you do dream very often, but you just don't remember it. What could I of possibly been dreaming about in this depressing scenario. I work in an accounting company. Being cramped in these tiny cubicles don't help much to the mental health around here. Not to mention that i'm incredibly lonely, and don't seem to have much of an affect on ladies. Oh god.. Am I gonna die alo-
"Yo, Elliot"
A voice from the cubicle next to his makes him flinch back into reality.
He turns towards the voice to see a woman childishly looking over the cubicle wall, as if hiding from a monster in a cartoon and checking to see if it's clear.
"Y-yeah?"
"Are you alright? You were muttering something heavy. You looked like a serial killer!"
"I-I'm not!" I Intelligently retort. I instantly realized how stupid I sounded, and looked down at my lap in embarrassment. She seemed to get a good giggle out of it though.
"Well I should hope not. Well, even if you are a killer, hopefully this will put me in your 'No-Kill' list"
She went back into her cubicle to then make her way to mine. She appeared in the entrance fisting two cups of coffee.
"I can see that your other cup didn't fare to well against your 'murderous intent', you sick animal!" She smiled widely
"Oh! You shouldn't have, really."
"Nah, don't mention it. I passed by when you were getting in trouble and saw your sad coffee on the ground, so I thought I might as well bring you another cup"
You looked over at the spilled cup of coffee, still dripping off the desk. As a last chance to redeem yourself you quickly grabbed the fallen cup, and returned it to its erect position.
"Psh, Nice save" She snorts "you almost spilt it!" She laughs loudly. Her laugh was awesome to experience, It seemed to have this aura, drawing you in to her. A smile cracked on my face, following her joke. Even though it was at my expense.
"Well, anyways. Here ya go, I don't know how you like it, so this will hopefully be fine"
"Ah, I'm not very picky with my coffee. Although I do prefer.."
I took a look down in the cup to see she brought me white coffee.. I guess I can't complain..
"A-ah, Nevermind. Thank you though! This will keep me awake for awhile."
"Great! Now, get back to work young man!" She puffed her cheeks out and pointed a finger at me, obviously imitating our boss.
I probably shouldn't have but it was just too funny not to
"That's just like her!" I blurted out laughing
"Shh! Your gonna get us both in trouble!" She put a finger up to her smiling mouth, looking around for signs of trouble
"I'm sorry, but that's exactly what I think when I imagine her!"
"Ah-Em"
A familiar voice hit me like a brick wall, the dumb smile on my face was quickly wiped.
"That's weird, I don't remember putting something funny in this work. Could you tell me what was so funny ?"
Oh shit!
"Ah, well, ahm- you see, it wasnt-"
She stepped in to save my ass
"Ah! I'm sorry miss, I just remembered a joke, and I interrupted his work to tell him."
She took looked down at the carpet as a sign of sorry
"Ah-ha! A joke! I love jokes. Mind telling me this...joke?"
Her voice dripped with poison. One false move and it's over for both of us. The woman who's name I don't know looked over at me, and back to our boss. She breathed in, and breathed out. All of a sudden she struck a pose as if she'd want to sell something
"What's the difference of a Zippo, and a Hippo?"
Her victim raised an eyebrow
"What is the difference, Mrs. Anora."
"A Hippo is really heavy, and a Zippo is a little lighter!"
..
…
….
…..
Everything was still. Silent. Dead silent. It didn't feel right
"Ahahaha! Thats the one!" I say unconvincingly, while trying to cough up a laugh was my sad attempt to back Anora up, who was still stuck in the pose she struck.
Carries eyes dart over to mine examining me, putting me in submission.
"Just get back to work. No more jokes from you. Please."
"Yes Ma'am!" Erma quickly said and she scooted out of my cubicle, I pretended not to notice Carrie as I sipped my coffee and turned to face my computer. I felt her eyes pierce my skull, making a cold sweat drip down my forehead. When she finally left I noticed I was sitting up straight. I relaxed, slouching into my seat. I heard a tap from the cubicle next to me, I looked over to see her looking over the same childish way
"Nice to meet you Elliot!" She raised her head over the cardboard wall and gave me a great big smile.
"Yeah, Nice to meet you too Anora.."
-(Thursday)-
Man, this work load is taking forever to finish. Why doesn't Carrie do it her damn self if she wanted it done! Ahh.. No matter, I leave this place in… 4 hours..God damn it.. Well, I think it's time to grab some lunch anyways. The footsteps of other workers and Anora peeking over the cubicle wall telling me to wake up, and that it's time for lunch confirms this.
Anora and I walk side by side, making small talk on the way to the kitchen. We both brought lunches so it was just a matter of taking it out of the refrigerator and heating it up in the old rinky dink microwave in the kitchen.
"Hey, what'd you bring to eat anyways?" She asked
"Oh, just some leftover chinese food I had."
"Oh, that's kinda boring"
I look over at her to see her sticking her tounge out at me
"Is that what you usually bring?" she asked
"Yeah, it's cheap and everything so I might as well, right?"
"Ah.. Yeah I guess. Well, it's nothing compared to what I brough!"
Her voice was toned with superiority
"Okay, what did you bring then?"
She chuckles and puffs her chest, putting her fists on her denim covered hips
"I~ made my own lunch!" she said proudly
I raised an eyebrow at her, the cold of the fridge sending chills down my spine
"I'm serious! caramelized onions over Pad thai!"
"Tch, you don't even know how to spell caramelized, do you?"
I look over the fridge door, to she's deflated her chest down to normal sized
"..No, but there is onions on it! I swear!" She exclaimed as she pulled out a green plastic tupperware container, filled with noodles, shrimp and onions.
"Yeah yeah, I believe you." I said as I pulled out my own cartoon box with chinese letter at the side.
We both laughed and separated to head for the old microwaves.
Lunch and the rest of the day went by in a blur. After microwaving our meals, we both sat at different tables. Not like I expected for us to be sitting together anyways.. We only met yesterday anyways. Now that I think about it, why would I expect us to sit together? Ah, whatever.
I walked out of the building I work in, after clocking out, of course, and started making my way towards the bus station. I didn't live that far, but it wasn't a comfortable walking distance, and walking alone at night wasn't a smart thing to do, so taking the bus was the only option, I hope Anora doesn't have to walk home. It isn't the best neighborhood here.. Dah, she should be fine. I need to get home myself, and get rested for the next day, so I don't get chewed out by the man boss lady.
-(Friday)-
Before I knew it it was lunch time again. Some days are like this, where I actually put some work in, and it seems when I actually start giving a damn, something comes up and interrupts me, then I can't get in that same mood again. Very rarely do I get interrupted by something that tells me its break time.
Anora leaned in my cubicle and asked if I was coming to lunch. She then pushed the same tupperware container she had yesterday into view. I guess she had extra. I stood up, and started making my way with Anora to the kitchen, seemingly having the same conversation we had the last day, just a different day.
"Aahh, so you started working here on monday?" I responded
"Yep! First day was last monday"
She said as she took a heaping spoonful of her warm Pad Thai, and shoved it into her mouth like a coal oven. I took the chopsticks the chinese food come with and started picking at my food. I've eaten this so Sweet and Sour chicken with rice meal so much it doesn't even taste like anything anymore.
"No wonder I didn't know you, I was gone a week due to personal issues"
"Peshonahl?" She said with a full mouth. She looked like a chipmunk
"Ha, real flattering you know?" I pointed out
She seemed surprised, began to blush and look away, while quickly chewing her food, her dirty blonde hair helping to conceal her engorged cheeks. I couldn't help but chuckle at her.
"Heey, don't tease me, don't you know my name means graceful? Act like your in the presence of a graceful queen dang it!"
"I'm sorry, 'm'lady', but you looked like a squirrel." I hid my mouth to disguise my smile by rubbing food off my face
She gasped dramatically putting a hand up to her chest, acting offended. It didn't take long for her to start eyeing her food again, and started to dig in again. How the hell is she so energetic! It's incredible. It's almost rubbing off on me. ha, nice one. She couldn't help it I guess. The Pad Thai does look really good. I looked down at my reheated chinese food in a tupperware container. It really did look boring. I might ask her to make some for me soon. Would that be creepy? I mean, I met her 3 days ago. Maybe I should wait a week or something, yeah, that makes sense. Wait, now that I think about it, we are sitting together. Isn't this something people do when their deep into their relationship? The animes I watch don't really tell me much, if this was an anime, by this time I would already be tongue deep in her mouth. Maybe that's because I only watch the raunchy ones. Hey, doesn't sitting together look kinda weird? I should check what she's doing, hopefully still eating and not thinking 'man this guy probably is a serial killer'
I looked up to see her leaning over the table looking at my face with studying eyes, though she quickly shot back to her seat when our eyes met. I quickly looked down at my food as well, Both thinking what the hell was she doing?
"..Sorry" She mumbled
"W-wha? Oh! Don't worry about it..I must've looked weird.." I nervously scratched the back of my head.
"Y-yeah, I guess so..Haha!" She chuckled nervously
A silence cursed the table we were sitting at, until Anora finally broke the curse
"Hey.. I know this is sudden and all, but.."
Hey, what's going on.. No way she's actually doing this now, it's just like in the animes I watch! ...Calm yourself, nothings happening..I think..?
"Don't take t-this the wrong way or anything but, w-would you m-mind if I ...Y'know.. C-cooked for you?"
"What?"
"Oh! Its okay if you don't want me to! It's just that it sucks you have to get that cheap chinese food everyday, and I always cook to much of it anyways, so I might as well I thought…" Her voice trailed of as she looked down at her half finished pile of Pad Thai
"I mean.. You sure?"
She looked up at me
"W-well, yeah, I don't mind.."
"Well, If it's no problem to you, that would be great!"
She visibly lit up
"For real! Aw, sweet! Finally I don't have to finish tons of extra food by myself!"
"I was just thinking I should ask you to one day make me some of that 'Caramelized onion' Pad Thai someday" I teased
She gave me a jokingly angry look, and started laughing.
Before we knew it, it was time to get back to work, so me and Anora packed everything up, I threw the little chinese box in the trash, and waited for Anora to finish clean up her container.
"Hey, what are you gonna make me?" I jokingly said
"It's a surprise!" She did a hush motion, and winked at me.
Can't complain much, she is making me food free of charge.
"Alright then, just don't poison me please"
"Dang, there goes my plans" She looked at me, as I looked at her, obviously looking for a reaction from me. I just gave her a funny look, as if she was dumb
She chuckled, and waved at me. We had stopped in front of my cubicle, and she was making her way towards hers, which was just around the corner from mine. I waved back at her, and got into my cubicle. I sat down and looked at the screen showering me in blue tint, I couldn't bring myself to continue working, I just sat smiling wildly.