It was a dull Tuesday morning, I hated Tuesday, almost as much as Monday. Its just too far from Friday and from going out to the pub. That particular morning, we all dragged ourselves into the team meeting, expecting the usual boring crap. Instead we were met with the lab manager, we hardly ever saw her, so this meant something big was going down. We all gathered around, and waited patiently. When she saw everyone was ready she began.
'we are having some special visitors this week' she began, I sighed internally.
'these particular visitors are interested in how our company works, and may be opening up a branch in an area of America we haven't yet covered.'
she sounded way too excited about this, indicating I was going to be a complete yawn fest for the rest of us. Either that or we'd be pestered constantly with boring pointless questions by boring men in suits.
'as always we expect you all to be polite and helpful' she nodded at our team leader, showing she had finished. Our team leader, Jim, took over. He handed out our 'due today' lists and let us all get back to work.
I walked back to the lab to finish preparing my machine, stupid thing didn't want to calibrate today. I swear it was older than me, and almost as temperamental.
After setting it off calibrating again, I left it to go on break. It would take about a half hour for the machine to decide whether it was going to behave or not. I gathered my friends from their respective rooms on my way past, the 5 of us always went on break together, and always at the same time.
When we got up to the canteen, the whole room was buzzing. Jinny, the company pain in the ass, had decided I was her new best friend. She drove me nuts with her endless waffle about absolutely everything.
'Sookie, did you see the visitors yet? She practically shouted at me
'nope, not yet' I said, turning to go into the kitchen for much needed coffee.
'oh, you have to. They are really hot. Especially one guy' she continued, oblivious to everyone else.
'really?' I said, totally disinterested.
She wandered off thankfully, probably spotting another victim.
'any of you guys seen the visitors yet?' I asked my gathering when we'd collected coffee and sat down.
'nah, not that I noticed' Steve said, tho they would have to practically have to sit on Steve for him to notice.
'me neither' replied Emily, who was reliable enough to have hunted them out if she'd heard it was worth while.
Break passed, and we strolled back to the lab, still no sign of the famous visitors, but my machine was finally working. I only knew this because someone else was using it. 'typical' I thought to myself.
I grabbed my sample bottles and began the trek to the warehouse, we had to collect our own sub-samples from the original bottle, which were all held in a huge room at the other end of the building. Rows and rows of trolleys, all with numbered bottles. Spending too much time in there was just depressing, but I had 84 samples and it was going to take a while. Thankfully they weren't due out that day, and they were all on the bottom row of one of the trolleys. I pulled the trolley in question out of the row, and sat on the floor next to it. There was no way I was getting up and down for 84 freaking samples.
About 20 samples in, I was getting into quite a nice rhythm, sitting cross legged seemed to be working on saving my spine. It was then that I heard voices, they were too close, coming from the door into the warehouse right by my row. 'dammit' I said, thinking about standing, then looking at all my samples.
'screw it' I retorted to myself. They can sit and swivel.
So I sat there, hearing the voices approach, until I was sure they were about to walk through me.
'Sookie, are you ok?' came a voice right next to me, I was just reaching into the back of the trolley, so the intrusion made me bang my head.
'I was' I said, noting it was another team leader, Mel, asking me.
'I'd like you to meet our visitors' she said
'oh, sure' I said, and stood as gracefully as I could.
I turned around slowly, pulling off my sexy purple latex gloves.
'this is Sookie, one of our most capable analysts' Mel said, bless her she really wanted me on her team.
I looked at the visitors and almost fell back down on my ass. Jinny wasn't kidding when she said they were worth meeting.
'oh… um… hi, nice to meet you' I said holding out a sweaty hand. Those gloves are not kind.
Mel chuckled beside me, I could feel my face going a strawberry shade of red.
There were 4 visitors, one man was short, brunette and had kind but wary eyes. The second man was a bit taller, short auburn hair and a fuzzy beard. To one side was a beautiful woman, long brown hair and big brown eyes, just like I wanted. Stood at the back of the group, but totally visible, was the most magnificent specimen of human biology I had ever seen. He was tall, muscular (his visitors lab coat was straining, clearly far to small), he had blond hair, tied back neatly, and a "goatee/half-assed beard" that actually looked really good.
I realised I'd been staring when Mel jabbed me in the ribs.
'so you run one of the machines?' asked the woman, looking hopeful that I would resist using jargon.
'yes, well actually I run 3 machines, at different times of the day' I said, hoping that was vague enough for her.
'how many tests are you trained on?' she asked, this was beginning to feel like an interview.
'erm… all 14 of them, the whole team is cross-trained, it helps in the holiday season' I explained.
'we'll let you get back to work' said Mel, 'but could you pop to my office just before you go to lunch?'
'yeah sure' I told her, and turning back to the visitors, 'I hope you enjoy you tour today'.
They all smiled and began walking the length of the warehouse, Mel trying to think of interesting things to say. I watched them as I sank back down to my position, just before they turned a corner into an office the tall handsome one turned and caught my eye, I swear he winked and waved. I smiled and wave back, then sank back to lean on one of the other trolleys.
'sweet suffering fuck' I said to myself.
'what was all that?' came a voice from the other row of trolleys. It was Matt, the puppy dog hanger on in our little group.
'I have no idea, but still….. Crikey!' I said, still staring at the corner the guy had disappeared around.
'why does Mel want to see you?' Matt asked. Typical he would focus on that
'not a clue, guess I'll find out soon though' I told him, and resumed collecting.
