The title read "I Spent The night With Superman".
Yes I did, Lois thought, smugly.
"And it was perfect!" she found herself sighing, throwing her body back onto her chair in her office.
Well, this wasn't an office... Not yet... It was still a dusty old cubicle but, since her minor promotion, she'd gotten a bit more desk space and a little more leg room than before.
"Um... Lois?" a voice came from behind her, followed by a hand on her shoulder. She jumped and spun round.
"Oh, Clark, you scared me. Geez!"
she said, one hand on her chest.
"Sorry, Lois. Are you okay?" he asked, pushing his glasses further up his nose.
She thought about her response. "Absolutely perfect! I banged Superman!" Well, that's what she wanted to say. Instead she said, "I'm well, thank you. Are you?"
Clark stuttered, as he always did. "Yes, thank you. I hope your good mood lasts, Lois... Perry wants to see you."
Lois' face dropped. There were two things particularly daunting about being told those exact words. One was the thought of stepping into his office and the second was that Clark called him by his first name. Perry was their boss. Editing Chief, but most just called him 'Chief'. He wasn't known for being particularly well-mannered towards anybody. Not even his own nephew, Richard, who had started working at the Daily Planet less than six months before.
Clark had started working there about nine months beforehand. There were people higher up than him who had been at the job much longer who could still only call him Mr White or 'Chief'. Nobody was ever allowed to call him Perry.
"When?" Lois asked, knowing that the answer would probably be 'five minutes ago' or something stupid like that.
"Right about... Now. Good luck." Clark said, backing away before dawdling back to his own desk. Many people wondered how that boy ever got landed with a weekly column named Clark's Conundrums. It seemed that he was always out of his desk and walking, aimlessly, around the room or handing out coffees and moving files for Jimmy Olsen.
Lois picked up her freshly edited article and pushed herself to move out of her seat and towards the Chief's office.
She knocked twice and waited for the reply. Soon a gruff voice replied "Enter if you're Miss Lane. Back off if you're not!"
She steadied herself and pushed the door open. Her boss was stood over his desk with his jacket hanging over his shoulders. Today he wore a striped tie that had small cartoon strips between the striped. "Lois, the deadline was two hours ago. You'd better have something for me or, so help me God, I'm going to start lining all of you journalists up in a line and shoot you one by one until I get my damn article on our beloved hero!"
An eerie silence fell. His face had gone very red when he shouted and Lois had been worried about a blood vessel in his head popping many times before.
"Chief, I was editing it and I'm sure you're going to love it." She handed over the paper. He snatched it from her hand and collapsed into his chair, reading.
The next few minutes were uneasy. Lois didn't know where to hold her hands. In front or behind? Surely it seemed like she would bow to him if they were in front, or serve tea if they were behind..? Well, she definitely couldn't cross her arms or she could look like she had better places to be. Pockets were disrespectful. Maybe if she put them -
"Ever heard of a stapler, Miss Lane?" he finally grunted.
She shuffled her feet. "I've mislaid it, sir. Can't find it."
"Borrow one. This is excellent, Lois. Now I remember why we've kept you this long, despite your attitude towards authority."
"Thanks, Chief." she said. Actually, she was shocked that she had just been complimented somehow on her attitude? Had she taken that the right way?
"I'll send this off for you, Lane. Keep up the good work." He laid the paper on the desk after stapling it twice in the top corner.
"I will. Thank you." She turned to leave then stopped in her tracks.
"Lois, sit down."
She froze. He can't fire me, she thought. I'm on a contract, he just told me to keep up the good work. He can't fire me, right?
She hastily sat down. The Chief leant forwards, hands clasped together, elbows on his desk. "Tell me, how did you get that interview?"
She felt herself breathe a big sigh of relief. "Well it's a long story, Chief."
And there she sat, babbling on to one man who had the most control over her about how she met Superman, the one man she thought she'd fallen in love with. Of course, she didn't mention that part... Or the part about the inspiration for the latest article that happened a couple weeks ago.
All the while Perry sat there, completely intrigued by her story.