I sprayed on some Vanillary and headed off to my first day. Just like before, the receptionist escorted me up to the eighth floor and I went straight to Mr. Grey's office. After a couple of knocks on the door, it opened from the inside. Mr. Grey was there, grinning welcomingly and holding out his hand to the interior. "Good morning, Miss Steele. Please come in." "Good morning, Mr. Grey," I did as instructed and went to stand right in the middle; I didn't know where he wanted me just yet. He shut the door and came to take my backpack from my arms. He set it down beside the white couch where he had interviewed me. Our eyes met and we smiled at one another.
"Did you have a restful week?" "I did; thank you, sir." "Good; I'm going to need your undivided attention." "Yes, sir." "My secretary, Jason Taylor, will be here any minute with your new key card and laptop." "Laptop? Sorry, sir; did you say laptop?" Mr. Grey blinked over to me perplexed. "What else would you work on?" "Um, ok; I assume it's a company laptop, then?" He chuckled. "It's a laptop, Miss Steele; it's like a pen or office cup to me. It's yours; you keep it indefinitely." "Mr. Grey!" I gasped incredulously. "Think of it as a welcoming gift. Besides, you're a student; you'll need material for your research and writing." Well, yeah but still…. My hand slowly lifted up to my chest as I continued to stare his way. This man….. I wish he was easier to read. I found myself wandering, searching behind those deep blue eyes of his; trying to decipher what they hid down inside. And what's more- I think he liked the way I studied him just now.
"Mr. Grey?" I jumped a little at his office door opening. We turned to see this older man entering; he was probably in his early to mid-thirties. "Ah, Taylor. Miss Steele, this is my secretary, Jason Taylor," Mr. Grey motioned me to come closer. I did so and Mr. Taylor stuck out his hand. I shook it, smiling over at him. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Steele." "Likewise, Mr. Taylor." "Ugh, Mr. Taylor is my father. Call me Jason," his grin widened. Jason… huh, I think I liked him too. You could see by the way he and Mr. Grey acted with one another that they were fairly close; at least in the business sense. Jason then gave me a pink macbook and key card on a pink necklace. Huh, lots of pink… It's my favorite color but how did Mr. Grey know that?
As if reading my face, the lines on Mr. Grey's face relaxed. "All my office equipment is pink; well, the laptops, pens, and stuff like that." This revelation made me blink up at him again. That's…. a weird choice. Why pink? Your name is literally "grey"; isn't that a more serious color? "Christian has this thing with the color pink," Jason chimed in, realizing that this needed explanation. "You do?" "It's my favorite color," Mr. Grey nodded. "Oh! That's… different. Don't get me wrong! It's a brilliant color; it's my favorite, in fact. It's just…. uh….." What am I saying? It's just a color; there's nothing weird about that. Both men observed me give a little head toss and grin back at Mr. Grey.
"Thank you for the laptop, sir," nice save, Ana! "Taylor will buy you a cover this afternoon. I'm sure you can take care of it until then." "I will, sir. Thank you." That's when I saw Jason give Mr. Grey a side-grin. "She's polite, this one." Mr. Grey responded with one of those "looks" before turning back to me. "I have some reports I want you to look over. I took the liberty of going over your transcript." He what? How much access to my personal information did this guy have?! Uh oh…. Wait a minute, that could be bad. What if he accidently discovers that Daddy is head of the Dollars?
"Miss Steele?" "Yes! Sorry! Sorry, please continue." He eyed me for a short moment until he decided I was paying enough attention to keep going. "I saw you took some logic courses." "Uh, yes; in undergrad and masters. Nothing too advanced though," logic's not really my strong point. "You have enough experience. I want you to look over the structure of these reports; don't pay attention to the content. Just write up some logic equations to discover if they add up. Use Boolean algebra if you have to."
Wow! How does Mr. Grey know so much about philosophical and mathematical logic formulas? Formulas were actually one part of logic I really enjoyed; I was that loser that would do all the logic problems in the textbook for fun. That being said, I knew how to convert sentences into equations but wasn't really good at it; once again, I'm going into fiction- not math or logic. Still, I was admittedly excited to have such a task on my first day; I'd just get some fellow students to check them over once I was done.
"Yes, sir!" I happily took the reports he was now holding out for me. Both he and Jason grinned at the unexpected delight in my face, then the latter gazed to the former. "Where is she going to work?" "Find her an office space nearby; I want her close to me." This made me almost accidently drop the content in my arms. Their heads turned to me alarmed, but I pretended not to notice continuing to scan over the files. They waited a horrible second before carrying on; I nearly wished the floor would open and swallow me up. Get it together, Ana! He didn't mean anything by that; you're is intern- that's why he wants you um… close.
"Alright, I'll find somewhere. She can work in my office until then." "Thanks, Taylor. Now I need you to help me send this presentation before this afternoon's conference. Miss Steele?" My head shot up to see them staring my way again. Gees! I don't think I'll ever get used to that. Then, like they had the most perfect timing in the world, my phone began to ring; but not my regular phone. The buzzing in my bag almost killed me. Both Mr. Grey and Jason blinked down to my bag, then the pink phone currently sticking out of my pocket and not buzzing. Boy, did they look confused…..
"Is that… your phone, Miss Steele?" Mr. Grey pointed to my backpack. Oh god, I want to die. "Um! That's my…. iPad," it was not my iPad- that was the first thing I could think of. This didn't help their confusion. "J-just ignore that, sir. I'm sure it's nothing important." "Well, if you're sure. Then would you mind fetching us some coffee, Miss Steele?" "Coffee?! Sure, yes, right! Uh…." They simply and silently watched as I ran to grab my bag. I had to force myself to smile back at them while I then headed to the door. "I'll be right back!" "No sugar in mine!" Jason hollered after me just in time before the door shut. I drew in a long, deep breath and shut my eyes once securely outside in the hall. God dammit! No matter where I go or what I do, they just won't leave me alone. They're always there with me- always.
Pink…. I used to detest the color. I did everything to avoid it as a child. Then I saw that she had on a pink hoodie. She wore pink- my faceless angel.
I saw her in pink, and it suddenly became my favorite color.