Chapter 5: Work
Nick's office was ready to go as soon as the fox arrived at his desk, which was impeccably tidy. It was the one place where the fox was able, or at least tried, to maintain order and tidiness so that he could encompass himself in his own records, which he prepared when he had clients and was looking for proposals that could meet all their expectations. And some of them were quite exorbitant, after all you can't always satisfy all customers, sometimes you have to offer something a little below the requirements, but not something so that the potential buyer would give up on it right away. The fox was good at what he did, he was aware of this, his boss Anthony, every now and then would stop by to mostly praise his work, which he only fulfilled. Although, it happened more than once that it was Anthony who got into the moment, when Nick was carelessly playing something or watching something on YouTube, and then Nick had to listen to a monologue lasting several minutes, in which Anthony talks about his hard work to complete his project in the form of this agency.
Nick, as was his custom, took off his jacket and hung it on a hanger, then sat down behind his desk, which stood against the wall next to the window. The white walls and glass doors were sometimes a nuisance to the eyes, as they were so white in colour that you could get used to it if you sat for a few hours in a place and did not pay much attention to it.
The room mixed with white walls and dark side panels gave the impression of a rather warm, cosy room, which is quite important when it comes to a real estate office that specialises in selling houses. Nick's desk itself was filled with papers, folders containing documents and other paperwork that Nick preferred not to remove. There were times when documents from months ago were needed!
As Nick spread out his notes on his desk looking at them to make sure he had taken everything he was ready to work and taking the opportunity that no one was around and his workmates had already started work and were unlikely to pay any attention to him he took his AirPods out of his pocket, which he usually used when he had nothing to do and listened to music or watched videos on YouTube. That's what happened this time too. After connecting with the bluetooth to the device, Nick turned on the music and relaxed with 'work'. Although it was his job, he didn't have to do anything.
When the 20-minute lunch break hit, Nick had some time to himself to take a breather from sitting in the office. Although all he could do up to that point was relax and do nothing he felt tired of sitting in one place and doing nothing. Although it was a pretty good job he had, one of the biggest disadvantages was that it was almost impossible to talk to colleagues during work, because it was forbidden to go between rooms, only to go to the bathroom was allowed or to ask a colleague about a professional matter. If the boss caught someone talking, the guest could count on overtime, which was not at all profitable considering the wages for one hour of such work.
In keeping with his already "tradition" Nick went to the nearby park, which is located across the street from his office. The park, quite young and modernistic, was the perfect place to take a stroll during his free time to breathe some fresh air. Apart from Nick, there were a few other walkers walking on the pavements of the park, who - looking at their clothes - also managed to get out of the clutches of their work and headed outside to catch some fresh air. The weather was similar to yesterday - there were practically no clouds in the sky and the temperature was quite high considering that Nick hadn't even taken his jacket with him, which would have made it even hotter. The shirt alone and the tight navy blue suit trousers were themselves warm clothes for this weather. The high temperature had persisted for the past few days and there was no sign that anything was going to change. Everyone enjoyed the summer climate, the late evenings, the early mornings, but the high temperature meant that the desire to go outside had dropped practically to zero. Therefore, Nick would watch something when he got home, usually some TV series or play something killing his time. Sometimes he would meet Finnick, but as Finnick had a girlfriend they couldn't do that very often.
Nick didn't eat anything during his break, he didn't feel hungry. He had only eaten his cereal since the morning and drank his coffee, but that was enough for him. He did not feel so hungry and he did not lack strength and humour. By nature he was a positive character who tries to be in a good mood, even when there is no reason to be so. Maybe that is why Fox is positively associated among his work friends. Everyone appreciated his good humour, which was pretty hard to spoil, Nick had a positive energy in his heart that allowed him to enjoy every morning, every sunrise and sunset. Many of his friends called him "positively crazy" which he didn't argue with, it suited him.
After the lunch break it was 2.00 p.m. After this long break the day for Nick usually passed even faster considering the fact that in three hours he would be able to leave the facility and get to his house where he could do only what he wanted. Just as he was about to listen to some music he noticed a pair of customers standing at the door. Two cheetahs, a male and a female stood as if preparing to talk, Nick seeing them got up from his chair and fixed his slightly rumpled shirt at the bottom.
"Feel free to come inside" invited Nick seeing their hesitancy. Hearing the invitation they both walked inside the room sitting down in front of Nick in the seats he had assigned them.
"Good morning, Nicolas Wilde here, how may I help you?" Nick introduced himself. He sat down in his seat and plugged in the YouTube tabs to their office page so he could get a preview of their houses they had for sale. The male put down his briefcase, which had a few of his documents in it, with his eyes on Nick, who was waiting curiously to see what the client had to present.
"We saw that there was a house for sale recently, near Zootopia. A terraced house, is that still on?" Asked the cheetah as he searched for his note. He took out the printed page then handed it to the fox. He was met with great surprise when he saw a house that had just been sold for a rabbit who was just moving there. Just to be sure, he checked the base of their website to make sure there wasn't some mistake. To his surprise, everything was correct!
"I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, but the house you have chosen has already been sold" Nick communicated.
"It was up to date until 3 days ago!" Replied the cheetah, but Nick merely shrugged his shoulders. There wasn't much he could do in situations like this, after all it wasn't his fault.
"I'm sorry, but before yesterday someone already bought it, we can't change anything anymore" replied Nick. Fox could see on their faces the disappointment they undoubtedly felt, but he couldn't help it. When buying a house you have to act quickly and decisively, you never know if someone else wants to buy the same house as in this case. That's what Nick's role served, he couldn't help them other than to advise another purchase.
"We have a similar house on offer near the house you wanted to buy. Close to Zootopia, nice setting, quiet neighbourhood. Two-storey house, several rooms, two bathrooms. The house was recently built, modern architecture, ready-made interior. It also has a garage for one car," Nick suggested, turning to look at his notes he had made the day before. Thanks to them, he had a pretty good idea of the company's current offers. To present the house to the clients, he displayed it on the agency's website. He turned the monitor towards them so that they could see the purchase offer. The flat actually looked quite similar to the house they wanted to buy, it looked a bit newer and bigger, the colour was similar because it was grey with black tiles on the roof, it fitted in a modernistic way. Although the house looked quite nice, the pair of cheetahs were also puzzled by the price for this property.
"And what is the price?" The cheetah couple asked.
"600 000$" Nick communicated. The clients looked at each other. They didn't look very happy with the price; their faces expressed indecision as well as confusion. This was Nick's favourite moment. The sight of customers pondering the pros and cons of buying a flat in their heads, you can see their thoughts wandering and their faces expressing stress as they have to make quite an important and responsible decision in a short space of time. Usually such clients schedule an appointment to see the agent or simply give up. Nick had one situation where a client bought a flat straight away without thinking, but he looked rich from the view. You can tell even from the looks of some that poverty doesn't accompany them, some looks are confident, too confident. Finally the clients made up their minds, embarrassment must have won over them because the cheetah closed his briefcase and rose from his chair together with his wife.
"Thank you for the offer but we prefer to look at other offers thank you for your time"
"You're welcome again" replied Nick, then said goodbye to his clients.
After the customers left, Nick put his headphones over his ears and started listening to music being in a good mood believing that no one would come to him again and he would have peace for the rest of his service. He looked at his watch which hung opposite his desk, it was 3.00p.m. so there were only two hours of work left for him to relieve himself. With nothing else to do Nick went to his agency's website so that he could see the exact details on the transaction of the house that had been sold less than two days ago. After accessing the base of the site, he actually noticed that the ad had disappeared the day before yesterday, so that must have been when the decision was made to sell this house.
"It all adds up...she seriously must have been determined to buy that flat and move quickly" thought Nick. His new neighbour seemed to be a calm, laid back soul, she didn't look like she wanted to just change her place of residence, after all it costs some money and takes some time too. However, she decided to move into her new house in 2 days without having any idea about the location of the house.
"As you can see she likes to have everything planned...sort of" thought Nick. Fox turned off the agency website, stretched out comfortably in his chair and listened to music on Spotify.
I hope you enjoy the story and look forward to the next chapters! Let me know if you'd like longer chapters that would be released less frequently compared to the current ones (or have any other ideas that would improve the story)