If Louis had to choose one way to describe his new job, it would be that it was pretty unpredictable. Over the years, he'd helped plenty of people with their finances. Until now, that had never involved budgeting for building and equipment repairs due to "probable explosion damages". Not possible. Probable. He'd asked, and that wasn't a typo.
He was glad he had someone like Janine around to help him settle in on his first day. Nothing seemed to faze her. He hadn't been there long, but he'd already come to admire her a good deal. She spent most of the day tied up in the almost never-ending phone calls, but in the few quiet moments she was awful nice. Even if he didn't say something first, she actually talked to him. As in, they had conversations. On purpose. It was a very new experience to have at work, and one he was quite enjoying. Plus, she'd apparently noticed the one spot of the room where he kept glancing, and promised not to tell anyone if he wanted to try out the fire pole a few times while the guys were out.
At the moment, she was taking a break, but still remained busy on the phone. He didn't know who exactly she was talking to, but it seemed to be a friendly call rather than a client. He tried to be polite and not listen in, but it was a little difficult when he was pretty sure he was the topic of conversation.
It had started off as a fairly mundane sort of talk, just things like, "Yeah, pretty much business as usual. Just showing the new guy the ropes."
After glancing over briefly, he couldn't help noticing the way she was smirking at him.
"Yes, he is."
He told himself not to look again. He shouldn't be paying attention. Act natural. Don't look back over.
He looked again. She was looking back. And still smirking.
"Yes, very."
Very WHAT? Was it something good or bad? He was very good at accounting? He was very annoying? What was it?
He almost thought she was trying to drive him crazy. He was pretty sure she liked having him around, but it was hard to be certain. No one had ever acted the way she did around him. He liked it a lot when she smiled at him, or gave him a small wave if she noticed him looking, or found some piece of lint he couldn't see to brush off his shoulder as she walked past. He just wished he could understand why she did it.
Eventually, she wrapped up her call, and much to his delight, she took the opportunity to talk to him again.
"So, how are you liking your first day? Sick to death of all those forms yet?"
"No, not at all." He assured her. "This place really keeps you on your toes. Quick question, though. We've got some huge bill here for a bunch of crystal stuff. Looks like almost the whole store. Is it for some sort of experiment? 'Cause we might be able to write off-"
"No, that would be to cover the damages." Janine sighed heavily. "I swear Dr. Venkman did that on purpose after I told him they had to stop charging around like a bull in a china shop."
He shrugged and offered a reassuring smile. "I'm pretty sure there's a waiver for that sort of thing in our contracts. I'm sure I can sort it out."
He was fairly certain her eyes still didn't leave him as he wandered across the room to gather the papers he thought he might need. He was a little surprised that she didn't seem bored of him by now, though he didn't mind her attention in the slightest.
"You know, being a lawyer sounds fascinating. You'll have to tell me all about it sometime."
He looked over again, and his face lit up once he realized that she didn't seem to be joking. "Okay, I'd like to."
She leaned forward over her desk, the large strand of beads she was wearing making a clacking noise as she idly twirled it around her finger. "You busy tonight?"
"I-"
Before he got a chance to answer, the phone rang again, and she glared at it irritably before snatching the receiver up. "Ghostbusters, whadda ya want?"
He waited patiently as she seemed to recognize a familiar voice, though it didn't exactly improve her mood.
"I thought we were doing that next weekend… I don't care if something opened up early, you can't just spring something on… Yes, I know you want to start getting ads out, but I'm not just going to…" After awhile of arguing, she finally rolled her eyes and let out a huffy breath through her nose. "I'd better be getting paid overtime for this."
"Everything okay?" Louis asked once she had put the receiver back.
"I hope you don't mind working late. Seems they've got a project in the works."
He shook his head. He liked working much better than being back in an empty apartment. "No, I don't mind. What is it?"
She paused to give him a playful grin, her eyes flicking down a few inches from his eyes as she chewed on her lower lip. Though he couldn't quite explain why, he felt heat rush to his face.
"How would you feel about being my husband?"
Louis had to admit that he didn't know a lot about acting, but once he heard what they were doing, it sounded like fun to give it a shot.
Dr. Venkman had sort of fallen into the role of directing, since he'd once had his own TV show, and he seemed to know the most out of any of them about handling people. There were a lot of comments along the lines of "Natural, guys. Try to act a little natural," and "You two have heard how people talk, haven't you?" There was also some muttering under his breath about how he'd "rather work with trained circus animals." Louis figured maybe he was just stressed, because he thought things were going well. They'd even gotten the ghost prop to stop falling off the ceiling and everything.
After he and Janine finished their scene, he didn't have much to do but wait around for everyone else to finish. Dr. Venkman seemed to like being on camera a lot more than he liked being in charge of everyone else, and seemed to be in a better mood even if he was trying to do both at the same time. Although there was still some more muttering about how "an untrained circus animal might accidentally step on its mark."
It took some time, but eventually they had recordings where everyone had said all of their lines and been more or less in the right place at the right time. It had quickly been declared "good enough" and Dr. Zeddemore began trying to get footage edited together.
Finally, they were all gathered around to watch the final product. Louis still couldn't believe he was going to be in an actual commercial, and he couldn't wait to see. Though as it turned out, he would have to wait a while longer. He couldn't exactly make out the screen over everyone else's shoulders. But it was fine, he'd still get to see it once it was on TV. It sounded good, in his opinion.
As soon at the footage ended, Dr. Zeddemore turned to give a questioning look to their unofficial director. "Are you sure these are the takes we want to go with? 'Cause we still have this place for a little while if you'd want to try a few more times."
By that point of the night, the good mood had worn off again, and he stared back with an expression that was too exhausted to even look frustrated. "I would rather you shoot me."
Dr. Zeddemore shrugged, and turned back to make a few last-minute adjustments. "Alright, if you say so…"
It wasn't long before the guys were wandering off to change out of their jumpsuits and head home again. Louis wasn't sure if anyone would still be listening, but he still chimed in with a cheerful, "I liked it."
As it turned out, someone was still listening.
"You're cute, you know that?"
He turned around to see Janine leaning against the wall by the door… waiting for him? Was that why she was still there? No, she must have left the room already. She was holding his coat. So… she'd gone to get it and came back for him? He suddenly found himself giving a flustered grin to the floor, and he stuffed his hands into his pockets as he rocked on the balls of his feet.
"You know, you're lucky." She continued as she peeled herself away from the wall and sauntered over to him. "I'd normally make a guy buy me dinner before we climbed into bed."
She handed him the coat, and as he pulled it on, he glanced back at her with a look of confusion she'd already become quite familiar with. "I'm sorry, was I supposed to chip in for something before we started filming? I thought everyone was just bringing their own-"
"It's alright, Louis." She interrupted him with a slight shake of her head and an amused smile.
He really liked it when she smiled at him. It was hard to explain, but it made him nervous in a way that still made him hope she wouldn't stop. But as much as he wanted to just let the moment linger, he probably ought to say something. He was pretty sure that was how conversations were supposed to go.
"You know, you're real good at this acting thing. I bet you could be a professional."
"Thanks, but I think I'm pretty stuck with this job." She said with a good-natured roll of her eyes. "Clearly, these guys have a tendency to do things like black out the entire city when they aren't supervised."
"Well that's okay, you're real good at this too."
She looked a little more touched than he expected. It had to be something she'd heard before, didn't it?
A moment later, she suggested, "So, I guess it's getting sort of dark out. Maybe we should walk to the bus stop together."
He loved his new job. No one had ever even invited him to join an office carpool before, and this was so much better. Someone actually liked being with him!
"Sure, that's a great idea." He responded earnestly.
As they were headed towards the door, he saw her push something bright green deeper into her pockets. "You know, I think I left my gloves at home." She looked over at him almost expectantly, like she was waiting for him to figure something out. "Sure wish I had some way of keeping my hands warm…"
They paused in the doorway, and he quickly reached into his coat to fish his own pair out. "Here, you can take these."
Somehow, it seemed like that wasn't quite what she expected him to say. She still didn't stop smiling at him, though.
"How about we share?"
He wasn't sure what she meant, but he had only just started to ask when she reached out to tug one of the gloves onto his hand. She then pulled the other one on herself, and slipped her still-ungloved hand into his. It was a good idea. He did feel very warm as they walked out into the crisp night together.