Chapter Three
After signing some paperwork, Gracie was peppily ushered to her new desk. It wasn't deep or marble, but it was a richly stained hue and polished to a shine. It stood a stately guard in front of a closed office along the back wall, the only one to lack windows facing the cubicles. The door was also solid, matching her desk, and the knob was a blisteringly shiny bronze. It was classy, understated, and blatantly out of place in the gray-and-beige office that looked like every single other office, ever.
The desk held a single red telephone in the classic style, and a desktop computer. A quick search of the drawers turned up only basic office supplies.
"So! On the job training." said the woman, who had introduced herself as Christine. "When this phone rings, You'll know someone is coming up to see him. That's the only time this phone will ever ring. Whoever shows up, you scan their ID badge. Computer says they check out, let em in. Computer says no clearance, you press this panic alarm" the assistant pointed out a small button that swelled like a dark pimple from the front edge of the desk, then plopped down what looked like a wireless price scanner from the grocery store. "So wait, who am I actua-" "WELLP that's all you need to know, the job's kind of slow, but you can go on tumblr on THIS bad boy all you want" Christine slapped the top of Gracie's new monitor like it was a tasty can of ham. "Bye then."
Gracie found it incredibly odd that she knew nothing about her new boss, or the fact that she would be doing little that constituted real work. The zeros on her paycheck and the apparent inability to fill the cushy position did make her worry as well. What was it Micheal had said? That the position was... cursed?
She stared at the door. Who knew what lay behind it. If they knew something she didn't know, having just moved to town, she was darn sure not to shrink back from it. No siree. That was not the Grace Way. Plus, she needed the job. Needed the job as desperately as only a beautiful woman escaping a nebulously dark and tragic backstory did.
"ExcUSE ME" said a voice from behind her, startling her from her reverie like a bird that was also startled by something. She faced front again to see a small man, with disheveled brown hair and a little beard. He was wearing a short sleeved white button up with a blue tie, he was standing with one hand on an overloaded mail card, the other gripping a handful of mail.
"Are you Pepe Silva?" he practically squeaked at her. "What? No, I... I just started here today." she replied. "Look at this. It's all for him. Only nobody by that name works in this whole office building, I know, I've checked every floor but this one so far." he now hopped up and sat on the edge of her desk, throwing letters across its barren surface.
Gracie closed out her window of tumblr, giving the short man her full attention. "Um, this is odd, but maybe Pepe is the guy that I work for? Only I've never met him, and they didn't even tell me his name? Can you believe that?" the mail man gave her a nonplussed sort of look. "Didn't you find that kind of strange?" he exclaimed. Gracie leaned back in her chair, crossing her ankle over her knee for comfort. "Well, yes, but you see, I kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinda just got here, so."
They stared.
"No wait wait... this is good, this is good." he said, running a hand through his hair. He gesticulated at her wildly. "Don't you see? You can be my in, upstairs. You and me, we can team up, figure this out. Things that go on in this building, they don't quite make sense. But we can solve the mysteries."
"I love mysteries" she replied, leaning forwards. "Graciela LaFaveur" she proffered a hand. "I'm Charlie" he said, shaking it. His hands were warm but rough with several papercuts.
"Meet me in the mail room on lunchbreak" he decided, leaping up and shoving the mail cart back into motion. "And bring like, ten hoagies."