Shampoo
Page 11
It blows my mind, the new building. We’ve all been seeing the plans of it for years, as the bosses show us in their excitement, but it was so far off in the future, it seems so extraordinary that the time is here now! And we’re living in this new awesome giant of a building.
It’s like the company just suddenly got successful and rich. I’m so happy for them. The bosses.
I have my own HUGE desk as Head of Invoicing. Nat’s on the other side of my partition, so we can stand up and talk to each other. I love how they kept the sisters together!!!
I’m in love with my work space. Then Colleen came in (DY’s wife) and came straight to me and said, “Pinky, you can decorate your desk all pink!! I made sure there were pink supplies ordered just for you!”
I must’ve grinned and bounced like a puppy, I was so in awe that the boss’s wife went out of her way to order pink stuff for me!!
(everybody takes a role in my pink obsession, like they jump onboard and encourage my mad behavior, they take ownership in it and thrill in it)
I didn’t miss a couple of the girls’ glares in my direction. Jealous of Pinky!!!
(if you wanna be jealous of a demented, lost woman, go for it)
But not Julia. The beautiful Julia truly loves me, in a way I don’t really get but I sure appreciate and love! We had the best time together today, when we could, inbetween orders, phone calls, office dramas, customer service dramas, invoicing errors, reps, and the bosses.
And Daryl Agnew - my reason for going to work each day!! I love him.
He arrived with a pink Piglet toy for me!!!
(what’s he trying to tell me??)
(more glares from some of the girls. It’s like having a target on my back sometimes, just for being me)
“We missed you around here, Pinky!!!” he boomed, wrapping me in his arms. I feel safe with Daryl, like he’s my adopted father. “It’s never the same without your pinkness about!! Now I’m ringing you at five to take all my orders.”
Most of the reps now seem to ask for me to take their orders, and tell me when I take it, none of their orders are ever fucked up.
(unless the warehouse boys fuck up. Which is always a fun moment, when Nat, in customer service, has to go find out whether it was a warehousing error or an invoicing error, and who did it. The boys in the warehouse and the girls in the office all wait with bated breath, then cheer or boo, depending on which one of us it was that made the error)
“Ring at 4.45pm, Daryl,” Renee piped up from her huge cubicle. “Pinky finishes at 5.”
I know Renee was trying to help, but taking the reps’ orders takes 45 minutes at times. Never 15 minutes!!
Daryl got into a HUGE huff over that, cause he thinks he’s the most important rep
(and he really is, as State Manager and Company Drag Queen),
but finally agreed to call at 4.45pm. His orders seriously take like an hour to type in!
Nat says Julia’s always so happy when I’m there and a grouch when I’m not. Isn’t that so sweet??
Anyway, didn’t go to the gym tonight, conserving my energy, being back at work and all, but been on the phone all night to Rich, then Sharon nabbed me downstairs, so I may as well have gone to the gym, cause it’s almost 9.30, and I’ve only just fallen into bed with my plate of dinner.
THE EVERARD, however, still hasn’t called.
I got so depressed at work today, cause all the placecards had been printed and put out on a table near the boardroom
(yes there’s a boardroom, how cool is that??),
and there was Evvy’s: Paul Everard.
My heart just crashed back to earth.
I wanted to ring him then and there, and find out whether the fuck he’s actually coming, but I chickened out. Nat reckons I shouldn’t ring ‘the knobhead,’ but Julia reckons I should!
It was so funny at work, Julia and I kept doing 80’s dances today! John Cash asked me, “What have you two been snorting??”
(just shampoo!)
The entire product range has been revamped too (Daryl Agnew’s word), to go with the expansion and new look of the company, and all the bottles look SO NICE (especially the pink ones). I was like a kid in a candy store, amazed at the huge salon downstairs for classes and events, and all the new packaging lined up so pretty on shelves.
Matt kept watching me today. I could feel his eyes on me at random moments of the day. While I was spinning around the salon and touching all the new products, examining their prettiness and reading every last one of them
(Sin is notorious for spelling errors. I picked up like seven of them, on five different products, and brought them upstairs to Renee. Daryl Agnew happened to be in the office at the time, and he was outraged.
“I know salon owners and hairdressers are just about the DUMBEST people on this planet, but COME ON!!! Millions of dollars spent on this overhaul, and we CAN’T EVEN SPELL?? And Pinky here is the only one that spots it, IN HER FIRST SECOND BACK AT WORK!! Who fucking proofread the bottles??”
Turns out it was Sherrie. Whoops.
She came stomping over to me after that and slapped the thickest stack of papers on my desk. I’ve never seen her so angry.
At me, anyway.
“You’ve just been promoted, Pinky,” Daryl declared. “From now on, anything that leaves this office gets proofread by Pinky!” he shouted to the office at large.
“Welcome back, Pinky,” Renee laughed.)
and I slowly turned to find Matt looking SO SEXY, this smouldering look about him, leaning against the doorframe, a grin on his sexy, sexy face as he watched me.
“Stealing products, Karina?” he laughed.
He’s the only one who actually calls me by my name. Kinda hot!
I laughed too. “Considering we get free products, I don’t have to! I’m just looking at them all. Do you know they now say ‘not tested on animals…tested on party animals?’”
He’d stopped next to me by now and peered over my shoulder at the product I was holding.
(God, he smelt good)
He was so tall and close and smelt so good.
(he’s taller than Evvy)
(nobody’s taller than Benny though)
“That’s pretty funny,” he said, taking the product I held out to him, reading it, flipping it in the air, catching it.
(why is guys flipping things in the air hot?? Why?? Why???)
“So are you going to the opening?”
I nodded. “Yeah.” Pause, as I fiddled with some products on the shelf in front of me. “You?”
“Yeah, if I have to.” He didn’t sound too psyched about it. He doesn’t seem to party with all of us often. If at all. “I’ll go if you’re going though,” he added.
(whoa!!! What was that about?? I don’t know, but it sure made my heart race)
I turned now to face him, met his eyes. Searched them for something. I don’t know what.
(true love? Are you in there?)
Faye ended up walking in on us. “Matthew, I need the Sin Full from the back of the warehouse like ten minutes ago!!”
“Okay, Faye.” He gave me one last look and bounded off.
“Hey Pinky!!” Faye said, her grin spreading. “We’ve missed your pinkness around here!”
I told her I missed everyone, gave her a big hug, chatted a bit, then took my haul of misspelled products upstairs.
Sherrie kinda broke my heart today.
Tuesday 15 August 2000
8.23pm
Evvy rang!!!
I rang Nat after the gym tonight, and spoke to Dan
(he didn’t go to the gym tonight, just Josh and I),
and told him what Evvy and I decided Friday night, and whether he thinks I should ring him about opening night, and Dan’s like, “I’ll ring him.”
I wanted to die!!! Mortifying.
So he rings Evvy, and Evvy rings me, like, straight away. It was so good to hear his voice!!
(I love his voice so much)
Evvy stra
ightaway says he would’ve gone if he’d known about it (!!!), but he’s going to Twin Waters first thing Saturday morning for golf, so he can’t. And he added he’d been planning on calling, but at 8.30pm, because he knew I’d be at the gym.
Eek!! So ridiculously happy.
Then we just chatted, told each other what we did on the weekend. He spoke to me so lovely, like he cared.
(for once)
He seemed so happy to be talking to me.
I was VERY happy to be talking to him.
Then I rang Dan back and drilled him, asking him what had Evvy said, god damn it!! And he said I sound just like Evvy, that Ever kept asking him what I’d said!!!
Oh it’s love, it’s just got to be.
Apparently, Evvy told Dan he is into me, but he wants to take it one day at a time. Dan says this is HUGE for Evvy, that he’s been single too long, and he just doesn’t know how to change his life.
Anyway, so work was great today. I’ve been given New Accounts AS WELL, so I was stoked to get new responsibility.
(other than Official Company Proofreader – at no extra money mind you! – which didn’t go down too well with Sherrie, or Regina, or Sara, or Katie…all of them just kept slapping things down on my desk while I’d be invoicing and stomping away. So basically, none of them like that I’ve been deemed ‘able to spell’ better than them)
Julia and I had the EXACT same pink top on today, and she told me she’d bought the same pink faux leather jacket (ie. plastic) as me! It was so funny. Cause everyone kept mistaking her for me. Angela Jones (Qld rep and Jessica Jenkin’s best friend), John Cash, Daryl Agnew, Karen Beal (accounts, and just about the nicest accountant you’ll ever meet), Daryl Young, all kept handing things to Julia as she walked past, then doing double-takes and yelling, “You’re not Pinky!!”
Daryl Agnew eventually stood up from the desk he’s deemed his, and screeched across the whole office, “THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE PINKY IN THIS OFFICE!!!! IN THIS WORLD!!!”
(oh, God, was funny, everyone laughed – except Julia, she was PISSED – but Julia was definitely getting upset by the end of the day, by all the disappointments and shoutings that she wasn’t me. Poor Jules!)
Nat and I turned up at work at the same time as Daryl Agnew this morning, all three of us pulling up at the same time, Daryl in his limited edition Monaro GT (tricked up to 225kw per hour, as he tells everyone), Nat in her Ford (pfft) Festiva, me in my Commodore. Was cool, like something from a movie. Perfect, synchronized driving!!
Daryl got out his car and gave me a big hug. Nat just rolled her eyes and grumbled, “You’re always everybody’s damn favourite.”
(except in our own family)
“Yes but you’re prettier, so you win,” I told her.
Nat and I ALWAYS walk through the warehouse and up the back stairs to the office, to say hello to everyone. No one else ever does this, Faye and the boys tell us. They love that we do!
So we walk in, greeting everyone, and my eyes drift
(like they seem to all the time lately!)
to Matt, and, LET ME TELL YOU, he looked ALL KINDS OF HOT in his bright orange Sin shirt
(our Sin shirts are pink for girls, orange for the guys),
as he packed bottles of shampoo and conditioner. He had just finished taping the lid of a box shut, and shouted, “The dishes are DONE, DUDE!!”
Nat and I shared a look. Even Nanna Nat knows he’s stuffed up the movie line.
“Should I correct him?” I enquired of my sister.
“Oh, I think so. Can’t go stuffing up your favourite movie lines.”
I cleared my throat, coming to stop next to him. “Firstly, you stole my line.”
He paused, and looked down on me, grinning. “YOUR line??”
“Yeah! It’s my line!”
“She says it ALL the time,” Nat piped in, hanging around to watch this play out.
Matt was enjoying the attention, you could tell. “Really,” he drawled.
“Yeah, really,” I answered, blatantly flirting (and loving it). “Secondly, are you even qualified to use that line?? Do you even know what movie it’s from?” I am, after all, the Movie Police.
He laughed hard now, then leaned in closer to me
(HOT),
and said, “‘Don’t Tell Mum the Babysitter’s Dead.’”
I must say, I was impressed. A man who knows his classics. “Hmm,” I replied, shooting him a look that was half impressed, half you’re hot, now ask me out, damn it.
Nat was already heading for the stairs, and I made to follow her, then turned back. “You get some points for knowing the movie, at least. But it’s MAN, not DUDE.” I turned to walk away. “The dishes are DONE, MAN!!” I added louder, climbing the stairs.
Matt laughed some more. Everyone in the warehouse was watching and listening to us.
THEN, at the end of the day, Matt was upstairs photocopying when he spotted something out the window. “You guys, hahaha, COME HERE.”
Nat and Jules and I went racing over to the wall of windows to see what was happening.
Our resident Drag Queen and Holden Monaro Driving Princess, Daryl Agnew, was playing footy out in the parking lot/driveway with all the rough and tumble warehouse boys.
THAT was funny enough, but then Matt came to stand next to me, and we all doubled over laughing, grabbing onto each other, as we watched Daryl Agnew make this big pretence of kicking the ball, and his shoe went flying off into the air and landed on the windshield of John Cash’s brand new yellow BMW.
Honestly, I don’t think there’s been a funnier sight than Daryl’s shoe flying through the air, and the look on his face, and the swearing that followed.
(Dag can swear like a motherfucker)
“Daryl’s shoe is DONE, MAN,” I spluttered, to Matt especially laughing even harder.
I’m in hysterics just thinking about it.
The four of us were seriously in fits of laughter. We couldn’t stop.
Ahhh, when your workplace can make you laugh THAT HARD!!! What more could you want out of your day??
Wednesday 16 August 2000
8.44pm
I’ve had SUCH a busy day.
I’ve been so busy I haven’t even had a chance to frolic in my happiness over Evvy.
Work was SO BUSY. I did an eleven hour day with just one ten minute break. I worked till 5.30pm, then at 5.30 we had this course downstairs in the salon, which was fantastic.
It was about nutrition and energy and positive thinking.
(I’m POSITIVE I’m exhausted after working 11 hours with no break!!)
That went till 7.30pm, then I’ve come home, showered, slapped some cheese on a plate, and fallen into bed.
I’m exhausted, but happy!!
It’s so good to be back at work, back at living life! Laughing with people again.
(instead of with my four walls and cat)
The course tonight hit home how different Sin is, how high energy and just BRILLIANT and innovative. It’s so different from other workplaces! Maybe it’s the industry, it’s a fun, vibrant industry, haircare…but then really it’s the people. The bosses. The reps. All us young warehouse and office staff (with a few lovable oldies!!). It’s all of us. But the bosses…they lead by example. Fun example, but example.
Nat and I had a somewhat stressful day, however. She was trying to teach me New Accounts, and Renee let absolutely EVERYONE (like, ALL THE GIRLS) go on lunch together, so Julia had to relieve Evie out at reception, so Nat and I were left for like an hour and a half
(nobody can tell time, apparently),
answering EVERYONES’ calls plus trying to do all the invoicing in time for the truck pick ups.
Nat just shook her head in an angry fashion when Renee came back dead on the hour (she is the office manager after all) and asked, “Where is everyone??”
“You let them go on lunch!” Nat replied, as only Nat can and not get in trouble.
(does anyone get in trouble at Sin though?)
Thursday 17 August 2000
8.25pm
Actually got a lunch break today at work!!! Nat and I went to Cannon Hill together, got bread rolls and cold pasta salad. Was yummo!!!
(for someone that can’t cook, I sure do love food)
I’ve been to the gym with Dan and Josh tonight – and we worked out Josh is now coming to tomorrow night’s opening night. I’m happy about that…
(better than being a dateless no date can’t get a man McLoser)
He’ll keep Dan entertained too.
I’m really happy tonight, on a happy high this week. Love when I get in these moods.