by Mia Archer
I wondered if the pod people invasion had finally started and Christine was the first one they got. That made more sense than the idea that she had suddenly decided to grow a heart and act like a genuine human with real emotions.
“Good morning Nicole! Wonderful to see you!” she said, positively beaming. I was immediately on guard. Her acting nice in front of the intern was an explanation I could almost understand. Maybe she wanted to make a good impression or something. Her being nice to me, though? Particularly after that incident yesterday where I actually dared to show some backbone? Well that was way out there.
“Um, good morning?” I managed to stammer, and for a moment I saw a flash of something. A flash of the old Christine everyone on this floor knew and hated. It was a flash of irritation that was almost comforting because it was familiar, because it meant that I wasn’t going crazy and I hadn’t inexplicably stepped into a parallel mirror universe where Christine’s evil twin was the nice one.
Still, it was disheartening at the same time. The old Christine was still there. Lurking under the surface. Waiting.
She turned to inspect Erica for a moment, though it wasn’t the kind of inspection we’d shared. No, she was staring intently, almost as though she was searching for something. I didn’t know what it was or if she found what she was looking for, but no sooner had her eyes returned to Erica’s face than she was stepping forward with her arms outstretched for a hug! I watched in stunned silence as she wrapped Erica up in a hug.
“And you must be our new intern Erica!” she positively beamed. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to have the opportunity to work with you!”
The opportunity to work with her? Wait a minute. Did that mean she was going to pull the new intern away from me? Damn it. Yesterday I would’ve jumped for joy at the possibility, but today, now that I knew who she was, it was the last thing that I wanted. It was a selfish, jealous desire, but I wanted Erica all to myself! I definitely didn’t want to share her with Christine. That would be throwing her to the wolves.
“Actually I’d already been working through assignments for Erica, and so you don’t have to…”
Christine’s hand went up in an obvious silencing motion, but I plowed right on. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight even as I thought how ridiculous it was that I’d showed backbone twice in as many days. That was usually the sort of behavior that got someone fired. I was starting to wonder if maybe I did enough work for her that she couldn’t afford to fire me, but I also knew that was a dangerous line of thinking.
No one was irreplaceable in this department. People who started thinking like that usually learned the hard way that it couldn’t be farther from the truth.
“And I was planning tours of the floor and the facility, really let her dig in and see how things work around here. I know you didn’t have much…”
This time Christine actually turned to fix me with a glare. A glare that Erica wouldn’t be able to see from where she was standing, I might add. Clever how Christine managed to pull that off. What the hell was her reasoning for suddenly acting all nice like this? Why did she care what a simple intern cared about her?
“Since you can’t understand a gesture I’m going to ask you to please shut up,” she said, menace and some of the real Christine bubbling to the surface. Behind her Erica cocked an eyebrow again, but otherwise there was no reaction. Damn. She was a cool customer. If I’d been thrown into a new workplace and the first thing that happened to me was getting thrust in the middle of an office catfight I think I’d have some sort of reaction.
Christine turned back to Erica. “Now as I was saying. I was hoping we could have a meeting and go over all the fun we’re going to have with your internship.”
All the fun they were going to have with her internship? The hell?
“What about that sign on your door that said I needed to come see Nicole here?” Erica asked. “That didn’t seem like you had anything planned for me?”
I braced myself for the explosion. I had to admit that the girl had balls for standing up to Christine like that on her first day, but there was enough of the old Christine percolating just under the surface that I figured a little talkback from an intern of all things would be enough to set her off. She did tense for a moment, but otherwise there was no reaction. No blowup. She just gritted her teeth and that smile stayed plastered on her face.
“Yes, well about that…”
“Oh it’s perfectly okay Christine,” Erica said. “I know you’re probably very busy with all the work you do to keep this department running.”
I resisted the urge to laugh at that. If I didn’t know any better I’d say Erica was having some fun with Christine, but of course that was impossible. Still, I was in the know enough to think that was pretty damn funny, even if I wasn’t about to show any outward sign of just how funny I thought it was. This Erica girl might have some blessed star watching over her and keeping Christine from getting really mad with her like she would with anyone else, but I didn’t have any such blessing.
“I’m sure it would be a much better use of everyone’s time if I stayed here with Nicole and learned the ropes while you focused on running the department.”
As she said that she looked at me. Fixed me with an intense stare that had me wondering if maybe there wasn’t another reason why she was suddenly so interested in sticking with me. I found myself daydreaming about a forbidden office romance for the briefest of moments, but then I viciously stomped down on that notion. It was ridiculous. Not to mention that it would be terrible for me to get involved with an intern I was supposed to be supervising, assuming I actually got to supervise her. And that wasn’t even taking into account that it was probably just wishful thinking that she’d be interested in me in the first place!
“Are you sure about that? I think you’d get a much better idea of everything that happens here on floor seven if you were in the big office,” Christine said.
Erica’s eyes darted to me again and then she turned back to Christine with a smile. “That’s quite all right, but thank you for your dedication. I think I’ll have plenty to learn from Nicole here.”
A shiver ran up and down my spine at that. Why was a shiver running up and down my spine? I’m sure she meant that in a purely professional capacity. Thinking there was any sort of double meaning to what she said was just so much wishful thinking on my part. Wishful thinking that was going to get me in trouble if I did wind up supervising her. That was still very much up in the air. I expected Christine to lay down the law and make it clear that this new Erica girl was going to do whatever she said. That was just like the old Christine.
So color me surprised when her shoulders sagged and all the fight seemed to go out of her. The smile was still there on her face, but it didn’t seem as intense as before. Almost as though the work of keeping that smile plastered on her face for so long instead of her usual scowl was too much for her. It was obviously draining her.
“Well then, I suppose Nicole will have to do. For now.”
I blinked. Did that really just happen? Did she really just let the new intern pick what she wanted to do? Again, the pod people theory came to mind and I found myself actually looking around Christine to see if there were any tentacles or something sticking out somewhere, but nothing. She turned to glare at me, oh yes the old Christine was definitely there, barely under the surface, looking for something to get angry at. But for some reason she didn’t seem to want to get angry here.
She was going to take that out on someone this morning, though. I’d have to make sure and get the warning out. As soon as Christine was clicking her way out of my cubicle and across the floor I found myself letting out a huge relieved breath.
“Well that wasn’t so bad,” Erica said, looking at me as though she was waiting for some sort of reaction. As though that big sigh wasn’t enough.
“Yeah? Well I don’t know who that woman is or what she did with Christine, but something’s going on there.”
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Erica tapped her lip and followed the sound of Christine clicking over to her office. I could hear the glass door opening and then it slammed shut with enough force that the entire glass cube that contained her personal domain rattled. Oh yes, she was definitely very annoyed.
“So is she like that a lot?”
“The smiles or the rattling glass?”
“Either or?”
“Let’s just say that’s the first time I’ve seen her smiling without malice since I started here.”
I clapped my hands together and did my best to smile. It wasn’t that difficult to smile around this girl, though. She was just so captivating. I didn’t find myself thinking about girls like that very often, but there was just something about her.
And I realized that even though I was relieved that I was going to get to work with her directly I was also slightly terrified. I was definitely going to have to work to keep it under control. I’m sure the last thing this girl wanted during her internship was her supervisor hitting on her. I was going to have to work hard to keep things professional, as much as it disappointed me that I was going to have to maintain that detachment.
“Right, so let’s get you set up with a chair and see about getting you a computer or a laptop or something,” I said. “We don’t have any spare cubicles right now, so we’ll have to double up and be a little cramped for awhile, but don’t worry. I’m sure Christine will fire someone soon enough and we can move you.”
I was only half joking about that, but she seemed to take me seriously enough. She arched an eyebrow again and her lips parted ever so slightly and I found myself wondering what it would feel like to have those lips brushing against mine, but I chased those thoughts away as quickly as they appeared in my traitorous imagination.
“Oh don’t worry,” Erica said. “I’m sure I won’t mind working close with you.”
I stood there dumbfounded for a moment. Had she really just said that? That couldn’t possibly just be my imagination. Then I took hold of myself and headed to the supply closet with Erica in tow, and the entire way I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being watched.
I liked that feeling, dangerous as it was.
4: Blowing Off Steam
This internship was going to be pure torture. I felt my heart jumping into my throat when it turned out this Nicole girl I was going to be working under for the next couple of months was none other than the very same girl I’d seen when I was getting onto the elevator with the Pervatron 5000 yesterday. This definitely made this whole internship thing a hell of a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be.
And it seemed like there was so much going on here. So much under the surface that I was just beginning to understand. I still had no idea what the hell was going on with this Christine lady. Nicole seemed terrified of her, but then she blows in with smiles treating me like I’m a long lost best friend or something.
It was almost enough to make me think she knew who I was, but of course that was impossible. Dad had presumably gone to great lengths to make sure not even a hint of a rumor that his daughter was somewhere in the building would get out. What was the point of sending me out to anonymously survey his domain if he didn’t pull something like that? And yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a leak somewhere.
“So if you look at the column there, we just have to make sure it matches the numbers in this column over here. Otherwise it means someone from up on ten is trying to pull a fast one by massaging their numbers, and that’s the sort of stuff that gets people investigated by the feds for fraud.”
I shook my head and glanced over Nicole’s shoulder again. Tried to concentrate on what she was trying to teach me about what they did in this department rather than concentrating on how nice she smelled. On the view that I had where I could almost see down her shirt as I leaned over her. I wondered if she was doing that on purpose, because it was driving me wild and making it very difficult for me to concentrate on important stuff like the job at hand or what the hell was going on here on the seventh floor.
I glanced at the clock down in the corner of her computer. I was forced to look at her screen because they weren’t going to be able to get a laptop up here for me until at least tomorrow at the earliest. From the way Nicole talked it seemed like it might be even longer. I got the impression that getting supplies wasn’t considered very important on this floor which seemed ridiculous. Everyone was supposed to get the equipment to do their job if they needed it. Just one more mystery for this floor that had me wondering what the hell was going on here.
Yeah, I could see why dear old dad would want to send me down here. There was definitely something going on here, and if I wasn’t seeing it being right here on the floor then I could definitely see why things were being hidden from upper management. And I had a feeling that Christine girl was at the center of everything, but I’d have to work on that.
Of course what I’d really like to work on is this Nicole girl. She had an unassuming beauty that drew me to her. I wanted to whirl her chair around and kiss her, and I was really fucking surprised at how intense that feeling was. I hadn’t expected to find that on a boring internship of all things.
“Y’know it’s getting close to five,” I said.
Nicole turned and looked at me, a sad smile on her face. “You can go at five if you want to, but I have so much crap to do that there’s not a chance I’m going to get out of here before eight or nine at the earliest.”
I blinked. That was ridiculous! “Does everyone have to work hours like that around here?”
Nicole rolled her eyes. “Not really. Just the people who were stupid enough to get in Christine’s crosshairs.”
“Really? How’d you do that? An argument or something?”
“I wish. I just did my work. And every time she brought something new for me to do I did that too. Before I knew it I was being loaded down with a bunch of her pet projects and now with managing an intern on top of that I’m just going to have to pull some long hours,” she said. “Not that I blame you or anything.”
"I know you don't blame me," I said. "I'm still sorry you have to put up with this."
I reached out and took her hand. Gave it a squeeze. Nicole looked over at me and her eyebrows raised in surprise. To be honest I was a little surprised that I was being that forward. After all, she was technically my boss. Taking her hand felt like the kind of personal gesture that was a little inappropriate for the workplace.
Not that I cared. It's not like they were going to fire me or anything. Or, at the very least, if they did get to the point where they were going to fire me I had a feeling dear old dad would step in and take care of business. Not many people enjoyed that sort of job security.
Nicole blushed and turned away from me. Started typing at her computer again. I let out a sigh of frustration and she turned back to me for a moment, but never once in that moment did her fingers stop dancing across her keyboard.
"Come on Nicole! You're young. Why don't you get out and live a little? Your work will be waiting for you in the morning!"
"You don't understand," she said. "If I don't do this then Christine will…"
"What? She'll yell at you more?"
Nicole looked back at her computer. Back at me. A smile split her face, and then she started giggling. I blinked in surprise. Giggling was the last reaction I expected, but it was infectious. A moment later we were both giggling and I was wiping a tear from my eyes, though I still had no idea what the hell was so damn funny.
"So are you going to tell me what the big joke is?" I asked.
"It's actually more depressing than it is a joke," Nicole said. "I was thinking about how I'm going to get yelled at by Christine and treated like shit whether or not I do her work. What’s the worst that could happen if I skip a night?"
"Well she could try and fire you," I said.
Of course what Nicole couldn’t know was nothing of the sort was going to happen to her if I had anything to say
about it. Sure I didn't exactly have much pull within the organization. Not yet. Not until dear old dad decided to trust me with a little more in the way of responsibility. But I would go to the mats for her. She seemed like a good person. She was fun to be around her. She was so easy to talk to.
I'll be damned if I was going to let someone like that escape the company because she happened to have a bad boss. At least I told myself I was only doing it for selfless reasons. For the company. Because the other reasons I wanted to keep her around definitely weren’t workplace appropriate. The sort of thing dear old dad frowned on. Never mind all the fun he’d had with his secretaries over the years.
"I'm not worried about that," Nicole said with a dismissive wave and a snort that told me exactly what she thought about the idea of getting fired. "She wouldn't dream of firing the person who's doing all her grunt work. Besides, if she fires me the company will have to pay out all the vacation I've been saving up ever since I started working here. That would hit her budget so hard she’d probably get fired herself!"
More giggles. It felt good to laugh with Nicole. Though what I desperately wanted was to reach out and brush her hand again. I wanted to move my hand up and brush it along her cheek. Maybe wrap it around the back of her head and pull her against me.
No, that was getting into an area that was completely inappropriate. That was the sort of thing that could get us in trouble even if it was kind of hot thinking about being the naughty intern seducing the boss. And I wasn't sure I’d be able to do anything to save our jobs if I pushed one of my father's buttons like that.
I could giver her a little push to get out there and live a little though.
"So what do you think about hitting a bar near the office? I'm sure you know of a few good places to throw down and unwind!"