Freak out, Rookie

“Sam, come over here please.” He calls me. “Take a look at these interview reports”

As I get closer to him, he listlessly looks onto me, which leaves me breathless.

‘I actually r-reviewed these yesterday’ I stammer for no obvious reason. He slides even closer, so close our shoulders brushed.

‘You may want to review them once more’, Paul whispers. Feeling my face burning, I try to say something before he shoves the papers into my hold and walks away, a half smile plastered on his unshaven face.

 

In the toilet, I smooth my hair with shaking fingers. I steal glances at the stack of papers messily shoved into my blue jet suitcase. Where did I go wrong?

‘It’s only your first week, don’t screw up’ I mumble.

 

‘Coffee?’ Janette, a friendly colleague, smiles as she extends to me a steaming cup.

‘Oh, I needed that.’ I say, not ungrateful. ‘Long day’

‘Looks like it’s only about to start’, her smile loosens, as she sees Mrs. Rodriguez emerge from her street view office, wearing a look of exasperation.

She walks towards the crowd of employees and clears her throat. Her face hardens as the room falls to absolute silence, and the echoes of the large desk-office room chatter disappear.

‘Some of you are staying to work overtime tonight I want full reports on the election updates, by tomorrow morning’ Groans are heard among the audience, but the sounds immediately seize with a look of disgust that flashes in her aging face. ‘Lederman, Hitcham, and,’ she pauses as she eyes me, ‘new girl, see me in my office in 5 minutes.’

My heart sinks. I feel my stomach lurch as I drag myself into the air conditioned room that smelled of intimidation. Behind me the door shuts as Paul Lederman and Reign Hitcham enter.

‘There has been a misunderstanding between one of the chief executives in TARH and one of my very dumb reporters.’ She sighs, massaging her temple with her long fingers. ‘I want you to right the wrong, immediately’

I dig my fingernails into my palms. Is she really asking for my assistance in a direct task? I glance reproachfully at Paul and the other employee, but they seem to have gone through something of this sort before, for they nod at her, confidently.

‘Two of you must head to their quarters and do whatever to schedule a brief session for both of you to negotiate the advertising initiative proposed by our year plan. He is refusing to see any of our people. If this goes on, we don’t stand a chance against the other newspapers this election round.’ The entire time, her small eyes speak to Paul who seems to cling to every word that she says, as if weighing his next moves.

‘And one must make me a cup of green tea.’ Paul’s dimples are now digging into his face. I tug at my black skirt as I nod and start to walk away when she calls.

‘Have I dismissed you, Keatings?’

‘U-h No, Ma’am’

 ‘Hitcham, this time, one cube of sugar will do.’ He leaves the room. ‘You two, get to work’

Paul’s smile is now long gone, I observe. Muttering a ‘yes ma’am’ he turns to leave the office. I do the same when she says, ‘New girl, don’t you go there looking like a lost puppy’ and gets back to her sprawled folders.

 

Reviews

[Laura Lynn]

I can really see/imagine the characters facial expressions here. A typical office setting, motivates one to imagine what it would be like to be in the office and be a vital component of it, not all fun and games as this, would get more unbearably boring I should imagine, but it should never be like that. One must figure out how to make things exciting day to day and figure out what one needs, not too much but the bare essentials

[Beissan]

Exactly! One must not over do it all, yet must be able to provide interesting content to keep the readers from reading astray. Thank you for your helpful review xx!