Same old dead end job. Same old scary and geeky co-workers. Same old stale coffee. I looked over the pile of papers on my desk and sighed with the weary resignation that life just plain sucked. Pulling open the drawer of my desk I tossed in my purse and pulled out a couple of bucks from my cash stash and headed toward the little cafΓ© across the hall. I ordered my customary large diet soda and a sausage and egg breakfast burrito and headed back to the office with my breakfast. I slid down into my chair and vanished behind the high walls of my little hell, the last cubical on the left in the far back of the office. To say that I was in a rut was an understatement; life in general had just become the endless practice of repeating the exact same thing. There were no challenges in life anymore, no excitement, no thrill, no lust to live. Just make ends meat, pay bills, slug through another bought of paperwork to improve the companies' bottom line so the executives get a nice bonus. Ain't life grand?
I suffered through my eight hours in hell and headed home. I contemplated just continuing to drive and not looking back but of course I had to go home; the cat would miss me. It was sad to think that the only two things in my life I really enjoyed and looked forward to were driving my car, a silver Honda Civic EX the first thing in my life I had paid for myself and took great pride in, and coming home to my obsessive compulsive cat, Max. Max was an odd duck. He was like a child more than a cat, he followed me everywhere, screamed when he couldn't find me, suffered mad fits of jealousy if I even looked at another cat, and was the one 'person' on this earth who truly loved me with no strings attached. Unconditional love really did only come from pets; Max was my proof of that. No matter how many dead end losers I wasted time with, Max still loved me. No matter what clothes I put on or what I weighted, Max still loved me. No matter if dinner was Kraft Mac and Cheese every night, Max still loved me.
I pulled into my parking spot at around six o'clock. I picked up the mail on the way in and dropped it on the coffee table, more bills to pay. I stalked into the kitchen and grabbed a Diet Pepsi and crashed on the sofa. Max appeared on cue and took his place in my lap. I fell asleep watching CSI.
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It was Friday! The mood in the office was always better on Fridays. It didn't really matter that most of us would spend our weekends doing laundry or watching re-runs, something about not having to dress up and go to work the next day made Fridays better. Or at least my Friday would have been better had I not seen my desk. A huge pile of crap sat in my chair, a pink post-it happily perched atop it.
"Hi Betti! I need all these reports put into Excel format and sorted by date, also please make sure that the numbers total and that there aren't any accounts missing. I need this by Monday at ten! -Jan"
"Son of a bitch!" I hissed.
Leon poked his head over and winced as he caught sight of my workload. "You know she only does that cause you let her get away with it. All it'd take is her missing one deadline and she'd be out of here and you'd be free." "Pfft, yeah right Leon. She'd still have the advantage since she's banging the company President on the side, I'd get fired before she would."
Leon shrugged and disappeared back into his cubical. Office politics sucked. Jan got to walk all over us 'grunts' because she had a killer figure and gave out blowjobs like they were lollipops. She was a six foot tall blond bitch and I hated her. I grabbed my stress ball and poked holes in it with my fingernails. This totally sucked! I was going to have to work late tonight and probably come in tomorrow to finish this shit! This is what having a good work ethic got people these days. I picked up the pile of papers and dropped it on my desk so I could sit down and boot up the computer.
Jan was such a prima donna. She got away with everything, a cute giggle and a wiggle of her tush and men let her do whatever! I sighed and stared at the wall. I wasn't an ugly woman by any means, I was of average height, I wasn't super model thin but I wasn't really chubby either I was just curvy, I had plain brown eyes and light brown hair which was long and always in a ponytail. But since I wasn't a knockout I didn't get away with anything. I muttered and set to work on the stack, best to start at the beginning.
I worked through lunch, opting to shovel down a Cup O' Noodles rather than leave for an hour and run errands as usual. I had made a small dent into the pile of accounts but there was no doubt I'd be working late tonight. I looked at the picture of Max on my wall and muttered my apologies to the cat. The hours rolled by and it seemed like the stack of papers was never going to get any smaller. I wondered at times if they were breeding and I just hadn't noticed yet. At five o'clock the mass exodus from the office commenced, I waved at Leon's goodbyes and settled myself in for a long night. The entire building emptied at five. Almost no one ever worked late in this building and when it was empty it felt like a tomb. I ignored the oppressive feeling of dread and continued down the pile of account invoices praying that I'd see freedom soon.
At about seven o'clock I stopped and went into the kitchen to warm up a microwave dinner. It was time to face facts, I wasn't getting home before ten tonight. My pile of work was greatly diminished, almost gone, but I still had to run a report and make sure all the invoices were accounted for and that they were totaled and ready for Jan on Monday. The office building really was tomb-like tonight. I rubbed my hands over my arms and peered around the office. I didn't scare easily and I wasn't one of those hysterical fantasy types either but it just seemed too quiet. I stepped out of the kitchen with my dinner and nearly jumped out of my skin as a loud roaring began behind me. Startled I turned and immediately felt like a moron as I saw a cleaning man vacuuming the carpet.
I smiled and darted back to my cubical where I couldn't help but look back over at the guy. He had to be new, I didn't recognize him and I vaguely recalled the old oriental man who had been working this building saying he was going to be retiring soon. The new janitor was a total dish! He was about six foot tall, broad shouldered, dark black hair, brown eyes, well muscled without being body builder gross, and his skin was light brownish, possibly of Latino descent. I grinned as I thought that he definitely filled out the coverall better than the old man had! Christ I dropped down in my chair quickly and felt a blush creep up on my cheeks; I really needed to get laid if I was thinking this way! God, how long had it been? I fiddled with a pen and lost count somewhere around nine months... I was so hopeless.
