Tales From Sechs City
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welcome to Sechs City, a wealthy, middle-class costal area of Western America in the state of California. A gorgeous, quiet largely uneventful place, people move to the city to follow their dreams, to live their day-to-day lives. It's almost too perfect to be true...
As Mike walked through the glass entrance doors of "Narina Ltd" the next morning, he felt a mixture of emotions; the one outstanding feeling however was that of stupidity. It seemed that ever since that coin toss the previous afternoon he had just made one stupid mistake after the other. Not only had he not told Heidi everything, he had neglected to inform Kevin of his latest predicament. He didn't know why; the words just hadn't seemed to form in his mouth.
This morning he had told his friend he was going out job hunting, and didn't' know when he would be back. Who knew what he would say if Heidi suddenly decided to call him at all?
He should have just walked out of that door as soon as he'd seen those images on Anglee's television screen. She had to be lying about those women, she just had to be. No way would she have been able to arrange all that she had threatened. But even as he thought this he knew that it was fifty-fifty. Clarke & Bros would not have fired him for nothing; there MUST have been some complaints about him. It was lose-lose all the way for now. He just had to grit his teeth and bear it.
He found Gerald standing by the desk, clipboard in hand, tapping his foot impatiently. 'You took your time, didn't you?' he said as a "hello". 'What did you do, walk here?'
Actually, Gerald was very much correct. As if it could prolong the inevitable, Mike had taken the option that would take the longest to get there, including the longest route and at the slowest possible pace he could manage.
'Sorry,' he shrugged, though he said it emotionlessly.
'Well,' Gerald grunted, 'we're all getting ready for the morning meeting in Anglee's office. It's a daily routine, 9:30 sharp. Remember that for tomorrow, or else she'll have your head on a silver platter!'
Mike wasn't so sure that it wasn't already there. He followed Gerald down through the short maze of anonymous looking corridors. As he passed each door Mike wondered what rooms lay behind them. Were they all exactly the same as the one he had seen Stacey "working" in? Or were they like one of those tacky motels with specific themes? Was there a nature room? An S&M room?
When they got to Anglee's office, Mike found himself surrounded by a group of people he'd never seen before. All employees, obviously. All fairly casually dressed. All not that bad looking at all. It took Mike a while to realise that, apart from Gerald, he was the only male in this crowd.
He spotted Stacey, no longer dressed in her grey dress suit but in loose top and jogging bottoms. She flashed her dazzling pearly whites at Mike as he came over.
'Morning, Mike,' she said cheerfully. 'Ready for your first day of work?'
Mike scratched the back of his neck as he tried to forget his recent conversation with Heidi about what she thought had been his "first day". 'Can I ask you something, Stacey?' he asked.
'Anything; I'm always here to help!'
'Why do you work here? Do what you do? Has she...has Anglee got something on you too?'
Stacey looked slightly puzzled. 'If she has, she's never mentioned it. I mean, I wouldn't put it past her to be keeping video files. She likes to watch back what we've done occasionally. She says its for evaluation, but we don't really buy that.'
'So why work here?' asked Mike, perplexed.
Stacey grinned again. 'It's the best job in the world,' she said honestly.
'All right, everyone; lets have a bit of quiet!' Anglee was standing behind her desk, both hands placed down on the surface, waiting for hush. When she got it she smiled broadly.
'As usual, thank you all for coming in today. The sun is particularly glorious, so I hope you can make use of the courtyard to work on those gorgeous tans on those gorgeous bodies. Again, as usual, I can only apologise if your services are not required today, but rest assured you will still be paid for being here. If you have to leave the building at any point today it can only be in a strict emergency or under my supervision, just in case you are suddenly needed by a last-minute client.'
She stood up straight. 'Right, that's all the legal bullshit out of the way. As you may have noticed we have a new employee joining us today. He's obviously a little different to the rest of you, so I want you to be nice and don't misbehave. This is Mike; everyone say hi!'
Every head turned amid a chorus of, 'Hi, Mike!'
Mike shifted uncomfortably. He could feel them examining him with his eyes, some of them checking him out more thoroughly than others. He swore he heard someone close behind him mutter to her friend, 'I can't wait to get to work with that piece of ass.'
When the buzz had quieted down again Anglee turned to Gerald who handed her the clipboard he had been clutching to his chest like a new born baby. She scanned down it quickly before looking up again.
'Okay, this morning at ten we've got Jen in room 23; Abi, you'll be in room 4. Then at eleven...Carrie?'
'Yeah?' replied a woman standing near Mike. She was considerably larger than the rest of the ladies, in all sense of the word.
'Good news, darling. You're in the dungeon.'
Mike shook his head. He'd been right about the themed rooms then.
'Now remember you all need to be on call for lunch between 12 and 2, try to eat yours around this. Then later this afternoon is looking fairly clear at the moment, except for...ah, yes. Mike, you'll be needed at two-thirty in room 33.'
Mike felt like he was about to wet himself. 'Okay,' he managed to say.