"You think he's cute?" Chelsie nodded to the side.
"What?" Linda had been spacing out, "Who're you talking about?"
"Him." Chelsie lifted a finger off her drink, subtly pointing at a man across the room. "Dan, the guy from sales with th- No! Don't look straight at him!"
Linda was already looking obviously over her shoulder at the man in the gaudy Hawaiian shirt with various different fruit patterned on it. When he made eye-contact with the brunette, he raised an eyebrow and wiggled his mustache a bit.
"No way," Linda leaned back. "He's gay for sure."
"Oh come on." Chelsie was covering her face from the side, making it even more obvious she'd been staring, too. "Just because a guy's in a Hawaiian shirt doesn't mean he's gay."
"Yeah, but the mustache, the shoes, the hair, the way he always waves with his fingers in the mornings..."
"Fine, whatever." Chelsie rolled her eyes. "But you didn't answer the question. Is he cute?"
"Cute?" Linda looked back over, prompting Chelsie to grab her friend to stop her from staring again. "I dunno. Not really my type."
"I guess..." Chelsie looked back down at her drink, stirring it a bit with a tiny straw before glancing around the room once again at all the corny decorations the management had put up in the warehouse to make it look less depressing.
Linda sighed and watched her friend watch whatever she was watching. The girl's strawberry blonde curls had grown a bit disheveled over the course of that Friday by the humidity and the hectic workweek. Her makeup had worn a bit, though she always wore too much anyway. A bit of cleavage was poking out of top of her blouse, something that may have taken the concept of 'Casual Friday' a bit too far though from the secretary's desk up front it wasn't complained about much.
Linda by comparison felt much less 'sexy'. Her dark hair was in the same bun it had been in since she left the house this morning. Boringly-painted nails tapped on her half-empty drink as she considered getting another, though it was probably a bad idea to get too drunk in front of her coworkers. All she really wanted to do was go home and strip off the pencil skirt and tights she was suffocating in, as well as undoing more than just the top button of her blouse. Linda never really did 'Casual Friday's.
"Ugh, I wanna go home." Chelsie seemed to be reading Linda's mind. "But I hate being the first one to leave work parties."
"Andy gets super passive-aggressive when you do." Linda stabbed an ice-cube. "'Oh, you missed so much fun after you left! Someone told a silly joke or whatever!' Blah."
"Is this what you though your 30's would be like?" Chelsie sighed. "Sitting at work parties pretending to have fun and wishing you had been home by 10pm?"
"Don't forget the back pain." Linda groaned. "And your favorite drinks giving you a stomachache."
"Crow's feet in the mirror."
"Seeing your high school friends pumping out kids, while you're getting ghosted by dudes on dating apps."
"Did I mention back pain yet?" Chelsie stretched, pushing out her breasts. "Because I wanna mention it again."
Linda grumbled something under her breath. Her back hurt, but that was due to her posture. 'Gifted' women like Chelsie had back pain for a different reason.
"Did you say something?" Chelsie leaned forward, shoving the offending cleavage in Linda's face, a small hint of lacy red bra poking out. It felt like an intentional gesture, but Chelsie's face still looked innocent.
"No, I just-" The lights dimmed with a loud 'click' as feedback from a microphone cut out everybody's conversations.
"Wow! Sorry about that!" A voice rang out after the feedback cleared up. "This is everybody's favorite, number one regional manager, Mr. Andy. But you can all just call me Mr. Andy."
The captive audience wasn't sure whether to fake-laugh at the joke or if their manager had just misspoke.
Andy stepped out from behind the 'DJ booth' (really just a desk with a laptop connected to some Bluetooth speakers) holding a microphone and almost tripping over some wires as he attempted to stay in the circle made by the 'Spotlight' (which was Gus from the warehouse holding his hunting flashlight over his head).
"But we have a very special, very important guest who has graced us with his amazing talents and his amazing... Uhm." Andy's face scrunched up the way it always did when he had to think and speak at the same time. "Amazingly talented talents...
"Please give it up for - uh." The lights shined on a man in a tacky purple suit holding a briefcase with one hand and trying to keep the spotlight out of his eyes with the other.
"What was your name, again?" Andy handed over the microphone.
"It was- ah!" The man blinked a bit as Gus finally got the idea and stopped blinding their gaudily-dressed guest.
"It was the Magnificent Melvin! Marvelous Manipulator of the Mind!" He wiggled his fingers, not unlike Dan's little wave from before.
"Oh God," Linda put her head in her hands. "The boss hired a fucking hypnotist."
"What's wrong with a hypnotist?" Chelsie smiled, giggling a bit.
"It's childish!" Linda used the scattered applause following the man's introduction to cover her whispered conversation with her friend. "You really think some guy will wave his hands and say 'Hocus Pocus' and you'll think you're a bird or whatever?"
"It's just some stupid fun," Chelsie said. "It's not like you have to go up."
"You say that," Linda eyed her boss. "But you know how Andy is. He'll 'volunteer' you for something stupid and then act like you're not a team player if you don't go up there. Remember when he tried to host a 'Sing Along Night' and threatened to make anybody who didn't go on stage at some random karaoke bar work Saturday?"
"Those drunk frat bros refusing to leave the stage really saved us all that night."
The 'Magnificent Melvin' proceeded to walk about the party, going from table to table while focusing equally on pretending to 'read the aura of potentially attuned individuals' while also making sure the microphone cord wasn't getting tangled on any chair legs.
"Don't call on me. Don't call on me." Linda slumped down in her chair. "Ohmygod this is high school all over again."
But she was saved when some guy from the warehouse staggered over to the middle of the room where a few chairs had been laid out for the hypnotist to use. He seemed far too drunk for the amount of alcohol that would be served at an office party, but the warehouse guys usually smuggled their own flasks to these events.
"Ah, hello... My good sir!" Melvin was clearly not prepared for somebody to stagger out but tried to play it off. "What do you call yourself?"
"Joe," the man slurred.
"Very well, Joe." Melvin returned to the chairs, dragging the microphone cord with him. "Let us all thank Joe for volunteering to be entranced by my powers tonight!"
There was scattered applause from the room that annoyed Linda as she had to put down her drink to clap a few times too, hoping not to appear rude.
"Joe mama," the volunteer was slumped so much in his chair it looked like he was about to fall out of it. His hands clutched the sides though it wasn't as though his grip could be especially tight.
Melvin ignored the attempt at a quip and held out his hand, only to punch the microphone with a loud thump. He awkwardly adjusted his grip on the device before turning around and holding something up to the drunken man's face.