For those joining for the first time or returning after a while, the mailgirls' Melbourne office has been featured on the TV, and the journalist who visited now wants to be a 'mailgirl for a day'. First though, it is time to find out what the reaction to the TV program was.
Wendy Turnbull was in Belinda Clark's office, up on the ninth floor. Wendy, the mailgirls' supervisor looked to her boss, the head of HR. "I could not find anything in the newspapers," Wendy reported.
Belinda nodded. "The web news monitoring hasn't seen anything either. There's a bit of chat on socials as you'd expect, but our monitors say that nothing has caught on," the Head of HR added.
"Trended," Wendy corrected her.
"Nothing has trended," Belinda added, correcting her idiom.
A knock on her door. Martin Plaza looked in. "I was checking the web," he interrupted, "nothing." He paused, hoping for a reaction to his initiative. "Strange," he added.
Belinda looked up indulgently at the junior HR worker. "Any idea why?" she asked.
Martin shrugged. "It was a scoop by one channel, so the other ones ignored it," he suggested. Wendy nodded at that.
So did Belinda. "There may be something in that."
Seeing the conversation, June Lockhart another junior HR staffer, joined in. "Maybe they need a scandal to get interested. Something memorable? I thought it was boring. It was a G rated look at how a standard office runs normally except with hints of naked mailgirls roaming through it. I think they sanitised it too much."
Martin turned to June. "Well, I don't think they could have included the dildo stations," he pointed out.
"And that is exactly the problem with their broadcast," June agreed. They both looked to Belinda for her confirmation. They got it.
*
Shane Crawford strode into Mitchell Johnson's office. "How good was I?" he exploded to his former boss.
Mitch looked up. "I didn't notice you were in it."
Shane suddenly noticed the mailgirl Lauryn Marks was sitting at the meeting table concentrating on her laptop, naked of course. The mailgirl looked up at Shane. "Are you sure you were in it?" she echoed Mitch. "I don't remember seeing you?" She smiled at Mitch.
"Lauryn's helping me with a project," Mitch told Shane, not needing to explain that Lauryn was formerly a business analyst with the company.
"That explains why I can never get a mailgirl when I need one." Shane was hoping that sounded like a joke. "Maybe we need more," he added.
"I'm sure you're right, you need more," Lauryn smirked at Shane. He gave her a strange look back.
Mitch noticed and looked at her curiously, wondering that there was something in her comment which he probably should not investigate. "Aren't you late for a meeting?" he asked Shane instead.
"Oh yes," Shane agreed. "But I'm busy with my new responsibilities, so I'll just have to be late."
"Responsibilities?" Mitch laughed. He looked at Lauryn who shook her head.
"I'm on call to deal with all the queries about last night. You know the show that I was on," he insisted.
"Have there been any?" Lauryn asked.
"There will be." Shane was confident. Of course Lauryn and Mitch smiled at that.
*
Stuart Broad was concentrating on something on his computer when Annette Kellerman swanned into his office, as usual making sure that she was loud enough to disturb her target from his current task.
She ran her fingers down one flank, resting her other hand on Stuart's desk, leaning forward provocatively in her usual style. "I've been keep myself in trim for you Stuart. But I haven't seen you for a few days? Where have you been?" the mailgirl demanded.
"I had some time off. The family flew in, I helped them to settle," Stuart huffed.
Annette feigned interest. "So, a wife and..."
"Two girls," Stuart snapped back.
Annette affected to be unconcerned at Stuart's tone. Anyway, the mailgirls expected it from him. "Do you have to find a school for them?" she continued.
Stuart nodded, resigned to the conversation but avoiding eye contact, looking away. "That's one of the things that we did, went around and looked at a few prospects."
"So how are the girls finding Melbourne?" Annette continued. She sidled closer to Stuart.
He loosed up a little, realising good manners meant that he had no choice. "It's an adventure so far for them, different to the States."
Annette smiled brightly. "Well, I hope it keeps being an adventure. I'd like to meet them, show them the sights." Apparently unconsciously, she twirled on one foot, a finger teasingly between her lips.
Stuart noticed. "Ah, umm."
Annette bent down resting her chin on her palms, quite close now. "Maybe if you need a babysitter? I'm always free," she offered.
Stuart suppressed any reaction to that. "Thanks," he stated flatly, "I'll get back to you if I need one." He looked down at his watch. "I have a meeting now." He gestured like their interaction was over.
Annette stood up and realised, checking her app. "Oh yes, that's what I came up here for, to remind you not to be late." She checked the app again, realising that the meeting start time had passed. "Sorry!" she sang out. "I do like your new office," she added quickly as Stuart tried to get past her. "Now that it's finished. I hear that the engineers are almost ready to move in too," she called brightly as Stuart bustled out, clearly concerned to get to the meeting as soon as possible. Annette checked her app again and smiled.
*
Down on the mezzanine while waiting to be paged for mailgirl duties, Jan Stephenson took Jackson aside. "There was a breach last night," she told the other mailgirl. "Someone was here after hours. About the time of the show."