It looked like a normal interoffice envelope, the legal-sized manilla kind that go back and forth around the office. Put whatever documents you want to send inside, synch it closed, write the name of the recipient on the next line on the outside and drop it off in one of those internal outboxes for the guy with the mail cart to come around and grab so he can deliver it. A normal envelope for a normal Friday, I told myself.
I groaned slightly, seeing the last recipient before me - and the likely sender - was Victoria. Last night she had said something about sending me some of her reports to do, but the whole thing was such a blur, and I had tried my best to forget it. Still, I wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary when I opened the envelope and dumped the contents on my desk.
Out came a handwritten note, a glossy 4x6 photograph, and a pair of powder blue lace woman's panties.
Without even reading the note or looking at the picture, I stood up quickly to make sure no one was walking past my cubicle to catch a glimpse the pair of mysterious woman's underwear. Blessedly seeing no one, I quickly hid the unexpected undergarment under a stack of papers on my desk, then decided that that was still probably a little too risky, and instead shoved them into a desk draw with my spare office supplies.
The immediate worry of what someone might say if they saw a pair of frilly panties on my desk at work now allayed, I took a deep breath before I looked at the note and the photo. My momentary calm quickly dissipated, and I could feel the color drain from my face as I recognized the scene depicted in the photo. With fear suddenly seizing my heart, I read Victoria's note, and the events of last night came back all at once.
* * *
"I hope you're all excited for tonight!"
Victoria was talking to the whole group, but it seemed like she was talking just to me. Maybe it was wishful thinking. Victoria was the new girl in the office, straight out of college, and she was already the life of the party. Tall, maybe 5'9'', blonde, in great shape with toned arms and shapely legs that poked out of the slightly-too-short-for-work-but-not-short-enough-for-HR-to-get-involved skirts she would wear. I thought she had the physique of someone who played tennis a lot, like Anna Kournikova in her prime. She had a smile full of these perfectly straight pearly whites that just lit up the room whenever she flashed them, which was most of the time since she had that perky, just-out-of-college girl demeanor, like the responsibilities of life hadn't really hit her yet.
To be fair, most people who worked here weren't that much older. We all worked at a medical health records company, mostly in sales or customer relations with big hospitals or clinics or doctors offices as clients, and it didn't really require much special knowledge outside of what orientation taught you, so they hired a lot of recent college grads who were liberal arts majors and didn't have a natural career path. I was two years out, and most people were within three years, so the whole cubicle floor had almost a college feel to it. Most people wound up living in one of a few apartment buildings near the office, and going to the same bars in town after work or on the weekends, which really added to the feeling that this wasn't even real life yet.
Tonight was Thursday, which meant after work drinks at a local pub, and even thought Victoria was one of the newest members of the team of twelve or so that worked in cubicles on the same section of the floor, she was already the biggest cheerleader for group social events.
I was gathering my things to join the horde migrating from the office to the bar when I felt a tap on my right shoulder. I looked around and saw no one, then heard a giggle to my left and turned to see my friend Amy there, amused with her little joke.
Amy was one of my best friends at work, we just clicked from day one orientation. She was quiet, like me, but funny when she did talk, with a sarcastic sense of humor. I think she was half Asian, though I didn't know exactly and thought it wouldn't be appropriate to ask. I thought she was beautiful too: short, maybe 5'3'', and with a cute little button nose and puffy cheeks that really stuck out because she has a slight frame. Victoria had responded to a Craigslist post and taken the spot of Amy's last roommates when she had moved back home, so they lived together in an apartment near the office.
"Ready to head over?" Amy asked. "I think it's trivia night tonight."
That got me excited, not just because loved trivia, but because did Amy too. It was a great way for us to bond. Most of the rest of the crew, including Victoria, didn't care much for state capitals or who won the best picture Oscar in 1956, so I thought they would generally leave us alone, and I could show off for Amy.
"Oh, so you're looking for someone to help you when you can't remember who the twentieth US president was or something?" I teased. We were following the group out to the elevator bank, but we were walking slower than the rest and had to take a the next elevator since the one before us was full. That was just fine with me.
"No, I just need someone to be my witness when I get every question right in the classical music section while you're just suggesting Mozart for every answer," she teased back.
We rode the elevator down in silence, and I grew a little awkward with neither of us saying anything, so as we got off the elevator and walked through the lobby I just went with the first thing that came into my head.
"So how is it living with Victoria, a new guy eating breakfast at your place every morning?" I asked Amy.
Amy chuckled. "Oh, she's not so bad like that, I see that guy Brad most weekends, but they seem to be broken up. Though it seems like they're broken up half the time and then they get back together a few days later. Anyways, she's nice most of the time, but she's always looking for angles."
"What do you mean?" I asked. I stopped to hold the door to the street open for her, but she stopped too, and thought for a second before responding.
"She's my roommate, I shouldn't really be talking about her like this," she finally said, then ducked through the door. I followed her and let it swing shut behind me as we made our way to the bar.
"Oh, come on, we always tell each other this stuff," I countered. I actually didn't really care much about Victoria, I just wanted an excuse to keep talking to Amy.
"Well, she made sure to get my parents contact information when they visited, and now when she doesn't want to do her share of the chores, she'll just joke about how disappointed my parents would be if they saw how we hadn't taken out the trash or emptied the dishwasher yet, even if those were her jobs, and even though it sounds like she's joking, she'll take a picture and pretend she's going to send it to them. I know she's not serious, but I wind up doing it anyways. I don't know, she's just got that way about her with that stuff."
"Sounds better than random dudes every morning, but maybe that's just me."
