A Cure for Boredom
Julia tried to force a smile. It was the polite thing to do. She hated being the center of attention. She also hated 'mandatory fun'. It couldn't be helped though. Today marked her one-year work anniversary.
After graduating from college a year prior, she had gone right to work for a Fortune 500 company. Now, a year later, she was the proud owner of a new keychain. Naturally, it had the company logo prominently displayed. If there was one thing that would make her want to use the oversized monstrosity, it was the ability to do some unpaid advertising for the company. Maybe at 5 years, they would give her a shirt, so she could really be a walking billboard.
It wasn't a bad job. It paid well and wasn't particularly stressful. She just didn't think one year of not getting fired or being motivated enough to find a better job was worth celebrating. Still, who didn't love cake? After all, those 40 pounds everyone seemed to gain sitting at a desk all day wouldn't put themselves on.
Julia knew she needed to work on her attitude. Outwardly, she was the perfect employee. She was always polite, diligent, and enthusiastic. But inside, she was just flat-out bored. She had always known it was referred to as 'work' for a reason, but she hadn't imagined it could be so absolutely mind-numbing.
Of course, it didn't help that she hadn't really made any friends since moving here. If she had a life outside of the office, it probably wouldn't have bothered her nearly as much. But all she had done over the past year was work.
Oh, she had time for other things, plenty of it. And she wasn't anti-social. It's just that in college it had been so easy to make friends. It seemed to just magically happen. Now the only people she interacted with were at work, and almost all of them were far older and had families.
She supposed she should have gone out and made more of an effort to meet people, but she just didn't seem to have much in common with the people she ran across in this town.
Someone walking up interrupted her train of thought. "Hey, Julia, congrats. They let me bring you your card."
Julia smiled at the petite Hispanic girl. Sofia was the one friend she had here. They almost always ate together and went for walks to break up the day. They were always talking over email and IM. They just didn't see each other often outside of work.
They had hung out 3 or 4 times over the past year. One of those had been a road trip where the two had spent the entire day gossiping, really getting to know each other, talking about things you couldn't talk about at work.
It had been a lot of fun. Julia wished they could do it more often, but the older girl seemed to be very busy. At 32, she still wasn't married, though according to her she had a very active (and adventurous) love life. Julia was more than a little jealous.
She reached out and took the card. "Thanks."
"Hey, no problem." Sofia lowered her voice. "Nothing says, 'you are a valued employee' like insincere thanks on a card everyone is forced to sign."
Julia laughed. It was no wonder the two got along so well.
"Anyway, I've been meaning to ask you something," the older girl continued. "You seem kind of down. Are you still bored with your life?"
Julia smiled. "What, I have a life? When did that happen?"
It was Sofia's turn to laugh. "Girl, we need to get you out of the house more often. Come to dinner with me tonight. There is someone that I want you to meet."
Julia pulled out her phone. "Hm...let me check my calendar..."
"Very funny. You know that new place on Elm? The fancy one? Be there tonight at 7:00 pm okay?"
"Sure, I'll be there," Julia replied, genuinely grateful to have plans for a change.
Julia walked into the restaurant, hoping she had dressed appropriately. She was wearing a dress, a rare occasion for her. It was well above the knee, showing off her long legs. The lack of sleeves showed off her thin arms. It completely covered her chest and back.
She loved dresses with straps, showing off the shoulders and most of the back. Those just weren't for her. At 6 feet tall, she already intimidated a lot of guys. She knew she wasn't going to win any beauty pageants either. She thought she had a nice face, but her long torso and small breasts worked against her.
So, no low-cut dresses for her. She would work with what she had.
Just as she walked up to the Maitre D, a woman stood up and waved to her. She was around 5'8 or 5'9 and looked to be in her late 30s or early 40s. She had striking long, dark hair and curves that Julia would have died for. Based on her outfit, she enjoyed showing those curves off.
Julia excused herself and walked over to the woman, consciously reminding herself that she would have shown off a body like that as well. It didn't seem fair, but there wasn't actually an inverse relationship between cup size and quality of character.
"You must be Julia," the woman said. "I'm Lena, nice to meet you."
"That's me," she replied with a smile. "Nice to meet you as well." Julia shook her hand before sitting down.
"So how do you know Sofia?" she asked after getting situated.
The woman smiled. "Oh, we used to be lovers."
Julia felt herself blushing. "Oh, well I guess you know her pretty well then."
Lena laughed. "Yes, I think you could say that."
Julia wondered how recently the two were lovers. Was this the woman that Lena had such an adventurous love life with? There was no polite way to ask. She would wait and ask Sofia after dinner. For now, she tried to change the subject. "So what do you do?"
"I was a model in my younger years. I still do a bit of that, but mostly now I'm a fashion designer."
Julia had no trouble picturing the woman as a model. "Well, that must be fun, at least more fun than sitting in a cubicle."
The woman laughed. "Yes, being a model and finding models to work for me both have their perks. Sofia mentioned you were bored at work. I don't blame you. I could never do that. Maybe you should try a bit of modeling sometime, see what you think of it."
Julia watched the woman, looking for signs of sarcasm, but didn't sense any. "Oh, I could never do that. I'm not really built for it."
"Nonsense!" the woman said with a tone that surprised Julia. "You absolutely could. You are a beautiful girl. Tall, lithe girls are hard to come by. Most of them that are out there are getting paid the big bucks, and as a result, are arrogant cunts."
Julia laughed nervously. "Well, uh...thanks. I'm still not sure I have what it takes, but I'll consider it."
"You will do more than consider it. I have a project coming up that you would be perfect for. Give me your phone number so that I can send you the details when I have them."
"Uh...well..." Julia stammered before giving the woman her number. She watched as the older woman keyed it into her phone.
"Well that is unfortunate," the woman said, still looking down. "Something came up, Sofia won't be able to join us this evening."
Julia pulled out her phone but didn't see any messages. "Should we postpone?"
"No no, we are both here now. We can see her some other time." Lena motioned to a waiter who promptly came to their table and asked if they were ready to order.
Julia was about to say that she hadn't had a chance to look at the menu yet when her phone buzzed. It was Sofia, apologizing for having to cancel. By the time she looked back up, Lena was already ordering.