It was late on Friday and with a deadline for the project looming, everyone was in a mad rush to finish their parts as fast as possible to make it home for the weekend. As the various deliverables made their way to my office for final review and approval, the general buzz of the office slowly dwindled as groups of employees gathered their things and left excitedly for whatever excursions they had planned for the evening. As usual, I was stuck with the wrapping up all of the loose ends before the project could truly be considered done and sent off to the supplier for begin manufacturing, It was looking to be a long night and with the setting of the sun, everyone had vanished, once again leaving me all alone. Needing some type of nourishment to weather the solo project wrap-up, I went in search of consumables.
All of the usual options were quickly dismissed, the vending machines either contained nothing of interest, were out or order or I lacked the correct change. No one had left behind any snacks in the cafeteria fridge or goodies to share from a loving family member. I had about given up hope when I recalled stuffing a sports bar in one of my desk drawers a few weeks back for just such an emergency. As I made my way back to my office, I heard an unexpected sound, Perhaps someone had returned to pick up a left behind item, or something had fallen off an desk, but none of these things were to be the case. Much to my surprise, waiting for me in the my office was the staff receptionist with a plate full of freshly baked cookies.
She seemed quite startled to have me suddenly walk in on her leaving behind such a thoughtful treat, but rather than flee, she giggled quietly to herself as if sharing some small in joke. I smiled as I tried to recall her name, but for some reason the overwhelming aroma of baked goods wiped out any chance of name recognition, so I was forced to result to other means. I thanked her for the treats and inquired how she new about my late evening cravings and she responded that she had been paying attention for some time. It seemed that she always stuck around the office to clean-up, but whenever the monthly dead lines came due, I was always fouling up her plans to leave on time. So she took it upon herself to snoop around, always hiding from me, until I left and then rummaged through my office for any clues.
I was midway through a sentence about how inappropriate of a behavior such prying was when pushed me firmly back against my desk and let down her hair. I was immediately disarmed and thrown off my pace by her unexpected forceful actions. To be fair, I really had not given the receptionist much attention since hiring her solely based on her resume more than a year before, so it was no wonder I could not remember her name. She always had seemed polite when she greeted me every morning, but otherwise did her job efficiently enough to be deemed competent enough, but never quite excelling to stand out above the rest of my employees. Now suddenly she was right in front of my face and behaving quite out of character. I was at a loss as to how to proceed, when she took things a bit further.
