Most days, Houston felt lucky if he got to stay in the office. A feeling not found in most other workers. For the most part Houston actually liked office work. The corporate offices of Cosmic Crew Entertainment were not the biggest or most successful, although Houston stayed in a carved off little niche since coming to the company. He had to admit, many of the proposed projects were interesting.
Cosmic Crew Entertainment was the brains behind the Gerbert Gerbil franchise, which also went by the same moniker. It got by with the immense marketability potential from the mascots of the original family fun restaurant. Gerbert's hit everything that was popular with the target demographic right now. Kids loved space. They also loved animal characters. And with the inclusion of the arcade and playground it should be a winning combination.
Key word, should.
Because Gerbert's was facing a lot of problems. Anything that could go wrong tended to go wrong at the restaurant, putting reality at odds with the proposed expansions the office wanted to have for the franchise. Which brought us to the point where Houston had carved his niche.
He hadn't earned a big desk yet although the ex-jock did have a small, modest office. He set the marbles of his newton cradle to clacking, the sharp sound helping him think. Houston looked like a guy that worked out or used to. He had played hockey, almost would have tried out professionally if not for a falling out with the recruiter. Still, anything that reminded him of the hard impact of the puck hitting the ice took Houston back, pushing his instincts into overdrive.
Yes, Cosmic Crew Entertainment could be a difficult place to work for. Houston should know, he'd been scratching his shaved chin finishing up a report on past issues he had dealt with this year. He was nearly up to sixty pages.
Not that these issues were small fries by any means. First deliveries to the restaurant would hit a snag. Then food quality was reported low, complaints from customers, high staff turnover. The equipment would break down, the kitchen had to be retrofitted twice, construction crews had to come back to finish jobs that hadn't been done correctly, then the animatronics started to break down. They needed more technicians hired, their single one needed more training, the health inspector threatened to shut them down (--Houston had a note here; Sally Norn was her name, wasn't it? Good figure, easy to sway, might be able to convince her otherwise if he invited her to dinner--) and their utilities were overdrawn.
Honestly, that was just one month and the first dozen pages.
Which really was a shame. Houston knew of several proposed projects in the works that looked interesting. Cosmic Crew Entertainment worked hard to innovate to keep attracting the kids. Such projects included new attractions, additional menu items, further merchandise and even talk of another TV show. But as the old adage in business went, you had to spend money to make money, and Gerbert's was too frequently in the red to make any headway on these new ventures.
Houston sighed, leaned back in his chair. To his surprise he smelled the steam of fresh coffee hitting his nostrils.
"You look like you needed some caffeine, Mr. Tuttle."
"Estelle, you're a peach, you know that?"
"You seem to be the only one who tells me that, Mr. Tuttle." Estelle was the floor secretary although Houston liked to imagine she was only his. Polite, friendly, always anticipated what you needed next. And she had quite a figure too. As Houston watched her leave, clutching the empty tray, he felt quite elevated. And it wasn't from the coffee. It was from watching Estelle's backside sway as she walked, she filled out that pencil skirt quite well. She had a pair of calves that made men wonder how the elasticity of pantyhose held out. And dare he imagine it, the waist of her skirt was looking a bit snug, with perhaps a slight pooch to her middle.
Houston could easily lose himself observing the other females in the office. Mainly Estelle. Doris in promotions wasn't bad either, nice rack, although she was quite the shrew when you were talking with her. This retrospection could go on for minutes.
Until his intercom buzzed.
"Houston--"
"Oh jezus Parsons don't say it."
"--we have a problem."
"Damn you, Parsons." Houston chuckled with a bit of a groan. As if he hadn't been hearing that all his life. And it only worsened when he became employed at Cosmic Crew Entertainment. "What is it now?"
"Hope you're ready for a trip, Houston," came the click back, "they need you out in the field."
"Again?" As said, Houston was lucky to stay around the office. So much for a coffee refill from Estelle.
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