The work at Qual-U-Tech was easy enough. Most of Evan's responsibilities revolved around data entry and working with spreadsheets. It only took him a couple of hours before he really got into the swing of things, and soon enough he was crunching numbers like a pro just on his first day.
His stomach growled as Evan walked into the break room to take lunch. The only other fur there was an enormous snow lepard, probably Evan's age, easily past 500 pounds, his button-up shirt clinging to the vast curve of his gut, two chairs were parked underneath each cheek of his bulbous butt. Tufts of white fur peaked out from between overly stressed buttons. The lion gave the snow lepard a nod. He didn't return it, instead taking a massive bite of a burger. It was his third, judging by the wrappers all over the table.
Opening the fridge, Evan went and grabbed for his lunch: A microwave Shepard's Pie he grabbed from the grocery store on his way into work. But it wasn't there. Searching around, he looked for it all throughout the fridge, sure that someone must have moved it around.
"Uh, hey," he asked the snow leopard, "have you seen a..." On the table was the tin pan the pie came in sitting empty beside him. "Uh, I think you might have eaten my lunch..." Evan gestured towards the evidence.
"That thing?" he asked, glancing at the empty tray. "Didn't see you name written on it."
Evan walked over to trash can; the green box the pie came in sat on the top. "Uh, yeah it did." He held up the box. EVAN :) was written in big letter on the top.
The snow leopard shrugged as he swallowed a bit of his burger. "Sucked anyway." He let out an enormous belch before going back to work on his burger.
***
"Don't take it too personally," said the heavy-set panda at the water cooler. "Besides, there's no point fighting him. Toby's dad is a pretty big deal with the company. One call to Daddy Dearest and you'll be given the pink slip."
Evan shook his head as he took a sip of water. "Still, you can't just eat someone else's lunch! That's their property!"
The panda shrugged. "With Toby, it's just easier to find ways to work around him. Pretty much everyone in the office either goes out for lunch or packs something healthy since he won't eat anything green. I do the latter. Not like I'm complaining all that much." He tugged on his pants, showing how loose they were around his thick waist. "Probably dropped 30 pounds thanks to that brat." He drank the last from his water cup before crumpling it and tossing it in the trash can. "Back to the salt mines."
Evan continued to stew in anger over Toby eating his lunch. From what Andrew had just told him, nobody in the office likes Toby or his behavior, yet everyone is too scared to do something. He wasn't going to let that fatty walk all over him.
But as Evan walked back to his cubicle, he began having second thoughts. He needed the job and the money, and picking fights with one of the executive's kids wasn't going to help. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. Evan wasn't the best eater, and packing in healthy lunches would not only be more nutritious but also deal with the Toby situation.
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