UCS- Ch.3

  CH.3


The next day was the usual, scramble around the house to get to the office. She covered the short walk, and was in her chair not full second before the Boss rounded the corner.
"Your here! Great! I have a project for you, and you have a week before it is presented. The board wants to know if there are any costs that can be cut in your department, and I want you to prepare the report. I want something snazzy though! Pie charts! Graphs! Can you do Powerpoint? That, yes! Great! I want it on my desk in 5 days, presented in 7! Thanks, Hon.."
And he was gone, the last phrase was thrown over his shoulder, as he strutted the isle between the cubicles looking for his next cronie to dump on.
She was unfrazzled though, her friend Mallory worked in accounting, and was great at helping you flush out numbers you need from the ones you don't. As a fact, if the "Board" knew anything about their own company, the would have asked Mal to do it, not Her, after all she was Customer Relations, not Number Relations, because numbers were NOT her thing.
She walked to the elevator and went down to the Number Zone, where they kept the account people sequestered from anyone else, as f they could be contaminated by the creativity of the other departments...Their "number abilities" must remain undefiled. She chuckled lowly as she saw Mallory from across the office.
Mal was as creative as number people got. Her thick flaming hair was tied in a difinitively 80's side ponytail, She had on a sweatshirt that had been mutilated so it hung off her shoulders, and a leggings and skirt combo. "Are you channeling
our childhood years, Mal?" She chuckled, smiling at the girl. Mal pushed her glasses up on her nose, they fit the outfit perfectly, thick black frames
that took up most of her freckled face. Mal looked alot younger than her 26 years. "Yep, was feeling like 13 going on 30 today." she smiled. "Have a seat.
What brings you down to the Numb-er Zone?"
"His royal highness, Franklin, asked ME to present a cost efficency report for my department, so I came to where the numbers are."
"You came to the right place!" Mal smiled, "You just need the stuff for your department? I'll have what you need on a thumb drive by lunch."
"Speaking of lunch, are you busy, Mal?"
"Ha ha," Mal laughed "You know I'm not! When they hide someone like me, in a hole like this.." Mal cast a glance at the other number crunchers, bent to their
computer screens, "Its not like these people "take" lunch! Most of them sit right there, and eat with their numbers."
"Then I'll meet you down stairs, how's noon?"
"See you then"
She got up from Mal's desk and crossed the room to the elevator, not a head turned to look to see who had passed their cube. They are really in the "Zone". She mused, pushing the up arrow, and turning to view the room while she waited for the elevator. The doors opened, and she got in.
"What floor, Ma'am?"
She started at the voice, it was Blake, resident "hot shot" and "golden boy". He turned his mega-watt smile onto her. "You know what floor, Blake." She was unfrazzled by his charms, she knew what kind of Man this was from a mile away and wanted no part of it.
"Do you have lunch plans today?" he cooed, " I would love to take you to the Golden Lotus."
"I am going to lunch with Mal in accounting, thanks anyway." She didn't smile.
"Well, how about a rain check?" he asked, and the elevator doors opened to their floor.
"Um... I don't think so Blake," she threw over her shoulder as she turned to the
cubical side of the room, he would be going to his office, and all the offices lined the side of the room with the windows. She all but ran to the safety of her cube.

The day passed quickly, and lunch time struck. She met Mal at the doors to their building, A graceful eight floor structure that dated to the 1880's, it had beautiful plaster work, columns and scrolls. They crossed a few streets, making for the sandwich cart man.
"This is soo gormet," She chuckled, "I would rather come here to sandwich-man, than go to the Golden Lotus with butt-munch Blake."
"BLAAAKE??!!" screeched Mal, "He asked YOU to lunch, and you said NO???"
"YEAH!" She laughed, thinking that she must be the only woman in that office that didn't melt under his "hotness".
"Mal, I know what kind of man that is! and I don't want him.
"Your a nut." Mal laughed, "If he wanted to take ME to ANYWHERE I would go!"
"You be my guest, I have a man, and that is enough drama for me!"
"How is that going?"
"Err, its alright, He and I are in alot of new territory. On my end, I have never dated a man as succesful as he is, let alone loved him! And he has never (according to him) loved a woman half his age."
They had walked to a bench and sat down, the air was cold and almost sparled in the sunlight. It was a beautiful day as Florida winters go. "The funny thing is how eager my family and friends are to see this work," She mused, "I had thought they would be shocked! As it turns out, not one person as expressed anything to the like."
"I know I am for it!" Mal said through a bite of sandwich. "I have known you for the last year, and I know that this is the first person you've dated that you actually liked." She swallowed, "Is their trouble in paradise?"
"Not trouble, per se, but things are not what they were. He is quicker to find fault with me, and shows contempt for anything in my life, that represents my life, before him." 
Mal sighed. "Dosn't that negate alot of why you are who you are? What made you the person he loves?"
"Yes! exactly! And it calls into question exactly what it is that he loves about me in the first place."
This exchange heralded the chimes from the church down the street, signaling that they were dangerously close to being late. The sandwich remainders were tossed in the can, and they headed back to the grind. They got in the elevator and Mal handed her the thumb drive, and asked about her plans this evening.
"I am going to my boyfriend's bosses birthday party." She said.
"Have fun with that!" laughed Mal, "It is stressful to be charming and beautiful for the benefit of the man you love!"
She stepped out on to her floor and waved as the doors slid shut.
Don't I know it! she thought, as the doors opened to her floor. She crossed the room to her cube and decided to immerse herself in her work. At least that is something that gets to be resolved, She sighed.