Chapter 1 Beautiful
Shanaya
Here I am, stuck in a fucking nutshell with the most annoying soul on planet Earth.
“So… are you getting a boob job?” the annoying soul in question asks.
“No. Why would I?”
“Oh. That’s sad. You should, you know. Boys love big lemons.”
Yeah, exactly why I would never get it.
“Hm.” I mumble, tracing a finger over an old printing machine. My fingertip comes back dusty—of course it does. I blow on it and watch the dust fly off. Someone from the cleaning staff is definitely getting fired once I get out of this shithole.
We’re stuck in the company’s storage room.
How?
Long story.
Two hours earlier
“Hey! Shanaya, how you doing?”
I look up from my desk and thank God it’s not that bitch Rachel again telling me to “do my work properly.” Again.
It’s Millie—energetic, bright, chaotic Millie. I love her, but I’m too exhausted to match her vibe. So I just smile.
“Hi, Mil. I’m fiiine, except for the fact that I haven’t slept in fucking three days because a particular person didn’t finish their work, and I had to complete it so they wouldn’t get in trouble. Thanks for asking though.”
“Jeez, you are on fire, girl,” she chuckles.
“So, what are you up to today?” I ask, noticing she looks the same as usual—neatly pressed shirt, mini skirt, black boots—but today her hair is open. She never leaves it open.
“Nothing,” she says, smiling nervously.
“Yeah, as if. Tell me why you styled your hair differently.” I turn my full attention to her.
She places a shaky hand on my desk. “Well… I was in the lobby yesterday to pick up my lunch, and in the elevator I heard two girls say that our boss likes girls with open hair. So I tried it. Please pray he notices me today.”
“Mil…” I soften my voice.
“Yeah?”
“You do know you look beautiful as you are, right? You don’t need to change yourself for that idiot crush of yours.” I place my hand on hers, gently grazing her palm.
“Yeah, I know. But I want to give it a chance. If this is what it takes to get him to notice me, then so be it.”
I sigh. “Okay. But if that piece of shit doesn’t notice, that doesn’t mean you’re not beautiful. Okay?”
Millie has had this ridiculous crush on our boss for three years. It’s worrying. When she first told me she liked Jonathan, I yelled at her because he had a girlfriend he planned to marry. But they broke up. Then he got engaged again—for company shares—and that broke off too. Millie took it as a sign from the universe.
Or from God.
Or from whoever she thinks runs her love life.
She smiles genuinely now—until something hits her.
“Oh! I forgot. Can you do me a favour? Actually no, I feel horrible asking.”
“Now I need to know. Tell me, I’ll do it.”
“Okay… can you please go to the storage room and get me the box of files labelled ‘2016 IMPORTANT’? Please?”
“Why can’t you just get it?”
“I would, but Rachel told me to ‘correct mistakes’ in my PPT. There are no mistakes. And she wants it in ten minutes. Shit, I have to go—please get it for me, babes!” she shouts while half running back to her desk.
God, this girl.
Present
So yeah, that’s how I got stuck here. I don’t know what her story is.
The annoying soul beside me—Janice—is a colleague. Her desk is close to Rachel’s cabin, which is why she acts like her minion.
Janice wasn’t like this before. Back when our manager was a guy, she got all the attention. But since Rachel—rich daddy’s girl—became manager, nothing has been the same. Rachel doesn’t even complete her tasks, and when I pointed it out, she dumped her workload on me. That’s why Janice sucks up to her—to avoid getting extra work.
Smart bitch.
“Why were you here?” Janice asks like I’m the imposter.
“I could ask you the same,” I reply, trying to hold onto the last bit of patience in my body.
“Oh, I was just here to take this.” She reaches inside a box and pulls out a thong—yes, a thong—and shoves it in my face like I’ve never seen one in my life.
What the hell.
Why is there a thong in the storage room?
And why is it—oh God—is it wet?
“Care to explain why this is here?” I ask.
“Oh, I had sex with Jonathan here last night. And God, he is big—”
“Don’t.” I cut her off. God
Millie’s heart doesn’t deserve this information.
“Fine, I won’t tell you my fantastic story. Your loss.”
“Thanks.” I say sarcasticly
“Your turn.” She looks at me expectantly.
“I was here to collect this,” I say, lifting the box Millie asked for. God, it’s heavy. What’s in it?
“Oh. That’s boring.”
Yeah, same as my life.
“So how do we get out?” I ask, setting the box down.
“Oh, about that…” She digs into her hair, pulls out a pin, crouches down, and starts fidgeting with the lock.
It clicks open.
What.
How?
If she could do this all this time .
Why the hell were we stuck here for 1 hour and 43 minutes?
Yes, I was counting.
“What? If you could do this, why didn’t you do it earlier?”
“I just wanted to spend some time with my daughter alone.”
Yeah.
Of course she did.
After all… she’s my mother.
Next update on the upcoming Wednesday
