Ch 1
Jules
I hadn’t decided to wake up late this morning. It just happened like that, so stopping to get coffee wasn’t an issue. It was an issue to my boss; that was why I was sitting here while she ripped me a new one about being on time. Little did Sandra know that after the tenth talk, I realized nothing was ever going to come of it, because I never missed a deadline and I’m is the only one on the team who can compose an email. So I might leave early today, too.
“Are you even listening, Jules!” Sandra was red in the face at this point, but that didn’t take much.
“I am,” I groaned. “I promise I will put my full effort into being on time tomorrow, Scout’s honor.” I looked away from her and giggled. Sandra wasn’t the worst boss I’ve ever had, but her pet peeve was being where you said you’d be when you said you’d be there. So when she pissed me off, I was late the next day, and I brought her a coffee. It’s the little things that keep me going.
“Can you please look over the new POs when you get to your desk? We have new vendors ordering; they always forget something.” She didn’t look up from her screen, shooing me away.
“I’m on it,” I said as chipper as I could, because that’s what I did. Chipper, sunshine, and birds singing in the distance. People responded well to it, and they really couldn’t handle anything else.
David
If I could make it to the office before I encountered my first idiot of the day, it would be a fucking gift. But that would require the rest of the population to have some common sense. We are already doomed, so I do what I do every morning: get dressed, brush my teeth, put my shoes on, pet the dog, and drive in traffic for an hour before even getting to work. They say a man needs a dog, so I got one. She is doing her job; I feed her, and she bothers me.
“Happy Monday!” The singsong voice rang in my ears before I could finish my coffee. She’s early today. Fuck. I duck into my office to find my boss with her feet kicked up, scrolling on her computer.
“Morning.” I delivered with just enough disdain for Susan to look up.
“Knock, Knock.” Jules steps into the office.
“No.” I sat down, starting up my computer without looking up, hoping she would just chat with Susan and leave me out of whatever nonsense she had going on today. I had too much to worry about with two guys calling out sick, and the extra shipments dropped on us last minute for some rich fuck out in Texas.
“You didn’t even ask who it was.” She pouts, which has to be my least favorite thing that she does, and she knows it.
“I knew.”
“That’s either impressive or depressing.”
“I vote depressing.” Susan snorts
She ignores Susan and wanders farther into the office like she’s been invited. She stops in front of my desk, eyeing the new coffee mug I’d picked up over the weekend.
“You got a new mug.”
“It’s a mug.”
“It has a mountain on it.”
“It came with coffee.”
“So you chose it.”
“It was in front.”
She grins like I’d confirmed some grand theory.
“I knew you secretly liked nature.”
I stared at her. “It’s coffee.”
“Mmhmm.”
She took another sip from her own cup, completely unconcerned that she was still standing there.
Susan finally looked up. “Jules, didn’t Sandra send you to review purchase orders?”
“I believe in multitasking.”
“You believe in bothering people,” I whispered.
“I contain multitudes.” She flashed Susan a smile before looking back at me.
“You look less angry today.”
“I am.”
“Huh.” She tilted her head. I rubbed a hand over my face.
“What do you need?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you here?”
She looked genuinely surprised by the question.
“I was saying good morning.”
“You already did that.”
“I don’t think you appreciated it enough.”
“I appreciated it exactly the right amount.”
She laughed. It wasn’t loud. Just enough to crawl under my skin.
“You know,” she said, “one of these mornings I’m going to get an actual smile out of you.”
“I wouldn’t make plans around it.”
“I like a challenge.”
Of course she did. She glanced toward the shipping floor.
“Well... I should pretend to work.”
“You should actually work.”
She pointed at me. “See? That’s progress.”
“What?”
“You care.”
“I care about productivity.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
She spun on her heel and headed for the door.
“Oh.” She stopped, looking back. “Happy Monday, David.”
I sighed. She laughed again.
“I’ll see you later.”
“Please don’t.”
The door swung shut. Thank god. Susan watched me over the top of her monitor.
“You know she likes you.”
I frowned. “No, she doesn’t, and that is not my problem.”
Susan blinked.
“David...”
“She’s just like that.”
Susan gave me the same look people gave toddlers who insisted the stove wasn’t hot.
“Sure.”
I turned back to my computer. People had entirely too much imagination. She just had an alarming amount of free time, and she got enjoyment out of ruffling feathers. It just so happens right now she is in the mood to ruffle mine.
