Week Two, Night Five
Main Floor, 5:29pm
It’s Friday night and the regular day staff are pumped. They are wrapping up their shifts as we arrive and hear the loud, excited chatter on the floor.
“They’ve already drunk almost everything I bought. I’ll have to pick up more on the way home,” says a tiny, pretty Asian woman in tight clothes and high heeled black boots, hanging up her phone. She brings up her Smurfs screensaver on her computer and pushes past me in her hurry to get out the door.
“Good luck,” I mumble, not sure if she was talking to me or to just thinking out loud.
I put down my bags and glance at the day staff member next to me. It’s impossible not to look at her plunging cleavage, though I quickly force my gaze back up to her eyes, which are glaring into mine.
We both know what the other is thinking as we size each other up.
Skank, I think, looking at her.
Mum, she thinks, looking at me.
I attempt to toss my hair (it’s not long enough) and turn back to the computer. But it’s slow to open the programs, so I swivel my chair around to take in a bit more of the scene on the floor.
There’s Mike, standing very tall in his usual black attire, though he’s added a black jacket and he looks like he’s been awake for more than a few hours.
“Got plans with my girlfriend tonight,” he booms to anyone within hearing distance, which is most of the twenty or thirty people still on the floor.
I look over to Melissa, but her back is turned to me and she’s in a huddle with Courtney. I’m sure she’s heard him — everyone has — but I can’t see her reaction.
Is she disappointed? She’s got to be, with the way he’s been flirting with her for the past couple of weeks.
Mike carries on, announcing to no one in particular that he’s got to get a present for his girlfriend’s birthday before he meets up with her tonight.
I sneak another look at Melissa but she’s still bent low over her desk, whispering with Courtney, and her long hair is covering her face.
I frown at my screen, though it’s not because of the hourglass hanging in the center. Gee, Mike, what a hero you are, announcing to everyone that you’ve got a girlfriend, being the open and up front boyfriend, wow, nice acting job there. Too bad you waited on your announcement long enough to lead on one of our more vulnerable temps. Hope you had fun with your little game, dude. Yeah, that’s right, just stride out of here with your head held high, Mr. I’m Such a Good Guy.
“What’s with you?” asked Sara, stopping by my desk.
“Nothing,” I muttered, seeing Amber get off the phone a couple of desks away. “See you at break.”
6:34pm, Hallway
I come out of the restroom and bump into Justin, who is loitering.
Purposefully.
“I got offered a job,” he says, “but don’t tell anyone.”
“What? Here? Full time?”
“Yeah, but they said I can’t tell you guys. I guess I’m not very good at that part.”
I blinked.
“When did they offer it to you?”
“Tonight. Just now.”
“Well, that’s great.” I look at him uncertainly. I really have no idea how good he is at this job as he sits so far away from the rest of us. I guess I should just assume he’s really good at it. Or maybe it’s some kind of equal opportunity thing, as with Derek gone, Justin is the only male in the group of fourteen. No, I should assume he’s good at it. I have to assume he’s better at it than me.
“So are you going to take it?”
“Only if they pay eighty.”
“Eighty thousand a year? You do realise this is customer service, right? That’s probably more than Amber makes.”
He is unruffled.
“I don’t care.”
I can’t hide my grin.
“Have you, uh, told them of your demands yet?”
“Haven’t had a chance yet.”
“Well…let me know how it goes.” I can’t wait to hear how that conversation goes. I’m going to have to ask Steffi to show me her technique for listening through the walls.
“Okay.” He falls into stride alongside me as I head back to the main floor.
“But remember, don’t tell anyone,” he cautions me.
“You can trust me,” I assure him.
Break Room, 7:01pm
I walk in and there they are, three huge metal boxes. I hurry over to the middle one, scan scan it has to be here come on where is it I know you’re aha! G6. See you in a minute.
I stand up and walk over to the others, my mood vastly improved.
“You guys! Did you see? Vending machines!”
No one looks up and they keep talking in a huddle, voices low.
I start digging in my handbag for change and then look up, impatient.
“Hello? Vending machines? Anyone?”
Sara looks up. “Jobs. More people got offered jobs tonight.” Her face is clouded.
I put down my bag and pull up a chair.
“Who?”
Sara tonelessly lists off about half of the group. When she reaches the end of the list, I am deflated.
“But — but –”
“I know.”
A few of the others look up and I rearrange my features into what I hope is a supportive expression.
“Way to go, guys.”
I am happy for them. I really like this group, and they deserve to have good things happen to them.
And besides, I’m not a competitive person.
It’s just that I’m better than most of them!
Justin wanders into the break room.
“What’s going on?
He is informed of the others who got full time jobs.
“Oh, I did too,” he tells them. “But I’m not taking it for less than eighty.”
The temps’ laughter drowns out the sound of my footsteps as I slink out of the break room, determined to talk to Amber while everyone else is still back there.
Main Floor, 7:09pm
I enter the aisle where Amber sits and see, to my irritation, that one of the temps is still sitting there.
“Hi Christiane. You know it’s break, right?”
She turns and bestows a beatific smile.
“Yes, thank you,” she says, and turns and goes back to her work. I hesitate, but I can’t think of anything else to do to persuade her to leave. She often works through break.
I give up and take the few steps to Amber’s cube. She has her back turned to me and is pounding away on the keyboard.
“Amber? Would you have a minute?”
“Yes,” comes the reply, in an uninviting tone. She continues looking at her screen and her data entry does not slow down.
I take a second to translate what I want to say — WTF? — into Execu-Speak. It’s been years since I spoke Execu-Speak. But it’s not hard to remember.
“I have noticed that some of the other temps have been offered full time positions. I wanted to ask if I should be concerned about my performance here,” I say, trying to keep my voice low so that Christiane cannot hear the exchange.
Amber gives a short, humorless laugh.
“Oh, you would know by now if I had concerns about your performance. Believe me, you would know,” she tells her computer screen.
I wait to see if she is going to say anything else.
She stops typing, flicks over a piece of paper, and pushes her chair back.
“No, don’t worry,” she says, looking at me, and I wish I had remembered to tell her my name, but it’s a bit late now.
I also wish she would keep her voice down, but she speaks at normal volume, which suddenly sounds loud on the silent main floor.
“We’ve only offered two jobs so far,” she says loudly. “The others, it’s only been a preliminary conversation, just to see their level of interest in staying on full time. We’re just making a list, so we’ve got their names in case some more full time jobs come open.”
I try to think but my head feels slow and muddled.
“I thought there were fourteen full time jobs?”
Amber shook her head and turned back to her computer.
“No. Victor’s here to shake this place up, so a lot of things are up in the air right now. There might be more full time jobs by the time you guys finish your assignment. But right now all we’re doing is talking to people.”
“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” she said, and started typing again.
“Okay..thanks,” I said, and started walking back to my cube, too absorbed in my own thoughts to even pay attention anymore to whether Christiane had overhead the conversation.
I sat down heavily in my seat as the others filed in from the break room and scattered out to their desks.
I motioned to Sara, who was still looking upset, and she walked past.
“Got something to tell you when shift is over,” I whispered to her.
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