Chapter 41

After logging in to my staff account, I began to enjoy the environment. I had a whole office to myself and unlike with Chad where the offices were demarcated, it was an entire room.

I looked around the room to see if there were any security cameras I could find and when the air was clear, I put my hands behind my head, crossed my legs on the table in front of me and exhaled with a satisfied sigh, closing my eyesight. If the air conditioning blessing me in my current position wasn’t everything, I had no idea what was.

It was a stupid thing to try and spin on the spinning chair while my feet were still on the table, because I fell right off and la need on my butt.

"Okay, that was weird." I cleared my throat as I stood up, "this is a new job Nikki, this is definitely not the time to try and mess things up." I told myself, sitting back and going through everything I was supposed to.

*

At exactly twelve o' clock, a knock came on the door and I wanted to tell whoever it was, how lazy I felt having to read emails about paper delivery, and what nonsense.

"Come in!" I bellowed, too loud for my on good.

I wasn't surprised when it happened to be Cornelius that walked in.

"Oh, hi." I smiled, scratching the back of my neck nervously, suddenly feeling stupid for yelling so loud.

"I just wanted let you know its lunch break,” he said.

"Oh, okay." I nodded and watched as he turned to leave.

I furrowed my eyebrows at him and stopped him immediately, "wait, where are you going?"

He turned around and eyed me from head to toe like I was some wild animal ready to pounce on him. "On my lunch break?"

"Why are you the only one interacting with me? Who is the manager around here? Are you like the only staff in an organization this big?"

"Absolutely not, everyone is just actually busy here plus, I'm in charge of you until you're fully on your feet, so there's that." He stuffed his hands into his pocket. Did he even realize how hot he looked in that posture? He had to know, why else would he be intimidating me this way?

"You look like you don't even know what you're supposed to do on your lunch break." He grinned. I didn't give him a response and only stood still, ignoring how stupid it made him seem.

"Come on," he released one hand and waved it at me, "let's go. I'll take you out today, just today. You should be on your stable feet by tomorrow, in the meantime, you can ask me as much questions as you would find helpful." He turned around even without me asking him and resumed with his hands stuffed into his pocket.

I stopped behind him until I caught up and then cleared my throat, imitating his footsteps.

"How long does lunch break last?" I asked.

"Thirty minutes."

"What happens if I am not done with eating by then, can I bring it back to the office?"

"Uh…I guess so?"

"Can I eat in the office?"

"Not while you're working, no."

"Okay. Are there any restaurants close to here or is there an office cafeteria that serves you whatever you want?"

"Yes, to both questions, but I'm personally taking you to a restaurant because I think their food is healthier."

"Okay. Is what you all do, sell papers? I feel less busy while working through those emails, I'm not calling them boring, just stating facts.

"Yes, I mean no..." he was trying to answer my questions, but I kept them coming.

"Are we allowed to have our partners visit?"

"If it isn't interfering with your working hours, then yes, like lunch break now."

"So how many lunch breaks do we get?"

"Just one.'' He answered. We were almost at the door by now.

"Can we have sex with our partners during this lunch break?"

"What?? No."

"Not even outside the building?"

"No."

"What's your favorite color?"

"Indigo."

"Odd and uncommon, I like that...do you have a girlfriend? Asking for a friend."

"Can you?!" He pressed his fingers against his forehead, raising his give a little and then trailing off mud way with a sigh. He closed his eyes, took a deep grey in, exhaled and reopened them to look at me, returning his calm voice as he spoke.

"Can you just stop? Remember when I said you could ask me questions? Yes, please don’t.” He tried his best to maintain his nice voice but from the pitch of things, I knew I was crossing my boundaries and so I held my questions back, knowing very well that it would be stupid to get on his nerves and it was only my first day.

The best thing was to open my mouth shut and I realized that now.

I followed Cornelius, silently wondering what was going on in his head, if he would want to eat with me especially after my little display although I had found it totally harmless, I knew he didn't think so.

"Okay, we are here." He pointed at the door of a casual restaurant only two buildings away from Stamps and papers.

"Wow, this looks like it will be some sort of fancy hang out time." I gave him my honest opinions following him as he made his way through the restaurant.

"It's fine," he shrugged, picking out a chair for me. "Stay here, I'll get us something to eat, and then you can tell me all about yourself." He was talking like we were some long lost siblings that had reconciled.

I sat on the chair obediently while waiting for him to show back with the food. I was more than curious to know what his taste of food was, but that curiosity wiped off when I looked next to me and sitting alone, Tom was there, on a phone call.