Chapter 51
Chapter Fifty-One
Cassius
“I still don’t think we should do this,” I say as I pull into the parking garage.
“Well, we’re adults and we have adult things to do, Cassius,” Cammy responds with a huff.
“Thanks for being sympathetic, sis,” I mutter as I find a parking spot and turn into it.
“Sympathy isn’t going to help you.”
She opens the door as soon as the car comes to a stop, but I wait.
I know she’s upset, though she won’t admit it. Not about me and my moping, but because she let Harmon in too. And he disappointed us. Just like everyone else has. Her taking it out on me hurts, but it’s a good distraction. If she keeps berating me, I’m not thinking about Harmon.
Which is going to be difficult to do today… at his office.
Even though he won’t be here, it doesn’t mean a damn thing.
Even though I’ll be on a different floor, it doesn’t mean a damn thing!
The city reminds me of him. The view. The elevator. The fucking parking garage. Everything here reminds me of him.
But Cammy is right. We have responsibilities.
We took a week to take care of Chrissy. Now it’s Monday and we’re reporting for work.
We’re starting fresh and moving on with our lives.
I’ll get over it, eventually. I mean, I have to, right?
I can’t be upset about him forever. And maybe when I get some experience under my belt here, I can find a new job.
One that won’t remind me of him at every turn.
So this, like everything else has been in my life, is only temporary.
I shut the car off and hurry after Cammy who is already inside the building.
“You look very pretty,” I say to her.
“You already told me that,” she grumbles as she stabs the button for the elevator even though it was already lit up.
The elevator bay is small with a couch no one uses and an end table with an arrangement of fake flowers. There is only one elevator that comes down this far, and across from it is the staircase door. Other than that, it’s empty.
“I just want to make sure you know.”
“Of course, I know, Cassius. I did it on purpose.”
The elevator reaches us, and we step on, the doors closing. It stops on the first floor and a ton of people file in. I feel like we’re in a sardine can.
“Do you want to get lunch together today?” I ask her.
“I have no idea what my day looks like, Cassius.” Her arms are crossed, gaze fixed on the numbers telling us which floor we’re on.
“I’m trying here,” I whisper.
“Maybe you should stop,” she says, her voice cracking.
The elevator makes its way up, stopping on every other floor.
People file out and eventually I’m not on top of Cammy anymore and can breathe.
She looks relieved by it. It shouldn’t hurt my feelings, but it does.
Even if I know this isn’t because of me, it still feels like it is.
I’m the one who brought him into our home.
I’m the one who opened us up to this. I let him into our lives, and he hurt all of us. That’s on me.
The doors open on Cammy’s floor, and she gets out without saying a word.
“Bye,” I call after her as the doors are closing. I pinch the bridge of my nose and take a deep breath. I need to get my shit together. It’s my first day of work. I’m meeting my boss. I need to handle this right.
The doors open on the next floor. My time to be sad is over. I step into the reception area and go to the reception desk to the left. Mary-Anna smiles warmly at me, adjusting her pink-framed glasses.
“Oh, good morning, Mr. Carr.”
“Good morning,” I repeat. “I’m starting today.”
“I heard,” she says with a smile. “If you want to head to your office, I’ll let Ken know.”
“Thank you.”
Harmon had given me a quick tour of this floor last week, so I’m familiar with it. I was introduced to Mary-Anna and Ken, who will be my direct supervisor.
My office is small, and unfortunately, has a similar view as Harmon’s since it’s on the same side of the building.
The room is spacious but empty, and the desk is facing the wrong way.
There’s a quick knock on the door
“Hey, good morning, Cassius. How was your weekend?”
One of the worst of my life.
Ken is in his late thirties, with light brown hair and dark brown eyes. Total dad vibes, and not in a daddy way. But like he has a family and kids. Nothing wrong with that, of course. Family is great.
“It was good. How was yours?”
“Not bad. We took the kids camping for the weekend.”
“Wow, that sounds nice.”
“I mean, it turned out nothing like I wanted it to. The kids hated it. My wife got poison ivy, but that’s half the fun, right? The chaos of it all?”
“Uh, sure. Yeah, if you say so.” I laugh.
“Well, anyway. Welcome to your office.” He gestures around. “Maintenance will be here within the hour to move this around how you want it. They’ll set up your computer, phone line, and printer. If you need any filing cabinets or more desks, let them know. They’ll get you whatever you need.”
“Thank you.”
“Yeah, of course. We want all our employees to be comfortable in the space they’re in, so feel free to order a few things to make it yours. And bring in whatever personal items you want, too. Family photos, stuff like that. We like seeing that stuff.”
It’s nice that they encourage personal touches. I’m sure that’s not acceptable everywhere.
“I will do that, thank you.”
“Once your office is set up, you can review the meeting room schedule to familiarize yourself with it. When someone needs space, they fill out a request form which gets emailed directly to you. You will approve or deny it. If it’s denied, suggest a change.
That’ll only happen if it’s taken, of course.
Simple enough. And you can check out the stock rooms. People are supposed to subtract things from the list when they take them, but they don’t always, so don’t trust it.
There’s a cheat sheet on each of them with the minimum number of items we should have in stock at a time.
Of course, as you get going, you’ll figure this all out.
And if you have any questions, let me know. ”
“Sounds great.”
“Cool. I’ll see you later then?”
“See you later, Ken. Thanks again.”
He leaves my office, and I sit in the chair. It squeaks loudly. I rock back and forth, and it turns into a screeching sound.
“Looks like you’re going to need a new chair.
” I turn to face the door. A young guy in jeans and a grey polo steps in.
Longish sandy blond hair, glasses that give him a bit of a nerdy look.
He’s built, like he visits the gym often, and his outfit shows off every muscle there is to see.
His sleeves look like they may tear if he moves the wrong way.
“Yeah, I think so,” I say with a smile. I get up and offer him my hand. “Cassius Carr.”
He takes it and shakes. “Frankie. It’s nice to meet you.”
“I take it you’re from maintenance?”
“Good guess. So, what do you need done in here?” he asks, planting his hands on his hips.
“Uh…” I look around. “For starters, I’d like the desk over here by the door. New chair, of course. A filing cabinet that can go in that corner over there. Am I allowed to ask for a couch or something?” I ask.
“You can have whatever you want—that’s what I was told.”
“Right… well, okay then. How about—”
“If you’d like, once I get your computer hooked up, I’ll get you on the website for the company we order furniture from. You can order whatever you want.”
“Okay,” I say, feeling weird about all this. “Does, uh, everyone get to do this?”
He shrugs, taking the chair and moving it by the door. “Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“We’re told that employees can decorate their offices how they want and to get them what they request… in moderation. The moderation part? It was left out about you.”
I huff a nervous laugh. “And, uh, who said that?”
“Ken.”
That lets me breathe easier. The last thing I want is for people to think I am Harmon’s favorite. Especially now, when I’m the exact opposite.
The desk in this office is an L-shape and solid, but apparently not too heavy for Frankie to slide across the room and set it in the place I want it. He makes it look like it’s no heavier than a stack of papers.
“Impressive,” I comment.
He smirks. “Thanks. Preference on a chair?”
“I have options?”
He chuckles. “You can come with me. Sit in them all and decide which one you like best.”
“Lead the way.” I gesture to the door.
I’ve never had friends before, no one other than Abe, and I haven’t talked to him in a while.
He doesn’t have a cell anymore, and I haven’t wanted to go by the trailer because of the witch.
As far as I know, she’s still living there, and I don’t think a restraining order will keep her away from me if she lays eyes on me.
And if I’m going there, well, that’ll likely get me in trouble.
But Abe knows where I live, and he hasn’t shown up either.
It is what it is. I’m sure I’ll talk to him at some point, but I do know that’s not a normal friendship. That’s… convenience.
Maybe now that I work, I can make friends. Real friends. Have healthy relationships. And I can start with Frankie the Maintenance Guy because he’s nice.
I follow him to the back of the office and into a small elevator.
“I didn’t know this was here.”
“It only runs along the Stone floors. Convenient for moving things around.”
We go down a floor and exit into a large room. Filing cabinets line the wall to the left, two to three rows deep. Desks are not far from there. Trash cans. Glass coolers. Cabinets. Unopened boxes that could be holding anything. And then, the chairs.
“Wow,” I say as I make my way over to them. “This is a lot.”
There has to be forty of them, at least.
“Told you,” he says. “Try them out while I find you a filing cabinet that doesn’t have a jammed drawer and comes with a key.”