2. Meeting
Chapter two
Meeting
“What?…” At first, I thought I was hearing things. Did he say I had an Alpha interested in me?
“Surprise!” Sarah squealed beside me, hugging me and rocking back and forth. “Oh my god, you should have seen the look on your face! Man, I wish I had a camera.”
“Way ahead of you,” Mr. Radcliffe said, standing and walking over to his bookshelf, where he had a collection of pictures, books, and other things on display. He picked up an award that didn’t seem out of place among the others he received over the years. “I got something even better. Video.”
He started fiddling with it for a moment until he held up a tiny SD card, a triumphant look on his face. Sarah began to cackle at my side, holding her sides as if in danger of falling apart.
“I’m sorry, but you mentioned an Alpha?” As much as I loved being mocked, I had more pressing concerns at the moment.
“Right, of course. Sarah, I’ll make sure to send you a copy later.”
“Thank you,” she said sweetly. I gave her the evilest glare I could, but she just shrugged, like it didn’t bother her.
Mr. Radcliffe pocketed the SD card and took a seat in the chair facing me, hooking one leg over the other gracefully. “Usually, a caseworker assigned to you will give you the news.”
“Who’s my caseworker?”
Mr. Radcliffe points over to Sarah, a smug look on her face.
“Once I heard that you got an offer, I begged-”
“Extorted, more like.”
“Please, it was pressured at most, and you know it.”
“Hmm, sure.”
“Fine, I pressured Michael here to let me be the one to take on your case.”
The tears that were building and building finally spilled over. Sobs escaped from my lips as I brought my hands to my face, a small part of me embarrassed that I was crying in front of them. I don’t remember the last time I cried like I did now. Sarah laid a comforting hand on my back, giving comforting strokes. We stayed like that for a while, them letting me ride the emotion out until I finally began to settle.
“I’m sorry,” I said, embarrassed. Mr. Radcliffe handed me a box of tissues, and I accepted it gratefully.
“Don’t be. We can’t possibly begin to know how nerve-wracking it felt for you. Can I leave it to you to explain the next steps, Mrs. Winchester?”
“Absolutely, he’s in good hands.”
We leave, the manager having a meeting to go to shortly but wanted to meet with me first. After exchanging goodbyes, we make our way to Sarah’s office. Walking in, I’m almost overwhelmed by the state of her office. Papers were strewn everywhere, books piled haphazardly, and even clothes were thrown about the place in a disorganized way.
“Stop it. I can feel your judgement from here.” She sits down at her desk, the surface barely having enough free space to hold her keyboard, mouse, and monitor. She sees me still in the doorway and waves me in. “Well? Don’t be shy, have a seat.” I pick up a couple of folders from one of the chairs, creating a free space.
“I’m trying hard not to, I really am, but how do you get anything done in this mess?”
“With style and grace.” She gives me a wink before returning to her computer, her fingers almost a blur on the keyboard. She picks up a sticky note, one of many, covering the monitor’s edges, and types something in. She slightly frowned at something she saw on-screen, replaced the sticky note with another, and typed again. Sarah repeated this until she smiled in satisfaction.
“Damn passwords. Can never remember which one’s which.”
“Um, this is just my opinion, but maybe you shouldn’t keep your passwords somewhere easily accessible?”
She waves me off before clicking through multiple options until she got to where she wanted.
“Okay! So this is just a little spiel I’m legally required to say before we start the matching process,” she says before clearing her throat. “Here at OPS, we are committed to making sure that Omegas in our care are offered the best care and are dedicated to providing our full support. As such, we give them full disclosure of potential matching, giving them the right to refuse any or all pairings offered to them. Progressive of us, right?”
Sarah goes on for about a solid minute, and I do my best not to zone her out. I didn’t do a good job, apparently, cause she waved a hand in my face and then pointed to her ear. Her eyes are still on the screen, reading what is required of her. I let out a snort. She finally finishes a few moments later.
“Whew. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but that is my least favorite thing to do. Imagine having to do that for every case. Every. Single. Time. But, there’s always a silver lining. Would you like to see your potential Alpha?”
“I can see him?”
“Of course. If an Omega has multiple suitors, we give them a packet with the Alpha’s picture and their bios. Even if an Omega has only one suitor, we still offer. Some choose not to while others take a peek.”
It doesn’t even take me a moment to come to my decision. “I’ll pass.”
Sarah nods in understanding. “Going the romance route? I like it.” She lowers her voice. “When I met your father, I knew it was love at first sight.” She bats her eyelashes for good measure.
“Alright, that’s enough. I don’t care how he looks, I’m just glad that he picked me... you know?” She nods in understanding, her smile wilting a little bit, but not going away completely.
“So, there are a couple of steps are the initial one is over, and this one is probably my favorite thing to do.”
“Yeah, I bet it is.” I can guess what the next step was, having heard it from previous tenants, but I wait for her to say, too preoccupied with my own thoughts at the moment. I’m starting to second-guess myself by not looking at the Alpha profile, but try to reassure my choice because whoever it is, he’s the only one to show interest in me in the eight years I’ve been on ‘The Market’.
“So after a slight makeover, we’ll go to wardrobe and pick out clothes for you, followed by the meet and greet,” she takes a quick peek at her watch, “at noon. We’ll be pushing things a little close, even for me, but our teams will make sure you are ready to meet him.” I hold up my hands to forestall the torrent of words.
“Wait, makeover? And I’m meeting him today?” I finger the scar on my cheek, but she slaps my hand away.
“Just a haircut, nothing too fancy. And before you ask, yes, he’s aware of your scare. He doesn’t care in the slightest.”
I bring up a hand to my hair, feeling the curls that were cropping up on top of my head. I nodded begrudgingly. It’s been a while since I’ve had a haircut.”
The next few hours pass by in a slow crawl, making each moment a living hell. At first, it wasn’t so bad. Sarah and I went to stop by the barber first. As soon as the barber, a nice older man named Ben, saw Sarah accompany me, he knew why I was there. A broad smile split his face.
“It’s about time! Sit down, let me take a look at ya.” I sit as instructed while Sarah and Ben discussed how he should cut it.
“I’m fine if you just shaved it all off, honestly.” I was always self-conscious of my unusual hair color, trying to take the opportunity to hide it, at least for a little bit.
“No,” they both said. Well, at least I tried. I gave a different suggestion, this time shaving just the sides, but leaving just enough on top that would maybe satisfy them.
Ben came around from behind and took my chin in his hand gently, turning my head left and right. “Yeah, that’s actually not bad. What do you think, Sarah?”
“Isn’t it my hair? Don’t I get the final say?”
“Aw, honey,” she patted my cheek. It’s cute that you would think that. For the next couple of hours, you are all mine.” She thought for a moment, but then she ultimately gave Ben the go-ahead.
After leaving the barber, next came the wardrobe. Sarah led me to an area of the building I was unfamiliar with, never having a reason to explore around here till now. We go through double doors and walk out into an enclosed sky bridge leading to a building not unlike the one we just left. Once we got inside, we were met by a man and woman around my age, introducing themselves as Ann and Todd, respectively. I see their eyes flicker slightly down and try not to let it bother me.
We exchange pleasantries before moving off, Ann leading the way. She and Sarah hit it off, complementing each other’s outfits, while Todd and I lag behind in a somewhat uncomfortable silence.
“...Are you nervous at all?”
It seemed he was trying to break the awkwardness between us, so I let him.
“Yeah, you can say that...” It was honestly a serious contender understatement of the year, but at least he’s trying.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I gotta know, is that your natural hair color?”
“Yeah...” I braced myself for the unintended insult, being used to remarks saying it’s weird or odd.
“That’s... awesome! Especially with you having gold eyes, which look amazing by the way, I think we’ll have a lot of unique choices for you to choose from.”
“Oh, uh, thank you. I think my birth parents wanted to go for the exotic look.”
Genetic engineering was extremely popular during the technology’s infancy, with parents trying to adopt the new trend to give their children unique features so they could stand out more. However, it started to die out when the children grew up and expressed their displeasure at not being afforded a choice in the decision (despite being embryos at the time). There are some, though, who still go through with it, willing to accept the possible backlash in the future.
We finally approached two opaque doors, the contents of the room beyond currently obscured. Ann held out a card and swiped it against the sensor in the wall. The doors made an audible click before sliding open. Inside, I found a vast array of styles, fabrics, and colors. There was even a section that held an assortment of women’s clothes, which seemed odd to me.
“Do you know what kind of style you like? We have plenty of options here if you want to take a look around.”
“I don’t really have a particular style. I’m fine with anything, just not a dress,” I joked, pointing to the section where I saw dresses and skirts
“Well, there are Omegas who express themselves differently and are more comfortable in those types of clothes. We try to be inclusive as much as we can.”
“You’ll probably see it a lot more often once you start to live outside the OPS,” Ann said. I decide to take them up on the offer and walk around the room, trying to see if anything sticks out to me.
I stopped at a section where the clothes that were on display held mostly t-shirts, every shade of color on display. My eyes lingered on the graphic tees, some with pop culture characters, while others had sarcastic quotes that I found really funny. In the end, I decided to go the neutral route, picking a plain white shirt and some black cargo shorts. White sneakers completed the ensemble. They insisted I take a couple more outfits, not taking no for an answer, so I did, sneaking one graphic tee in the mix of plain t-shirts and a healthy mix of shorts and pants.
I thanked both Ann and Todd for their help, Sarah escorting me back to the other building.
“Looks like we got everything done with an hour to spare! I dunno about you, but I would be literally dying of suspense having to wait that long. Are you sure you don’t want a quick peek at his file?”
Although the offer was tempting, I decided to decline. It’s not to say I wasn’t curious about him, though.
“You’ve talked to him, right? What’s he like? Is he...nice?”
As soon as I answered the first question, more questions began to surface, and I wondered if I should take Sarah up on her offer to take a quick peek.
“I guess you’ll see when you meet him,” she said in a sing-song voice. I must’ve looked quite anxious, because she put a hand on my arm and we stopped. “Hey, don’t worry. We make sure that every Alpha who applies for the program is vetted. And if anything happens to you, god forbid, you will be taken care of, okay?”
Hearing those words calmed me somewhat, and we parted ways, Sarah going back to her office to get started on the paperwork. Once I was back in my room, I quickly changed and just... waited. It seemed like I checked the clock on the wall every few minutes, getting more nervous as the awaited time grew closer.
At fifteen minutes till noon, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find Sarah standing there, a stack of papers in her arms. “Ready to go?”
I nod, taking a last look at my room before I left. I didn’t have many personal things, and as I glanced around, a small sense of sadness started to well up in me. It was as if I never lived in this room for the past four years.
Stepping outside, I notice two guards I hadn’t noticed before, the OPS logo on their uniforms. Sarah reassures me that they’re here for my protection, and I nod. She then leads the small party to the building we visited earlier, a guard on each side of me. Instead of staying on the same floor, we take the elevators down to the main floor.
Unlike the building I was familiar with, this one had an open lobby filled with lounge seating. The biggest difference I noticed immediately, though, was the couples filling the lobby. It was quite noticeable, with the Omegas sharing the same androgynous look that I lacked. The Alphas at their side, however, was a new experience.
They were noticeably bigger than their partners, with broad shoulders and a more masculine appearance. This was the first time I’d seen Alphas in person; before this moment, I had only seen them on TV. It surprised me how normal they looked. Despite slight differences, they could pass as Ordinary Betas.
The guards that were at my side started to box me in closer as a couple of Alphas in the room looked my way, most of them looking on curiously. There were a few, however, who had a more... hungry look. Sarah looked back, giving me an encouraging look.
“Don’t worry. Most of the Alphas here are with their partners. They won’t try anything, trust me. Omegas can be fierce when they want to be.”
We finally stopped in front of a sort of meeting room, the sign designating it as ‘Mercury’.
“Let me go in first to see if he’s here and that everything’s ready. Remember, you can refuse the match at any point in time.”
Then she was gone, one of the guards accompanying her. Only a few moments passed before she popped her head out. “Okay, we’re ready for you.
I took a couple of deep breaths, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I was so nervous it was a very good chance that I would start spewing chunks at any minute.
“It’s okay if you need a few minutes,” Sarah said.
I nodded my head shakily, shaking out my arms and pacing back and forth to burn off some of the nervous energy. Okay, you can do this. You’ve been waiting for this moment for years. Before my temporary surge of courage abandons me, I open the door and walk through, ready to meet my Alpha.