It's All a Matter of Choice Read online

  Of all the businesses in the area, why did she have to get a job where this guy worked?

  “Maybe I can show Anita around the rest of the office, Janice. I know you have work to do. Currently, I’m all caught up,” he said to the supervisor who looked relieved.

  “Oh Brandon, would you?” Janice gushed.

  “It would be my pleasure,” Brandon said walking up to Anita and offering his arm. She didn’t take it but Brandon took the snub in stride. “This way Anita, he said, showing her out of the cubicle.

  The tour became more interesting, with Brandon giving his assessment and little tidbits about the people he was about to introduce her to…and not all flattering.

  “We’re coming up on Herman now. He’s over forty, fat, balding and has a shrew of a wife and five kids. He’s on the ropes…only closing two or three accounts a month. He should leave and let a younger guy in, but the boss has a soft spot for him…he’s been here since the company started over twenty years ago,” he informed Anita.

  Brandon stopped in front of Herman’s cubicle. The associate was studying a list of possibles intently on his screen when Brandon said loudly, “Hey Herman!” The poor man nearly jumped out of his skin. He blinked at the couple standing in front of him and ran his hand over his comb over.

  “Hi Brandon,” he said, his brown eyes resting on Anita and flushing with embarrassment.

  “This is Anita…new office girl. Just remember you’re an old married man,” Brandon said jovially. Anita frowned slightly as Herman grew even redder.

  She offered the nervous man her hand.

  “Hello Herman,” she said softly, giving him a smile. “It’s very nice to meet you. If you need help with anything, just let me know.”

  Herman took her hand and shook it, smiling now as Brandon scowled slightly. Anita hadn’t been so friendly with him.

  “Welcome to B, B & B,” Herman replied, looking at the young woman gratefully.

  “Let’s move along. There’s a few more losers to meet,” Brandon said gruffly.

  Herman colored again, and Anita decided she disliked Brandon even more now than when she met him in the bar the first time.

  “I’ll see you around, Herman,” she said to him again, before leaving with Brandon, who looked at her sideways.

  “You know, most of the girls don’t help Herman with his paperwork. He does so little they figure he can do it himself,” he said.

  Anita glowered a little.

  “Well, I’m not like most of the girls. If he’s closed a contract, then he should get a little help just to show his work’s appreciated,” she replied.

  Brandon snorted and led Anita to cubicle after cubicle, introducing her to her fellow co-workers after giving a bit of insight on each one. Finally they came to a little cubicle in the corner. It was the very last one.

  Inside sat a young man with large black glasses and a bad haircut. He wore a Scooby-Doo tie with a gray horizontally striped shirt. A pocket protector was sticking out of the breast pocket of the shirt, which was too big and stuffed in his pants, a pair of black polyester pants held up with a belt that was too wide. He looked like his mother dressed him.

  “Now, this guy, Emmet Barrows has been here for years and never closed a contract,” Brandon said conspiratorially.

  Emmet was on the phone, an extraordinarily large pile of paperwork towering on his desk. He was writing something down on a pad as he spoke.

  “Yes sir…Mr. Jonathan Grimes, yes sir, ten o’clock on Tuesday. Yes sir. Our representative will be there with all the information you need to make an informed decision. My pleasure sir. Thank you for considering B, B & B for your office needs,” Emmet said. He hung up the phone and smiled. He’d landed another interview.

  Suddenly a tanned hand snatched the note off his pad.

  “Hey Emmet, who’d you land this time?” Brandon said, studying the note. His eyebrows went up and he looked at the dark-haired associate. “Hobson’s Financial? You arranged an interview with the CEO? Emmet, we’ve been after them for years.”

  ”Well I read a small article about them having difficulties with the payroll company they utilized, so thought they might want to make a change. It’s just the timing,” Emmet replied, watching as Brandon stuffed the information in his pocket.

  “I’ll handle the closing on this,” he said, then looked at Anita. “Oh, this is Anita Bowen…new office girl.”

  Emmet looked at the new employee. Brown-haired, brown-eyed, full-lips, curvaceous with very pretty legs. Anita was smiling at him with interest. He swallowed but didn’t say anything…he was struck by how pretty she was.

  Brandon rolled his eyes. What a loser.

  “Aren’t you going to say anything, Emmet?” he asked him.

  Emmet started.

  “Oh, welcome to B, B & B Miss Bowen,” Emmet said, flushing a bit and adjusting his glasses.

  “Thank you,” Anita said, “But you can call me Anita.”

  Anita kind of liked that Emmet did not address her familiarly by her first name when introduced. It seemed he had old-fashioned manners.

  “All right, Anita,” Emmet replied, flushing again.

  Anita studied the mountain of paperwork on his desk.

  “Why do you have so much work, Emmet?” she asked as Brandon sighed exaggeratedly. Anita turned to him.

  “Brandon, you’re done introducing me to the associates, aren’t you?” she asked him.

  “Yes, I just need to show you the staff room and cafeteria,” Brandon replied.

  “I’d like to talk to Emmet for a bit. Maybe he can show the rest to me,” she said to the handsome blonde, whose blue eyes darkened a bit. She was dumping him for Emmet? He looked at the paperwork on Emmet’s desk.

  “I don’t think he’s going to have time with all that paperwork,” Brandon said.

  “Maybe I can help him clear some of it out. That’s why I was hired after all,” Anita replied evenly.

  Brandon looked at her stubbornly for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders.

  “Fine,” he snorted and walked off, clearly pissed.

  Anita sat down in the little folding chair near Emmet’s desk.

  “You just let Brandon walk off with your interview,” she said to Emmet, who was pretending to look at his computer screen.

  “He and the other associates always handle my closings. Mr. Allen doesn’t believe I have the proper presence to close deals,” Emmet said, still studying the screen.

  Anita eyed the paperwork.

  “So what’s all this?” she asked.

  Emmet turned in his chair and looked at the pile of papers.

  “When they close on an account I’ve set up, they bring me back the paperwork to do,” he replied, the pile of papers reflected in his glasses.

  “They must have closed a lot of your accounts. Do you get any credit for it?” Anita asked him, her eyes dark.

  “We split the closing bonus. It’s usually pretty good,” he replied with a sigh.

  Anita looked at him a moment. She could tell Emmet was a very sweet guy, and was being overlooked and walked all over. He was good at what he did. The least his boss could do was let him try close his own accounts. But then again, Emmet didn’t look too sharp. First impressions were everything, and as smart as Emmet was, he didn’t project confidence.

  “It kind of sucks that you are given all the paperwork while they’re given all the glory,” Anita said to him.

  “I don’t need glory,” Emmet replied, looking at her directly now. “But it would be nice if they would do the paperwork themselves.”

  Anita studied him.

  “Why don’t you tell them that?” she asked him.

  Emmet shrugged.

  “I’d rather do the work than argue,” he said simply.

  “I see,” Anita said, her dark eyes washing over the associate. He wasn’t a bad looking guy. He just needed repackaging. There was nothing Anita liked more than a “project.” She gave him a smile.

  �
��You think you can leave this pile of paperwork long enough to show me the staff room and the cafeteria? It’s almost lunchtime and we can grab a bite to eat while we’re down there,” she said.

  Emmet almost lost his voice.

  “You want to eat with me?” he asked her incredulously. God, she was so pretty. She could pick anyone she wanted to share lunch with.

  “Yes. I think you’re nice,” Anita replied.

  Emmet blinked at her.

  “I…I carry my lunch to work,” he said, his voice quavering just a bit. He cursed mentally at himself.

  “So, you can still bring it. I doubt if the cafeteria workers would mind,” Anita pressed.

  Emmet stared at her for another moment, then said, “Okay.”

  Anita smiled and stood up, offering Emmet her arm.

  Emmet stood up, cautiously looped his arm through hers, and walked out of the cubicle. He was aware of everyone staring at them with slack mouths and round eyes as he walked her toward the staff room. Brandon was frowning. Anita hadn’t taken his arm when he offered it to her.

  “She must have a thing for losers,” the blonde thought to himself as they walked by. Emmet glanced at him as they passed and saw the black look on Brandon’s face.

  Suddenly, he began to feel pretty damn good.

  Chapter 2 ~ Lunch

  Emmet and Anita walked past the area where the office girls had their desks, craning their necks after them. Susan Jameson, a bleached blonde with huge breasts that she didn’t mind showing off, especially for Mr. Allen, looked after them.

  “What’s she doing with Emmet?” she asked, filing her nails. Her desk was empty. By rights she should have some of the work on Emmet’s desk, but once the girls found out he’d do his own paperwork, they never came to collect it. Less work for them. And Emmet never complained. He just took it home if he couldn’t finish it.

  “Slumming?” another brunette replied.

  All the women giggled. There were nine of them in all. Anita completed the group.

  “Well, if she’s going to fit in with us, she’s going to have to pick someone cooler to flirt with…like Brandon or Jeffery,” another girl said.

  ”Or Mr. Allen,” Susan said dreamily. “But she’d better look and not touch. I’m not losing my bonuses for any bitch.”

  Susan and Mr. Allen had something more than a working relationship. Susan would do almost anything to get her way, and Mr. Allen was definitely a breast man. A few squeezes could get her time off or a little extra in her paycheck. Susan had a good thing going with the boss and wasn’t about to let anyone worm her way between them.

  All the office workers knew something was going on, but they kept it hush-hush. It wasn’t worth losing their jobs over. That was how the last girl lost her job, trying to report Mr. Allen’s impropriety to the higher-ups when he denied her several days off. She was gone the next day.

  Emmet showed Anita the location of the restrooms, the vending machines, water fountain and the staff room, which was a large room with tables and chairs, two microwaves, a sink, a large refrigerator, cabinets and witty motivational sayings about the work ethic taped all over the walls. There was a faded classic poster of a kitten hanging on to a tree branch for dear life with a caption beneath that read, “I Hate Mondays” and several other smaller quotes and sayings.

  The one that really caught Anita’s eye was one printed on fluorescent orange paper in black, block letters: “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.”

  Mildly threatening to say the least.

  “Um, I need to get my lunch,” Emmet said, gingerly releasing Anita’s arm, walking over to the refrigerator and opening it. After searching for a bit, he extracted a brown bag, then walked back over to Anita.

  “You always brown bag it?” she asked.

  Emmet nodded. His mother always fixed his lunch for him saying it was a waste of hard earned money to eat in the cafeteria. Since she took half of Emmet’s paycheck each time he brought it home, she tried to keep it as whole as possible. Not that she minded his picking up and paying for her Rueben sandwich and cherry coke every night. Emmet did try and point out it would be cheaper to buy the ingredients for the sandwich and a case of cherry coke, but June whined that it just didn’t taste the same and he was being stingy towards her.

  “It’s just not the same,” she complained as he told her his idea.

  Emmet gave in as he always did, not bringing up homemade cold cut and tuna sandwiches seemed fine enough for him to eat everyday at work.

  “I see. I don’t bring my lunch because it’s just too much trouble to make every day,” Anita replied. “You probably save a lot of money that way.”

  “Yes, I do,” Emmet said shortly, very aware of the pretty brunette taking his arm again. He arm was soft, but firm against his, and as a man who didn’t come into contact with pretty brunettes…or pretty anythings for that matter…he found himself quite affected.

  They walked to the elevator, both of them getting looks from other employees as they waited.

  “Who’s that with Emmet?” Jack Harper from the third floor asked George Eland, another associate. Jack worked in the investment department and was an older man of about fifty-five, gray-haired and rather distinguished looking in an impeccable black suit. George was pushing a cart full of letters and messages. He was a mail clerk.

  “New office girl,” George replied, looking at the couple as they stepped into the elevator. “Must be something wrong with her to be hanging on to him like that.”

  Jack looked thoughtful.

  “Emmet’s a pretty good guy. He works hard for the company and is the best man on the floor when it comes to arranging first contacts. I hear his name quite a bit, though he hasn’t actually closed a deal yet. Something about his presentation. Actually I just think he needs a chance. Seeing a pretty girl on his arm is rather encouraging though,” Jack said.

  Jack was right about one thing…a man with a pretty woman on his arm attracted attention. Already everyone in the office was wondering what was with Emmet and the new girl. If she had been on, say, Brandon’s arm…no one would have been surprised at all. But dorky Emmet Barrows?

  Emmet and Anita rode to the basement floor in silence…Emmet perspiring slightly. Anita noticed and gave him a slight smile.

  “You don’t talk much, do you Emmet?” she asked him.

  Emmet cleared his throat.

  “Ah, no…not much,” he said, once again cursing himself. She was trying to make conversation and he was clamming up like he always did. Why was he such a wimp?

  “That’s all right. I’ve always liked the strong, silent type,” Anita replied, “My grandmother always used to say ‘Still water runs deep.’ I’ve found she was right.”

  Emmet didn’t say anything but his heart was pounding. Was Anita actually flirting with him? Him?

  The elevator stopped and the door opened on the hallway that led to the cafeteria and the parking garage.

  “This way,” Emmet said as several more employees passed them, looking at Anita curiously.

  “I bet he’s brilliant,” one woman whispered to another after studying Emmet. “Some women like those brainy types.”

  Emmet led Anita into the cafeteria. It was huge with a large salad bar, fruit bar and a food line where the employees slid a tray down and were served the hot foods of their choice by hair-netted cafeteria workers. One wall was almost all vending machines. Rest rooms were in the far right corner, and tables with napkin holders abounded. Garbage cans rested strategically along the walls, far from the diners. There was even a Pizza Hut area and a Burger King.

  “Nice cafeteria,” Anita said, releasing Emmet’s arm.

  “I’ll get a table,” Emmet said to her shortly.

  “All right. I’m going to see what they’re serving on the hot line,” Anita replied, walking off.

  Emmet watched her go. My, she had a pretty walk as well. He swallowed and picked a table on the edge of the room.
He didn’t like being surrounded by employees. It made him self-conscious…as if he were on display.

  Emmet sat down, pulled out a couple of napkins, spread them out, then took out his foil wrapped sandwich, unwrapped it and lifted the bread to see what his mother had made him this time. Shit, tuna fish. He took out his coke classic and an apple. There was a big brown spot on the side of it. Emmet frowned and set it aside. No dessert today.

  Emmet didn’t mind tuna fish, but his mother always added a lot of onions. No matter how good it tasted going down, it made his breath smell both fishy and oniony. If there was ever a day he didn’t want that, it was today. He didn’t want to breathe fish and onions all over Anita.

  Emmet looked up at the line. Anita had just made it to the serving line itself. She was pointing at something behind the glass and passed her plate to the heavyset cafeteria worker. Since she was at the end of the line…he might have time. Emmet took the bread off his tuna sandwich and quickly tried to dig out all the pieces of onion. Luckily, June didn’t chop them very fine.

  “Emmet, if you don’t like onions in your tuna fish, why put them in?” Herman asked him as he pulled out a chair and sat down. The associate placed two granola bars on the table, and a small box of low-fat milk.

  Emmet looked up at him then glanced over at Anita, who was at the middle of the line now.

  “I like onions. Just not today,” he said, continuing to pluck.

  Herman looked over at Anita, then smiled at Emmet.

  “Ah, not today. I got you,” he said. “Maybe you should start packing mouthwash.”

  Emmet finished plucking out the onions, hurriedly sucked his fingers, then folded the onions up in the napkin and pushed them to the side as Anita walked over to the table with her tray. Herman immediately flushed as she sat down. Anita smiled at him.

  “Hi Herman,” she said to him brightly, “Nice of you to join us for…”

  She looked down at the granola bars and milk, her brow furrowing slightly.

  “…lunch?” she concluded.

  “The wife says I have to lose weight,” Herman said by way of explanation.

  “I see,” Anita said, “But you’d probably be better off just eating smaller portions of a regular lunch, Herman. There’s as much sugar and junk in those granola bars as in candy bars.”