New Day

After taking a shower Penelope was drying her hair with the towel. She had made chicken salad for dinner. She logged in to her I*******m and started scrolling while eating food.

Her friend from Washington, Vanessa, had texted her. She used to work with her in the coffee shop back there. She replied to her and all the other pending text messages. After dinner, she put the bowl in the dishwasher and called her, and told her about the job. Vanessa had got a job too, in Washington. She was a major in English Literature. She had gotten a job as a writer in some publication company.  She promised her that she would come and meet her as soon as possible.

Vanessa was a lively girl. They kept talking about all that happened in the past three days till midnight. Vanessa was telling her about her meeting with his boyfriend's parents when Penelope excused herself that she had to get up early the next day. She prepared all the things for the next day and then slowly drifted to sleep.

*

August 4^th.

The next day she woke up early and made breakfast. She took out an off-white dress and hung it in the bathroom. She took a shower and then got dressed. She made a summer bun and lightly straighten the tips of her hair. She did light makeup, wore perfume, quickly put all the required things in her bag, and locked her apartment. Hailey was standing in the lobby, the school bus had arrived, she was waving goodbye to her kids.

"Hey, good morning, Hailey." She greeted her.

"Oh, hi there." Hailey grinned. "Very good morning to you too and good luck.”

“Not that you will need it anyway." She winked and then chuckled.

"Haha, thank you. And no, I need a lot of luck!" She said. Hailey hugged her and smiled.  Since she had no car, she got up early to catch the bus.

She reached the office right in time. She entered through the glass door and reached the reception. The receptionist called someone and gave her a card and told her to go on the third floor.

The elevator opened and she entered. A girl shouted, "Hold the door!!" She had blonde hair, dyed blue from tips. She had tied them in a ponytail and was holding a Starbucks coffee cup in one hand and her handbag with files in the other. She was probably in her early twenties.

Penelope quickly pressed the button to hold the lift and the girl rushed inside it. "Woah, that was close." She laughed proudly. "Thanks, though." She said, still catching her breath. Penelope nodded lightly and pressed her lips into a thin line. “Which floor?” She asked.

“Third.”

“Oh, I’m going to that floor too.”

"That’s great. What's your name, again?" She squinted at her.

"I never told you, my name."

"Oh... uh-- then, what's your name?" The elevator opened and they both stepped out.

"Penelope. Penelope Bloom."

"I'm Nora. Only Nora." She gave her the brightest smile. "You... work here? I've never seen you?" She said and pushed the door with her back. She was talking so fast.

"It's my first day here."

"Ah... right. Okay then, see you around. Bye." She said in a single breath and walked swiftly in another direction.

Penelope stood there, looked around. She didn't know whom to talk to now. She saw a man walking towards her. "Uh… Hey? Excuse me?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you please tell me where's Mr. Reed's office?"

"Come with me."

He said and they both walked towards a glass cabin. "Here, go inside." She nodded and slightly knocked at the door.

"Yes." A voice came. She opened the door and entered. "Hello, sir, I'm Penelope Bloom."

There was already a girl standing there with files and a laptop, explaining to Mr. Reed about her work progress. Her black dress hugging her body perfectly and her light brown hair was secured in a bun on top of her head.

Marissa Conner.

Her eyes studied her face for a minute then she closed the laptop and said, "I'll come later."

She walked towards Penelope and stopped for a second. She looked at her with her bright green eyes. Penelope felt intimated under her gaze. “Uh…?” She hesitated.

“Hello?” She didn’t know what else to say. "Welcome to Joseph and Vance Architects." She smirked and then left. Penelope looked at her face. That seemed familiar. She blinked twice but didn't understand this greeting and then looked towards the man sitting in front of her. She watched her leaving the office and then moved forward.

"Please sit, Miss Bloom."

She sat and smiled awkwardly.

“This was Miss. Conner. Our senior architect. You’d be working under her for the first 6 months.” He started saying.

‘I don’t feel so good about that. But anyways.’ She thought to herself. “You will also be assisting different projects with other people.” He explained. She nodded lightly. “Mr. Laurent is out on a two-week business tour. You will be having projects with him once he returns.” He smiled. They further talked for a minute or two about what kind of work she'd be doing here. “So, do you have any questions about anything?” He asked. She shook her head.

Mr. Reed picked up the landline and asked the person on the other side to come inside the office. Nora knocked at the door and then peeked inside "You wished to see me, Reed?" She wiggled her eyebrows.

Reed gave her a straight look.

"Uhm... I mean… Sir." she corrected herself and mentally rolled her eyes.

He shook his head and wiped his face, "Yes, Nora, this is Miss Bloom, your new colleague." then he looked at Penelope "Nora will show you around and will explain your work to you." He smiled at Penelope. "Okay," Penelope said and left the room.

"Here, here. Welcome to the design office. That was Mr. Reed you just met." She dramatically rolled her eyes. “The ‘king’ of our empire.” She stretched out both her arms. Penelope got a bit dazzled by her.  “That's Damen's office. He's our design head. Like after Reed. Reed is the main guy here, but…” She looked around and slowly whispered, “He doesn’t do any work.” She rolled her eyes. “Just the cliché. You know.”

Penelope nodded slowly. Nora cleared her throat. “Yes, where were we? Ah, yes, Damen. He’s out on a business trip. That lucky bastard gets to go out on business trips like that while us peasant work here in the dullness.” She wiped a fake tear.

Penelope was getting amused by every passing moment. “That's Marissa's. She’s the senior architect. Don't try to be friends with her." She looked around and whispered, "She is not like... you know-- uh very much likely to be socialized with." She said in a hushed tone.

"Anyways," she walked towards the working area. "Wo ho! Listen, everybody!" She clapped her hands in the air and loudly said "This is Penelope. Penelope, this is everybody." Penelope smiled and waved her hand. "That's it. Now get back to work! Chop, chop!" She said again. "Here's your seat, right beside me. Congratulations." She said in great excitement, shook hands with her, smiled brightly, and sat on her seat.

Penelope tried to absorb all the information Nora just shared with her and kept standing beside her seat with wide eyes.

"Here." She handed her a file. "You need to read this, there are reports attached at the end, you can see them, and then you should try to write a report like them." She paused for a moment. Penelope took the file and flipped through the pages. "What are you waiting for?" Nora turned around and looked at her.

"Me? Oh, nothing." Penelope said and sat in her seat. "Then start working, lady," Nora said and drank her coffee. Penelope sat there and started reading the file. It was going to be a long day.

“Hi, I’m Eric.” The guy on her right dragged his chair near her and greeted her. He had grey eyes with a tint of green in them. His hair was white. All of it. They looked natural. Not as if they were dyed or something. Just natural white. He looked Holy. She starred at them for longer than was required. Then she quickly blinked her eyes quite a few times and looked away to keep herself from drooling.

“Hello.” She smiled and looked at him briefly.

“Welcome abroad!” He stretched out his hand. She shook it lightly.

“Hi, I’m Jessica.” The other girl said. She was wearing a cute red top and was looking… pregnant. Penelope’s gaze shifted from her face to her stomach. She didn’t want to make it obvious or rude so she averted her gaze.

“Yes.” Eric nodded.

“What?” She asked.

“She’s pregnant.” He confirmed. “Oh… my God.” Her expressions changed from surprised to jubilant quickly. “Congratulations!”

“Thank you so much.” Jessica smiled from ear to ear. “It’s a boy.” She caressed her baby bump. Penelope smiled and congratulated her again.

“You can ask me anything about this report thing. Any questions… anything, you know.” Eric rolled a pen between his fingers. “Yeah… Sure.” Penelope lightly smiled and moved her chair back to her working station.

*

An Hour Later

Penelope moved her chair to face Nora, “Hey, I wanted to ask--” She started saying but stopped midway her sentence. Her seat was empty. Her desk was covered with so many papers. Blank. Crumpled. Drawings. Papers with doodles. Almost ten different colors of the pen were there. Everything thing was there except Nora, and of course her cell phone.

Penelope sighed and rolled her chair backward to her cubicle. She cleared her throat, hesitated a bit, closed her eyes for a brief moment, and rolled her chair towards Eric’s cubicle. She cleared her throat again.

“Uhm…”

Eric was wearing headphones and was so invested in his work that he didn’t acknowledge her in the first place. Penelope pressed her lips into a thin line. She picked up a pen and poked his side lightly. He got startled. “HEY!” He said loudly. Her eyes widened.

He removed his headphones and looked at her. “Uh- yes?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry… I was just… my music was too loud.” He chuckled awkwardly.

“Yeah…” She started looking at his hair again.

“What?” He asked.

“Huh?” She raised her eyebrows and looked at his face.

“Uh- you… poked me.” He pointed towards her pen. She looked at it and then looked at him again.

“Oh…” She remembered. “Yeah.” She was mildly embarrassed. “I—uh… Can you explain these terms to me?” She showed him the underlines points. He moved his chair close to her, his headphones around his neck.

She sucked in a breath and moved her chair as well to keep her distance. He took the document from her hand and skimmed through the text. “Yeah, sure.” He kept his eyes on the paper. “Give me the pen.” He took it from her hand. Their fingers brushed slightly. She pulled her hand back a little too quickly for him to notice.

“Huh?” He looked surprised.

She just simply shook her head.

“Scoot over.” He motioned his head.

They both rolled their chairs towards her desk. Eric explained all the terms to her by making a flow chart and adding sticky notes to every point. It almost took them 20 minutes to finish. After that, he asked, “Okay?”

“Yeah. Thank you.”

He rolled backward to his place. “Uh—” He looked at her again, “Next time you can just pat me if I’m wearing headphones. I’m just a little sensitive at my sides.” He placed both his hands to cover his sides.

Penelope bit the inside of her cheek to try to not laugh. She coughed to cover it up. “Yeah… Sure.” She said  and faced her desktop. She closed her eyes and hit her head lightly with her fist. “I’m such an idiot.” She muttered to herself and then got back to work.

***