“Um, Olivia, are you there?” Jack asked patiently.
Coming out of her black hole of school memories, she managed a hesitating, “yeah..sorry I’m here”
“Great to hear; I am the section editor at Cosmo Magazine, and I just saw the new employee list hanging by the break room and the name Olivia Simpleton jumped out at me. I was wondering if it was you,” Jack explained.
“Oh my...how did I end up working at the same place in a new state 10 years later with my old crush,” she thought to herself. “Is this the Universe trying to tell me something or just coincidence?
“Well, you got me. Today is my first day,” she exclaimed.
“It’ll be nice to see a familiar face after all these years. I’ll be leading the orientation this morning. I look forward to seeing you there!”
“Thank you, see you there,” she said awkwardly hanging up the phone.
“Thank You?...What the heck happened there?” she asked herself. “Way to start your first day out with apparently your boss?”
She quickly got showered and dressed, made her breakfast of champions, a giant tumbler of Bustello coffee, and jumped in the car. She passed several buildings, sky scrapers, a thin layer of snow atop the rooftops, and hundreds of New Yorkers. She could see the curb appeal of the city. There were stores, restaurants, and mom and pop shops on every block. Living anywhere in the city, you’d be close to all the necessities. When she arrived at her office building, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore Todo” she quoted.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
The building was the tallest structure she’d ever seen. It had 100s of mirrored windows and a nice revolving door at the entrance, complete with a bell hop. Olivia walked in and headed towards the counter to check in for her orientation. She was directed to the elevator down the hall on the right to the 10th floor. The tenth floor. She couldn’t believe she just heard that. The highest floor she ever went to was the 4th at Rush Hospital...”No, no you can’t think about that. It’ll completely change your mood. Focus on positive things, like how you didn’t get stopped by every stop light on the way here, just 6 out of 10 of them. That’s not a bad average for New York,’ she said aloud to herself.
As the doors were closing, a hand reached in between them, tripping the sensors, forcing the doors to open again. In walked Jack O’brien who didn’t seem to age much, except for his added goatee.
“Oh, fancy meeting you here. Glad I didn’t miss it. It takes forever to come down again. I would’ve been late to the class, and wouldn’t it be something if the teacher was running behind to his own meeting?”
“I wouldn’t think it an abnormal thing in this city. So much could happen on the way in.” He smiled, and that was that. The rest of the trip was complete silence.
Orientation was just a normal experience; give up all your information, checking account for deposits, make a training schedule, the works. Olivia got up from her assigned seat and found Jack. “Sorry about this morning..Honestly, I think I was still in shock hearing your voice after all this time.”
He looked at her with wondering eyes, “I understand it’s a shock, and I know we didn’t really talk much in school, but I knew who you were. You were the spelling bee winner of ninth grade, on the winning bowling team of senior year, and the book nerd that sat in the far-right corner of the library during study hall.”
Well, that caught her off guard. “I didn’t know you knew me at all, and quite frankly I don’t believe it. How long did you research me before you made that call?”
Jack stepped back. “Damn, you are a firecracker. I wish I had known that back then. Instead, I was hanging out with women that only cared about dieting, cheerleading, and puppies.”
..”Yes, that was short sighted of you, wasn’t it?”