Shy... (20 page)

How
All Days Should Start...

Ansley Smith took out her time card and stared at the
machine. It was a big, grey box hanging on the wall by extra heavy bolts. She
knew when she slid the card into the slot that it would give one, awful clang.
It was a metal on metal sound that made her teeth hurt.

She worked in an office, but the owner was old and did not
like to change. His family ran the company for him, but all the children,
nephews, nieces, and now grandchildren let him have his way so that one day
they could have his money. This stupid, arcane punchcard machine was a symbol
of everything she hated about how this office was run.

Ansley sighed and whispered to herself. “It is just a
machine. Not a symbol.”

She slid her card into the slot and listen to the metal
clank. It seemed louder today than usual and her teeth hurt more. Maybe it was
dying along with the old man. She dropped her card in the rack that was
probably older than her too and kept walking.

Ansley was young, blond and fresh out of college. She tried
to remind herself again as she sat at her cubicle that this was just a starter
job and she didn’t have to stay here forever. She would just punch up her resume
the way she was punching up her card every morning and she would get a better
job with less nonsense. Or probably a different job with different problems and
different nonsense.

She muttered to herself. “That will do for now.”

Ansley continued to enter data into three forms on three
different programs even though she was certain there was one program that did
all of this by now, but Granddaddy was probably still pissed they had bought
the computers, so the family wasn’t going to spring upgrades on him.

Ansley shook her head and kept looking at the clock on the
bottom corner of her computer waiting for lunch.

Suzie spoke behind her and Ansley hit her knee on the
underside of her desk in surprise. “Ansley?”

“Oh, don’t sneak up on me like that.”

Suzie laughed. “I don’t know how else to get your attention
from a cubicle.”

“Okay. What’s up?”

“Lunch.”

Ansley looked at her clock on her computer. “We still have
like fifteen minutes.”

“How long have you been here?” Suzie asked. Suzie was
shorter than Ansley, but had even more boob and more ass. It made her look
compact and sexy in a way that was not lost on Ansley. Suzie continued. “Office
time goes by the clock outside the executive office, not the computers. We are
already burning our lunch hour.”

Ansley rolled her eyes. “The computers are all synced.
Computer time is the same throughout the office. Why won’t they realize that
and change?”

Suzie shrugged. “Change? What is that? I never heard of
that around here.”

Ansley stuck out her tongue. “Office time is seven minutes
behind the computers though. Right?”

“The clock is slower today.”

Ansley sighed and stood up. “Of course, it is. Let’s go.”

They made their way to the break room and took their lunches
out of the refrigerator. Two signs on the door declared
 
Clean up your own messes. Your mom
doesn’t work here
 
and the
other said,
 
All containers
left in the refrigerator will be thrown away on Friday afternoon … Early!
 
More labels inside marked each
worker’s lunch and included declarations and threats about not touching them.

Ansley and Suzie sat down to eat. Suzie started talking
about a guy she had met at the bar the previous night.

“Did you take him home?” Ansley covered her mouth with one
hand as she chewed a bite of sandwich.

“His ears were so terribly big, I think he could have flown
me home. It would have been like screwing a bat.”

Ansley laughed until she choked. She swallowed hard and said,
“That guy we took back to your place from the club had big ears. Remember the
one in the green leather pants?”

Suzie looked behind her at the empty break room to be sure
they were alone. Most of the office ran across the street to one of the cafes for
lunch just to get away, but people still filtered in and out. “Watch it,
Ansley. One of the family might be listening.”

They laughed again as three woman walked through and
retrieved their lunch containers from the refrigerator. One tried to use the microwave,
but it was broken. The trio left to eat outside.

“You know what they say about big ears,” Ansley said.

“More frequent flyer miles?”

They laughed again.

Helen walked in and pulled out a salad from the
refrigerator. She sat down with Ansley and Suzie. As Helen poured blue cheese
dressing over her lettuce, Suzie and Ansley exchanged a look.

Helen said, “Oh, what a day. I am so far behind. The work
never stops.”

Ansley stared down at her food and stirred it with her
fork. “Yeah, some days are like that.”

“It’s great to have a job though,” Suzie said.

Ansley glanced up at Suzie. She was laying it on a bit
thick. Helen was one of the company family granddaughters, but still. Suzie was
staring at her food too though. She was as nervous as Ansley was eating around
Helen. Helen would be an okay friend, if she wasn’t one of the family. She was
part of the family that owned the punchcard box even if she was their age. She
was dainty with small breasts and skinny without much butt to speak of in her
clothes that were too expensive for the job she had, but if she could learn to
cut loose a little, she might be okay. But that did not change the fact that
she was one of them. They could not relax around her.

Ansley felt like she couldn’t relax anywhere in this place.
Something had to change whether granddaddy liked it or not.

“That’s true,” Helen said.

“How is that new fiancee you were telling us about?” Suzie
asked before taking another bite.

Ansley’s mouth dropped open. What the hell are you doing,
Ansley thought.

Helen was still preparing her salad with a bag of fancy
croutons. Ansley was wondered if she was ever going to stop preparing and
actually eat it.

Helen said, “Not so new anymore. We have been dating six
months. I think he may be the one.”

Ansley swallowed and said. “Oh, that’s nice to hear.”
Ansley couldn’t help herself. She could be happy for Helen and still hope the
danty girl got her card punched and loosened up a little.

“Do you have a picture?” Suzie asked.

Helen smiled a tight, little smile and took out her phone.
She still didn’t take a bite of her salad yet. Always preparing. Helen scrolled
through her pictures. Finally she held out the phone at Suzie.

Suzie swallowed. “Oh, nice. He looks chiseled out of a
block.”

Helen covered her mouth and laughed. She moved the phone
for Ansley to see and said, “That’s my Max.”

Max had a broad smile and a perfect set of teeth. His black
hair was styled into perfect curls like the waves of the ocean. He had a chin
that could cut glass along the jaw line. Ansley realized she was staring and
cut her eyes back at Helen.

Helen wasn’t smiling, but her eyes were big and round. She
was waiting for approval.

“Nice,” Ansley said.

Helen lowered her phone. “He says I’m his angel.”

When Helen looked away, and Ansley met Suzie’s eyes. Suzie
shrugged and rolled her eyes. Ansley bit the inside of her cheeks to keep from
laughing.

Suzie said, “I bet you come to work tired some mornings
after a night out with him.”

Helen paused from endlessly stirring her salad. “What do
you mean?”

Suzie and Ansley exchanged another look. Suzie’s eyes were
the ones that were wide now.

Suzie swallowed and cleared her throat. “Ugh … no offense.
I was just playing.”

“That’s okay,” Helen said. “I just don’t get it.”

Suzie looked to Ansley for help, but Ansley shrugged. As
far as Ansley was concerned, Suzie had dug this hole for herself and Ansley was
curious to see how her friend dug her way out.

“I’m just saying.” Suzie rolled her head around her
shoulders and scratched at her neck. “He seems like quite the hunk. He must
leave you breathless after a night … of, ugh, passion. You know what I mean?”

“Oh,” Helen said. She flushed and fanned herself with one
hand as she mixed her salad faster. Just take a bite already, Ansley thought.
Helen finally continued. “Oh, ugh, yeah … I mean, no. We are both …”

“Both what?” Ansley was curious now.

Helen leaned forward and whispered at the table. “We’re
virgins. We’re saving ourselves for the perfect time. Not that we are getting
married … I mean not that we are not getting married either. I just mean both
of us have committed to wait and not rush. If we do, we’ll be each other’s
firsts. We just want to be sure it is the right time … for both of us, I mean.”

Ansley and Suzie stared at each other frozen. Helen went
back to mixing her salad. The salad wasn’t the only thing that Helen couldn’t
bring herself to take a bite of, Ansley thought. She couldn’t believe Max
wasn’t getting his card punched in someone else’s box. If he wasn’t, he could
be.

Suzie spoke it out loud. “Max is going for this plan, is
he?”

“He loves me. He’s willing to wait.”

“Well.” Suzie took another bite and spoke with her mouth
full. “I’m happy for you.”

Helen smiled down at the table. “Thank you. I want to do
something nice for him, but I don’t know what.”

“I know what he would like,” Ansley said. She knew she was
poking at the company family by teasing Helen, but thinking of this skinny,
little, rich girl with a man like Max and doing nothing with him? It burned a
little down in her gut and other places too.

Helen muttered. “Stop it. I just mean something fun, but not
that fun. Not yet.”

“I think we might be able to think of something,” Suzie
said.

“We can?” Ansley asked.

“We do lots of things together that are fun,” Suzie said.

Ansley licked her lips. “Yes, we do. Maybe we can think of
something.”

Helen said, “That would be great. I’m open to anything.”

“Almost anything,” Suzie said.

“Yes.” Helen sighed. “Almost.”

Suzie looked up at the clock and wiped her mouth. “Time is
almost up.”

Ansley stood and cleaned up her space. Helen was still
seated and still stirring. Helen had not taken a bite yet. Max’s balls must be
purple by now, Ansley thought.

Helen said, “I’ll finish up before I go back to my desk.”

Suzie and Ansley left.

“She can eat as long as she wants, I suppose.” Suzie said.

“Yeah, of course she can.”

Ansley returned to her desk and started entering data
again.

A message box popped up on her screen. She wasn’t aware she
even had her e-mail open. It was through the internal messaging system and it
was from Suzie. Ansley felt cold inside. She wasn’t sure that many of the
family members could actually access the backend of the computers nor knew how
they worked, but all the messages were recorded, so unlike the conversation in
the break room, these words could be pulled up and used as evidence.