Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

182 - Rebecca

Upstairs, everyone was chatting and having a good time. There was the soft rhythm of a catchy pop song playing from a speaker as the new employees stood with Jake and Tara, everyone else talking from their desks. Maggie gave me a smile and Helen sent me a wave, however Lewis just awkwardly nodded in my direction. I returned only his nod before I looked at the new employees, who were just turning out of their conversation with my friends.

"Hello," I greeted, stretching my hand out for them. There was a guy and a girl, both of which I'd seen a couple of times in passing. I had yet to meet them properly.

"Hi, are you the boss?" The girl asked as I shook the guy's hand. I nodded at her and tried my best smile, though I wasn't sure how it came across. "I'm Tyla," she introduced herself.

"And I'm Bruce," the guy added.

"Rebecca Woods," I replied, inclining my head toward the door leading downstairs, "and as you know, I'm mostly down there. Speaking to my employees is rare for me—I prefer to keep to myself."

"Nothing wrong with that," Tyla assured with a soft smile on her face.

Bruce nodded. "I like to keep to myself a lot, too. If you don't mind, boss"—I liked that he called me boss—"I was thinking of getting some work done then heading home."

"That's fine," I told him, but only because he called me "boss".

"Nice to meet you," he said and turned around. Tyla watched him go for a second before shaking her head and turning back to me with another polite smile. I could tell I wasn't going to like her very much but I couldn't bring myself to hate the dimples in her cheeks, either.

"How long have you been manager here?" she asked me, walking toward the desk in the corner that was clearly hers since it was so clean.

"I haven't been actively the manager for very long. I had the title before but I never did my job," I explained to her as I glanced down at the drawings she had scattered everywhere.

"How come?"

I shrugged. "Wasn't interested."

"I get that," she giggled, "but this place seems too nice not to work here. I've been missing out." I felt myself frown before I could stop it. "Every other designing studio is so formal," she explained to me. "Here, we can sit and listen to music and chat. Everywhere else, you're sitting in a cubicle beside a mannequin only able to peek over to ask for something. This is just refreshing from that."

"I let them work however and it ended up like this," I muttered, nodding to Maggie, Helen and Lewis. "There used to be two others here but they've recently left. One more reasonably than the other."

Tyla grinned. "Sounds like tea."

"None that I want to spill," I denied. "The guy who was here was good, though. I'm hoping he'll come back one day."

"To design or for you?" Tyla asked in amusement as she picked up a pencil to begin refining a sketch. Whether she could feel the intense frown on my face now or not, I wasn't sure, but I wanted her to know my distaste for her assumption.

"To design," I almost snapped. "I have interests elsewhere." She glanced at me but I didn't explain. I didn't feel like telling her that I sort of had a boyfriend—did I have a boyfriend anymore? I had broken up with him but he was my One, which meant I'd have to go back to him at some point...

"You look distracted," Tyla said suddenly, breaking me out of my blank stare at her desk. I blinked a couple of times, ridding my head of my thoughts. "Sorry if I hit a sore spot."

"You didn't," I lied. Though she didn't believe me, she didn't say anything more. "How long have you been a designer? You seem fairly young."

"Says you, Ms Manager." She laughed. "I've been designing since I was fifteen—I'm twenty-five now."