Charlie Foxtrot (Book 2 of Love is War Series)

Chapter 11

My apologies for such a late post. I was ill and could not post. Thank you for understanding <3

"Hey Auden, did you see this pile of docs over here? Where the hell did this come from?"

She stood up from her desk and moved over to look at where Greg was pointing. A large stack of papers, some blueprints, and a few file folders that had been set off to the side next to Natasha's old desk. The clerk had gone on maternity leave and was being replaced by a temp who was slated to start working the next business day.

"No. What the hell? I thought we'd gotten everything. I swear, you go to the bathroom or leave the room for ten minutes and the shit just piles up."

Groaning, she got to one knee to try and get her balance so she could grab the first pile off the top. The whole thing was up to the top of her knee, and cylinders with blueprints were leaned up against it. She'd left to use the bathroom earlier when Greg decided to grab more coffee, and she'd gotten distracted by someone that had a question for her about something completely unrelated. By the time she'd gotten back to her desk, Greg was there and slowly sipping his coffee and waiting patiently. Now, they had more filing to collate and sort when they just wanted to sit down and take a short break. Their backs were killing them.

"I think we can get the files and just set them inside for now. It's almost time for our last break anyway." Greg sounded less pleased than she did.

"That's good with me. We can go back after our fifteen and we should get most of it done before closing. If we have to keep it until Monday, that's fine too. We were told that was the last of it."

"Probably found more, or one of the architects been hoarding," Auden muttered. "Like packrats."

They took their time and made several trips to the file room, finally slumping against the wall inside. Auden's feet ached, and she tried to quell the urge to bitch about it. Because a lot of her duties were electronic and databases, her job was primarily sedentary, but when they got a large influx of filing, it wasn't unknown for the clerks to be very active, walking in between offices and the files or record rooms. All the ones they received now were about jobs completed last year that hadn't been able to be moved into the old files rooms because of the overflow from years past. Now that much of the older files were gone, they could migrate last year's into their new homes. It was something that happened every year around this time, like clockwork. Purge, clean—or dust and vacuum to be specific—and then fill right back up again.

"Want to get more coffee?"

Auden answered with a tired grunt, but found she was thirstier for water since her feet were aching and her throat was dry. Coffee would only make it worse. "No. I think I'll grab a bottled water and down that in 15 seconds flat. Give me a few minutes and we can make a plan of attack over our break. I really don't want to have to wait all weekend to deal with the rest of it. Let's just get it over with. If we know how to make the most of our time, we can figure this shit out before we get back to work."

That sounded good to Greg, who escorted Auden to the breakroom down the hall and refilled his cup while she grabbed a bottled water from the vending machine. There was one such machine on each of the 2nd and 4th floors, but not on all 5.

Unscrewing the cap, she took five huge swallows before breaking to take a breath. She wasn't sweaty, but she was definitely going to be turning on the fan in the filing room so there was an air current.

"Fuck, there is nothing like water. Water, water, water, water!"

"Jesus, woman. I'll take coffee over the clear stuff any day. What's wrong with you?"