Vice

13: Late Night Paperwork

Natara's lunch with Jace leaves her thinking about her boss, Axius Vice, for the rest of the day.

She wishes she could meet him in person. If she could see his face, shake his hand, and have a face to face conversation with him she'd be able to have some opinion about him. Something better than, "That awful guy who will do anything to get me fired and doesn't want me here, anyway." And maybe he'd think better of her than being, "That useless girl who made my coffee cold and sent me an inappropriate proposition."

But, if what Jace said is true, maybe it wouldn't matter. If Mr. Vice is really an awful person, maybe he wouldn't care at all about her, even after meeting face to face. Perhaps she'd still just be that failure of a secretary he didn't want in the first place.

She throws her pen across the office and it smacks against the wall, startling her. She never would have done anything like that before. Does working in the adult world make everyone quicker to anger and frustration, or is it just this mysterious boss of hers?

Her eyes feel heavy as she retrieves the pen and finishes the last of the mountain of paperwork Jaquie dropped in her office after her lunch with Jace. What time is it even? How long has she been staring at this monster pile of papers? And when was she supposed to go home, anyway?

She heads down to Jaquie's office, knocks lightly, and nervously steps inside. "Um, Jaquie, when am I allowed to go home?"

He's bent over his desk, his hair messily slicked back as if he's run his hands through it too many times throughout the day, and his purple shades sit haphazardly atop his desk. His shirt is pulled out from being tucked into his pants and he's shoe-less. If he didn't look so utterly burnt out and exhausted, Natara might have giggled at seeing him in such an odd state of disarray.

"Oh, right. As soon as you finish this paperwork..." He glances up, motions for her to step closer to his desk, and hands her another large stack of papers. "...you're absolutely free to go. I'd send you home right now - because it's getting horribly late - but, unfortunately, it all needs done before morning."

"Oh, okay..." Natara frowns, staring at the pile in her arms. This is going to take all night. To her surprise, Jaquie shows no intention of leaving work yet, either. His desk sports a mound of papers even higher than Natara's.

She feels bad for herself but she feels even worse for him. Jaquie not only had to do all of his own work today, but he had to quickly hire someone to fill the secretary position she accepted, introduce her to the job, and correct all of her mistakes.

Judging by how angry the text from Mr. Vice seemed, Jaquie probably did a lot of covering for her today. He believes in her and that helps her believe a little more in herself, too. 

"I'm sorry. You know, I wish I could go home, too. If it's any consolation you can order any food you want for dinner with that company phone and we'll cover it. You can do that every day if you want to." Jaquie taps a marker against one of his pages, highlighting an entire paragraph in yellow. 

"Paperwork is a nightmare, but get used to it, because it'll need done every evening. You'll make good overtime money, at least." He twirls his fingers in a tired wave and Natara leaves the room, heading back to her office.

Natara immediately takes him up on the offer to order food. Free pizza isn't something she'd usually decline, but she especially likes the sound of enjoying her favorite comfort food while she has to navigate through this giant stack of papers.

Most of the paperwork seems to be items she has to read over and then sign. Natara starts by reading the first several pages and quickly burns out. All of it is dry and un-enjoyable to read. Eventually, she finds herself just mindlessly signing page after page.

I'd have to sign them anyway to get my job done, she reasons. If she turned in an unsigned page she would probably end up getting yelled at in the morning. She signs so many documents she loses track of time and is startled when there is a knock at her office door.

"Delivery for Natara?" A sheepish male a little younger than Natara gives her a smile as he hands over the pizza. She looks around for a paper to sign but the boy says the front desk already signed everything and tells her to have a good day.

Natara retreats back to her desk and flips open the pizza box, letting the smell of hamburger pizza fill the room. Her stomach lets out an aggressive growl and she quickly grabs a slice and devours it. Then another. She even munches on a third slice as she continues signing the documents.

After hours of flipping pages, stamping things, and signing things Natara finally sets the last piece of paper in her completed stack. She lets out a sigh and checks the time.

It's ten already?! She inwardly screams, grabbing her bag and her leftover pizza and hurrying out the door. She runs by Jaquie's office to let him know she's done for the night and hurries down through the rest of the building. She doesn't see anyone at the front desk when she passes by but she imagines that there are still workers besides them here since the lights are still on and the doors are unlocked.

Natara unchains her bike and hops on, pedaling as fast as she can down the streets back toward home. A few cars pass by, blinding her with light as she travels. Her heart races both from the exercise and her concerns about what her parents are going to say when she gets home so late.

I'm definitely in big trouble.