Fools at Work

Chapter 1 - Done

        As Matthew sat at his desk eyeing the clock he wore a blank expression, noticing he had been tapping his foot impatiently as the clock ticked away the seconds. Everyone in the office dreaded the yearly HR seminars, and Matthew was definitely no exception. Especially with all the perverted joking and indecent gestures involved. He held his tongue as their supervisor, Lewis, began announcing their partners for the current company project, which wasn't too thrilling even if Matthew did enjoy the company of his fellow peers. Each employee was to be assigned a partner they weren't familiar with, and with that each had to discover twenty interesting things about the other. They were calling it a bonding exercise.

      Typical.

      "Matthew Petick, you're with Quinton Harris!" Lewis called from the front of the office, his voice much louder than it really needed to be considering the small space. Matthew internally cringed at the volume and slowly sank down into his seat when a few of the single women eyed him closely, jealousy written on their faces. Leave it to them to assume he was going to be the one flirting.

      After a minute of introverted suffering Matthew made a move to look up from his odd positioning to see a charming face looking over his cubicle wall, a questionable expression on the man's face all the while. It seemed to take him some time, but after he seemed pleased enough with what he saw the not-so-smooth man lazily made his way to the empty desk beside him, smirking as he wheeled the crummy office chair a bit closer.

      "Well then mister Petick, guess we're partners now, there's no need to thank Lewis for pairing us," Quinton hummed in amusement, probably due to the grave expression Matthew was now wearing.

      ''Heh, partners, that's an understatement, I'm stuck with you against my own will,' He thought to himself, pulling on a rather odd but forced smile. He sucked in a deep and heavy breath through his nose before slowly exhaling in hopes of easing himself a bit. The lanky ginger had began grinding his teeth in annoyance as Quinton seemed to inspect his red curls for a minute too long, acting as if he were an artifact of some kind.

      "What are you doing?" Matthew finally asked with a frown, his thick brows furrowing as he studied Quinton's face. The sun-kissed man looked at him with a derpy expression, as if it were obvious somehow.

      "Informing myself, that's what the project is, isn't it? Getting to know our coworkers?" He grinned, shaking his head when Matthew shut his mouth, not bothering to argue on after that.

      "That's what I thought," Quinton nodded with a chuckle, moving on to snickering in his newfound humor.

      "God, you are such a child," Matthew finally spoke through gritted teeth once the other had turned away. the young ginger tried to look over Quiton's shoulder while he doodled on a piece of paper, though he moved it out of sight and Matthew dropped his interest. After some time he sighed softly in annoyance towards the plain atmosphere and simply went back to doodling on a notepad, assuming the conversation was over for the time being. Both sat in the silence of their office for a good three painfully awkward minutes before Quinton finally turned back to face Matthew with a smile, resting his head in one of his hands once he was situated to his liking.

      "So, tell me about yourself Matthew,"

      Matthew frowned at the flirty tone he picked up on, though much against his better judgement he replied anyway:

      "I'm twenty-two, hate my job, though I don't hate walking in the park, and the top of the cake is I'm a flaming homosexual," He said in a flat tone, though he couldn't help but smile a little when he turned back to his paper. He guessed Quinton caught it from the corner of his eye when he noticed his lips curl up into a smirk.

      "Wonderful," The everso cocky man nodded, tearing off a small portion of his paper before folding it and handing it to Matthew.

      "Maybe we can talk more when we get off," He grinned, seeming a bit more chipper when the other slowly unfolded the paper.

      Matthew had lost all the respect he had for the guy in that moment, not that there was much of a loss anyway, due to Quinton's sly way of giving a phone number. He stuffed the paper into his pocket and let out a heavy sigh of relief when the time for his lunch break came around, getting all his things together before walking to the break room in hopes of some peace for his lunch.

      Matthew wasn't at all surprised that his sudden flash of anger had left him craving a sweet treat, and though he wanted to keep up with his no-cheat-day system for his diet, he caved and went straight for the cookie his sister had not-so sneakily packed for him.

      The guy had a soft spot for the familiar smiley face drawn on the plastic-wrap that covered the chocolaty treat, but it'd take at least two shots of tequila to get him to admit it, and luckily there was a no drinking policy while on the job. He always kept to himself when it came around to the workplace, and though his sister often complained about his lack of friends, Matthew couldn't find the time to really dwell on his lonesome way of living.

      He wasn't interested in the bar visits his coworkers partook in every weekend, nor was he very interested in the pizza parties they had for birthday celebrations. He was there to fill out paperwork and take phone calls, not make friends or try to get the highest hook-up count.

      That bit may sound a bit extra, but the whiteboard in the breakroom wasn't being used properly, and so far the secretary from the third floor, Martha, had a body count of fifteen just this past week. He had to admit it was impressive, and possibly concerning for poor Martha's husband.

((Temporary finish, be back to this soon~ ))