When the Smoke Clears

meeting

James

The next day couldn't have gone slower.

We didn't get to meet at the meeting house and instead compiled notes about the previous one-on-one sessions we had, turned them into very boring paperwork, and print the pages out to turn into the 3rd floor office.

Since I had taken exactly zero notes from Azure, my job was to sneak looks at Beverly's paper to see what she collected, reword it properly, then do all the other stuff. It was a long day.

At one point Louise came over to ask if I wanted to join her and the team while they went to a party after work. I told her no thanks.

About 20 minutes away from my off-time, Beverly approached me.

"Ah, what brings her Majesty down to my humble peasant office?" I said jokingly.

"You've been gone an awful lot these past few days, James."

I straightened my chair. "I like my alone time."

"I'm aware. What I mean is that you've been taking the I-56 train to get there."

I sobered up immediately at the train's name. "So what? I go there a lot normally."

"Yes," she countered, "But two days in a row? Seems awfully frivolous. I don't even know what you do over there."

I turned back to my desk and spoke, "I don't see why you have to know. It's not illegal to ride the train."

Beverly sighed. "I'm just... worried about you. You've never been much of a social person but now you're shutting everyone out."

I leaned my head back and bit my lip. Surely I wasn't being that antisocial. And if I was, it shouldn't concern Beverly.

"Listen, I'm fine. I don't even see why you care so much about my well-being. I'll go to the next event. Maybe."

My words barely sounded sincere; it was like a pre-recorded message that I was trained to say with a straight face.

Beverly walked away, grumbling under her breath. I turned back to my desk and continued to slave away on my paperwork.

It was about an hour till it was time to meet at the barn when I got very bored. My work was practically done, but I didn't feel like making the ride down to the 3rd floor until it was actually time to go.

I thought of different stuff Azure and I could do but the best idea I had was to bring a card game. Even then, it would hurt her to touch the cards for too long.

Deciding there was no point thinking about things to do, I got up to stretch my body while looking for something to bring.

That's how I accidentally ran into Felix, who wanted to know what I was doing.

"Just, uh, looking for a stapler."

He looked at me confused, then grabbed the stapler to the left of us, handed it to me, and said, "Are you feeling ok, James?"

I distractedly headed back towards my desk with stapler in hand muttering, "Yeah, yeah, I'm great."

My chair seemed as hard as a rock when I sat in it. Nothing could be more uncomfortable.

"I bet we got the worst chairs because we work the least hours," I muttered disdainfully to myself, then worked out a more comfortable position.

"Stop complaining James. Your work is hardly finished and you need to rush if you're going to make your break," I heard Lukas sternly reprimand me as he passed by and looked at my screen.