Sit, Stay, Roll Over ✓

(1) A New Day

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I FIXED MY NECKTIE and took a deep breath before knocking on the door in front of me. "Boss, it's Day," I say out loud so the person inside could hear.

     "Come in," a female voice answers, and I finally opened the door, stepping inside my boss's office which was full of documents and magazines. If I didn't know that this was her office, I would have thought that this was a storage room instead.

     "Sorry to disturb you Ms. Valentina, but I just wanted to inform you that I'm heading back first. My team is already working on the finishing touches. We'll be done with the new issue tomorrow, and I promise that I'll send you the final draft as soon as possible," I explained as Ms. Valentina, our editor-in-chief, was busy typing something down on her computer.

     Without removing her eyes from the computer screen, she tells me, "I received the first draft so I'm expecting to see the final version in my email tomorrow, no extensions. Just make sure it's not as pathetic as the last one you sent."

    I rolled my eyes at her comment but dare not to say anything against it. "I'll make sure of it," I say with a fake smile before heading out of her office. As soon as I closed the door behind me, I closed my eyes and massaged my temple. 

     "You can do it Day. This has been your dream job since you were young. You can do it," I whisper under my breath, mentally toughening myself up before opening my eyes back.

     I put on a fake smile as I head back to our office where my team was.

     "Sir McCartney, good work today," one of the photo editors says as he cleans his desk.

     "You too," I reply, walking back to my own desk so I could get ready to leave. While I was shoving my laptop back inside my bag, my work friend, Jane Roberts who's also an editor, approaches me and suddenly drapes her arm around my shoulder.

     "Hey team leader, we're heading to a bar and getting a couple of drinks. You should come," she says, and I remove her arm away from me and replied, "We're still not done with the final draft though."

     "Oh come on, it's just a couple of drinks. And besides, we're just finishing things up with the new issue. We've been working on this magazine for weeks. Lighten up a little," she says, and I sighed and grabbed my bag so I could leave.

     "I'm sorry, I have to look through the issue again to make sure it's perfect. I promise to come with you guys next time," I say, and Jane sighs and just pats my shoulder before heading back to where the others were. She probably already knew what my answer was.

     Without looking back at them, I went straight to the parking lot and got inside my car. As I practically dump my bag on the passenger seat, I rested my head on the steering wheel and took a deep breath.

     "Congratulations McCartney, you successfully had another exciting day."

     My name is Dane Andrew McCartney, but my very few friends call me Day. I'm a 26-year-old editor who's also the team leader of the Magazine Division in EXRay Media, a magazine that shows exclusive insights into the lives of famous and well-known people.

     While I work for a magazine that talks about other people's exciting lives, I suffer the complete opposite.

     I'm a workaholic, which was the exact reason why Todd Cooper—my college sweetheart—broke up with me a month ago at a café we usually go to when we were still together. And because of that, I have not visited that store ever since.