K'hat'n'dlawa

Fascinating

"So, how'd it go yesterday?" Karen, the other secretary, asked as she walked briskly past Amanda's desk to the water dispenser in the corner of their small, cramped office.

"It was...fine," Amanda lied. She was already waiting for Linette to call her into her office. If that Vulcan ambassador had complained about her yesterday to the director, she'd be fired.

"Sorry to bail on you, but I met the last Vulcan ambassador, Sirkon- he was scary," Karen said as she walked back to her desk and sat down. "I wasn't even about to be the one to greet the new one. Plus- you're new. Consider it part of the hazing process."

Amanda forced a smile. She wasn't fond of Karen- who left most of the work to Amanda and spent her time filing her nails and chatting on the holophone to her friends when Linette wasn't around. Not only that, but Karen was...well, easy. She had quite a reputation at the embassy. Rumor had it that she'd slept with a male of every known species in existence- except for Vulcans, apparently. Amanda wasn't usually one to believe gossip, but...

As Karen turned to her computer console, Amanda looked at the clock. Her shift ended in an hour. She wouldn't breathe easily until she walked out the front doors...if she hadn't been called into the forbidding office down the hall by then, she was safe.

She tapped her stylus against her desk and started to bite the nail on her pinkie finger. What would she do if she lost her job? She could look somewhere else, she supposed...but the embassy paid secretaries well. There was no way she'd be able to find another part-time job that would pay bills and pay off some of her debt to the university.

The clock seemed to be going backwards, the time was passing so slowly. Amanda busied herself on the computer, reorganizing files and deleting old ones- anything to keep her mind off the time.

"Grayson!" Linette's sharp voice startled her. She was walking toward her. Amanda took a deep breath, preparing for the worst. She had been waiting for this all day...

"Yes, ma'am?" Amanda asked her supervisor.

"Take this to the Bolian ambassador. He's on the third floor," Linette said, shoving a PADD into Amanda's hands. "After he signs it, bring it back. Simple, right? Get to it."

Amanda was too relieved to be annoyed by Linette's attitude. For a moment there, she had been so sure...

She got up and headed out into the hall, and then into the lift. Once there, she leaned against the wall with a sigh.

"I think I'm safe," she said out loud, and smiled to herself. As the lift descended, she thought about the Vulcan. Why had she been so afraid of him, again?

The doors slid back, and she straightened, adjusting her knee-length blue skirt to smooth away the wrinkles. She shoved a stray piece of her chestnut-brown hair behind one ear and walked down the hall toward the office at the very end.

The Bolian ambassador quickly signed the document, and soon she was on her way back to the lift. As she passed one open doorway, however...

"Miss Grayson?" Came a deep, smooth voice. Amanda stopped in her tracks, and pivoted back around. She returned to the door she had just breezed past.

"Ambassador?" Amanda asked. This time, she was not nervous. The Vulcan was seated at his desk, not towering over her.

"Step inside," he bade her. Amanda obeyed, and came to a stop before his desk.

"Is there something you need, Ambassador?" she asked stiffly. Her lips were slightly pursed, eyes narrowed. She hadn't forgotten how much he'd hurt her feelings the day before. When not thinking about the fact that she may lose her job, she had been thinking about that. She'd decided that she definitely did not like this man.