Tales of a Single Girl....

Chapter one: A New Job

For some reason, I was not totally psyched about going into work today.

It takes me ages to make decisions on absolutely anything; be that trying to figure out what to wear, or what to say to a guy or anything else for that matter. I often don't know what the matter with me is.

Take my job, for instance. I work at a place called "Adult Knowledge". It's an adult education centre, which mainly focuses on training people where English is a second language to them. It also provides computer training, hospitality training and all kinds of other self improvement courses for those people willing to change their lives.

I did actually like my job, despite what others may or may not have realised. Sometimes, though I couldn't help feeling frustrated. It had a lot to do with my boss, I think. His name was Eugene Archibald and he looked like Santa Claus, only without the red suit, the twinkling blue eyes, the jolly laugh and the generosity of spirit. He was a mean little man with beady little eyes, who resembled a woman who was at least twelve months pregnant. He waddled rather than walked, constantly stuttered when put in an uncomfortable position and believe it or not, considered himself a bit of a ladies' man. It was pretty hysterical and we never fail to laugh at him behind his back at every given opportunity, which I know doesn't sound very nice but if you ever met him, you would understand exactly what I mean.

Anyway, what has really bugged me is the fact that a new position has been created within our esteemed organisation. It's not the position itself that has infuriated me but rather, the fact that nobody is allowed to apply for it internally. I don't exactly know what Archibald is playing at but it's obvious that he wants new blood in our office. I always thought that someone in the admin team would be eligible to apply. Someone like me for instance. Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth but I decided that it wasn't worth dwelling on. Look at it from this point of view, I told myself as I walked into the kitchen to make some breakfast. You may not be getting extra money but at least you wouldn't have to deal with the extra responsibility as well. And working in close proximity with Archibald is not necessarily a good thing, so at least I would be spared that nightmare. From what I heard from others in the office, the man was a downright sleazeball.

As I started to prepare coffee for myself, I walked past Christella's room and noticed that her bed had not been slept in again. Christella was my younger sister and my flat mate as well. We had moved out of home a year ago and ever since then, she had completely run wild. Constantly on a date with a different guy pretty much every night, I was surprised she had any time for anything else as her extra curricular activities pretty much kept her on the go. She certainly didn't appear to have any time for me.

As I brewed the coffee, I heard the front door open and close and realised that my dear little sister had finally made it home from her hot date. Funny, I mused, how it seemed that I never actually got a chance to meet these guys.

"Hello stranger," I called out to her. "I see you're doing the walk of shame yet again."

"Good morning to you," I heard a familiar voice say behind me. "Look I was up all night doing pretty much....well, I suppose you wouldn't really know what that was now, would you? Give me some coffee, so I can at least pretend to function at work today."

"You forgot the magic word," I said sweetly.

"Please," she grunted.

"That's much better now," I grinned and I poured her a cup. I took a good look at her then. She seemed to be glowing, which totally contradicted her supposedly sullen tone. She was in an awfully good mood. Obviously, the only person capable of dispelling that good mood was me.

"Who's the lucky guy?" I asked automatically.

She smiled at me then and her face completely lit up. "His name is Peter," she giggled. "Eva, I think I'm in love!"