Steph's Fortnightly Adventure

Steph's Fortnightly Adventure: Muse

Muse

"Hello. Stephanie?"

"Yes, Mr. Maes?"

"I am gonna leave a package for you at work one day next week. Be sure to keep it till friday."

('What could he have in store for me?')

It was a Tuesday of the following week, if I'm not mistaken. I had a head splitting migraine, from the night before, and bags under my eyes. I stayed up to finish some paperwork that had backed up due to my laziness and this was my bonus. To make matters worse, I didn't finish all the paperwork. As a result, I had to go in early to finish up. I was definitely not pleased. Before hand I arranged with Muriel, our cleaning lady, to leave the key with me so I had no issues going in early.

"Ahh, the gateway to hell," I said before I shook my head and went inside the office. After a grand reception, with dust being used as make-shift confetti, I made my way to the staircase. I couldn't help but notice that the place was musty. I knew Muriel cleaned the night before but it seemed as if we left the place open for insects for weeks. We really shouldn't take her for granted. From what I saw there was dust everywhere, I saw droppings from some sort of animal and, on top of all that, there were spider webs in the corners with flies trapped, waiting for their impending doom. Ahh, the circle of life.

Steph vs Wild episode behind me, I headed upstairs to my cubicle at the back. At my cubicle, on my desk lied an envelope. Curious, I asked, "Whose is this?" All I subsequently heard was silence. How could I have forgotten that I was the only person there? I took up the envelope and scanned for any indication of who it may have belonged to. I saw an insignia in the left hand corner. It was something I vaguely remembered. After rattling my brain for about 15 minutes, it came to me. "Ahh, Aleksandr. This was his personal insignia that he had and the bottom of his paintings. I guess that meant this was for me."

I opened the envelope. Inside was black, fine, Spanish sand. I realized it due to that damn Kas; she had a thing for foreign trinkets. Apart from the spanish sand there was a letter and.. a blindfold? Both piqued my interest, the blindfold more than the letter, evidently. The letter read, "Hello my darling, Stephanie. I'll keep this short and sweet. Be outside your office at 6pm on Friday. There's no need to look formal. Yours truly, Aleksandr."

"Be outside my office? That's all? So what were the blindfolds for?"

Day-in Day-out, I thought about what might happen on Friday.

Then came Friday. I made sure that I had on my lace lingerie for the day, after all, anything could happen. The day took forever to end. Mindless office chatter, Oliver hitting on me (for the hundredth time), and that damn Jonell being an attention seeking-whore. had me on edge. I'm sure that even in her dreams Jonell had to be the centre of attention, telling everyone about her lame night out. It's such a shame that the tongue is the only muscle that can't get tired. It's as if god was torturing me and I really couldn't take much more.

-

Thankfully, the work day ended. The shackles of torture were finally removed. In another context, however, I may have allowed it to stay on.

Everyone began leaving. Dean, with a displeased look on his face, was the first to make his way toward the front door. He looked as if he had the whole world on his shoulders. "Damn," Dean muttered under his breath.

A bit concerned and looking for a way to pass the time, I asked, "What seems to be bugging you, Dean?"

"It's Sarah again."