A Mixed Bag

When the lofi beats of Alan’s phone woke him he lay paralyzed looking at the ceiling. It was sort of a weekly ritual come Monday morning, where Alan had to convince himself that it was worth going into the office and go do his job. The rest of the week was easier, but Mondays…

“I have PTO, I could use it and call out…” He thought to himself, only to be countered with

“And it would change nothing tomorrow, at least going in you’ll accumulate more time off.” He knew this was true, but

“But most anything is better than being in the office and staring at a screen for hours.” It slowly killed him inside. The bulk of his job was answering emails, monitoring activity, and watching phone lines.

“And what will you do at home? Stare at a different screen for hours?” Jeeze, when you put it like that

“Fine…I’ll go.” He pulled off his weighted blanket and sat up, turning himself out of bed, he began his ritual for getting ready. Brushing teeth, hair clay, vitamins, a quick breakfast, and out the door just in time for the bus to pull up. He clambered on, pulling his still half asleep self on the bus and acknowledged the commitment to going in was finalized by this one act, no turning back now.

The most annoying thing about the late shift was that it was already past noon. The people around him were well in on their day and would be heading to bed before he finished closing up for the night. It created this feeling of separation from reality, a feeling of being out of sync with the world around him. Between that and the boredom of his life Alan probably should be seeing a psychiatrist but alas medical bills would just be another unsurmountable hassle.

Eventually the bus dinged and stopped and Alan jumped off and walked to the multi story building the call center was placed in. Virtucom was a larger servicer, with quite a few projects under its belt but only a few ran year round. Alan was part of one such “lucky” project. He had started by making calls, just like everyone else and a combination of computer and subject matter acumen had had him moved into his current position. The downside was there was really nowhere to go from there, and with the job market the way it was Alan was just happy to have a job, even if it was one he despised.

In the elevator his phone went off as he received a text. He pulled it out and on opening the message quickly closed it and checked to make sure no one else in the elevator was looking. Seeing no one else was paying attention, he brought the text back up,

The text was from Caroline and contained a picture. In the picture she was in a bathroom alone, he could tell even with her hand blocking them that her eyes were turned down. She was wearing a lab coat and a button up shirt with an ID badge. What had made him double check was the shirt was fully unbuttoned revealing her breasts clad in a periwinkle blue push up, her badge caught in her cleavage with her mouth hanging just slightly open. There was no text alongside the image, she had just followed his instructions.

He sent one text in response :

“Good girl, I expect similar photos every day this week. If you miss any you’ll be punished.”

There was almost no delay in the message he received back:

“Yes sir”

Alan grinned to himself, feeling emboldened. He wasn’t the same as he was before, he could do good work, even trapped in this dead end job.

He smiled and waved as he passed Alex at her desk. The young woman was dressed well, but professionally. Her brunette hair was tied back in a ponytail and her cardigan and skirt combo showed off her swelling bust and shapely legs. He was admiring her form when she spoke up.

“Mr. Ward? Mr. Kerowitz would like to see you before you start today” She tried to hide what appeared to be a nervous expression.

Harry Kerrowitz was the day supervisor on the project, at 43 years old he was a rotund jovial looking sort of man. He lacked any real backbone and was happy to follow orders, as such he was well suited towards middle management. He did have a habit of becoming a nervous wreck at the first sign of trouble, and Alan thought if his wife wasn’t head of HR he may have collapsed long before now.

Alan got along with the man fine, there was only an hour of overlap in their schedules so they didn’t see each other much. Harry did often get put in the position of messenger of unpleasant news from higher up. Judging by Alex’s expression, Alan guessed that may be what he was in for.

Gritting his teeth he smiled at Alex, “No problem, I’ll go right over.”

As he entered the office, Harry was in the process of double checking a calendar, when he saw Alan his expression turned sheepish and he tried to smile

“Alan, good to see you, did you have a good weekend?” He gestured to a chair opposite his desk for Alan to sit

“Well enough, busier than normal. Alex said you needed to tell me something?” Key to a Happy life, Alan thought, never go into details with superiors.

“Ah yes…the thing is well-” He was shifting his weight from side to side now, “you see, it turns out I may have accumulated too much PTO this year, you know me- workaholic that I am.”

Fussy was more accurate, the man couldn't stand not touching things, but Alan just nodded and continued to watch him carefully.

“So management is requiring I take the rest of the week off and will need the mornings covered, it was decided what would be best would be if you handled those four days.” He rushed the last few words.

Alan felt heat in his face and worked to keep his words calm even as he felt his fist shaking, “We open…at 8 am Harry. Then close…at 11 pm Harry. Harry, that’s 15 hours a shift.”

“I…am aware, really this is on me for not using my time appropriately but there’s really no alternative-” Alan cut him off

“But to foist everything on me!” It took Alan a second to realize he was standing now looking down at the man

“I’m sorry Alan, it’s just how it worked out.” Harry let out, his demeanor calm. Alan knew Harry probably thought he meant those words, but his disposition and manner betrayed that it wasn’t his problem.

Alan swarmed the man with feelings of shame as he moved to exit the room, “Enjoy your time off.”

And stormed his way to his desk.