Take it to Raymond

You look around for Wendy, maybe she could give you support, but she's gone.

Sighing, you look towards Ray's office and see him at his desk through the glass walls. He's looking straight at you, smiling. Unnerved, part of you wants to fly down the steps but part of you gets worried he'll follow, so instead you put on an unsure smile and enter his office.

"Your coffee?" you say.

"Ah yes, put it here," he points to the edge of the desk that's closest to him. It's a big desk, and in order to put the coffee where he pointed, you have to stand right in front of his desk and lean forward. Only mid way through doing this do you suddenly realise the view you're giving him. His smile is bigger now, and you quickly lean back.

"Yes," he continues, "we must definitely work on your outfit. Could I have your phone number?"

"Ummmm...." you hesitate.

"Oh yes, silly me, it should be on the system." He takes out his phone. "I don't know why people say EmployeeID is confusing, it gives you everything you need if you just know what buttons to press. Here we go." You suddenly hear a familiar chime from outside the office, looking in that direction, you can see your purse under your desk where you left it. "Ah," said Ray, following your gaze, "glad that works. I'll text you the dress code before tomorrow. Don't worry about cost, I'll assign an expense account to your app. Did you know the app can make purchases too? In real shops? Technology moves so fast and I love every minute of it."

You stand there, nodding in a way you hope is polite.

"What about you? Do you like technology."

You think back to everything that's happened in the last too days. "Well, when it does what you want it to do."

"Ah yes, many people have that problem." Ray stood up and moved in front of his desk, "I find that to get what you want, you just have to learn to ask for it in the right way." He's right in front of you now. "7 O'Clock, Breech's, on Moore St. Will you be there? Or if you can't wait, we can have one right now." He subtly nodded towards the cabinet.

"No," you reply.

"Waiting it is," he smiled, "in the meantime, take a look." He takes you by the shoulders and suddenly turns you towards the side. You now face a row of floor to ceiling windows that give a massive, view of the city from many stories up.

"Wow," you reply genuinely impressed, stepping towards the window and looking out. It takes a while to take in the view, see all the details and buildings, get a sense of where everything is.

"Impressive isn't it, if you look in the distance you can see some of the forests and sawmills that actually make what we sell. The offices used to be over there before we moved to a more central place", you quint your eyes, trying to make out the detail. For all the crazy stuff that was going on, at least you got something nice out of it.

"It's a great view," you say.

"It sure is." Something in the way he said it made you turn, Ray had sat down in a comfortable low chair and had his eyes level with your lower regions. How long had he been doing that since you turned your back?

Dammit, with this guy if it isn't one thing or another....

"I should really get back to my desk," you say.