Tom, a 50 year old stuck in a boring job

Tom groaned when he realized he'd just read the same paragraph three times in a row. Being an editor meant he had to read things he didn't necessarily enjoy. Editing a safety manual for mining equipment was absolutely mind numbing.

Tom stretched, his hands bumping into the walls of his tiny office. He decided to take a break and figure out how to jailbreak his new phone. He'd never done that before, but he'd heard about some socially unacceptable apps that he could only get that way. So he opened up a website that was a little sketchier than he was comfortable with and started trying to understand the instructions.

Halfway through the complicated steps (complicated for his middle-aged brain, anyway), Janeece walked in. She didn't even knock, she just opened the door and said, "Tom, are you ready to start training Sandy yet?"

He looked up at Janeece and tried to smile politely. At this point in his life, he kinda resented working with women as hot as her. Tall, thin but with terrific breasts hiding in her tight blouse, and chocolate skin that didn't have a blemish on it made the mid-twenties woman an absolute beauty, but there was no chance she'd ever want to date someone his age. Hell, the one time he'd flirted with her, she'd barely managed to smile through her obvious need to vomit. Tom hadn't been laid in three years, but no amount of charm would ever get any of the younger women he worked with to have any interest in him, and that was getting harder and harder to deal with. In a company that most employees viewed as a stepping stone for something bigger, he'd never left and gradually become the oldest, least desirable employee.

"I thought Sandy wasn't starting her training until tomorrow?" said Tom.

Janeece shook her head. "It was moved up to today so that Claire can work with her tomorrow, before she goes on vacation. We sent you a slack message about it just now."

Tom looked down at his phone, which was not at a useable state. So he started up slack on his computer and saw several messages that he had missed. "Okay, yeah, just gimmie 5 minutes. I'm in the middle of something. I'll message her when I'm ready."

Janeece rolled her eyes at him and left.

Tom looked back at the instructions for jailbreaking his phone, unsure where he'd left off. He wasn't sure what the last thing he'd done was or which patch he was supposed to download. Frustrated, he took his best guess. After awhile, his phone was working again.

"Success!" said Tom. Then he noticed that instead of logging onto his usual provider, the phone had linked to something called "MP". Looking at the time, he saw that it had been twenty minutes since he'd said "gimmie 5 minutes". "Fuck, I'd better get her in here and figure this out later." He sent a message to Sandy telling her to come to his office as soon as she was able.

Tom wasn't looking forward to this. Sandy Zhang was their receptionist, and she'd been working at the company since she'd gotten out of college. That was only a year, but she was eager to be a junior editor, so they were giving her a chance. Tom knew she'd probably be at his level within two years, then above him within five. He'd given up on any kind of ambition a long time ago, but it still stung to see energetic young people shoot past him on the corporate ladder.

A timid, little knock came from the door.

"Come in!"

Sandy peeked her head in the door. She was a very cute girl, but with her oversized glasses and her long, black hair in a ponytail, she still looked like a college student. "Mr. Carlton? Are you ready for me now?"

He tried not to sound sarcastic as he said, "Yes, that's why I sent you a message saying to come here."

Sandy came in, nervously shutting the door behind her. She didn't have much choice, the office was so small that she wouldn't have been able to walk around his desk with the door open. "Message? I didn't get a message. I was just talking with Janeece and I thought I'd better check with you."

"You have to keep up with your slack messages if you want to be an editor," said Tom. He waved for her to grab a chair and sit next to him as he turned to his computer. He looked at slack and... there was no message. That was weird. He looked at his phone and he could plainly see the message he'd sent. Tom hated mysteries, so he felt like he needed to work this out before continuing. "Sandy, I think something might be wrong with my phone. Let me send you another message."

"Okay," said the shy but nervously energetic young woman. She pulled out her phone, a relatively cheap android phone.

Tom typed on his phone.

• Did you get this message?

A second later came a response.

• Yes.

Tom did a double take. Sandy hadn't typed anything. She was just sitting there, waiting for him to send her a message.

• Who is this?
• Sandy.
• Bullshit. Sandy's right here. Who are you?
• I'm Sandy.
• Alright, fine. If you're Sandy, say something.

"Something," said Sandy out loud.

Tom's head jerked up. "Why did you just say that?"

The young woman shrugged her shoulders. "You were being very quiet. I just felt like saying something."

Tom's head hurt. This didn't make any sense. He sent a new message.