Wise Enterprises was the name of Roxanne’s prestigious workplace. She looked at it in admiration. For a moment, she forgot about the cab driver beside her who was waiting for his pay.
“Cash, Miss,” he promptly bellowed to her. She looked at him.
“Right.” She said, then took several dollars from her purse and gave them to him. He nodded.
“At your service,” he said, then got into his cab and drove off. Roxanne sighed.
“This ‘cab’ thing is just for now. I shall soon have my own car,” she said to herself as she walked to her workplace.
The place was gigantic with numerous workstations and people—each professionally carrying out their duties.
It was divided into floors: The ground floor was for newcomers like herself and subordinate staff, the first floor was for able employees who were promoted to working in the factories, the second floor was for qualified and experienced employees who did tons of work within a short time, while the final floor was for the boss, Mr. Reynolds, and his team of engineers.
Roxanne walked in while looking around. She liked what she was seeing and knew that there was where she belonged. She saw someone waving at her with a smile. She smiled back. The person stood up, walked to her, and hugged her.
“Rox! Wow! Look at you!” She said, while admiring Roxanne’s smart suit.
“You don’t look too bad yourself, Bree,” Roxanne returned with the same enthusiasm. The two friends walked to their stations.
“You work here,” Bree informed her while indicating a well-polished desk with a computer, several files, and a tag boldly indicated ROXANNE SIMMONS.
“Thanks,” Roxanne said, then took a seat on a swivel chair behind the desk.
Bree sat behind the desk right beside Roxanne’s. There was a thick plank of wood that separated them but they could still see each other. Roxanne noted that Bree’s desk also had a tag with her name on it.
She put her purse on the desk and looked around. What would she do? She wondered. She glanced over at Bree, who was busy uploading files into her computer, and drummed her fingers on her desk.
She finally decided to turn on her computer and watch a movie in it to kill time. She put on the headphones beside the computer and turned up the volume of the computer. All her attention was fixed on the movie. Time went by very quickly and before long, it was 10 a.m., when the employees had a coffee break.
Getting Roxanne’s attention was no easy task, especially since she was engrossed in the movie. Bree slammed Roxanne’s desk with her open palm, and that did it. Roxanne looked up at her, took off her headphones, and paused and muted the computer.
“What?” She asked.
“We’re on a break—unless you want to sit your butt here watching a romcom movie the whole time,” Bree said as she watched the movie behind her friend.
“You’ve seen it?” Roxanne asked.
“Have I? It’s a classic,” Bree replied, then watched a well-built man as he passed by her. “You know, sometimes I regret being Keith’s girlfriend. There are so many yummy guys and I have tied myself down to one guy,” she said to Roxanne, who smiled, shook her head, and turned off the computer then got up. She adjusted the top which she wore under the coat.
“Keith is hot. You don’t need any other guy when you’ve got him,” she said, then followed her friend who was equally beautiful. She had on a purple skirt suit with heels, noticeable features, and shoulder-length beautifully kempt dark hair. Her cocky nature and audible soft voice made her, Bree, to be easily identified.
“Speaking of guys, do you have one?” Bree intruded as they strolled to get their coffees. “Let me correct myself: Do you have tons of them?” She said again. Roxanne laughed and playfully slapped her friend on the back.
“Bree, I don’t need one right now,” she said, as they both served themselves coffee.
“Yeah, right. Roxanne? Rox, the one I know? We were bad girls in high school, remember?” Bree said as she looked at Roxanne, then sipped her coffee.
“Guys going head over heels for us, others dumping their girlfriends for us…” Roxanne recalled fondly.
“...others had to beg for our phone numbers. Remember when Tyler Fisher broke his leg trying to pull a stunt to woo us?” Bree contributed, then broke into an uncontrollable laughter. Roxanne joined her.
“Those were the days,” she said after a long hearty laugh. “But now we’re adults, living in the real world,” she added and smiled on noticing a good-looking guy eyeing her. Bree followed her gaze.
“Who said adults can’t turn heads and have some fun? Your smile tells me you think that guy is cute,” Bree said while staring on at the distant guy who was having coffee with a few of the engineers. He waved at them. Bree waved back vivaciously while Roxanne nodded at him.
“Maybe, but he’s not my type,” Roxanne said, then finished up her coffee and put her cup on the rack of dirty dishes. Bree did likewise.
“What’s your type, exactly?” She asked Roxanne.
“I don’t know. He should be ideal, caring, loving, and, of course, handsome,” Roxanne replied as they walked up the stairs leading to the first floor.
The first floor was more advanced than the ground floor. It had several fans, a well-tiled floor, water dispensers for each employee, plus a two-sided flat screen TV on the ceiling for every employee to watch. A few of them were watching it.
“It’s like we’re in kindergarten and these guys are in middle school,” Bree said as she enviously looked at the fans then the TV.
“Well, at least we have computers on our floor. Let’s go to the second floor,” Roxanne replied, then took her friend by the hand and led her to the flight of stairs that led to the second floor.
The second floor was even more advanced. Each employee had their own office, TVs, and air-conditioners. They even phoned to order coffee and lunch without having to stand up and go for them. Several female cateresses from the ground floor would come there and serve them.
“You call first floor middle school? Baby, this is high school!” Roxanne said to Bree as she admired the beautiful walls of the department.
“This is a crime against workers. What do they have that we don’t?” Bree said loudly, making one of the employees who was passing by turn to her.
“Um, experience, Bree. Let’s move on, before you put us in a very tight spot, to the university of Wise Enterprises, where the likes of Mr. Reynolds are,” Roxanne answered as she led her friend to the third and final floor.
It was like a totally different place. It was a combination of the first and second floors, with their boss and his engineers having washrooms in a room in their offices. Each office door had a name tag made of gold on it.
“Well, enough sightseeing. Let’s get back to work before Mr. Reynolds finds us here,” Bree said firmly. Roxanne nodded. They turned and went back to their kindergarten—the ground floor.
Roxanne’s desk was as she left it but Bree’s had some files that she was to sort out. Roxanne smiled to herself as she turned on her computer and wore her headphones. It was nice to know that someone found her attractive. Before she retrieved the movie she was watching, she heard a baritone voice saying, “Excuse me.”
She looked up at the person and took off her headphones. It was the guy who waved at her and Bree earlier. She looked over at Bree. Bree smiled at her and pretended to be minding her own business. She cleared her throat.
“Yes, may I help you?” She said to him formally.
“You are already helping me by letting me hear your gorgeous voice. My name is Charlie Wright, and I work on the third floor as an engineer,” the man said as he outstretched his hand to her. She took it. She wanted to smile but she didn’t.
“So why are you here?” Roxanne asked after the handshake.
“To know your name. Your beauty has captured me. Knowing your name would be like discovering the cure of some serious disease to me,” Charlie replied.
“I’m Roxanne Simmons,” Roxanne said, then looked at him from head to toe.
He was a guy with a clean shaven chin with an aftershave scent still lingering on him. He had on a white tight shirt that adequately curved out his broad chest and muscles, a tie, a well-fitting pair of dark trousers, and well-polished black loafers. She liked the way his Adam’s apple bobbled up and down rhythmically as he talked.
“Roxanne. What an angelic name,” he said longingly as he internalized it.