Suspiciously Obedient by Julia Kent

Author:Julia Kent [Kent, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-07-01T22:00:00+00:00

Human resources hadn’t given her any sense of what to expect in the office other than handing her the address and saying good luck. So when she walked up to the modern, nondescript, aluminum and glass building that faced the bay, she walked into the unknown. Dressing that morning had been an exercise in futility. After five different clothing changes she just gave up and figured if she made a mistake, she made a mistake. People here seemed to be more casual, more practically minded in their sartorial choices. She went in wearing nice business shoes, business casual slacks, a blouse, a sweater in case it was cold, and hoped like hell she wasn’t expected to wear a suit.

The stairs led to a beige cubicle farm. She could have been in downtown Boston. She could have been in Charlotte, North Carolina. She could have been in Portland, Oregon. It was a beige cubicle farm and the European offices for Bournham Industries were no bigger than twelve desks.

“Is this Bournham Industries?” she asked the first person she saw, a pleasant-looking young woman who marched passed her with her arms filled with files.

“Ah, yes it is,” the woman said with a light accent. “Are you Lydia?” she asked.

“Yes, I am Lydia Charles. Is this—”

“You’re the new director of communications,” the woman said. She was older than Lydia by about ten years, and sleek and slim like someone who did triathlons. The weathered face attested to time spent outside, with a tall, live, thin body that had an abdomen that was almost concave, making Lydia suck in her own gut. Not that it made a difference (because it wasn’t going anywhere).

The woman shifted her folders into one arm and then reached out to shake Lydia’s hand. “I’m Elsa. It’s nice to meet you. Let me show you to your desk.”

Desk? She only had a desk? She thought she’d have an office. Elsa had long brown hair much like Lydia’s; her eyes, though, were the bright blue that she’d come to notice on more and more people here. Elsa marched with a deliberateness, an efficiency that Lydia appreciated instantly. And then she found herself at her office. Indeed. A piece of paper tacked to the outside cubicle that said Lydia Charles, Director of Communications for European Operations. There was a Dell desktop on the desk, a can full of pens, a printer, a ream of paper—and that was it.

Lydia dropped her laptop bag slowly onto the spare chair in the cubicle and said, “So…” The word lingered in the air as Lydia thought second by second through what she was about to say. If she asked, “So what do I do now?”— her impulse—she would look like she couldn’t lead. If she asked for more direction, she worried that Elsa would think she was an idiot and yet, here she stood in front of this desk that looked not at all unlike her desk at home, and what was she supposed to do?

Elsa seemed

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