First Day at Work

My eyes flung open as the alarm went off on my phone. I rolled over to reach my phone and click the snooze button, my head hurt as I lifted my head from the pillow. Woah! I shouldn't be drinking at all! I walked into the washroom to get ready for my first day of work.

I looked in the mirror and felt as if I was about to fall onto the floor, it was hard to understand what was making me feel this way.

I brushed my teeth and showered as quickly as I could. Suddenly, my head was filled with memories from last night, that face which I stared at for as long as I could, how I felt when our lips touched, and the passion we had.

An electric wave of energy filled my body as if my whole anatomy was transformed. I didn't quite understand what was going on. I did my make up with my favorite playlist blasting in the background. I felt good, and the hangover no longer bothered me.

I ran to the kitchen to make myself a quick breakfast; I didn't want to have milk coffee, knowing that having anything with milk during a hangover was never going to be good. I sipped on my black coffee and sliced a piece of omelet while thinking about how I should have just said no to Carol and stayed home.

It is never a good idea to go to a party when you have just arrived in town, have an office the next day and that too, the first day. A lot of bad decisions in a row, and now I have got myself into something that I don't even know myself. I checked my phone and saw that I had a message from an unknown number, who could that be, I opened it.

"Meet me at STK Downtown at 8 PM." Hmm... I stared at my phone for a second to contemplate if this was an invitation for a date or not. But why would he say he needed a favor, I need some expert advice, and I can only think of one person to go to, and that is the person who got me into this mess in the first place.

I texted Carol immediately, saying, "Bitch, we meet for lunch, need to talk! Pick me up!" I quickly stuffed my mouth with the rest of the omelet and ran to catch my subway to work, which was around 20 minutes away. Ha! I am 15 minutes early anyway! I walked out of the elevator to the street, making my way to the subway.

I reached my office just in time as I didn't quite expect the rush hour would delay my ride so much; well, getting the taste of real New York City wasn't that fun.

I had to grab a coffee before I stepped into my office as I knew hangover would never contribute to a good impression, it never has, and it never will. I stopped by at Starbucks to pick up a latte, a penny rolled over from my hand while I tried to put it into my pocket, and my hand followed it through the floor to a gentleman's shoes.

I look up to apologize and see a very charming young man smiling down at me. Why is this guy smiling at me? I picked up the penny and stood up.

"Hungover huh?" he asked, and I never felt more annoyed by a question before; who is this prying individual, I thought as I smiled as though I was stoned and turned around to pick my latte and walk out, having to never look at that guy's face again.

I walked into my new office with a latte in one hand, in utmost confidence in my new workwear from Ann Taylor, which I bought specially to make this grand entry like I already had in my head at least a thousand times.

My crisp white shirt, pencil skirt and the coat which just hung around my shoulders loosely made at least all the head turn with that entrance I felt, my boots tick tocks into the cabin which had a sign saying "Information center" to ask where I was supposed to be reporting.

A young neatly-dressed woman looked up from her files at the distraction that entered her office and gave me the worst questioning face I had seen in at least five years of my working years.

"Hi, I am Megan Clarke, the new assistant editor," I said, and I realized that I sounded as if I didn't believe in what I was saying, so I stuck a fake smile along with it. Definitely, the hangovers are bad for the first days. She pointed to the left, which I didn't quite understand for a moment.

"From here, go straight and turn left, there you will see the Chief Editor's office. Meet him," she said, and I smiled in response. She could've told me that in the beginning. I walked out of her cabin to arrive in front of the door which said, 'Mr. Jeffrey Davidson, Editor-in-Chief'.

I dropped my latte cup into a trash can that was sitting opposite his cabin and took a deep breath before pushing the door open and said, "good luck" to myself as I knew I needed it.

I give a hard push to the door and call out, "may I come in?" and I meet with a familiar voice saying, "yes, you may!" My eyes just stayed open for a minute in shock as I tried to process the information which flooded into my brain, which just repeated one sentence over and over and that was "you fucked up!".

I walked in feeling the most insecure person in the world, all the confidence and rehearsed first day impressions were gone to the trash can along with the latte cup as I met the guy who I blew off in Starbucks.

Worst way to meet your boss, possible! I stepped a little closer to his table, watching him smiling at me, and I quite didn't understand if he was laughing at me in his head.

"Did the coffee help?" he asked as he pointed at the chair in front of him. "I am so sorry, I had no idea! And it did until now. I am embarrassed that you had to catch me off guard like that!" I spilled out, sensing that was the best thing I could do to try and fix the damage already made.

"That's alright, we all have our days, but I would appreciate it if you didn't drink so often before a workday," he said politely, which made me feel even more terrible.

"It won't happen again, I assure you," I said. "Alright, so your office is just beside mine so you can walk out and walk right, and the first one is yours. You will be directly reporting to me and.. you will be handling anthologies for now. Is that good?"

I felt kind of good sitting in his office, and noticed how unusually young he was, might around my same age or a year older or so, looking good in his formals with rolled-up sleeves and for what I noticed from the morning incident, he is tall and eligible by all means.

At least I don't have to worry about working for a rude, old dude who just hovers over you to make your life miserable. I nodded and walked out of his office with a huge smile as I knew this workplace was everything that I wished for, and I am going to nail it.

I enter my office to see a beautiful mahogany table with a boss chair, which I jumped into, I looked over everything that was on the table and saw there were already few submissions piled on them, and it was like a 'nerd's dream has come true' I turned around, and there it was a whole view of the entire city from my desk.

I could not ask for more. I finally had a feeling that things are starting to work the way I always wanted to, for the first time in my life.

I picked up my phone to catch a little picture for the gram and noticed a message from Carol saying she will pick me at 2 PM, and I felt my excitement hitting the ceiling for everything happening.

I think I am over my hangover. It's time to live this life, I put my phone away after capturing the beauty of the scenery, which will be mine to enjoy every day to sink into the writings that waited for my attention. But again, my brain brought its obsession on to taunt me "what's gonna happen tonight though?"