Chapter 7

The woman - who you would later found out was the Officer Administrator - was a little off in her offer of a few minutes to get set up. You and Sabrina had barely arranged the chairs and pulled the survey sheets out and there was already a knock on the floor.

"Uh, hey?" asked the man at the door. "This is the survey thing, right?" He was dressed business-casual, which seemed to be the norm out on the office floor. He was also utterly forgettable in almost every way.

"Yes, it is. Please come in and sit down," Sabrina said, taking charge.

"Sure, sure," the guy said. "Is this going to take long?"

"Not unless you have a lot to say," you said, trying to take Sabrina's suggestion to be more friendly.

"Oh, uh, OK I guess," the guy said. He settled in and the surveys started up.

What then occurred was the biggest waste of time you could think of. You and Sabrina took turns taking notes and reading out the questions, and crossing out employee names on the master list as they came in. Doing the survey probably would have taken each person five minutes if it had been sent out by email - but classic BMA, they went the extra mile and wanted to make sure all of the employees of Chambers (aka. the owners) knew the firm was taking things seriously.

"I bet they're still going to bill hours as if Darrel is doing this," you muttered to Sabrina during one of your infrequent breaks.

"You're probably right," she sighed, looking over the short stack of responses you'd already gathered. It was all fairly simple stuff; questions about current practices, questions about where each employee thought the company could better their practices, or where the company was lacking. Questions about bosses, which no one ever answered truthfully.

Each interview took about ten minutes, and by 11:30 you had gotten through about eleven of the suckers when the Office Admin lady poked her head back in.

"That's all for now. We've got a big staff meeting at 12:30, so everyone's out for an early lunch. We should be good to pick back up at 1:30, maybe 2pm at the latest. Does that work for you?"

You and Sabrina looked to each other, and then both turned and said, "Yes."

"That works great," Sabrina followed.

"Alright," the lady said before leaving. "See you at two."

"Holy crap. We've got a two and a half hour lunch?" Sabrina said under her breath.

"This day just got so much better," you said, standing up and offering her a high five.

Sabrina accepted, clapping your hand softly as if in a daze. "What do we do for that long?"

"Let's go eat somewhere and actually, like, sit down," you said. Usually you and the other interns got a half hour for lunch, which meant grabbing something from the crappy little bodega next to the firm building, or if you wanted to risk it running down the street to the sub place.

"Yeah," Sabrina nodded, then got a look on her face. "Actually, that's a really good idea. Come on, I saw a place on the walk over that we should try."

"Sure," you agreed, quickly packing up your papers.

You two hit the street, backtracking a block, and Sabrina led you to a pub-like place that was probably a trendy bar at night. You two entered, and since you were there before noon the place was still fairly empty.

"Good morning," the hostess said as you met her at the little podium near the front door.

"Hey there," you said, putting on a grin and trying to show Sabrina that you'd been paying attention to her silly scolding over your business-relation skills. "Beautiful day out there, isn't it?"

"It is," the hostess agreed. "It's supposed to be a hot one, though."

You're a hot one, you thought, then immediately afterwards, Nope, that's too much. Thankfully your internal filter caught that one before your mouth blurted it out.

"I can't wait," Sabrina said. "Maybe I'll get some tanning in after work."

"Ooh, that sounds good," the hostess said, then winced. "Too bad for me, I'm working a double."

"Aw, that is too bad," Sabrina commiserated.

"Well, come on back, let's get you a table. Are you expecting anyone else?" the hostess asked, waving you to follow her as she led you into the pub.

"No, just us today," you said.

"Actually, can we grab one of those booths back there?" Sabrina asked, pointing towards the back of the pub, away from the front window.

"Sure," the hostess said, practically chirping. She led you to a back booth, tucked into the corner, and you noticed Sabrina manoeuvering so that she grabbed the closer bench seat, leaving you in the corner and looking out at the rest of the room. "I hope you don't mind me asking," the hostess added, as you and Sabrina slid into the seats, "But just the two of you, and wanting some privacy, is this a lunch date?"

"N-" you started, but Sabrina cut you off.

"Something like that," she smiled, crinkling her nose and then giggling for a brief moment along with the giddy hostess.

"Oh, that's so cute," the girl said. "Well, have fun, and let me know if you need anything. Theresa will be your waitress, she'll be around in a sec to grab your drink orders."

"Thanks," you said, giving her another smile.

The waitress returned your smile, and then backed away and, out of sight of Sabrina, mimed pointing at Sabrina and then gave me a thumbs up, a wink and a mouthed 'Nice job!'

I snorted and shook my head.

"What?" Sabrina asked.

"Nothing, nothing," you said. "So how was that, am I doing any better with being friendly?"

"A little," she said. "Careful not to make a girl jealous though, flirting with cute waitresses."

"Well, I mean there's still a little mystery with her," I teased, testing the waters back towards the elephant in the room between us.

"Oh-ho," Sabrina said, eyes widening at my dig. "Woooow. Well, at least you know exactly what you're getting under the packaging."

"True," you laughed with her. "Though, the packaging is very nice today. Is that OK, me complimenting you? I've wanted to more than once over the summer but it's always felt weird in the office."

"Thank you, and no. But you're right, until today it probably would have come across as a bit creepy, and I would have lumped you in with Eric," she said.

"And today?"

"Today, you're acting very cool for a guy that's watched me-"

"Well, hey there folks," a waitress interrupted.

You and Sabrina quickly made your drink orders - you splurged and both ordered a draft beer for lunch, planning to cut off at one even if it would be a couple hours before you needed to work again.

"So about that," you said once the waitress had gone to pour your beers.

"About what?" Sabrina asked.

"About you know," you said. "I just - and believe me, I'm not judging or complaining. But you were so worried as soon as I brought it up this morning. So why do it?"