Day 12

Start writing a story that...

Step 1: begins with this sentence: They came and...

Step 2: include a dialogue that begins with: What are you laughing at?

Step 3: include a dialogue that begins with: Where do you come from?

Step 4: include a dialogue that begins with: Tell him I'm here
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They came and stood at the counter surrounding her desk, talking only with each other. Betty was never sure whether they expected her to join in or pretend as if they weren't having a loud conversation inches from her face. This afternoon's post-lunch discussion focused on whether Luke sucked as a salesman or whether he was a little piece of shit. The general consensus seemed to be that, yes, he was a sucky salesman and a little piece of shit.

Keeping her eyes on her notepad to avoid their conversation, Betty considered how ridiculous they sounded talking trash about Luke now that he had already gone to work for the competition. When he was here, he was the golden boy. And he had been a nice guy, she thought, at least to her. Too bad these guys will never know what he said about them before he went. The memory of it made her chuckle.

"What are you laughing at," asked one of the guys, leaning toward her.

At first she was worried that he was upset, but he winked at her.

"Be honest, was it my joke or Eddie's?" he asked.

Betty smiled, stalling. She had been temping at the company for two months now, but she still had no clue what any of the guys' names were. And she didn't care. On her first day, Luke was the only one who had introduced himself without talking at her chest, and so he was the only one whose name she bothered to remember. At first this created a challenge. Part of her role as administrative assistant was to take the down the phone orders of anyone who refused to do it online and give each order to the correct sales team member. Initially they had wanted her to bring the orders to each guy's office, but she insisted that an organized system by her desk would be much more efficient and would keep her available to answer the phone. She then started putting the orders by her desk as she'd described, and eventually each sales guy learned to pick them up there. Of course this only encouraged them to start conversations with her, so she began to pretend she was on the phone when they approached. And she never let on that she didn't know, or care, who they were.

"Both were awesome," she answered, smiling as much as she could muster.

"Where do you come from, angel?" he asked, reaching to put his hand on her shoulder. "I've never seen such beautiful eyes."

He winked at her again, and she felt a queasiness settle into her stomach.

"Are you flirting with the help again?" another guy said loudly, then chuckled.

The phone rang and Betty grabbed at the receiver.

"Carson Vacuums. How can I help you?"

"Yeah, let me speak to Jeff Corwin," said the sharp male voice on the other end.

Betty glanced at the nameless guys still gathered near her desk.

"He's not available right now," she said. "Can I take a message?"

"Tell him I'm here."

"You're downstairs?"

"Yeah, at the guard's desk. Tell him to get his ass down here."

The guys continued cracking bad jokes near her desk. Betty wondered how she could figure out which one of them was Jeff Corwin.