Do You Believe In Faith

I wake in this apartment and I wonder is this where I’m meant to be? In any case, I need to get ready for that interview at 10am but it's 8am so I have time. I’ll just take another five minutes and sleep a bit more.

Beep! Beep! Beeeep!!

I hit the button on my alarm and look at the clock groggily. 9:42am, okay I can get a bit more sleep… Wait, wait… Slowly I raised my head again and checked the clock. 9:43am… jumping out of bed I freshen up and get dressed. Damn, damn, damn… I’m going to be late, damn it. I need to call them and explain. As I head down the road, I notice a car accident. Great! I can use this. Hope the people involved are safe though and thanks.

Brring Brrring, CLICK!

“Hello, good morning. Jettinson Corporation. How may I help you?”

“Yes, good morning. I’m Brian Stars, I have an interview at 10am.”

“Hold a minute Mr. Stars, let me verify what you are telling me.”

“Okay.”

“Yes, I see that appointment. Oh, excuse me, Mr. Stars.”

“Yes.”

“It seems the interview has been rescheduled for 12pm, there was an urgent meeting that will start at 10am sir.”

Hot damn, this is my lucky day. Yes! Yes! Yes! YES!! Okay, I need to keep my composure.

“That must have been at the last possible minute if I wasn't informed.”

“Yes, it was Mr. Stars. We are sorry for the inconvenience sir. Is there anything else I can help you with sir?”

“... No, thank you for that timely information. I am on my way there but I’ll make a few stops before coming to kill some time. I should be there between 11-11:30am.”

“All right sir, I have taken note of that and I will be expecting you. Thanks for calling Jettinson Corporation. Have a nice day.”

“You too, I’ll see you then.”

Beep, beep, click.

Today is looking up. I took a trip to the nearby mall and spent some time looking at the few suites and then getting some breakfast. Just as soon as I finished my tea, I saw that it was 11:15am. Time to get to that interview. I arrive at Jettison Corporation at 11:30am.

“Hello, good morning. I’m-”

“Good morning, sir. Mr. Stars, I presume?”

“Yes,”

“Right on time. Please have a seat, they will be with you in a bit.”

Waiting tends to feel like an eternity a lot of the time but the 15 minutes seem to just disappear. I go in for the interview and they seem to like me.

***

Two days have gone by and I’m still waiting for the call. You never really know, do you. I thought it all went well but…

Brring Brrring.

“Hello, good morning.”

“Good morning, is this Mr. Stars?”

“Yes.”

“All right, Mr. Stars I’m sorry to inform you but you did not get the job.”

“Okay… Thank you for calling.”

“M-M-Mr. Stars-”

“Yes!”

Exhaling, “Thank you for not hanging up. I know this is beneath the job you wanted but the company is willing to hire you as the custodian.”

“... I guess you saw that on my resume.”

“Yes sir.”

“... …”

“Sir, I can understand your reservation but-”

“Don’t worry about it. I accept. When do I start to work?”

“You start next Monday… but if you’re willing to start from tomorrow the company promises a bonus plus overtime pay for starting this week.”

This must really need a janitor. That doesn’t make sense though; the place looked well-kept from my perspective.

“Mr. Stars?”

“Sorry, I’ll be there tomorrow. What time should I come in for?”

“8am sir and also… never mind.”

“Sounds important.”

“Don’t worry about it, sir. Can you tell me your sir so I can prepare the necessary size overalls for you?”

“I wear double xl.”

“Thank you, sir. Have a nice day.”

“You too.”

Beep beep, click.

***

Arriving at work I greeted the reception and was led to my workstation. Floors 1 - 3 are my responsibility. For about an hour I am given a brief walk around and told a few rules before being given a rule book to read up. 

Seeing as everything was fine so far, I decided to sit down at my station and read up. Before getting too far the phone rings; it’s floor 3 they have a spill. Taking my bucket, mop, and a few rags, I fill the bucket with some water and then head to the service elevator to go up to floor 3.

”... mr. stars, mr. starS”, I pause for a moment, it’s faint but I think I hear someone calling me. “Mr. Stars”, Ms. Thompson says while visibly out of breath.

“How can I help you?”

“Mr. Stars-”

“Call me Brian, please.”

“Brian, this elevator is out of service.”

“Really…, it doesn’t have a sign though.”

“Yes, I know, it’s my mistake.”

“All right, thank you. I guess it’s the stairs then.”

Traversing the steps, I’m passing by the ladies who work here. Obviously, as the janitor no one pays attention to me, and greeting them is met with silence but I continue to do so. Finally, I reached the 3rd floor.

Entering the office, I can see a flurry of people to one side. With contempt in their voice, I can hear them, “Finally the help is here”, “I know right. What took him so long?”, and “Ms. Rose, the new guy’s finally here”. Both men and women surround the desk as I approach, they direct me to the coffee spill on the ground.

“Hello good morning.”

“Good morning, could you get that clean up quickly for me?”

Her voice sounded sweet and welcoming but I had a sense of nostalgia as I looked at her.

“Is there something on my face?”

“.... No-no, I’ll get to cleaning up this mess.”

“Hmph, we have a virgin here”, the guys snickered accompanied by the girls. This lady whom I assumed was Ms. Rose just calmly excused herself and let me do my job. She’s an eye-catching lady so I’m sure she’s accustomed to being watched. Thou with that said it makes you wonder.

I finish my work as she comes back with two cups of coffee. Just as I pack up, she hands me a coffee to the awe of the crowd. Paying them no mind she sits back down at her cubicle and turns around to me.

“I’m Shirley Rose.”

“U-u-u-uh, I’m Brian-Brian Stars.”

“Brian with a title like stars you must be aiming high.”

“Aiming, high! This guy!”

“Mr. John”

“....”

“Thank you. Why don’t all of you go back to your desks, I’m sure you have work to do.”

With that the crowd disbursed. Still standing here I glance at Ms. Rose. For someone working in a cubicle, she seems to have some power, or was it her looks that made her so strong?

“Thanks for the coffee, Ms. Rose”, I say nervously.  Looking a bit sad, she takes a sip of her coffee. 

“Call me Shirley”

Nervously I clucked, “Excuse me.”

“You heard me or is there a problem?”

“No-no problem.”

“Good! You should get back to work.”

“I-I will and thanks again for the coffee.”

***

That encounter with Shirley was both a blessing and a curse as you can guess. From that day one I was envied. Shirley seems to be near or around the area I was in at least once a day when I was on shift. Her greeting me visibly made everyone glare at me with contempt and I got harassed as a result.

As a lot of companies sometimes do during the holiday there was a secret Santa that everyone had to participate in. Would you believe my luck, I got Shirley as the person I need to prepare a gift for.

For a while now, it was only Ms. Thompson who seemed to even greet me whenever I came in (besides Shirley of course).

“Good morning, Brian”

“Good morning, Ms. Thompson.”

I can see her shoulders drop as she shakes her head.

“Brian, can I ask you something?”

“Of course, what is it?”

“Why is it you never asked for my name?”

“U-um, ha ha..”

“... Seriously, you called Ms. Rose by her name. Don’t you think I’d like you to do the same for me?”

“Sorry, sorry, Shirley was the one who insisted.”

“Is that supposed to be an excuse?”

“... Sorry, Ms. Thompson… What’s your name?”

Still, a little peeved, she replied “Janet”.

“Okay then, Janet.”

I can see her lips raise a little but not too much. Smiling, I continue to my station while turning around a number of times, to say “Janet, I won’t forget it”. Each time I can see her get a little bit redder, she motions for me to stop it. Laughingly I do as I get to my station.

This Friday was looking to be a good day, bringing a close to this week being one without any harassment. As I sat at my station the phone rang, I was needed on floor 3 but they told me not to bring my tools. I asked why but they just said to come without my tools.

The service elevator had been fixed just the week before so obviously, I took it and just as it was closing, I heard Janet and Shirley. Immediately I stopped the elevator and took a look outside to be sure and there were the two of them walking towards me talking.

“... Which floor do you guys want?”, simultaneously they say the 3rd floor. They continued to talk but the topic was lost on me. 

“Um, um… What are you guys talking about?”, puzzled they look at each other surprised.

“Brian, don’t you know anything about perfume?”

“Perfumes?”

“Ms. Rose, it seems he really is a virgin.”

Shaking her head, “Brian how are you going to know what to buy a woman if you don’t even know about perfumes?”

I knew about perfumes of course, but I’m sure what they were talking about wasn’t the kind I could ever hope to afford. Till it gave me an idea of what to buy Shirley at least.

“... I-I mean I know perfumes… but those… those sound expensive.”

“Of course, Brian they’re a top brand sold by our sister company.”

“Janet… since when were the two of you so close?”

Shirley turns to Janet, at the same time Janet takes a slight step back.

“Is something wrong?”

Shirley fixes her hair and leans in closer to Janet’s face and whispers something. Janet was upset but said nothing, she simply side-eyed Shirley. Ding, the elevator reached its stop as I watched Shirley and Janet exit to the left and right but they waited for something.

“Brian?”

“Yes!”

“Are you coming or what?”

I looked at them both and Janet said nothing. I stepped out the elevator and was about to walk to the left of Shirley but she motions for me to stand in between her and Janet. Janet smiled a little at this, now here I was walking down the corridor with a girl on either side. Me, the janitor. This was a great day but the looks, especially the guys would have killed me if it were possible.

We reached the end of the corridor to the room in the general manager's office for that floor. Oddly enough I had never met the general manager for the two months I had been working there. Just as I thought, I see Shirley sit in the manager’s chair and direct me to have a seat in the chair in front of the desk.

Pulling open a drawer she takes out some files and hands them to Janet. Janet takes them and waves me goodbye under the files so as not to be seen. Watching her exit made the situation feel all the more surreal to me. I turn to watch Ms. Rose.

“Brian… I know this is weird. No need to be so tense. Okay”, she reassures me as she gets up slightly and touches my shoulder. She goes back into her drawers and takes out a form.

“Okay, Brian.”

Nervously I reply, “Yes!”

She explains why I was called. It seems her department has an opening and I was qualified for the job, of course, I was qualified. It was a job similar to that I had originally applied for anyway. If I wanted the job, I would be reassigned to her department. Of course, I wanted the job. Thus, I was introduced to those working on the 3rd floor as their new colleague and like clockwork, I was met with opposition but Ms. Rose is the boss so what could they say?

The job was data entry and I was great at it. From the start, though my workload was low or so I thought. In the two weeks I was working I got called to Ms. Roses office a few times. I was missing the quota though I was sure I was doing all the work I was given. I started to notice that Crystal, who handed out the work, seemed to put some extra in a cabinet each time she had to bring me my portion of the work or gave me my work last.

At this realization, I started to check the cabinet and take out the work that she had hidden there. But to stop this altogether I went to the manager as the office does have cameras. Ms. Rose says she will look into it. That Monday I was surprised when I came to work and saw Ms. Rose and Crystal standing at the front of the office. When we had all arrived, the truth was revealed and everyone in the office was given a warning that this kind of action will not be tolerated.

Now I got my work but since I had gotten Crystal, a well-liked worker in trouble no one talked to me. It’s not like they talked to me but at least most of them greeted me but this too stopped.

***

The secret Santa was approaching and with this, the office was filled with chatter. Because of my new shift though I often missed Janet and now that I had to work overtime to get work done before the holidays, I didn’t see her at all since I was working only in the afternoon to late and at night and she worked mornings.

Ms. Rose and I had stopped meeting by coincidence but when she came into the office, I could feel all eyes focus on her and the feeling of nostalgia still lingered. I paid it no mind for these many months but I’m sure I had to have seen her somewhere before. With this position though I had gotten a better salary so I had saved up and found one of the brands Janet and Shirley were talking about.

***

For the first time in a while, I got to see Janet.

“Hey, good morning. Janet.”

“Well, if it isn’t Brian. Good morning.”

We shared a brief hug, and Janet asked me about secret Santa. She wanted a guy's opinion of what to buy for secret Santa, so I laughed, I guess she got one of the guys in the office. Now secret Santa had a price limit and I had gone over it but such gifts couldn’t be given so I bought a cheap gift in the price range just for the giving with plans to give the other a little later. As such my suggestion to Janet was based on that limit, she thanked me and I went upstairs to get my work done.

A few days later came the faithful day for gift-giving. Now the way you gave your gift was up to you but it had to be tasteful and not vulgar. As I come through the front door Janet is right there waiting which is odd.

“Good morning, Brian. Here!”

“Good morning, for me. And here I thought you were someone else’s Santa.”

We hugged for a bit.

“So, who are you Santa for?”

“You won’t believe me and it’s a secret.”

“Come on, you can tell me.”

“... Okay fine”, I whisper in her ear, “It’s Shirley.”

Her reaction was aloof. So, I asked what the issue was and she said it was nothing to worry about. I told her okay and thanked her again as I went upstairs like normal. Gifts were exchanged and I gave the cheap perfume to Shirley but told her that I had another for her but not then. 

As I was wrapping up my work, I received an email from Shirley. It said to meet her at Cross Way Bridge on the walkway at the bench where you can see the stars.

***

As I walk across the path, I admire the scenery. I reach the only bench that is actually there. Taking a seat, I wait for Shirley. A car approaches and it stops in front of me and outcomes Janet to my surprise.

“Janet?”

“Hey, Brian.”

“What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?”

“Janet what-”

She stabs me and just then some of the other guys from the office come out.

“Break his phone and take his wallet. The police will think it's a robbery.”

After they get through, they leave on the ground bleeding. I got up and sat on the bench as I bled out. No phone and I'm isolated so what do I do? I guess this is it for me.

As I sit there another car pulls up and it’s Shirley.

“Oh my god, Brian.”

“How did you find me?”

“IT found an email from me to you and I never sent you an email.”

As my consciousness slips, I hear the clock bell ring as it was now midnight, I feel this warm sensation on my lips.