Sorry, Carly. No mix-up. This was per Mr. C. I’ll catch you up when you get to the ofc. Cheers, Alice.
What the heck? Mr. Carmichael wanted me to have a male roommate (who is a jerk)? I’m confused.
I guess I’ll figure it out when I get to work.
***
There’s no security guard in the lobby when I get down there, but a pink-haired girl is there, sitting on top of the security desk, smiling at me.
“Ally?” I ask.
“Carly!” she exclaims and hops down and hugs me. Like we’re long lost sisters. Yep. Sparkly aura, indeed.
She immediately starts talking fast, grasping my face with both hands.
“So, let’s be work besties, okay? We do lunch, share gossip, you tell me if I’ve got lipstick on my teeth or if someone puts donuts in the break room and I do the same for you. We got one another’s backs. Sound good?”
“Sounds great,” I reply.
“You’re not a backstabbing bitch-faced cunt, right? You don’t seem like it. I’m a bit psychic so I’m pretty sure you’re not, but I just came out of a mess of a relationship and he fucked with at least four of my chakras, so I might be wrong.”
I choke on a giggle. “No. Definitely not.”
“Yay!” She thrusts her fist up victoriously, then links arms with me and we head outside to wait for the cab. She’s around my age, and I like her instantly. Hopefully my judgement isn’t wrong.
I have to remember Rule #3, though.
Not everyone is pure of heart. Be suspicious of everyone.
***
Ally Kingston is right up my alley and it’s difficult to keep my guard up. She’s a hoot. She’s told me she’s twenty-seven. She’s got a baby-pink colored flippy longish (but above her collar) pixie haircut and giant blue eyes with a doll-like appearance. She’s dressed in pink and white striped tights and a blue shirt dress that does not match, but she still works it.
She has a great laugh. We laugh and joke all the way to the office in the cab driven by the guy who’d brought me here from the airport.
I got a huge smile from him when Ally and I stepped outside the apartment building. I smiled in return out of reflex, but then realized I might be encouraging him. Is he just being friendly or is he a creep?
She does most of the talking all the way to the office while I laugh because she is absolutely hilarious. She’d told me she was new, also on contract, also transferred due to a recent acquisition, though she told me she was one of only six staff members who’d survived her company being dissolved, the other five given various transfers between three offices, Ally the only one sent to San Diego, and they’d enticed her with the free apartment for three months.
She was sharing the apartment with a Filipino girl named Meryl, a new manager in the company’s recently acquired Manila call center, and Meryl’s here for training. Meryl is off today as she’d worked all weekend on some company project. Ally had met her briefly the evening before and was trying to get me to plot with her.
“We are going to have to corrupt her, Carly. She’s gorgeous and quiet and maybe even religious and has never tasted an ounce of booze in her life. I’m pretty sure she’s also a virgin. The girl needs our help!”
I giggle as we conspire to take her clubbing by the weekend. I tell Ally that I love to dance, that it’s awesome for stress relief. She promises to scope out some local clubs.
When we get to the office, after just ten minutes on the road, Ally signs a company charge account slip that the cabbie presented to me, as if saving me from him. She had given me a knowing look prior to that because it was obvious he was watching me in the rearview mirror.
Her taking the mini clipboard only makes it more awkward for me, because he smiles at me the whole time she‘s signing. After he leaves, waving bye to us, she urges me to the side of the building, so she can have a before-work vaping session.
The building is a hexagon hi-rise with the company’s big C logo on the crown of the art-deco style concrete building. At the side is a glass shelter with an ashtray can inside along with a little bench. This is their head office and they have smaller offices in Manhattan and Miami, too.
Ally pulls her metallic baby pink vape (that matches her hair) out and the space around us fills with thick strawberry-scented fog.
Five minutes later, we’r
e in the lobby, getting met by Alice, who gets our photos taken to replace our visitor keycard badges and then takes us to the top floor.
She explains that there are other companies with suites in this building. Carmichael, which employees refer to as CC, has the first two floors, the third floor, and the top two floors, but the company is growing by leaps and bounds and so as the tenants’ leases expire, CC is slowing taking those suites back over.