The Simple Things. Chapter One.
#1 of The Simple Things
The Simple Things
Chapter One
By Roofles
"Ah," the large lion voice boomed from the other side of the massive polished cherry wood business table. The room they were in was large with high walls, one side was taken up by a vast set of windows over looking the whole city. The other was bare but for a single picture of the founder of Pine Court one of the largest businesses within the states. Priding itself on hiring only those from inside the country of all species. Ironically, no matter their heritage as it was founded by a lion.
"Alexander, I must assume!" The lion went on tossing his arms open wide and coming around the table suddenly. He was a large man. A very large lion, far larger up close in person than I thought he'd be from the photo I'd been given. And it was the first time I was to meet a Feline-Sapien. And one from Africa no less. A predator and up close like this I could count each one of those smiling, sharp fangs.
A thick hazel nut mane circled the light coffee tan fur of his face and, I assumed, the rest of him that was hidden underneath a suit that was stretching at its seams to hold the felines massive girth. He walked bare foot and though his heel didn't raise up in the back I could make out clawed animal toes and padded feet; if I had my own personal sandal on too I would walk around bare foot. An Animalian were usually taller than humans, between Six and Seven feet rather than Five and Six. This gave him an extra half-foot on me, maybe a bit more. Now with his natural girth, broad shoulders, large almost puffed out chest and spread arms? He seemed massive. Let alone intimidating.
Towering over me, he covered the lights behind him and shrouded me in his shadow. If I felt nervous before, I was on a whole new level now.
"Alexander Wright." I offered a hand, swallowed my nervousness and did the best not to scream and throw my briefcase up in the air and make a very convincing impression of a muppet running out the room, arms flailing above my head and everything. The thought had occurred to me the very second I had come into the office.
Mr. Gold ignored my hand and gave me a bear sized, literally, hug that crushed more than just my ribs. "Welcome, welcome!" He boasted finally letting go. I forgot the formal greeting of a handshake wasn't very common amongst non-humans. Then he scooped up my hands with both of his own and gave it a large shake before sniffing at it. "Mr. Right indeed." Mr. Gold smiled a toothily smile.
"It's actually, Wright. Sir." I tried but my voice seemed to have been lost on the hazelnut maned lion who wrapped an arm around my back and spun me with him to face the rest of the members of the staff.
Next to the empty seat the lion had rose from was an equally sized Siberian tiger, a black bear, a bald eagle and a rather gruff looking timber wolf in that order down the line with their backs facing the window. Poetic. The wolf did not seem to be enjoying sitting in the farthest seat away from Mr. Gold. That or had an issue with me coming. Scowling the wolf was looking anywhere but at us, folding his arms in front of him with a lifted snout.
"Mr. Right came from the central office and has, graciously," Mr. Gold added the word with pride making me blush. I tried my best to hide it behind a cough. "Come to help us with a minor problem. A small issue. Something so insignificant that it might as well not be a problem!" He chuckled, a chest quaking laugh and shook me at his side. Someone woke up on the right side of the litter box this morning it seemed. I couldn't help but wonder if he was putting on a front for me or not.
"How long will he be staying." The timber wolf spoke up loudly, eyes darting towards me like daggers. It was interesting being complimented one moment and then shot down the next. It was like I was talking to my mother again.
The wolf needed a good...shave? His neck had scrunched up around the suit he wore, the tie fastened a little too tight in his thick fur making it scrunch up on the sides. His cheeks had the similar dark gray, whiskery look to them as the rest of his visible features and those large white eyebrows needed a good plucking. It looked as if he woke up with bed...fur and just put on a suit before coming in today. His personality matched his disposition.
"Oh, for only a couple of weeks. Central just wants to make sure they nip this in the butt before it gets to be a problem." He whispered the last line, cupping a large hand around one side of his muzzle and bending down to head level with me as he spoke. It was as if he were speaking to me instead of the whole room. I knew he was joking but it was still odd for him to do. For a boss, of one of the major Western Corporations, he was very nonchalant about all of this. I half figured he'd want to toss me out the window, finding it an insult a human was coming to check on his sector.
The two races, or species depending on who you ask (the latter far more hostile), have never exactly seen eye to eye. On most matters. And it has been an issue since the dawn of time as far as anyone can really remember. And only in the more recent hundred years have things begun to stabilize, socialize and mingle into living in the same city; enough to the point where they can vote, eat in the same restaurants and even use public transportation and toilets. Though most don't, on either side. I was asked why go to a restaurant if there was a "perfectly good one without any of them". And that was putting it in G rated wording too, just on my way here.
Just one of those things I would now have to be dealing with back home. We didn't have a single one other than Burk, an old billy goat that stayed in his shack at the edge of town. Poor guy was always harassed by the local kids and not a damn thing was done about it. I'd be pissed off too.
"Now then Mr. Wright, we are in a middle of a meeting," Mr. Gold spoke softly in an understanding voice, like a teacher to a student who had come into class late. Understandable but disappointed.
"I'd love to sit in." I offered but was turned back towards the door and I could already see this was going to be harder than was let on. Put up a friendly front and then deny me any access to anything important. This was how my old boss was getting back at me. Sleazy bastard.
"Now, now. Mr. Wright, you just got here! It must have been a long, tiresome flight." He shook his head tut tutting as he spoke sympathetically. "I will get someone to show you where you'll be working and," he bent down low nearly whispering in my ear. Though his deep voice held an animalistic growl to it. "You can take the rest of the day off if you'd like." It wasn't a threat. It was just how he sounded, just the fact he spoke so close to my ear made it sound like a threat. Hell it might as well have been with those finger nail claws gripping my suit.
"I'll be able to stay for the rest of the day, sir." I said as he let go and I was allowed to face him once more. There was something that crossed his face and his eyes lowered a bit into a cold calculative glare. "Just to get the feel of the place," I played off of it looking away to motion around the office. "I don't want to get lost on my Second day of work!" I chuckled lightly and that seemed to cheer him up. "How embarrassing would that be?"
"You are right!" He boomed with that animalistic accent and threw his arms up in the air. I could see underneath his arms where the light gray suit had been ripped. "There is coffee and donuts, you like donuts don't you." He eyed me suspiciously before chuckling loudly. Mr. Gold was good at holding his own and he'd be a difficult man to deal with during this whole ordeal. I wasn't looking forward to it. There was a reason he had become the top dog...top cat here.
The wolf? I could handle. Disgruntled employees is something that comes along with the job. Mr. Gold on the other hand was not only higher on the food chain, literally, but also two faced. I couldn't be sure but my gut told me enough. Trusting my gut had got me this far in life. Even after all this shit I still trusted my gut.
And hey! At least I still got a job! Hah, hah. Hah. Ha...
"Richard!" Mr. Gold suddenly shouted making me jump half a foot out of my skin before jumping back in to hold my pounding heart. "Where the hell is Richardson at?" The lion snarled showing his teeth he had oh so kindly been hiding before. The lion was walking towards the door I had come in, growling menacingly.
Not a soul seemed to flinch by the reaction and the crowded cubicles began murmuring to themselves before a ram stood up. "He's in the break room." He motioned towards the side room with a black hoofed fingered hand before sitting back down.
"Ah, well then. Mr. Wright," he turned back to me and his demeanor had returned to the way it had been before. His fur wasn't standing up, lips weren't raised and fangs weren't bared. Now he looked like the friendly Six foot Six lion I had met before. So maybe not so friendly. "I hope you can find your way there, I have already taken up the senior staff time too much as it was." And with a small bow he bid himself adieu and headed back into the room.
The door slammed behind me and I heard it lock. Twice.
I just took a slow breath, let my shoulders fall as I let it out and looked around the room. Several others were blatantly staring. I couldn't blame them. On the flight here I had been doing nothing but that at the steward. The horse had been good company on the nearly empty flight last night. The whole flight I had been staring. Thankfully he had found it as a compliment rather as an insult or embarrassed, like I was currently.
I wanted to cover the side of my face, hunch over and quickly make an escape. That wouldn't look right on my first day so I swallowed once more, lifted my head up and marched towards the back room the ram had pointed at trying to put on the same casual air the lion had done for me.
The room was like most offices and nearly identical to the central office back home. Cubicles filled the whole space with malfunctioning printers here and there with phones ringing in every corner and people hustling and bustling about with papers. Even the water cooler had a few employees gathered around just shooting the breeze. Now, take that scene before, and times that by Five and you would be up to speed. The office seemed like there were twice, Thrice the number of people there actually was in the same amount of space.
People, I use the term to be polite, were up and about talking with their neighbors and shuffling papers loudly as they conversed. Phones were ringing off the hooks and people were using the speaker to talk with them. Everything was far more lively than the dull hum drum routine of home where everyone had kept to their own individual cubicles like groundhogs afraid of their own shadow. This seemed to be the exact opposite. It was rude not to talk with your neighbors, to share information through face to face conversation rather than in fax or email. And I had to admire the fact they were able to get away with it too. Shit like that didn't fly back home.
It wasn't in any way professional but it still got the work done. Everyone could multitask and if not? They had the balls at least to tell the other person that. Who in turn would continue doing their work, turn to their other side and jump into a conversation already in progress. I heard Furs, to use the none politically correct term, could be friendly. This was a level up from friendly.
Touching, closeness and overall physical interaction was the norm for most of them. Now that is not to say they were just open and accepting of each other, just overly friendly. I could still see them break off into their own little clicks like any place. Still they were all friendly, touchy feely with one another at least. And the problem with that? I was not.
It was a stereotype but I wasn't surprised to see the individuals that were working on this level. Management had been predators and here in the cubicles? Not herbivores or prey, I assumed that was the costumers, but herding animals. Sheep, deers, elk, canines and animals you'd see in packs, herds, colonies or groups. There was a zebra, various birds and a cackling hyena even as well. Stereotypes existed for a reason after all.
The break room was far cleaner than I thought it to be. Back home papers, staples, broken pencils and wastebaskets had been turned over in the room before like a, I hate to use the term, a zoo gone wild. Here? It looked like Martha freaking Stewart had come in personally to scrub underneath the table.
The four squared table had been shoved up against the wall, negating a single side of it. Several black armed, wooden chairs with openings in the back (for tails) surrounded it to the point I'd have to jump over one to actually sit in them. Vending machines were shoved against the nearest wall. A rather large hippo was currently trying to get a snack for her sweet tooth. On the other side was a sink, microwaves and a smaller back room filled with lockers was next to that.
And, behind a chocolate Labrador, was what I had been hoping for. Next to an empty box of donuts was a coffee machine with fresh coffee still bubbling out of it. Like a zombie I made my way over to it.
"New guy?" The chocolate lab asked as he stirred a cup of coffee with a wooden stick. Coffee had been spilled on the counter and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out he had gotten coffee before it had finished filling up.
"That obvious?" I half laughed and looked at the pot of bubbling black water like it was gold.
"Nope." The lab said as he offered the cup he had been stirring. "Here," and I felt his tail bump against my leg as he gave a single wag, still not facing me. I tried to refuse but he insisted, to the point where it would have been rude not to take it. I rather not burn bridges I hadn't even built yet.
"Thank you." I said a bit softer than I meant.
"Don't worry about it," and then he grabbed the pot and pulled it off not even caring it was spilling out once more and filled up another cardboard recyclable cup before shoving it back under the stream of scalding hot water. "As long as you don't mind I took a drank. Dog cooties and all." He wiggled his fingers in my face. I could actually smell coffee on them.
He looked at me from the corner of his eye and I returned the favor before taking a sip before nearly curse and setting it down. It was scalding hot. And he barked a laugh.
"That was too easy," he chuckled before turning and offering a hand. "Richardson RichPaw, the pleasure is all mine."
"Alexthander." I tried to say as my tongue still protested at being scalded. "Mrth. Golth toll meh to thee you." I tried to say before he barked another laugh and got another cup out to pour some creamer in it and offered it to me.
"It'll help with that burning feeling," he gave me a wink. "Cream always does."
I took a sip and it tasted far too bitter and not at all sweet. At least I could taste it and it did help some. Time heals all wounds and I was sure I'd need a truck load of time after hanging out with this dog.
He wasn't much taller than myself, standing only a Six Three to my Five Eleven. It was hard, if not impossible, to tell his weight with all the fur. Though I was sure he was thicker than I was (still might've been the fur). His dark blue suit was opened up at the neck and the tie had been undone completely. I could see more of that chocolate fur sticking out from the top of the unbutton white shirt underneath. The jacket wasn't even buttoned up in the front. It looked like he was coming off of work rather than in the middle of it.
His dark blue jeans were loose and I didn't need to see the belt buckle had been undone. He was wearing shoes to my surprise as I gave him a quick once over when he turned to fill up his coffee with sugar and cream. His tail was almost arms length long and thick around the base, no wonder why it felt like he had hit me in the back of the leg with a small club.
With dull, gray nailed fingers he pinched the wooden stick out of my hand that I had been toying with, like plucking a flower from the ground. "Thank you," he said sweetly before slurping over the end with a longer and wider pink tongue than I had ever seen in my life and clamped his muzzle shut around it with a snapping force. His lips were black but the inside of his muzzle was a mixed of red with splotches of brown spots. I heard only domestic dog's had that, go figure. As he withdrew it the end was heavily indented with teeth marks as he stirred it in his cup of coffee.
It happened in three seconds and it felt far longer.
Richard gave me a look, lifted up a dark almost black eyebrow up and turned his head slightly towards me. "What?" He asked carefully.
"Nothing." I played off it feigning ignorance and looking away as I took my wooden stirring stick off the counter where I had left it.
He eyed it for a second before making a face and dropping the stick he held as if it were a deadly serpent.
"What, whose was that!" He nearly yelped as he rubbing his tongue off with his hand several times.
"Not sure." I shrugged, taking a sip. "I found it on top of the trash."
"And you just picked it up?" Richard said feigning disgust, seeing as how he was taking a sip of coffee and all but forgetting about it I figured it wasn't that big of a deal. And the corner of his muzzle pulled up in a smile. Not the classic dog panting, tail wagging smile. Just a smug kind of grin. "Disgusting," he shook his head with a soft chuckling laugh.
"You're the one who put it in his mouth." I pointed out with a shrug and washed my hands as if to just show just how much cleaner I was than him.
So with my cup down on the counter, away from my protection, he took it and took a large drank before letting it all spill out into the cup. At first I thought he was being childish before he himself finished off the creamer to cool his burned tongue. He was kind enough to give me the cup he had just filled and we exchange a laugh. Dirty counter stick or not I wasn't going to drink his backwash.
"Ith a pleasuth to meeth you." Richard offered a hand and I shook it. I almost sniffed it out of courtesy but he didn't so I didn't either. He gave me a look after and I wasn't sure if I had offended him or not. Subtle cultural difference could make or break my new career here. I just needed to get through this.
And I really didn't expect to find or make any friends during my stay. I just didn't want to make any enemies.
Richard was a cool guy. Down to earth and had a lax, and yet professional, air about him. He was friends with nearly everyone we walked by, at least on "hello" bases, as he showed me around the floor. He even knew all their names. Which is more than I could say for easily half the people back home. Even if I had worked there for Five years, a year as a intern before, I still always mixed up the Secretary's names with one another.
"Your office," he finished flicking the light on in one of the side rooms. The curtains were down and now I could see why.
Papers were piled up on the desk, spilling out of the several filing cabinets; stacks of folders in the "In" basket were overflowing, leaning to the side like the tower of Pisa. There were two desks crammed together with two of the oldest computers I had ever seen and twin chairs as if they mirrored each other somehow forced in between all of this unsorted chaos. The wastebasket hadn't been taken out and old food was rotting in it, smelling up the already windowless place.
"You have got to be kidding me!" I just looked at the mess. Not even sure where to start. It looked like a storage room rather than an office. There was even a mop in the corner. A mop! Not a broom or a vacuum but a mop, this floor didn't even have tiles on it. "Who did this? I mean just..." And then I stopped as the chocolate lab rubbed the back of his neck, looking up and away with a boyish grin on his muzzle.
So that's why they stuck me with this dog. And here I was expecting a warm reception, hah. Not funny. It'd take me the Four weeks just to sort this all out and get this single room into working order let alone go over the files, paperwork and data that I had originally been sent to do.
"Uh..." Was my diplomatic response to what I had previously said on the matter.
"I know, I just need to sweep up the place." Richard chuckled lightly, scratching a cheek with a dull claw and looking over the mess. He stood next to me with the same expression I had. How do you solve a problem like Maria?
"You mean mop it." He gave me a confused look so I pointed at the mop.
He laughed, a nervous sound and headed over. "I can explain this!" He said grabbing it and looking back. "Really, I can." And then he never did.
The chocolate lab disappeared and down the hall to put the mop away and I dared to venture inside. I stepped over several papers with many dirty paw prints all over them, and to the farthest desk. Rather not wanting the one directly next to the door. It looked like the canine had set up there anyways. A half eaten sandwich was molding on a piece of tin foil. A thermos was next to it. It contained soup, or at least what was left in the lid did.
Tossing my briefcase onto the other desk I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. Grabbing and looking over before stuffing random files into a tipped over box lid, I began sorting through everything on the floor. Cleaned up the wastebasket and gave it to the dog who walked back in saying something or other about how he almost forgot his coffee.
With a yip and an order he headed off to dispose of the garbage as I continued boxing up the rest. Most of the paper work were just memos an other useless information that floated around offices in their day to day workings. Somehow all ending up here like keys in the sofa. The thing was that useless pieces of paper you'd normally just trash or shred had piled up from the past month and a half ago and had been left behind. I didn't have the luck that all of them were just that, useless trash. So I still had to sift through them, weed the right ones out and slap them up onto an ever growing pile on the Canine-Sapien's desk.
I grunted as I picked up the last one and shoved it into the box and set it on the desk, more papers fell onto the floor but I just said "screw it." I was actually sweating by the end of it, though Richard had helped out some and was a good errand boy. He headed off to shred the papers in the box I had filled and had somehow manage to find an uneaten donut and offered it to me in amends.
I was sure the dog had hidden it somewhere and I didn't ask as I pulled a dark brown, chocolate Labrador piece of fur from it. It was the curly kind of fur. I just left it on the desk.
With things somewhat organized I took a seat in my new desk, took a long drank of coffee and rested back to begin mentally sorting everything out as the computer coughed into life. I'd bring my laptop in tomorrow, for now this piece of junk (I don't think they even make these models anymore) would have to do. At least I'd be able to look over the records and get a feel to how badly the situation was. I slid the black leather briefcase under the desk and waited for the computer to finish loading.
And waited.
And waited.
Richard came back in to find me resting on my arm, face down, forehead propped up on the back of it. This wasn't fair. It's not my fault. I shouldn't have to come here away from the coworkers I got along with, my neighbors who kept to themselves and had to give my cat Boo-boo (it was my grandmother's) to my sister. Move to the corner of the country into a place I've never been in with... folks I've never dealt with. This was cruel even as torture.
Well it was that or get fired.
That seemed far easier at this point.
The donut bumped against my arm and I assumed Richard had nudged it towards me with a finger. I looked up to see his face nearly in front of mine, his nose bumped against the donut again and with a large grin he gave a single low whine like a puppy.
"It's not so bad." He chuckled lightly, sitting down and adjusting his seat. He lifted a leg up and began doing something out of my sight. I heard a thunk of a shoe hit the floor. He did the same to the other leg. "It just LOOKS bad." The chocolate lab explained giving me a wink. "I'll help ya' out, don't you worry your furry cute rear end about that."
"Cute?" I chose the word careful though there was a half dozen I could have easily picked from. "Cute? My rear is handsomely, sexily manly. I'll have you know."
Richard lifted an eyebrow, an ear perking up as he did so though on the other side of his head as if a weight had been put on the other still folded down ear; his whole head tilted to one side as if someone had lifted his sinking head up with a fishhook in his eyebrow.
"Nothing," I said waving it off.
"No, no. Do go on. What else should I know about your rear?"
It took me a moment as I looked at him. His dark chocolate fur face didn't move nor did it twitch or even blink. Then his muzzle tugged up in that soft smile as he rested his head on both folding hands and looked at me. So I fingered the donut, that even sounds wrong, and tossed it at him.
He not so skillfully caught it with muzzle as if it were a Frisbee an pulled half of it apart, offering me the rest. I didn't take it but those soft brownie batter eyes widened slightly and how, was I, suppose to say no to that face?