Jyri stared at his list of read emails, willing for an unread one to appear. He, as usual, had nothing to do.
“Hi Jyri.”
Jyri turned around and saw Jessica behind him. He smiled, grateful for the chance to kill time. “Is there something you need?”
Jessica shook her head. “I just wanted to see what you were up to.”
Jyri, as per usual, wasn’t up to anything. At least he had been trusted to write up a few emails without supervision. It was something Oliver pushed him to do a lot, because Oliver hated writing emails. But there weren't any emails that needed sending. “I don’t have anything right now.”
Jessica leaned against the edge of his desk. “Me neither. Today’s slow.”
“Yeah.” Jyri didn’t know what else to say, and it seemed like she didn’t either.
“Do you know of any good fantasy shows or movies?” Jessica asked. “I want to watch something new.”
Jyri struggled to think of a fantasy show, but failed. He never watched the TV. It was Faye who always had something on. “I can’t think of any. I’m sorry.”
“Yoo-roo doesn’t watch TV because he’s in a cult,” Craig called to them from his cubicle.
“What!” Jessica stared at Jyri, who stared at anything but Jessica. “You’re in a cult?”
“I’m not in a cult,” Jyri called back to Craig.
“That’s not what I heard Oliver and Shawn say.”
Jessica rolled her eyes as she groaned at those names.
“I can hear all of you,” Oliver said from his cubicle. “And we never said Jyri was in a cult. We said he escaped from a cult.”
Jessica covered her mouth, eyes widening. “You escaped from a cult?”
Jyri rubbed at his shoulder awkwardly. He really didn’t want to lie to her, but there was no getting out of that now.
“You poor thing."
“I grew up in it and I wasn’t allowed to watch TV or any of that,” Jyri said. “It was a horrible time. I don’t like talking about it.”
“Of course.” But Jessica still gazed at him with sympathetic eyes.
The awkwardness of the situation didn't last long, thanks to the bizarre sight of Ran passing by. Jyri blinked a few times, and followed him towards Oliver's cubicle, Jessica right behind him. He needed to get a better look at Ran's ridiculous outfit. Jasper must have been playing dress-up with him, because he certainly wasn't dressed like that earlier.
Ran stopped halfway between Oliver's cubicle and the doorway to the lobby, as though he sensed being followed. He turned to face Jyri. "What?"
Jyri was too appalled to speak as he took in his attire.
Ran wore a fancy, black jacket with heavy gold buttons to go with his black pants and white shirt. It wouldn’t have looked so strange if they were at a ball, but it was too stylish to wear to an ordinary job. That was only the start. His hair was far more ridiculous. It had been tied back, but it was slick, stiff, and shiny. Like he had drenched it in a bucket of grease. Somehow, that wasn’t even the worst of it. The worst was what Ran had on over his eyes. They looked like large glasses, except the lenses were completely black, as were the frames. How could he see out of them? What purpose could those possibly serve?
Even Jessica laughed at the sight, hand pressed against her chest. “Oh my God, that’s so cute.”
Jyri crinkled his nose. Cute was not a word he would use to describe such absurdities. He didn't know where to start. “Can you even see through those things?”
“Of course,” Ran said with a grin. “Wanna try them on?”
“No.”
Shawn walked by, towards the doorway to the lobby. Then, he turned right back around, stopping in front of Ran to gander at the sight. “You look like a jackass.”
It was a word Jyri hadn’t heard before, yet he found himself agreeing with Shawn regardless. Jackass was a fitting word to describe Ran’s appearance.
Oliver wheeled himself out of his cubicle in his office chair, took one look at Ran, and wheeled himself back in without comment.
Craig walked out of his cubicle to investigate. “Whoa. You look like you work for the president!”
Ran nodded. “That’s what Jasper said. Since he’s the president of this company, he should have his own secret service.”
“He’s our boss, not a president.” Jessica rolled her eyes with crossed arms. “He needs to get over himself.”
Jyri, Craig, and Shawn made noises of agreement.
Ran chewed his lip. “You shouldn’t talk like that about him.”
“Why?” Jyri asked. “Don’t tell me you’re going to be a rat on us.”
“He doesn’t need to.” Jasper walked in on the scene, directly over to Ran. Ran folded his arms as though he were some sort of personal guard. Jyri swallowed nervously. Hopefully nobody would lose their job over stating their opinions.
Jasper addressed Jessica first. “Why aren’t you working? Sales are down 4%.”
“No,” Jessica said. “Sales are up 4%. I just got a huge order-”
“Don’t contradict me! I want you to call every customer who ever ordered from us, and get some sales in. Now move!”
Nose in the air, Jessica stomped off towards her cubicle.
Jasper moved on to Shawn, who narrowed his eyes. “There’s a bunch of weeds growing outside.”
“So?”
“I need you to pull them.”
“What? I’m not a gardener!”
“You are now.” Jasper snapped and pointed his finger towards the doorway to the lobby. Shawn left with a sigh.
Craig was next. Jasper jerked his head towards him. “Did you finish organizing those catalogs from Uline?”
“What catalogs from Uline?” Craig asked.
“The ones they mail us every other month.”
“You never told me to organize those.”
“Well I’m telling you now. And as for you…” Jasper moved onto Jyri, voice lowered. “How would you feel about ditching purchasing for driving?”
Jyri furrowed his brow, certain he had misunderstood. “Would I be driving a car?”
“No, you’d be driving a tractor.” Jasper gave him an exaggerated eye roll. “Yes, driving a car!”
“What!” Jyri’s heart raced. He couldn’t drive. Jasper knew that. “Why?”
“Our current driver just quit because he doesn’t like how I run this place. And I don’t know anyone better suited for the job than you.”
“No, I-”
“Plus it’s not like you even do any of the purchasing. All you ever do is flirt with Jessica, chat with Faye, and stare at the clock. No, I think you should be our driver.”
“But I don’t know how to drive!” Jyri glanced at Ran, silently pleading for him to speak up. But Ran just shrugged at him.
“You drove me here that one day,” Jasper said. “You’ll be fine.”
“I love purchasing more than anything in the world,” Jyri said, but Jasper patted his shoulder and walked off. Ran followed at his heel.
Great. Just great. How would he get out of that one? Jyri wandered over to Oliver’s cubicle. Right as Oliver stood up from his chair. The two stared at each other.
“Do I even want to know what all that commotion was about?” Oliver asked. He stepped out of his cubicle with a piece of paper in his hand.
Jyri skipped to the important part. “Jasper wants me to be the driver, but I only drove one time. I told him I don’t know how to drive, but he won’t listen!”
Oliver stared at him, running his hand through his hair. “He asked you to be tdriver?”
Jyri nodded.
“Good Lord. Let me talk to him. I need to ask him about late payments anyway.”
“Late payments?”
“Our vendors.” Oliver waved the paper in his hand. “I’m trying to buy something from one of them, but they’re not giving us the order until we pay what we owe. That’s the third time today!”
Jyri watched Oliver storm off in a rush, hoping beyond hope Oliver could get him out of driving.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZ8C4xFy70
and then Add to home screen.