As soon as Marissa had told Oliver to train Jyri, he knew it would be difficult. But he at least expected him to know computers. And copy machines. And phones. And everything else invented within the last century. He’d have an easier time training his grandmother. And it was only the second day.
“Okay, now go back to the excel file,” Oliver told Jyri.
“Excel?”
“The spreadsheet, with the purchase history.”
Jyri stared at the screen. “I don’t see it.”
“Because you minimized it. Click the icon on taskbar.”
“Taskbar?”
“The thing at the bottom of the screen.”
“Oh.” Smiling, Jyri clicked on the Excel icon, and brought up the spreadsheet.
“Now save it.”
Jyri gave Oliver a blank stare. “Save it from what?”
And Shawn wanted Oliver to invite the guy to move in with him. Which was rather hypocritical of him, given how Shawn had even less patience for Jyri. Oliver had the privilege of watching Shawn teach Jyri how to use the copy machine.
“You stick the paper in this slot, you press this button, and voila!” Shawn waved his arms towards the copy machine, voice strained. He left before Jyri could try it for himself. Somehow he managed to make twenty copies, and caused a massive paper jam.
At least Faye learned quick. Although she accidentally set the microwave on fire. Nobody knew how that happened. No way in hell would Oliver ever let Faye live with him after finding that out.
And yet, Oliver needed a new roommate. He’d posted an ad, but had only gotten to meet two people. One was a sweaty man his age who kept complaining about how women never wanted to date “nice guys” like himself. (He left when Oliver said he couldn’t relate, because he only liked men.) The other was a college student who brought his pet scorpion. Interesting as it was, Oliver would rather not have creepy crawlers in his apartment. What if it escaped its cage and ended up in his bed? And was it even legal to have a pet scorpion? There was a third guy he was supposed to meet after work, but the guy canceled on him because he “found something better.”
The ordeal alone had Oliver stressed out. So it came to no surprise Monday that Jyri finally drove him to the edge.
To be fair, he should have known better. The man couldn’t even use the copy machine without messing up. Why would a paper shredder be any different?
Oliver had given Jyri stacks of old papers to shred, and brought over the paper shredder. “This is called a paper shredder,” Oliver said, picking up an old purchase order. “You stick the paper in this slot here and...”
Jyri’s eyes widened as the paper slid down the slot of its own accord.
Oliver handed over the pile of papers. “Do you think you can shred all of this without breaking anything?”
And so Oliver left him to shredding, while he focused on punching in numbers from this month’s inventory. It was a grueling process. Oliver had to look down at the hard copy inventory lists and manually type it in on the computer, so that the system would be up to date on it. The work was easy enough, but there were so many different lists. Halfway through the first one, the phone rang. He shoved the stack of inventory paperwork aside, and answered.
“Wattavolt Electronics.”
“Hi, is this Oliver Roderick?” a woman’s voice asked.
At the same time, Jyri said something he couldn’t hear.
“Yes,” Oliver said, then glanced at Jyri, just in time to see him grab the inventory lists, and slide them in the shredder.
“NO!” The receiver clattered onto the desk. Oliver leaped towards the shredder, but too late.
He swore. “I haven’t finished making soft copies of those!”
Jyri gave him a blank stare.
“You shredded lists of all the components we have in stock,” Oliver explained. “Components people had to count by hand. Do you know how tiny some of those are? And how many we have? How much time it takes?”
“You said I could!”
“I was on the phone!” Oliver shouted, pulling at his hair. “And now, because I haven’t finished typing it all up on the computer, we have count them all over again!”
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to help.”
Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose, inhaling deeply. “I outta make you go in the back and recount everything.”
Jyri face brightened. “I will.”
“You will not! You’ll just mess everything up and get the photodiodes mixed up with the resistors!”
Ignoring Oliver, Jyri pulled the tray out from the shredder, and dug through the strips of paper. “Faye might be able to fix this.”
“Faye can’t fix shit!” Letting out a roar, Oliver stormed off towards Marissa’s office.
Marissa sat at her desk, doing something on her computer. She looked up as Oliver walked through the door. “Is something wrong?”
Flustered, Oliver blurted out, “That guy can’t do anything right!”
“Who? Jyri?”
“Who else!”
Marissa gestured to the chair across from her desk. “Calm down and sit.”
Oliver flopped into the chair, rubbing his forehead. “I’m sorry. He’s just... a nightmare to train.”
“You didn’t know anything when you first started here,” Marissa said with a smile.
There was truth in her words. This was Oliver's first office-type job, after all. He had a lot to learn in the beginning. But he couldn't have been as difficult to train as Jyri. “I knew how to work basic electronic equipment.”
“Jyri does too.”
“Jyri didn’t even know what a computer was until he started working here.”
“Of course he did.”
“No, he didn’t. Faye either. You can even ask them.”
“Really?”
Oliver stared at her. “Didn’t you ask them about it in their interview?”
“Interview?” Marissa tapped her chin, frowning. “I knew I forgot something.”
Oliver’s jaw nearly dropped. “You hired them without interviewing them first?!”
“Craig said they’d be perfect for the job. And I don’t have time to sit around interviewing people. Do you know how boring those things are?”
Oliver had never interviewed people, so he wouldn’t know. But to him it sounded entertaining, watching people bullshit their way through trick questions. It would be preferable to working with someone like Jyri. Oliver took a deep breath. “Jyri shredded this month’s inventory list, before I could put them on the computer.”
“Oh.” Marissa fell silent. “I can see why you’re upset.”
“Yes.”
“But it’s not a big deal. Production makes extra copies for themselves. Go ask them to make you another copy.”
“But-”
“Give the man a break,” Marissa said. “He’s trying. Now, go. I’m finally winning a round of Solitaire.”
Defeated, Oliver slunk back to his cubicle, the phone’s receiver beeping. He had forgotten all about the woman. Hopefully it wasn’t anything important. Oliver hung up the phone and noticed a stack of papers on his keyboard. Picking them up, he stared, wide-eyed, as he flicked through the inventory lists that Jyri had shredded.
But they weren’t shredded. Was it possible someone in Production knew his plight, and left him a copy? Oliver held the paper up to the light and saw slight indents in the paper from where someone wrote the numbers down. It was the original copy. The original copy that was on his desk moments before Jyri shoved them in the shredder. And Oliver saw it. He saw it happen. But how was it here, intact?
“I fixed it for you,” a high, chipper voice said. Faye’s voice. She smiled up at Oliver, hands clasped against her chest.
“I told you she could,” Jyri added, beaming.
Oliver stared, flabbergasted. “How?”
Without explanation, they walked away. After making copies of the lists for safe-keeping, Oliver hurried off to tell Shawn, originals in hand.
And bumped into Brittney on the way.
Brittney rubbed her shoulder. “What’s your hurry?”
“Nothing,” Oliver said, a little too quickly.
She raised her eyebrow at him. “Let me guess, you’re running off to tell Shawn more lies about Faye and Jyri.”
“They’re not lies.” Oliver held up the papers in hand. “Jyri shredded these, and Faye put them back together.”
Brittney raised her other eyebrow. “And that’s not a lie?”
“It’s true! I saw Jyri shred these. He grabbed them off my desk and shoved them in the shredder. And then I went to Marissa-”
“You told on him?”
“I came back, and the original copies,” Oliver waved the papers, “these, were on my desk, in one piece! Faye said she fixed them.”
Brittney rolled her eyes. “Are you sure that’s what Jyri shredded?”
“Yes!”
“Oliver...” Brittney ran her fingers through her hair. “That’s impossible. There’s probably some misunderstanding.”
“Go ask them yourself.” Oliver turned away, and continued towards Shawn.
Shawn sat in front of his computer, a game of Solitaire on his screen. “You’ll never believe this,” Oliver said.
Shawn swiveled around in his chair to face him. “What did they do this time?”
Oliver dropped the inventory lists onto the desk. Shawn looked down at them. “Inventory?”
“Jyri shredded these twenty minutes ago.”
Frowning, Shawn picked up the lists, looking over each paper individually. “They don’t look shredded.”
“Exactly. Faye fixed it.”
Shawn looked up at him. “What?”
“After Jyri shredded those, I went to complain to Marissa. When I came back, those were on my desk. Faye said she fixed them.”
Shawn set the papers down. “Are you sure these are what Jyri shredded?”
“Positive.”
“You’re not joking?”
“No.”
Shawn’s eyes met his. “Something’s not right with those two.”173Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnh6DrJazx9
and then Add to home screen.