It had been a bad morning. A crazy morning. One of those mornings where everything that could go wrong,didgo wrong. It was amazing Bailey had even made it to work at all.
First his alarm had failed to go off because he’d forgotten to plug in his mobile phone and the damn thing had gone flat. Waking up half an hour after he was usually out the door meant he was running late for his shift. He’d tackled an overcrowded bus, crawling along in peak hour traffic before alighting in the city to fight his way through the sea of umbrellas for a block and a half. He’d flown through the doors of the high-rise building that housed the company he worked for, grateful when he didn’t have to wait long for the lift. He got off at the twentieth floor and made his way through the maze of olive-green cubicles, ignoring the combination of glares and raised eyebrows from his co-workers.
Jeez, it isn’t as if I’m late very often. They all have a shitload more sick days than I do.
“Sorry I’m late,” Bailey puffed out as he peeled off his coat and threw it over the back of his office chair. Ryan stood on the other side of the cubicle wall, tapping his watch pointedly. “I was—”
“Whatever.” Ryan cut him off with a wave of his hand. “Just sit your arse down and log into the phone as quickly as you can. We’ve already got a backlog of calls waiting, and I’ve got a call centre manager breathing down my neck. I’ll save the reprimand for later.” Ryan winked before turning away and leaving Bailey to it.
Bailey had a moment of guilt as he planted his arse, at the same time as he pressed the button to boot up his computer before putting on his headset. When his screen lit up, he launched the main system and finally reached over and logged into the phone. It only took a moment for the beep to sound in his ear, and yet another workday began.
“Good morning. Welcome to Wonder Energy. This is Bailey. How may I help you?”
Ryan gave him a broad grin and a thumbs up across the divide. He was a good boss, and Bailey knew Ryan wouldn’t hold his lateness against him. And that had nothing to do with Ryan being Bailey’s best friend; he was a decent guy, just under pressure like they all were. Times were tough and the company was pushing them to exceed targets.
Bailey spent the next few hours tethered to his desk—literally—with barely time to scratch himself. When his scheduled break rolled around, he moved fast to hit the buttons on the phone to take himself out of the call queue, and removed the headset. He stood and stretched, rolling his shoulders to relieve the tension.
“You on a break?” asked Richard, the guy who sat in the cubicle opposite.
“Yeah,” Bailey replied as he picked up his iPhone and shoved it in his pocket. “An hour. I’m going to head out and grab something to eat. Do you want to come with me?”
“Nah. I’ve got another fifteen minutes before I’m due for my break. I’ll—” Richard shrugged apologetically and turned back to his computer monitor. “Welcome to Wonder Energy…”
Bailey chuckled at Richard’s exaggerated eye roll. The calls from customers were never-ending and management monitored every moment not on a call. He was coming to hate stats.
A hand on his shoulder caused Bailey to turn. “I’ll tag along. I need a coffee. And you can tell me why you weren’t on time this morning.”
“You’re not going to give me a hard time are you?” Bailey asked as he studied Ryan.
“Ha,” Ryan snorted. “Not likely. But I should. Me being the boss and all.”
This time it was Bailey who snorted. “You might be the boss on paper—”
“Hey! Where’s the respect?” Ryan scowled in mock anger before turning toward the doorway.
They took the lift to the ground floor and exited the building onto the crowded city street. The traffic was busy and the footpath an obstacle course, but Bailey was happy to escape the confines of his corporate prison. He hated being stuck in the cubicle all day, answering call after call from customers querying why their electricity bill was so high or trying to make arrangements to pay it off. As a job it sucked, but at least it brought in a decent salary even with his part-time hours, enough to cover the rent on his small apartment.
“What do you feel like?” Ryan asked. “Want to go to the coffee shop a few blocks down?”
“Take Two? Sure. The walk’ll do me good anyway.”
Ryan chuckled. “I’m sure the walk won’t be the only thing to do you good.”
Bailey glared, but Ryan just winked and headed off down the footpath.
It didn’t take them long to reach the old building that was the location of the coffee shop they’d been to a few times—okay, maybe a bit more than a few times—in recent months. It mightn’t have been the most trendy of places but the food was good and more importantly, the coffee was excellent.
As they entered the warmth of the building, grateful to leave the cold outside, Bailey looked up and caught the eye of the guy behind the counter. His breath caught, and he was sure he was blushing. He hoped cute-barista-guy would attribute his flushed cheeks to the crisp winter weather.
“Take a seat wherever you like,” the blond said, waving an arm to the couple of empty tables against the wall. “I’ll be with you in a moment to take your order.”
Bailey’s feet only moved towards the tables when Ryan shoved him between the shoulder blades. “C’mon, man. Get moving. We’ve only got about forty-five minutes left.” Bailey tore his gaze from cute-barista-guy and grabbed a seat at the nearest table. From his position against the wall he had a perfect view of the whole coffee shop, right across the room to the lounges and fireplace.
“I don’t know why I suggested we come here,” Ryan said as he plonked himself in the chair opposite Bailey.
“What d'you mean?” Bailey managed to stop staring at the back of the guy who was now clearing a table nearby. He met Ryan’s eyes. “The coffee’s great.”
“Yeah, the coffeeisgreat. It’s the company that sucks.” Ryan scowled.
