First Day At Work
1005 Words
"Have you done your attendance yet?"
Eve looked up from the desk. "My attendance?"
"You have to mark it every morning when you arrive." Lucia nodded toward a glass-walled room not far from their section. "In there. Thumb print on the machine and it logs the time automatically."
Eve looked at the room, then back at Lucia. "Thumb print."
"I know." Lucia smiled. "Very dramatic for a register."
The room was small and kept noticeably cold. A handful of employees were already moving through it in a quiet, practiced line. The machine itself was silver and looked more medical than administrative — the kind of thing you'd expect to unlock a vault rather than record what time someone showed up to work.
Eve watched the woman ahead of her press her thumb to the panel. The screen flashed green without ceremony.
When her turn came, she copied the motion carefully.
A soft beep.
ATTENDANCE RECORDED.
She almost laughed. Even the confirmation message felt formal.
She turned to leave and walked directly into someone's shoulder.
"Ouch"
Eve stepped back. A young woman stood in front of her in a fitted cream suit, her heels alone probably worth more than two of Eve's paychecks. She was staring at Eve with the particular expression of someone who had been mildly inconvenienced and intended to make that known.
"Watch where you're going," she said flatly, and walked off before Eve could finish apologizing.
Eve stood there for a moment, then made her way back to her desk.
Lucia looked up immediately. "What happened?"
"Nothing serious. I walked into someone."
"Cream suit?"
"Yes."
Lucia winced sympathetically. "She's like that with everyone. Don't take it personally."
Eve exhaled and sat down. "What do I do next?"
"Manager's office first. He'll give you whatever you'll be working on."
She knocked twice before entering.
The office was large and quiet, the kind that had been arranged to communicate authority without trying too hard. The man behind the desk was middle-aged, his attention fully on the documents spread in front of him until she spoke.
"Good morning. I'm Eve Hunter, new staff, administrative unit."
He looked up. Something shifted briefly in his expression, though she couldn't quite read it.
"Right. Yes." He set the papers down. "Welcome."
"Thank you."
He reached for a file on the corner of his desk but didn't hand it over immediately. "I'll be straightforward with you. I don't usually give this particular assignment to someone on their first day."
Eve kept her hands still at her sides. "I understand. I'll do my best with whatever it is."
He studied her for a moment, then leaned back in his chair.
"A few things you should know about working here." His tone was direct but not unkind. "This company doesn't carry passengers. Everyone pulls their weight, no exceptions, no half-measures. Excellence gets noticed and rewarded. Anything less gets removed. That's not a threat, it's just how this place works."
"Understood."
He held the file out. "Two people have already been taken off this assignment."
She accepted it and opened it carefully.
Inside was a rough concept sketch, a cartoon character, loosely drawn, accompanied by a brief for an upcoming children's luxury product campaign. Notes were scrawled in the margins in different handwriting, evidence of the two attempts that hadn't gone anywhere.
She looked at it for a moment longer than she meant to.
*Interesting.*
"You're comfortable with digital illustration?"
"Yes."
He exhaled through his nose, not quite a sigh, not quite confidence either. "Then let's see how you get on."
She was back at her desk within minutes, the file open beside her keyboard.
Lucia leaned over almost immediately. "What did he give you?"
Eve turned the page toward her.
Lucia's expression shifted. "Oh no."
"What?"
"That one's been passed around for weeks. Nobody's cracked it." She lowered her voice. "It's basically cursed at this point."
"It's a cartoon character."
"That's what the last person said."
Eve smiled and turned back to the page. She pulled a spare sheet toward her, picked up a pencil, and started sketching loosely, not committing to anything yet, just letting her hand move and see what came out.
Lucia went quiet.
After a minute she said, "Hold on."
Eve didn't look up. "Mm?"
"You can actually draw."
"I'm just roughing it out."
"Eve." Lucia's voice had gone slightly flat. "That already looks better than the final version the last person submitted."
Eve laughed softly and kept going.
Drawing had always done this to her, narrowed everything down until the noise of a room stopped mattering. It had gotten her through worse situations than a difficult brief in a new office. The lines came gradually, the character taking on a shape she could work with, and the hum of the building around her faded to something distant and manageable.
For the first time all morning, she forgot to be nervous.
By the time lunch came around, Lucia was already standing and stretching with the commitment of someone who had earned it.
"I need food immediately or I am going to lie down on this floor and not get up."
Eve saved her progress and reached for her bag.
They took the lift down together and crossed the street to a small café that Lucia clearly knew well. She ordered without looking at the menu and chose a table by the window without hesitating.
Upstairs, the elevator doors opened and Rafael stepped out carrying two coffees, one in each hand. He crossed toward the administrative section and glanced over at Eve's desk.
Empty.
The computer was still on, a half-finished illustration visible on the screen.
"She just went to lunch," someone nearby said, without him having to ask.
Rafael looked down at the second cup in his hand. Still warm. He'd timed it slightly wrong.
He set it carefully on the edge of her desk anyway, then turned and headed back to the elevator, a small smile crossing his face that he didn't particularly try to hide.
- Writer
