Girls Best Friend: Part 1

Welcome dear followers!

The tide is high and we're moving on...to our next serial...Ryan & Sarah will be back for their wedding but till then I would like to introduce you to Milly. She is the leading lady in the new serial entitled 'Girls Best Friend'. I hope you will become a follower (see sidebar) and that way you will never miss an instalment.  I'm not sure what they should be, episodes, instalments, issues? Any ideas?

So lets begin...

Girls Best Friend

Milly glanced up at the clock that was hanging on the wall next to the stationery cupboard and gave an elongated sigh. She had kept her head down all day, tried to stay busy and yet according to this ancient device of torture, she had only been at work 30 minutes. She sighed again at the prospect of it being another one of those days that drags along at a snails pace and slowly saps all life and willpower from you. A third sigh as she heaved herself up out of her chair and headed towards the photocopier room, ‘You ok, Milly?’ asked Gladys her current line manager, ‘I’m fine, I just thought it might have been nearly lunch.’ She said as she half smiled back at Gladys and imagined smacking her around the head with the pile of papers she was holding. She had been at the job for far too long, so long that everything annoyed her beyond belief with no logical explanation. ‘You haven’t been to lunch yet?!’ Gladys said. Milly looked at her and then at the clock on the wall, speaking seemed like an unwanted expense, but she managed ‘Its only 9.30am’ and nodded at the clock. Gladys placed her hand on Millys arm ‘that clock hasn’t worked for the last six months Milly, it’s nearly 3.30pm’. Milly didn’t say anything else, she walked in zombie-like fashion to her desk, put down the papers, put on her coat and left to have her lunch break.

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During lunch Millie went home to feed her dog and today was no different other than the time. The dog had been a gift from her ex-fiancé. He had thought it would make her feel better; it was sort of a consolation prize for him dumping her for her sister. At the time she had been upset but ironically the dog was much better company than he had ever been. At first, Millie hadn’t known what to call him, the dog not the boyfriend, and for the first two weeks he had been referred to as ‘the hound’ in public and at home she called him Elvis. Maybe she had seen Smokie and the bandit one too many times. A friend of hers had suggested she named him something that denoted his personality; slow, dopey, silly, and she had thought about it and settled temporarily on Flopsy because of the ears. Flopsy was a Bassett hound. She changed his name after having to explain to people that Flopsy wasn’t restricted to the naming of rabbits but she wasn’t brave enough to admit to him being called Elvis. When she started her new assignment with Rob, Roberts & Robertson ltd she had decided to change his name again, so that it sounded more intellectual than Flopsy. When the very attractive, Greg the HR manager, had asked her his name she hadn’t yet had time to think of something and the first thing that came to mind was the Hound of the Baskervilles and so she had blurted out that he was called ‘Bakerville’, when the guy had wrinkled his ridiculously perfect brow and asked her Why? She had realised her error, but she thought she would look even more stupid if she admitted her mistake so went with it and made up a farfetched story about cops and American cop shows. He had nodded, half-smiled and walked away. Millie had just stood there wondering why she hadn’t just stuck with Flopsy.

With only a half hour left at work Millie was looking forward to getting home, ordering a pizza and watching some car crash TV with Elvis. She was daydreaming about the toppings she would pick when Gladys interrupted her stupor.

‘Millie...Millie...how is everything going? Gladys asked.

‘huh?!...er..I’m fine thank you Gladys…’ Millie looked down at her desk and the paperwork that she had left, ‘I’m nearly done’.

‘Great, you have been doing such a great job and I wondered I you would be able to do me a huge favour? You see my daughter isn’t well and I have to leave early to look after her. I have some documents that I need photocopying before tomorrow, they are for a big board meeting and I wondered if you could do that for me.’ Gladys looked at Millie.

Millie looked at Gladys’ pitiful pleading face that she had wanted to hit earlier and decided she probably should have done, because then she wouldn’t feel sorry for her and be about to agree to stay late at work to do photocopying of all things.

‘Sure’ she answered.

‘Oh thank you, thank you, I am so glad you said yes. You are a lifesaver.’ And she rushed off to find the paperwork that she wanted Millie to copy.

Millie felt like someone had come along and burst her thought cloud and she saw the pizza disappearing in a puff of smoke. She could still get pizza when she finished later but it wouldn’t be the same, the reason being that the cute delivery boy would have finished his shift by then and she would have to have it delivered by the not so cute delivery woman. It just didn’t seem worth it. Another night of coco pops it would be.

Gladys left and gave Millie the papers that needed to be done and Millie headed to the copier room with them. As she walked in she saw Mark from accounting at the one of the other photocopiers. She liked him. Not like that. She liked him because he had always been friendly towards her and treated her like more than a temp. On the odd occasion that they bumped into each other he would chat for a while and it made Millie feel less like she was living in an extremely dull nightmare and more like she was still human. She smiled broadly at him and stepped into the room, as her foot crossed the threshold she heard the unmistakable cackle of Denise from marketing, it was too late to step back out. “Oh, hi Mark, hi Denise” Millie said and walked towards the empty copier. Mark from accounting made some sort of mumbling noise which Millie took to be a ‘hi, but please don’t talk to me as I am with Denise and I don’t want her to think we are friends grunt’. She sighed and started to copy the first of the documents.

Millie had worked for Rob, Roberts and Robertson for nearly six months and after a week she knew that she would rather be anywhere else but here but opportunities were slim and she was trying to make the most of it. She tried not to listen to Mark and Denise’s conversation but she couldn’t help it. Denise was so loud.

“So, I said to him, I said Mr Rob you really need to sign off on this new marketing campaign, I have spoken to Mr Roberts and Mr Robertson and they seem to agree with me. I told him, I said I am a professional Mr Rob. There is no way that I would jeopardise my career, this decision is definitely the best in my expert opinion. I think he was suitably impressed. So, I am hoping to get a big enough bonus so that I can go diving in the Seychelles, I mean, what’s the point of working so hard if you can’t enjoy yourself” and then she laughed. Millie’s spot in the copier room meant she was stood with her back to them both and she rolled her eyes. Denise from marketing was always jetting off somewhere. Millie wouldn’t begrudge her that but if she could not go on about it all day every day until it was time to go, that would be nice, unusual and unlikely but nice.

Mark from accounting cleared his throat, “I think you will have a great time. It sounds great. You are great at most things you do. I’m sure it will be great.” Seriously, could he at least try and say something other than ‘great’, he totally had a thing for her. Millie never understood it, she was attractive enough but nothing special, and she was successful and outgoing, but she was also bossy, overbearing, and a condescending, cackling thorn in Millie’s side. She just hoped they would both leave soon so she could mindlessly copy.

“So, Millie…have you got plans for when you contract finishes here?” Denise from marketing asked. It took Millie completely by surprise, “er…oh...erm...I...ha...maybe…I’m not sure” she stammered. “oh well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised really, you’re not the decisive type are you, you temps never are, you lack commitment always changing jobs and I suppose you don’t have much money doing what you do. I suppose you won’t be able to take time off to do something fun or have an adventure, eh?” she laughed and turned to Mark from accounting and said ‘c’mon Mark let’s leave her to it, probably more excitement than she can handle’ and he laughed along and left with her.

Millie was fuming in her head, as she copied away she mentally ranted; How bloody dare she! If one thing Millie hated it was a person assuming that because she was a temp and had been pretty much since she started working that she lacked commitment. Hello?!, she was a commitment expert! Every few months she would change jobs , yes, but she would turn up to work every day, she was never late, she was never off sick, she always gave 100% except maybe today because of the whole ‘I need to blow my brains out thing’ but generally. Also, she saved money, she had to in order to make sure that she had enough for bills when she was between assignments, how responsible of her, also she had been saving a lot more as she had dreams too. She often dreamt of a holiday in the south of France where she would meet the handsome, suave and sexy Pierre and they would make mad passionate love until she would return home and thus leaving him broken hearted. Ok, maybe THAT wouldn’t happen but still. And anyway, she wasn’t five, what nonsense about going on adventures. What’s that saying, life is one big adventure. Bah! God that woman annoyed her. And then Mark from accounting actually laughing at what she said, the shallow prick. Ok, that was a bit harsh he obviously was a bit hung up on her, but still.

Millie looked down at the copier and realised it had stopped. A message flashed on the screen ‘Put paper in tray A’, typical she thought. Now she would have to go to the stationery cupboard to get some more paper. It wouldn’t have annoyed her so much if it wasn’t for the process she had to endure before she even got in the door.

Firstly, she needed to go to get a key, this key opened a cupboard in which was another key, this key would open a drawer in which there was another key, this key would open a cash box in which was THE key. Millie wouldn’t mind so much if the stationery was worth stealing but it was more likely that people would break in the room to put decent stuff in there as opposed to take anything. With all the financial tightening of belts and cut backs the stationery was the first thing to be hit. The pens were the cheapest ones that scratched the paper when you wrote and contained enough ink to either write ten words or bleed out all over the place and stain your fingers. The paper was thrice recycled and Millie was sure that on more than one occasion she could still see what was written on the paper before it became paper again. The stationery cupboard was also located in the furthest reaches of the building, was always cold and had a light switch that couldn’t be farther from the door if it was next to her desk. It meant you had to fumble around in darkness, as the door was one of those fire doors that you couldn’t prop open. Undoubtedly, she would end up with a paper cut or two, bruised knees from walking into boxes of junk that people decided to store there – she could count on two hands the number of times she had hit her knee on an old computer – and when she reached the light switch, which someone had kindly placed a filing cabinet in front of she had to squeeze her hand down behind to reach the switch. Thus leaning flat against the wall with arm stretched out as if dancing the tango. She was in this position and about to flick the switch when she saw light coming into the cupboard, as the door opened more she heard voices. Now she had two options, 1. Flick the switch and say hi, and make some joke about struggling to get turned on or 2. Keep schtum, hide and hope they would leave soon, there was a box nearby she could crouch behind. Option 1 was the best choice she thought as she had a hand clamped over her mouth and was precariously crouched behind the box, heart pounding and ears twitching as the voices became recognisable.

It was Roberts and Robertson, and they didn’t even attempt to find the light switch, which instantly made Millie feel uncomfortable as to why would they be huddled together whispering in a stationery cupboard. She swallowed and pricked up her ears as she listened to them talk,

‘Ok, look. There is no real rush, after all, we have waited this long. But by the end of next month I think that you should be ready to fly out to Marrakech and pick them up.’

‘Ok, I can do that. Where are they?’

‘I’m not a hundred per cent sure but Rob said he stashed them in the safe in Smit’s office. ‘

‘Smit? Smit from Smit, Smiths & Smithson Ltd? ‘

‘No, Smit from Smit, Smithson and Smithsonian plc.’

‘Oh, ok…how do I get in his office?’

‘it’s simple, you go to our offices in Marrakech, you get the key to the stationery cupboard, in there is a small safe hidden under stationery and stationery stuff, inside the safe is a key and directions to Smits office.’

‘Ok, sounds simple enough.’

‘Once you get there, there is a safe – the code is taped to the underneath – inside are the diamonds. Just don’t forget that no-one knows that they are there, no-one even knows that we still have them, no-one is looking for them so it’s perfect.’

‘Ok. Then what do I do with them?’

The next part Millie didn’t hear as the door to the stationery cupboard opened and the men left. Once she was sure they were gone, she switched on the light, grabbed a pen and scrawled down the instructions on how to find the diamonds. Maybe they were stolen? She could go to the police and tell them all she knew, maybe they were royal diamonds? Maybe she would get a reward; maybe she would get given a diamond! Her mind wondered as she thought what she would do with a diamond, how much would it be worth she wondered. If no-one was looking for them then why weren’t Roberts and Robertson worried that anyone could find them and keep them, they must be worth thousands. Millie grabbed a ream of paper, and stopped at the door on the way out, she screwed up her note and threw the paper into the bin by the door, she would just forget about it. For all she knew, with her imagination, she may have just made the whole thing up. As she stepped out of the door, Denise from marketing passed by ‘Good night Millie, hope the weekend isn’t too big an adventure for you!’ she called out, laughing to herself as she headed out the door.
Millie turned back around, pushed the stationery door open and leaned down and scooped her crumpled notes up out of the bin, glancing down at her scrawl, she stuck out her chin, threw back her shoulders and told herself; this might be just the adventure she is looking for.