Deceived

Miss unafraid, Miss out of my way.
Miss don’t let a man, interfere.
-Miss Independent by Kelly Clarkson

Upon getting up and going to work at the lovely Oakwood Apartments the following Tuesday, I realized that I should probably call Alex back. Just to let him know I made it home ok.

It rang three times and I made a deal with myself that if he didn’t answer on the fourth ring, I’d hang up. But as always, with my horrible luck, he answered.

“Hey you. I was just-”

“No Alex. You do this every time. Nothing is going to happen. Neither of us are ready for that kind of commitment. I don’t want it and I know you don’t either.”

“Come on Tiff. You’re killing me here. You know I love you and you know we’re going to end up together, why keep fighting it? I’ll fly out there and we can live together and everything will b-”

“No.” I stated, cutting him off while pulling into a parking space at work. “We both know that that isn’t going to happen. I’m only 21, Alex. I like not being tied down. Plus, it’s too hard right now to have a relationship. What we had when I was there, was great ok? I’m not denying it, but that’s it. It’s only like that when I’m there and we both know that you’re not going to drop everything and move out here. So stop trying to change my mind about it. It’s not going to happen.”

He scoffed over the phone and I could practically hear him rolling his eyes at me before he said, “Fine. But you know if you ever change you’re mind, I’ll be here waiting for you. You know and I know, that we’re going to be together.” And then, he hung up.

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge my nose before resting my head on the steering wheel.

I hated that he always got to me and always made me want to believe him. I hated that he was the only guy that made me think twice about living in the moment and not always looking towards the future. It was so aggravating.

And what was even more aggravating, was my supervisor, Kelly. The stupid blonde who sat on her ass all day doing nothing but watching movies on her computer.

And just like every morning, she always was on the phone with someone who was not a client and there would always be a stack of paperwork for me to do on my desk.

I wasn’t supposed to be doing this stuff. I wasn’t supposed to be going through people’s paperwork and calling them to let them know that it was time for them to pay their rent. That was her job. My job was to answer the phones and show people available apartments. That was it.

I needed to get out of here. I wanted to be Professional Photographer, shooting campaigns for Chanel or People Magazine. Not a Monday through Friday job at a desk as a secretary.

I threw my stuff down, only getting a quick glance from Kelly’s office before she got up from her desk and shut the door to keep me from ruining her precious phone conversation. I bit my tongue to say something to her because I knew if I did, I would be fired on the spot. And I couldn’t afford to be fired. I had an apartment to pay for and car payments to pay off.

Stupid consequences of talking back.

I slumped myself down into my chair and started my phone calls.

It was brutal leaving messages for those of people who were out at work and having to talk to the elderly. There was only about 3 elderly people, but those old people knew how to talk. Or in Mr. Hawkins case, knew how to re-state things after every 5 minutes.

Must be the Alzheimer’s.

After finally getting off the phone with Mrs. Webster, the 89 year old lady who was as nice as she was annoying half the time, I noticed that the next person I had to call was Lindsey Buchman. A friend of mine from school.

My eyes found the time on my desk clock and saw that it was going on almost 11, so I spun around in my chair and looked out my window towards the entrance of the apartment complex.

Showtime.

There was always one good thing about working as a secretary, and also being a friend of Lindsey’s. I knew what she did over the weekend or…every night. It was a set program basically.

I saw the door open before the guy walked out, this one with blonde shaggy hair, and made his way down the steps of the building.

Aww, he’s cute…enough.

As soon as the sun hit him, he brought his arm up to cover his face and shield the brightness from his eyes, wincing slightly and I couldn’t refrain my eye roll at that moment.

That’s what you get for drinking too much…idiot.

I grabbed my water bottle and took a sip while watching the guy get into his cab and not even 2 minutes after he was gone, Lindsey exited her apartment and made her way towards her Toyota Corolla. Her white blonde, curly hair was perfect as usual, coming down until a little past her shoulders while her legs poked out of a skirt suit that was a navy blue color.

She sent me a wave and a smile when opening her car door upon seeing me before leaving for work. I sighed after her car was out of sight and turned around in my seat and got back to work, that wasn’t mine to begin with.

As much as I didn’t want to do it, I knew I had to. If it didn’t get done, Kelly would bitch at me for not doing it and then fire me. Again with the consequences.

If only I was brave enough to tell Kelly to stuff it up her ass, and also have another job waiting for me.

The phone brought me out of my thoughts of wanting to be more like Jess or Lindsey, since Lindsey was smart enough to voice her opinion about something and then next thing her and I both knew, she was bumped up from an intern, to practically being an assistant to the boss of the commercial company she worked for.

“Oakwood Apartments, this is Tiffany speaking, how may I help you today?”

I groaned upon hearing Mr. Greeber’s gruff voice over the phone. He was an unbearable client of ours and always made me want to shoot his brains out.

As he proceeded to yell at me about how his tub wasn’t working properly, I heard a loud laugh from Kelly’s office and rolled my eyes.

It never ceased to amaze me that even though she was a supervisor, that’s all she did.

Supervise.

I had no idea how the hell she got this job, but I definitely envied her for it. If I could sit there and make personal calls and watch movies all day getting paid $25 an hour, I’d take it. It would be the easiest job in the world. Lucky bitch.

I nodded my head and pulled a phone book out from underneath my desk to start looking for a mechanic to call when Kelly’s shrill voice called my name from behind her door before it opened.

I held my finger up to her, indicating I would be a minute before I could talk and quickly told Mr. Greeber that I would call a plumber right away and have him come out.

“So, I’m going out for an early lunch with an old friend so I’ll be back in umm….” Kelly said as soon as I hung up the phone. She checked her watch before saying, “2 hours. You think you can hold down the fort?”

No I can’t hold down the fort! I have paperwork to do that’s not mine to begin with, I have to call a plumber and set up a time for when they can come out and then show two apartments today! Get your ass into gear and be my boss and do your own damn work!

“Yep. No problem.” I said, seeing as how she was pulling her jacket on already despite my lack of an answer.

She sent me a smug smile, knowing full well that I would never tell her what I was thinking, and walked right past my desk to exit the little building we were in, swinging her hips obnoxiously on the way out.

Tuesdays officially suck!

After getting through about 5 people’s paperwork, listening to Kelly brag about her lunch date and how they set up another one for tomorrow, lucky me, and having the mechanic come and fix Mr. Greeber’s tub, I finally had time to take a breather.

Kelly was going to be leaving in about 10 minutes since she didn’t have anything to do, leaving myself to have the last hour to go over 20 more people’s paperwork.

Yay!

Sense the sarcasm.

“Oakwood Apartments, this is Tiffany speaking, how may I help you?”

“Yeah, can I get a skank in umm..let’s see…what color are we wearing this week, oh yeah…in black shorts and a blue t-shirt to meet me at Aaron’s bar tonight for oh….I don’t know….a volleyball game?!”

“Shit!” I yelled into the phone, ignoring the disgusted look come onto Kelly’s face from my swearing. I smacked my head with a fist before I said anything else.

“Shit! I’m so sorry Jess! I got stuck here at work an-”

“Who’s that?” Kelly’s voice asked, causing me to turn around in my chair and look at her confused before answering her.

“My friend Jess. I’m in a volleyball league for Aaron’s bar and I have a game tonight and…” I said quickly, coming to a complete halt with my words when I saw her removing her pink scarf from around her neck and unbuttoning her brown pea coat.

“What are yo-” I started to ask when she reached down and grabbed about half of the pile of paperwork that was still left for me to do.

“Go.” she said with a sigh and eye roll. “I’ll do half tonight and we’ll just tell Mr. Kee it was really busy today and we didn’t have time to finish all of it. He’ll understand.” Kelly instructed before she vanished back into her office and shutting the door with a kick of her foot.

“Thanks!” I quickly yelled at her door, only to hear a groan for a response, and I quickly started getting my stuff together with one hand while talking to Jess.

“Give me a half hour. I have to go home and change.”

“No need to skank.” Jess said to me as I tried to get my coat on. It was fairly cold in California, granted it was March, but still. Half the time I only needed a sweatshirt. “I brought an extra pair of clothes, I figured you’d get stuck up in that hell hole you like to call work with that bi-”

“Jess!” I yelled at her to cut her off. Granted, Kelly could be a bitch sometimes but, sometimes, she could be really nice. Like right now.

“Ugh. Fine. See you here in 10.” and with that Jess hung up the phone. I smiled and said another quick thanks towards Kellys’ door before hurrying out of the building and towards my car to play my frustration out with some volleyball.