Chapter One: Just Another Tuesday

If I had known I would meet my future wife that day, perhaps I wouldn't have taken advantage of my company's casual dress code. If I had known I would meet her that day, perhaps I would have paid attention to her name when we were introduced. But I didn't know. Luckily, the nine to five corporate life allows for more than just a first impression.

Tuesdays are a hollow day in a life of living for the weekend. Mondays give a sense of purpose after a weekend of either challenging my liver's willpower or seeing how long I can go without changing out of pajamas. Tuesdays, however, remind me of the daily, monotonous cycle I will be continuing for the next forty years. This Tuesday was no different; even with the introduction of a new employee.

My iPod is on as loud as my ears allow when I see my manager out of the corner of my eye walking down the row of desks. I scoot closer to my computer, typing frantically into a spreadsheet, appearing busy and avoiding any extra assignments he's passing out.

"And this is Brittany."

I push up the sleeves of my gray hoodie before pulling out one of my ear buds and swiveling to face my manager and an extended hand from the person I'm apparently being introduced to.

"Brittany will be another resource for questions after you finish your training."

I smirk, shaking her hand but looking beyond it to her black business suit. Rookies always think a corporate job needs a corporate suit to go with it. There's no one here to impress. I make more eye contact with Emma Watson and her wand on my computer background than I ever do with a client.

My eyes track up to meet those of the woman I'm already supposed to know the name of to find a smirk of her own. Her eyes graze down my body, and I'm sure she's laughing at the picture of the duck and dolphin high fiving on my sweatshirt. She can laugh all she wants; sometimes you need a duck to get you from three o'clock to five o'clock in this place.

"Nice to meet you, Brittany." She says my name as though she's memorizing it. She might as well not bother. There are twenty people in the department and two weeks of solitary training to forget all of them.

With that, she brushes a stray hair behind her ear and follows my manager to the next row of desks.

Four more days until Saturday.