Color Me Grey: Book One of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles (2 page)

I always knew quite a few people when I
walked in but, because I rarely went in without a book or something
else to read, I was usually left to my own devices. Every once in a
while someone would invade my space. If I’m truly reading, prepare
to feel my wrath but, if I’m just eavesdropping, I don’t usually
get that upset with the distraction. I’ve never really been that
much of a talker, so people rarely tried to chat with me anyway.
About the only time someone tried to converse with me was when they
had an argument about which planet was closest to the sun or who
was the sixteenth president. I could always give them the
answer.

Today most everybody was involved in
home-related talk and not involved in any deep discussions about
the surface of Mars or the existence of black holes. Nobody
bothered me the entire time I was there. They must have been able
to tell I was seriously contemplating something. This job offer in
the paper had me intrigued. I got up, dropped my Styrofoam cup into
the garbage can and out the door I went. I jogged home so I could
get downtown before lunch time and check out this job.

*****

I pulled into the parking garage of 1324
Plaza Dr., paid my fee and found a spot right away. I had changed
clothes before I left my house and was wearing something
appropriate for a job interview. Nice skirt, nice shirt and heels.
I had pulled my hair back away from my face with a large barrette.
I wanted the out-of-the-way look, but still wanted to leave the
length.

I had never been in this building before and
had been missing out! The floor in the lobby was black and so shiny
I was afraid people might see up my skirt. I went to the main desk
and asked for Suite 73. I was pointed to the elevator and told to
get off at the seventh floor and take a left.

“
There are only three suites on that
floor so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding the right one,”
Mr. Rent-a-Cop told me.

I did as I was told and sure enough, there
was Suite 73 right in front of me. I stood outside the door for a
second. There were no windows or even a sign to state what kind of
office this was so I wasn’t sure if I should just walk in or knock.
I opted for the just-walk-in approach. This had to be a business,
they were asking for applicants.

I swung the door open slowly and walked in to
see a woman with blonde hair about twice my age sitting at a desk.
On the name tag sitting in front of her it read Gabriella. She was
on the phone and nodded in my direction to let me know she had seen
me. I looked around and saw the front office was quite small. There
were some filing cabinets in the corner, the main desk with
Gabriella sitting at it and no windows. There was nothing to tell
me what kind of business this was. There were chairs to sit in and
I was on my way to one of them when I saw
him.

I stopped breathing. Now that’s a man I
thought! He was about 6’ 3” and just perfect. A body that wouldn’t
quit, short dark hair, but I couldn’t see his face. His office door
was open and he was standing at the window looking down at the
world and talking quietly on the phone. He was wearing a tight army
green t-shirt, slightly faded jeans and motorcycle boots. Strange,
this building and this office just screamed suit and tie. I stared
at him for a full thirty seconds before I caught myself. That
wasn’t like me. I’m good at being sneaky, but something about this
man made me lose it.

“
Can I help you?” the woman at the desk
asked with a smile in her voice. She had obviously seen my mouth
open. I quickly composed myself and answered her.

“
Yes. I’m here to apply for the job
listed in the paper.”

She looked taken aback by what I said and
made me wonder even more at what kind of job I was going to apply
for.

“
All right, please take a seat and I’ll
get the paperwork together for you.” She stood and started toward
the filing cabinets.

I headed toward a seat that had a view. I
couldn’t help myself; it was like looking at a train wreck but in a
good way. I had never in my life seen a man that affected me the
way he did just by his appearance and the way he held himself. He
was away from the windows now and looking into the front office at
me. He looked to be a few years older than myself putting him still
under thirty but over twenty-five. His complexion was darker than
the average white guy, but his features were hard to place. He most
definitely wasn’t Oriental or black. He didn’t look to be Hispanic
and he was definitely not the type you would easily forget. Dark
eyes from where I was sitting, but he wasn’t close enough for me to
get all the little details. He had a trendy design of facial hair.
His sideburns were long and angling over his jaw, but not the
fluffy, thick kind of sideburns. His were nicely and neatly trimmed
into a thin line just along the jawbone. How interesting.

While I was ogling what I assumed to be her
boss, Gabriella came to me with the paperwork and asked, “Do you
know what kind of job we are offering?”

I looked her straight in the eye and said,
“No. I just saw it in the paper and thought it sounded interesting.
I don’t know if I have the qualifications but I thought I might
check it out. I’m recently unemployed.”

She smiled softly and gave me the eyes that
said she was sorry but was sure I wouldn’t be able to do the job
they were offering.

“
We don’t usually hire women for a job
of this type. I couldn’t begin to explain everything that would be
required of you, so if you wouldn’t mind filling out the paperwork
I can see if I can get you in with Mr. White. He will be able to
explain better.” She passed the application form, and about thirty
other sheets of paper that were filled front and back with
questions, over to me.

As she walked back to her desk, she said over
her shoulder, “If at any time while filling out the paperwork you
feel you won’t be qualified for the position don’t feel obligated
to stay.” She sat down at her desk and said, “Mr. White is quite
busy and the only position he’s hiring for at the moment is the one
you are applying for; we’ll keep your application on file for six
months in case there are any future jobs that you may qualify
for.”

“
Sure, thank you,” I said and began to
fill out the application. It was a normal application asking for
past work history, education and such. I had it filled out in less
than two minutes and Mr. White was still on the phone but had
looked in my direction more than once. I hadn’t looked up from the
application but I have quite good peripheral vision and saw him
turn toward the door a couple times.

I got to the rest of the paper work and was a
bit shocked at the questions. They were questions like, “Do you
think it’s what you know or who you know?” The type of questions
that are meant to figure out your personality. I didn’t know what
they were looking for so I wasn’t sure as how to fill out the
questionnaire, so I just told the truth. I answered that I thought
it was both, so on and so forth.

The next batch of questions was all of a
military nature. “How long would it take you to field strip an
M-16?” “How would you take control of a small country?” That kind
of thing. What kind of job was this? I answered all those questions
too. This was becoming more and more interesting. I might like this
job, if I got it. It seemed to me that they were a little against
the woman being in this work environment though.

I will admit, not too many women had the
military training that I had without actually going into a branch
of the military. They definitely wouldn’t be out yet at my age and
have the training completed. Well heck, I’ll admit it; probably
no
other woman had the training that I did. This job might
be just what I was searching for.

I was beginning to wonder what kind of
company this was. I had been curious before I reached the office
building, but everything from the marble floors to the man in the
other room had piqued my interest immensely.

Within fifteen minutes I had filled out the
entire batch of paper work and walked up to Gabriella to give it to
her.

She stopped typing on her computer, reached
for my application, then said, “Thank you, we will let you know if
something comes up.” And then went back to typing whatever it was
that she was working on before I walked up to her desk.

I said, “I thought you would see if Mr. White
would be available to talk to me if I filled everything out.”

This got her attention and she looked through
the papers to make sure I had filled out everything and left
nothing blank. After about a minute she looked up at me and said,
“Please take a seat. I can’t believe you got it done that quickly.
I’ll take this in and he’ll let you know if he would like to speak
to you.”

I felt a surge of excitement. Soon I could be
sailing away on a beautiful cruise ship and getting paid for it.
This could be ship security or something. I should have done
something like this a long time ago. This was fun.

I went back to my seat with a view and
watched Gabriella hand Mr. White the stack of papers. He was still
on the phone and had put his hand over the receiver. He looked from
Gabriella directly at me. I could see that he had a questioning
look on his face. He told her thank you and she headed back toward
her desk. I saw the mysteriously handsome man hang up the phone and
look in my direction one more time as Gabriella shut the door to
his office.

“
He should be with you in less than
half an hour. He always likes to look over the entire application
before he speaks with someone,” she said through a smile as she was
sliding back into her chair. She had gotten over her surprise and
was genuinely enjoying this. “Do you really have that kind of
experience?”

“
I’ve had training on everything
listed, yes. But I’ve never put it to use other than playing war
games with my instructor”, I admitted.

“
Well, I think you shocked him and I
don’t think I’ve ever seen him shocked at anything. If you get the
job this is going to be great. I’d love to have another woman
around. I get tired of seeing nothing but customers and men who
take too many steroids.”

I kind of liked Gabriella and didn’t mind
looking a little stupid in front of her so I came right out and
asked, “What kind of business is this?”

This brought another shocked look and then a
smile. “You really are something. First, you come here without even
knowing what kind of a job you are applying for, then you are more
than qualified and then you tell me you don’t even know who it is
that you’ll be working for,” she said as she shook her head. “We
are a bit like a private investigation outfit, but we do other
things as well. Recovery of people and property, surveillance, and
sometimes we even break into banks, sometimes. The company name is
White and Associates.”

Wow! I didn’t even know this place existed. I
have tons of book knowledge and physical training, but when it came
to the real world I was a bit sheltered. I had been kept at home
most of my childhood and only had the past five years or so of
being in the
real
world. College doesn’t count, it’s not
even close to the real world unless you work your way through and I
had had my way paid in full before I even stepped foot on campus. I
worked at a computer all day and didn’t have much of a social life
so I still wasn’t really in the world of the living. Not to mention
I still lived at Mom and Dad’s. I got some stuff off TV but other
than news, how much of it are you supposed to believe? Then it sank
in…

“
Break into banks?” My voice was an
octave higher than normal.

“
Oh, sorry,” she giggled. “Not to steal
things, but to test the security system for the bank,” she said
with a large grin on her face now.

“
Oh,” I said regaining my normal voice.
I worked my way back to my seat no longer with a view and sat down.
Gabriella went back to typing with a grin and I waited.

I didn’t have to wait long. Mr. White buzzed
Gabriella on the intercom within five minutes and in this
absolutely wonderful voice said “Gabriella, send in Ms. Stanton
please.” Very businesslike, but deep and smooth like butter. His
voice was as good as the rest of his body. I now knew who I would
fantasize about, at least until I got to know him better. Once you
know a person well enough it seems like they aren’t usually worth
fantasizing about. I was going to take advantage of this one before
I found out he was a putz. Bosses usually turn out to be
putzes.

Gabriella gave me a funny look that I
couldn’t decipher, almost scared but yet sympathetic and still
hopeful. “Good luck.” She said this with some emphasis that made me
think she really wanted me to get the job.

I walked into Mr. White’s office. He was in
his chair facing the windows away from me, but the shades were
drawn. I had all the confidence in the world. Then he turned around
and I lost it. My confidence went south, right out of my toes and
onto the floor in a little bubbly puddle. My brain quit working,
all I could think of was how sexy he was. Get a hold of yourself I
told myself. He’s just a man, good looking, but just a man.

I stood there looking at him in his chair and
he waited for me to sit. Finally he said, “You can take a
seat.”

Quit being such a dork I thought as I sat in
the straight-backed chair directly in front of his desk. It seemed
to me the office had changed in the short time since I had looked
in on it from the front office. I didn’t remember seeing any other
chairs in the room and now this one was right here. The chair was
ugly wood and uncomfortable without upholstery and placed just out
of reach of the desk. It stood out from the rest of the décor of
the office. Very unlike the rest of the room. There was a heavily
cushioned black couch not far from Mr. White’s desk and four other
chairs in the room that matched the couch and looked very
comfortable.