Chapter 3: Change of Schedule

Cara's POV

Those eyes haunts me.

Hazel and green.

What are the chances that my pretty eyes is that man on the executive floor?

I research his eye condition before and it is called Heterochromia Iridium. How many male New Yorker had that same condition?

I fidget on my necklace.

What if he is really my pretty eyes what should I do? I mean we know each other when we are young so it might be awkward when I ask him "Hey by any chance are you my childhood friend named Blake?" And if he's not well I hope the ground will swallow me up.

I finish my work at 5pm and greeted the incoming night shift cleaners.

I change my clothes to my regular one and packed it with the pouch that comes with it and send it to the laundry.

The company provided us 2 sets of uniform. Everyday we will send it to the laundry room and after it got washed and clean it will be placed inside our locker. How neat is that?

I wear my shorts and T shirt and change my safety shoes to my black flats. I walk out of the company and go to the park full of food trucks.

After a minute of contemplation I bought two tacos with all the trimmings and a bottle of water.

I sat on the grass and as I eat I watch people passby. Majority of them came out from work.

I miss eating home cooked meals. Someday in the near future I hope to have a family of my own.

Why am I thinking this kind of things? I am being sentimental and sappy again.

I finish my food and throw the wrappers at the bin. I walk towards the subway and commute back to my room.

I arrive at the complex I lived after 30 minutes of commute not because my place is far but because all the train carriage is full. It is rush hour and I walk 15 minutes from the nearest subway down to the complex where I live.

This area is a little bit shady. People only saw the "business" part of New York. Most of them are not aware about the dangerous area of this city.

I live here because the rent is cheaper.

The complex is an old building. It is three stories high and when you enter multiple cubicles will welcome you. It is small but a single bed and a small table and chair will fit inside. Every floor has 2 common bathrooms and a kitchen. The room are only divided by thin plywood so every one can hear whatever your are doing inside your room.

I go up to the 2nd floor and went inside my cubicle. There is a small foam  with 2 pillows and a blanket. On the side is a small fan that I bought in Walmart. My clothes are neatly folded inside my old bag that I use since I was 18. Five shirt, 2 pants, 7 pairs of bra and underwear and 4 shorts. There is a small basket on the corner of the room with my toiletries.

I turn off the lights and set my black nokia flip phones alarm at 5am since my work starts at 6am. Good thing about old phones they have a long battery life so I only charge it every 3 days.

🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇

-Next day-

My alarm blared at exactly 5am. I rubbed my eyes to remove the remnants of sleep and slowly stand up. I blindly grab my basket of toiletries and walk out to the bathroom.

At this time no one is using it but I need to finish all my business within 10 minutes.

I wear another set of shorts and shirt. My black flats need to be change but I can't be bothered. I am not keen to spend money for shoes. Maybe next month.

I time in at 5:45am and wear my uniform. My task is cleaning the restrooms of floor 10 and 15. Then the rest of my shift is dedicated to clean floor 21 to 24.

I can see my friend Angel. She is on floor 23 HR department. I started to clean the restroom at floor 10. I finish just in time for the break.

I chose a cup of coffee and 2 pieces of cheese croissant. Then I went back to floor 15 to clean their restroom.

The day is fairly okay. The employees gave me a wide berth when I am cleaning so I finish my task early. I am munching on my lunch when I saw him again. His hulking form is accompanied by 2 person a male and a female. They both are struggling to keep up with him.

The 2 person with him is talking at the staff of the cafeteria and he is just staring at the staff. After a few minutes they left but before they goes out of the room that man look at the corner where I am currently eating. Instinctively I hide under the table. Even If I know that he can not see me I still hide from him.

I saw him turns around and completely goes out of the room.

I intentionally clean floor 23 last because I want to catch up with Angel.

As I polish the floor I slowly walk to her work space.

"Hey."

Angel look up and when she saw me she immediately grin.

"Hey Cara." She stand up and hugged me.

Angel is  my only friend here in the company. She has black long hair and eyes. She is wearing black eye glasses and has a button nose.

She always hugged me when I see her. And we sometimes hang out. She's one of the nicest people I encounter in this company.

"How are you Cara? I rarely see you on this floor."

"I know right? I don't know how our manager arrange our schedule. We should hang out when you are free."

"Sure why not? As long as-" she was cut off when an employee shouted.

"Mr. Bradford is going to this floor! Like right now! Arrange all your files!"

It's like there is a pandemonium happening. All at the same time the employees scrambled to fix and organize their desk.

"Mr. Bradford regularly comes to this department so don't be surprise. If I were you Cara pretend that you are cleaning and keep your head down when he arrive."

I nodded and proceeds to clean on the far end of the room.

With bated breath all the employees on this floor is waiting for the elevator to open.

As soon as the private elevator opened the same man came out. He is with the PA on the executive floor. Which means he is Mr. Bradford the CEO. All this time I am staring at the CEO. I am so dumb sometimes.

Just like Angel advise I look down and mind my own business.

The whole time that he is roaming around this floor I did not even hear him talk. His secretary is the one who is questioning the employees.

He doesn't want to talk or he just can not be bothered to do it?

Even if he is not talking he is still intimidating.

They left after an hour and you can hear the simultaneous sigh of the employees when the private elevator closes.

I walk back to Angel's cubicle and saw her looking flustered.

"What happened?"

"Well we have a new task. Instead of quarterly evaluation he wants to do monthly evaluation on all employees. According to his PA there are some complaints from our partners about the performance of other employees and he wants us to revamp the companies policy so we need to pass that also at the end of the week for him to inspect."

"How do you evaluate 10,000 employees? It pretty hard."

"It is just an online form that each manager needs to answer and the department head will evaluates the managers and so on. It is easy but it is just pain in the butt to separate the scores of each employees."

I am not even aware that we are being evaluated quarterly. I bid Angel a good bye and collect my things because it is near the end of my shift.

I went up to the maintenance floor and see my colleagues crowding in front of the bulletin board. I park my cart and walk towards the crowd.

I ask the one in front of me of what is happening and he said our schedules are completely different.

When the crowd thinned out I scan the board to find my name and when I found it I prayed to God that I am reading the wrong name.

Floor assignment for the month of July to December

Cara Rossi - Executive floor.

Some of the staff pat my back and wished me Goodluck.

Good Fucking Luck to me.