I frowned and probably revealed some contempt, then moved my eyes towards Singer who was eyeing him with her upper lip lifted in disgust.

She cleared her throat and then gave me a tight yet polite smile. "How can I help you, Investigator Loren?"

I glanced back at Garcia who was leaning back in his chair with a calm expression and typing speedily on his work communicator.

Singer glared, then kicked his chair. "Would you please be more professional?"

Garcia glanced at her with a jutted-out lip and narrowed eyes as he put his communicator away, then sat in his chair properly. "Investigator Loren, you look great in casual clothes."

"Unfortunately, I was just born this way," I replied dismissively, then turned back to Singer. "Is Secretary Grey in his office?"

From my periphery, I could see Garcia frown with a tilted head and rapid blinks, like I had said something perplexing.

Singer gazed at me silently for a few seconds then looked down at her computer. "Possibly. He may be with CEO Finn. Shall I call him?"

I nodded once. "That sounds appropriate."

Garcia glanced between me and Singer repeatedly.

Singer picked up an earpiece and situated it on her ear. "Investigator Loren is here and would like to see you."

A figure was coming from the opposite end of the hallway and I looked over to see the other secretarial staff Yong and Justice.

"Good morning," I greeted.

They greeted me with smiles.

Singer questioned into her earpiece, "Secretary Grey?"

"Are you here to see Secretary Grey?" Yong asked, eyeing my clothes. "But isn't it your rest day?"

"Hm, not exa—"

Garcia interrupted, standing up. "You should've seen the way he came in. He was like a runway model, all like—" Garcia used his hands to imitate opening elevator doors then put his hands in his trouser pockets and thrust his jaw forward, glowering.

Justice snorted and whined, "Garcia, no."

Garcia began brusquely strutting behind the desk, like a crosslegged ostrich trying to stomp out a line of stubborn cockroaches, straight towards Yong,

Yong cackled, cowering. "Hahaha, what is that!?"

"I was really just walking normally..." I muttered at the same time. It was a bizarre exaggeration I couldn't help but take slight offense to.

Singer rolled her eyes. "Garcia, you're being so drama—"

Yong's face fell, his laughter stopped, and he shot up straight at the same time Singer's speaking cut off.

Justice's head was pressed so close to an e-file, there was no way she was actually reading.

I glanced at Secretary Grey who had just arrived as he stared coldly at Garcia. Garcia's back was to him and he was the only one who hadn't noticed his supervisor's presence.

"Garcia," Secretary Grey's cold voice demanded. "What are you doing?"

Garcia froze, straightened up, then turned around and bowed. "My apologies, sir."

"Is this a college party?"

"No sir."

"A comedy show?"

"No sir."

There was a pause as Secretary Grey continued to stare, glare gone and replaced with a tired frown. "Sit down."

Garcia scrambled to his seat.

"You're a CenUMR Administrative Secretary. Act like it."

I scratched my cheek, deciding to divert Secretary Grey's attention and shift the awkward atmosphere. "Um, Secretary Grey. I was already here getting my transfer finalized with HR." I tapped the comm below my collarbone, noticing how Secretary Grey refused to look at me.

"And?"

I watched him. His grey suit was untailored, his shoulders were slightly drawn towards his chest, and his body was half turned away. His black glasses were high on his low bridge nose, and—for the first time—I was close enough and in bright enough lighting to notice that his black lashes were short, straight, and dense.

Tilting my head, I watched for a moment longer, and then I asked gently, "Can you look at me?"

As if someone had let off a firecracker, he jumped and began blinking rapidly. His shoulders were just about to his ears while his back remained arched yet rigid. He was clearly panicking which made me panic and freeze, until I noticed Singer waving from behind the desk.

Singer, Justice, and Yong were frantic, pointing to their mouths, either smiling or mouthing 'smile' at me. I suddenly recalled their cryptic chat messages yesterday about 'Roses will bloom.'

So, I looked at Secretary Grey and smiled.

The elevator door opened and my attention was pulled to Chandra, whose face I recognized from the chat app profiles. Xe was holding a tote of takeout drinks from 'Reality Cafe.' Seeing me, xe gasped.

"Investigator Loren!" Then xe spotted xer supervisor and bowed. "Good morning, Secretary Grey. Here's your drink." Reaching for one of the drinks in the tote, the only with whipped cream and sprinkles, xe recited, "Chocolate chip frocoa with vanilla oat milk, 2 pumps of hazelnut syrup, caramel and chocolate drizzle, chocolate sprinkles and coconut whip, right?"

Secretary Grey gave a silent nod and took the drink. "Thank you." He tried to open his straw from its wrapper with one hand by pounding it on his arm holding the drink, but the straw only bent.

Seeing an opportunity to show goodwill towards my new mentor and teammate, I took the straw out of his hand, tore most of its paper wrapper off from the bottom, then slid it into his drink.

Blinking, Secretary Grey stared at it then his eyes darted around behind his glasses as he made a concerted effort to look at my face which I made sure was smiling.

Our eyes met briefly. I took in that area of green in his iris again. Abruptly, he yanked the remaining paper from the exposed tip of the straw, his gaze and body turning away again.

"What do you want?" he demanded then shoved the straw in his mouth.

Insufferable.

Insufferable. Insufferable. Insufferable.

I dropped my smile and clenched my teeth, then returned to my expressionless, serious work face. "Since I finished with HR and I'm already here, I was hoping we could do the RRR tour."

He snorted and rolled his eyes. "I'm busy," he said, mouth still on the straw. Then he turned and walked off before I could ask anything more about his schedule.

I turned my frosty eyes to the three secretaries who'd acted like smiling would do something.

Their mouths were agape. Singer pointed to her communicator, then they all sat down and began typing furiously at their computers and comms.

I boarded the elevator, pressed the bottom floor, and then opened the hologram projection of my new comm. I set the size to handheld mode and turned on the privacy screen filter.

Then something hit me. What if the communicator was bugged by the suspicious-as-hell CEO?

I quickly hit floor 7 on the elevator, but it was too late, so I ended up having to take a trip to the bottom floor first. A couple of people in suits boarded, glancing me up and down with Reality Cafe cups in their hands.

"Which floor?" I questioned.

"Six," one said.

Hearing this, I turned and bowed. "Good morning, I'm Investigator Loren. I'll be joining the RRR Department along with my teammate, Secretary Grey."

The two stared at me with void expressions then looked at each other then back at me, then at each other again.

"That's a shame," said one, facing forward.

"My condolences," said the other, also facing forward.

"Could you push the button?" added the first.

I pushed the 6 button and clasped my hands in front of me, thinking everyone's behavior was odd in this building. No, the weirdness came at more specific contexts than that.

I sucked in air through my teeth, putting on a thoughtful expression. "You must know Secretary Grey then?"

At my question, the two simultaneously expelled air through their teeth.

The elevator reached the sixth floor and they disembarked like I was wielding a blow torch. One even sneakily pressed the Close Doors button on the way out. "We'll see you when we see you," they called through the closing doors with nothing but a friendly countenance.

It was utterly perplexing. If everyone was going to act odd and secretive, I could only attack Secretary Grey with full force and strip him of his insufferable walls until the truth was laid bare. Ah, or maybe the secretaries would finally reveal more in the chat.

The HR staff from before was surprised to see me when I stepped back into the office.

I didn't bother with greetings. "You said this communicator was all ready to go, correct? What's the process for preparing a communicator for a fieldworker?"

The staff blinked, clearly confused by my question, but still opened their mouth to answer. "There's a stash in baggies. We take one, label 'er with the employee's ID, send it to Tech for updates and personalization, get it back from Tech, dump it on a tray, and give it to the employee." They gave a sideways stretched smile with pursed lips.

"Why do you store them here if Tech manages the software."

They stared, smile stretching more horizontal. "Because anybody can walk into Tech but not just anybody can walk into HR within Upper Division."

"Ah, I see. Thank you." I started to leave before remembering another useful question. "If I'm about to choke, and I have to take it off, what will happen?"

The smile was gone. "They do say people with astounding looks have astounding eccentricities..." They shook their head. "If you're about to choke and take it off, nobody will know unless you choke to death."

The last three words' consonants were shoved out in a way that gave me goosebumps, so I opted for ending my queries there. "Thank you," I squeezed out with a smile that I could physically feel was bordering a wince as I opened the door to exit.