What a Day!

"What the heck! How did those get there?" Josh exclaimed. He put down the papers he was holding and went to Mandy's desk.

"I have absolutely no idea," Mandy said as she shook her head in disbelief. "Somebody definitely put them there." She joined Josh.

Mandy picked up the papers on her desk and read them. She wanted to make sure they were the missing documents.

"Yup. These are the documents, alright," she said as she looked at Josh. "I wonder who put them here." She said softly as she looked around the room. There was nobody there.

"Somebody's playing tricks on me," Mandy said to herself. "Somebody hid these and waited for me to get out of the room to put them back. The question is - WHO?"

"Who cares?" Josh said loudly. Mandy looked at him, surprised. It was as if Josh read her mind. "The important thing is — there are HERE. They are not lost. And you can tell Jane and Maia that you found them already and you'll be off the hook!" Josh patted Mandy on the back, the way a person would if somebody accomplished something difficult.

Mandy was deep in thought. She's sure somebody is trying to get her in trouble.

"Hey, you guys! Where have you been?" Carla's bursting voice jolted Mandy back to reality.

"Amanda found the documents!" Josh said, not answering Carla's question.

"You did? That's great! Hey, Jane, Amanda found your documents!" Jane came up, carrying a paper bag.

"Good," Jane said as she put down the paper bag on her desk. "Are those complete?" Jane asked Mandy.

"I believe so. You can check them to see if they are, before I start doing them again."

Jane went over to Mandy and checked the documents. She looked at each one carefully, making sure they were the missing papers.

"Yeah, these are the ones I gave you," Jane said as she handed the papers back to Mandy. "Please make sure you don't lose them again."

"But I didn't lose them. Somebody TOOK them," Mandy whispered to herself.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said sure thing. I promise to take care of them." Mandy smiled as Jane turned to go to her own desk.

"I sure promise I'll be careful around you people." She said to herself. She went to her chair and began sorting the documents again. Suddenly, she realized Maia and Rae were not back yet.

"Where's Rae?"

"I have no idea. That girl just disappears and reappears whenever she wants." Carla laughed as she said the words. "Maybe she's with Maia."

Just then, the door opened. It was Maia.

"Hi, guys! Did I miss anything?" Maia said. Her face flushed.

"Amanda found the documents," Carla said excitedly as if she had been bursting to tell somebody the news.

Mandy smiled at Maia.

"That's definitely good news! Please don't let it happen again," she said to Mandy.

Mandy smiled as she raised her right hand, making the "promise" sign.

"Good." Maia walked to her desk.

"So, where have you been? You look flushed." Mandy couldn't help herself.

Maia was surprised with the question. Nobody has ever asked her where she'd been. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look up at Maia.

"Just went out to buy something," Maia answered as she looked at Mandy. She started to walk to her desk again.

"Must be something really important." Mandy smiled, taking a mental note that Maia wasn't carrying anything when she came in.

Maia stopped for a second as she heard Mandy's last statement. She opened her mouth to say something but decided against it so she quickly closed her mouth and just ignored Mandy's comment.

Everyone went back to work. It was quiet and everyone was busy trying to finish everything by 5 o'clock.

After a few minutes, Rae finally comes in. She went straight to her desk without saying a word to anyone.

"Where have you been?" Maia beat Mandy to the question. She didn't even notice Maia had gotten up from her desk.

"Josephine asked me to do an errand." She answered, not even looking up to Maia.

"Why you?"

"Because she couldn't find Josh."

"Why? Where were you Josh?" This time is was Josh's turn to be interrogated.

"I was with Mandy." Jane looked up from her work when she heard Josh's reply.

"I asked him to come with me to look for the documents," Mandy said, not even waiting to be asked by Maia.

"Where exactly did you two go?"

"Outside to where Josh disposed the boxes that were supposed to be for Lee. I just thought the documents might be there so I asked Josh to show me where he put the boxes." Mandy explained, hoping there won't be anymore questions about it.

"Alright then. Could you people please stop going around all the time? Josephine might say we don't have enough work load here that's why we keep disappearing. And I don't want any additional work!" Maia went back to her desk, dialed the phone and started talking with somebody. Mandy could hear her voice but couldn't understand what she was saying. She looked at the clock. It was almost 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

. . .

It was 10 minutes past 6PM. The office room was already empty. Maia had to go home early for a dental appointment. Carla and Jane also went home. Rae just got out and Josh is nowhere to be found. Mandy hadn't seen Josh since after they found the documents. Mandy looked at her watch. She recon she'll be finished by 7 o'clock. Jane had told her to finish sorting the files that were supposed to be done that day had it not gone missing. Mandy was exhausted. She was also hungry which made it more difficult to concentrate. The room's lighting had gone dim. Only the lights directly above her desk and the ones near the door were lit. Most of the employees from the other departments had also gone home. Mandy felt lonely. She felt a chill done her spine. Her overactive imagination began working.

"No. There are no ghosts here." She said to herself. Then she remembered the documents that went missing and then was found sitting on her desk.

"NO. THERE ARE NO GHOSTS HERE." She repeated, this time louder, to comfort herself.

She continued working, faster this time. She wanted to get out of that place. Suddenly, the door slowly opened.

"Hungry?" It was Josh.

Mandy was glad to see someone.

"I thought you'd gone home already?" Mandy asked Josh who was pulling a nearby chair towards Mandy's desk.

"Technically, I did - I punched out already. So I am not working anymore," he smiled as he said it. "But I saw Rae going out and she told me you're still here so…" Josh pulls out a brown paper bag and two cans of sodas from his back.

"What are those for?" Mandy asked though she already had an idea what they were for.

"I hope you eat burgers." Josh took out two burgers.

"Of course I do." That was half true. Mandy eats burgers but not any burger. She has a particular liking to only one burger joint. But she was so hungry she couldn't care less where the burger came from.

"Good. Here's one for each of us." He also took out fries.

"Josh, you didn't have to. That's two I owe you now."

"Two?" Josh was confused.

"One - the coffee earlier. Two - this burger."

"Ah yes, but who's counting?" Josh smiled. Mandy saw how genuine the smile was.

"I am," Mandy said, returning the smile. "I have to finish these first, though." She glanced at the papers. "Jane will kill me tomorrow if I don't get these done tonight."

"Don't worry, I'll help you. For now, let's eat. I'm so hungry and I won't eat until you eat." He handed the burger to Mandy.

Mandy took the burger, opened the packaging and took a bite.

"This burger's good!" Mandy said, her mouth full.

"You must be really hungry to say that burger is good. I just bought them from the cafeteria." Josh said as he took a bite of his burger.

"Hey, it is good!" Josh laughed. "Maybe they change chefs at night." He took another bite.

Mandy finished her burger fast. She opened her soda and took a long sip.

"I haven't realized how thirsty I was. Come to think of it, it was during lunch when I had my last drink of any fluid." Mandy said as she fished out the fries from the paper bag.

"I can have these, right?" She asked Josh after noticing he was watching her.

"Sure, you can have those."

"Thanks!" Mandy munched on the fries.

Josh kept watching her eat. It made Mandy uncomfortable.

"What is it?" She asked between bites.

"Nothing. It's just… I've never seen anyone gobble up a burger AND fries that fast." He smiled again.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Mandy said and then took another sip of her soda.

Josh laughed.

Mandy looked at her watch again. It was 15 minutes to 7PM.

"Okay, I need to get back to work. Thanks for dinner." Mandy started to clear the table of food and packagings but Josh stood up.

"I'll take care of those. You get back to work."

"Oh no, please," Mandy protested. "Let me. You've already done so much today."

"Don't worry about it. Just get back to work — or you'll be sleeping here." Josh was so insistent that Mandy let him. She went back to sorting the files.

After Josh cleared the table, he went back to help Mandy finish the work.

Mandy looked at Josh from under her lashes. He looked so handsome under the dim lighting. His face captured the light and his features were highlighted.

"Stop looking at me or you'll never finish." Josh said without looking at Mandy.

Mandy felt guilty. "I wasn't looking at you! I'm working!"

Josh chuckled. "If you say so."

Mandy smiled. There's something about him that made her feel relaxed. And for some reason, she trusted him.