The Bucketlist

04| CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT

5 hours later

It's 3 pm on a sunny day, and I can't wait to get over with work already. As I skim across a two-hundred-something-page manuscript, I realize that editing isn't all that I expected it to be. Surprise, surprise! I had already put up a front to like what I do, and now it seemed that I had to put up the act a little longer (probably till rest of my life). I mindlessly doodled on the sides of the pages, hoping for motivation to strike. But like my imaginary sugar daddy, motivation had vertigo from art.

When I applied for Bexley's, all I had to do was stick my credentials and the rest was done by Mr. Tiffins. I felt guilty in moments like this when I was not happy with what I already had- a well-paying job. Dream job, or not, adulthood just hangs you in a state of existential crisis. Now I had no idea what I was doing there. If books were people, I would always be a non-fic with a dusty jacket, that no one reads. But someday or other, even the worst covers get picked, read, and praised. All I had to do was hang in there till someone comes for me.

It isn't all bad. Some days, I would look back to today and feel proud to be a part of a story that people could connect. That's the true joy in the job, if I am telling the truth. Back in middle school, the first novel I read was 'Saffy's Angel'; I couldn't put it down. Somehow I found myself relating to the little girl who wanted a sense of belonging. Don't we all? Maybe it is my chance to give back what I had taken from the numerous authors and storytellers affordably. 

"Maybe you should have given writing a shot." I recalled what Professor Lime had told me the day I showed him my resume. I suspected him to be lying because the day I almost tried narrating a script at Winter Campfire, everyone dozed off before the climax. Thank God I don't write books. I am a crappy storyteller in voice, in words like-wise. It turned out that I had zero talent with expression. I was good with grammar, quite angst with the commas and periods, and over-obsessed with why and why not we should use ellipsis. That's what got me into Bexley's.

"I need the manuscripts for final editing." The new editor stopped by at my cubicle and that got me started. There was no way for the manuscripts to get done with before evening. I let out a sigh.

Halfway through, I felt I had picked the wrong job. I wasn't scrolling social media like Josh, or bossing around like Amanda. All I did was read these stories, and point out flaws in them like high school bullies point out yours when show up with a bad hair day. 

If I had to hang around a little longer, I had to work it out with things. The little tete-a-tete with Mr. Turner in his office made it quite apparent that he isn't the type who lets people off the hook easily. . 

"Get the work done, Mellon or leave." The words sent shivers down my spine.All he had to say was that he would fire me if I couldn't get back in my element. I would have liked it if Amanda broke the news to me. There are some people whom you expect to break all the bad news in the world. Not the CEO. Especially when he seemed hot and a tiny bit friendly at first?

I heard someone knock that interrupted my self-loathing and asked them to get in.

"Hi, Josh!"

He stood near the teak table, staring at the screen for a while, and then he turned to me. His black blazer was gone. His hair was a bit tousled, and there were faint red marks on his collar. My eyes went wide at the possibilities.

"I was wondering if you wanted to grab a late lunch together cause I think I can get us out for a while. You have been holed up here since your talk with Tyranny Turner."

He said.

I gaped at him. Tyranny Turner was Will Turner? Made sense. Yes, he is hot. Handsome. Heartless. He fits the description, though not all tyranny-s are hot. I mean, look at Hitler. He was not too tall, had no good fashion sense, and all he was obsessed with was wiping off a race and tattooing a symbol on other people's heads. Maybe Tyranny wasn't quite the word for Mr.Turner. But, Josh and I had decided on it, so it must have a slight context.