The Spectator

Chapter 2: Shakespeare's Dick Jokes

     "What?" Nate asked, moving around Dan's desk to peer at the book.

     Dan pointed:

Chiron: Thou hast undone our mother.

Aaron: Villain, I have done thy mother.

     Dan and Nate looked at each other. Nate burst out laughing.

     "I guess I owe her 20 bucks..." Dan said quietly.

     "And a job, Humphrey! Unless you hated her."

     "Hate is a strong word... She annoys me."

     "Does she annoy you because she's incompetent... or because she knows more of Shakespeare's dick jokes than you do?"

     "The latter," Dan sighed. "I interviewed her for... Christ, two hours, and despite having terrible taste, she's read all the cornerstones and has fantastic commentary on all of it. And her references love her. Like, legitimately think of her as a daughter."

     "Might mean they're biased about her," Nate played devil's advocate.

     "Or she did a great job for them," Dan argued back. Nate smiled. If Dan was convinced, they could give Ella a call tomorrow.

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     When Ella received the call, she was bouncing off the walls ecstatic— an energy she brought with her on her first day on the job. She knew this annoyed the hell out of Dan but harbored hope that she was simultaneously charming him.

     "See, this is not making me feel better about hiring you!" He admonished her when she started spinning around in her new desk chair. The cubicle was about five square feet, but Ella didn't care-- she had a job at an actual newspaper with her own desk and her own chair and--

     "And work," Dan reminded her, dropping papers on her desk. "These are a list of articles with sources that need to be verified-- you're going to go to the scanner and send a copy of our release forms to the emails specified on this list--."

     He handed her a packet of emails with names and other information. Sobering a little, she nodded. She'd done this for the Washington Square before she'd worked her way up to Editor in Chief. With a little hop in her step, she made her way to the printers. She was going to get this done so quickly Dan would have no choice but to be impressed.

     Once this task was finished she was given some copy to look over and edit-- but only a couple before she was sent back to the printers.

     "You just got it done so quickly this morning," Dan explained, with a pointed look at the other intern who, apparently, had all the speed of an arthritic elephant when assigned the same task.

     She realized he had a good reason to be pissed. After all, it turned out that his whole section was littered with newbies. And his assistant? God awful. He seemed almost new himself, like he'd been given the position recently. Taking all of this into consideration, thus, she did not sigh resignedly as she took the documents from him and went on her way to the printer room

     Nate, exiting his office, almost bumped into her on her trek past his door. Already wobbling under the huge stack of papers because of the near miss, a few papers slid off the top to the ground. She froze and closed her eyes.

     "We really need to stop meeting like this," he chuckled apologetically, taking in the frenetic energy rolling off of her and the harried expression on her face with some amusement. She opened her tightly shut eyes.