Wild Iron Hearts

Chapter Two

Hali tried to play with the settings yet again on the extension to make the light on the screen warmer. Everyone kept telling them it would help with their sleep problems and they were just tired enough to try and believe them. Of course only having about two minutes to play with it and hope it was right before the shift started and nonstop calls and texts dominated their life didn't give a lot of room for trial and error. The contact center paid better than the coffee shop but was even worse for their soul, they were pretty sure.

Taking full stock of the day, it had been a pretty dismal failure. They were sore, tired, hungry, with a splitting headache and Andre was sulking with them. Even Lyco, their cat was starting to judge them. It was not exactly the best headspace to be in when the job required projecting empathy - real or otherwise - towards customers who were using a service built to help make them lazy.

The company had just won an award for how nice and inviting the office was. But that was just for people who mattered, Hali realized. Their part time customer support team was kept off in a separate building where they couldn't get in the way of the grownups. They set their half full water bottle on the desk and proceeded to clock in.

The process of opening a dozen tabs across the two monitors and to get their workplace just right was an oddly satisfying one. It also meant they got to put their headphones on to not hear the way Clifford beside them chewed his daily journey of inconsiderate office food. He had decent foodie cred, or at least so it seemed from how he talked, but the things he would microwave at the office were enough to bring tears to his neighbors' eyes. Today it seemed to be a bit of brussel sprouts with something on top. Even from a glance, it was easy to tell he was audibly chewing each bite of the odiferous meal.

Hali was all set to begin, pulling up the first ticket in their CRM tool. An eyeroll wrote quickly over their face. It was going to be one of those days.

They began opening up the customer's account info while amusing themselves by typing the message they wanted to send in the internal notes. The sort of message that everyone who has worked in customer facing jobs has wanted to deliver at some point in their life. Dear jackass. If you start your message to us telling us we suck and you'll never use our company again, it takes a special kind of chutzpah to then also expect me to give you something. Kindly remove your head from your bottom and...

Hali's eyes blinked. It sent - it sent to the person on the far end and they didn't even put it in the right field. That shouldn't be possible. A sinking feeling ran through their stomach and even though it was empty was filling them with the urge to run and purge. They tried to lower in their chair, hide behind the screens. They tried to disappear.

And then they remembered that things going wrong did not instantly set off an alarm for the floor lead. They could walk this back maybe. Explain that this was meant for someone else before they said they wanted to speak to a... no, the chirp in their headphones said that was too late as a wall of angry all caps text filled the screen. Well it was a good gig while it lasted.

They transferred the conversation to their supervisor and decided it was time to hit the break room. If they were about to be fired for massively insulting a customer, they may as well get some burnt coffee and the mandatory workplace La Croix before they were out the door. It wasn't the most mature way of handling the issue but six weeks of fitful sleep was taking its toll on them. They were sure they had been typing in the right spot and they knew they hadn't hit send. None of this should have happened.

Hali thought about the conversation with Andre, about luck and warding and went to reach for their hamsa pendant, only to find it missing again. Where have you gotten to now? This is all your fault. Even as they thought it, it brought a chuckle. They were having conversations with an item that wasn't even with them.

They drowned their concern that they had not been sleeping enough with a sip of the slightly better than lukewarm coffee. The chipped office mug had once had some no doubt wryly cheery saying that has long since faded with too many washes. And in the black surface was reflected a pair of eyes looked up at the person who was setting the cup aside to crack open the sparkling water instead.

"Hali?" A slightly elevated voice came a few minutes later. Jessie was the night shift lead, she'd been an aspiring actress and dancer once upon a time. Now she was just the cautionary tale that the other people here to make money on their first or second job saw as a grim specter of a dead end future.

Hali held up a hand and waved off their supervisor for a moment before engaging into their spiel. "It doesn't matter that it wasn't going to be sent. It was a stupid thing to write. And I should know better. But in my defense, it isn't like he was going to use the service anymore anyway."

Jessie frowned a little and tilted her head. "You aren't wearing any makeup today. You've got bags under your eyes. You okay?"

The concern probably wasn't fake but something about her voice made it all come out just a little too saccharine for Hali to take seriously. The makeup concern raised the hairs on the back of their neck. But it wasn't the time to launch into frustration about having to wear the makeup most day to keep from being misgendered because they were too 'boyish' naturally. It was part of their life and blowing up at the little pixie of a lead wasn't going to change it. It took a minute to swallow it down. "Two jobs is a lot of time and then I try and really have it all by sometimes seeing other people. I know. It is super selfish of me to be more than a cog."

Jessie blinked a little, as Hali realized they hadn't filtered the resentment down as well as they wanted. The woman didn't seem to know how to deal with a less dressed up truth and it took a moment to find the right words leading to the third awkward silence so far by Hali's count. "I was able to talk the customer down without it having to get escalated any further. Since it won't go to Jack's desk then we can leave this as just a conversation. But I think you should go home. I'm not really sure you want to be here."

"It is a call center, who the hell do you think wants to be here?" Hali slammed a hand down on the table louder than intended. The coffee spluttered out over their hand but was cool enough to not hurt. Not with the coffee slinging gig they worked opposite here at least. "Its too late to catch a decent bus anyway," they said as they tried to calm down. "Can I please stay the rest of the shift? I don't wanna walk home. There's a storm coming."

Jessie frowned, but she almost always buckled under any serious resistance. She thought she had heard thunder when the table moved anyway. Hali tilted their head, "I'll even do calls all night to make up for it. You can double my phone hours. Play the hero to someone else."

The coffee dripped slowly off the table, each drop spreading like a bit of tar over the tiles as Hali and Jessie headed back to the floor wordlesly. By the fourth drop, the light of the breakroom flickered. The shadows danced and the coffee cup was gone.