Connie stood in front of the reception, summoning all of her confidence. A nice looking lady with red hair smiled at her.
"Hello, welcome to Dunder Mifflin Scranton, what can I do for you?" the lady asked. She somehow kept smiling with every word.
Connie smiled back weakly.
"Hi, I'm Connie Maheswaran here to do the PDA presentations and evaluations."
"Oh okay! My name is Erin, I can tell you the things you need to know. But actually, before I do that I should probably tell Michael that you're here," the lady said, still smiling.
She pressed a button on the reception phone and a ringing sound came from a room next to the door through which Connie and Steven had entered the office. There were blinds on the glass walls of the room, however the fact that these blinds were open meant that the two could clearly see a man sitting, and sleeping at his desk. When Erin realised that the ringing phone on the very desk he was sleeping on would not wake the man up, she just smiled tiredly at Connie.
Erin then made her way over to the door to the glass office and knocked very loudly. This startled Michael enough for him to move slightly in his sleep. Which in turn caused him to fall off of the desk.
Which woke him up.
"Uh sorry to wake you Michael, but the PDA talking person is here," Erin announced, quietly, to Michael.
She was still smiling.
Michael eventually strutted out of his office, and held out a hand each for Steven and Connie to shake. The two looked at each other in slight confusion before doing so.
"I am Michael Scott, regional manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton," Michael announced. He applauded himself and looked at Steven and Connie as if they were also meant to clap. When they had finished, Connie cleared her throat.
"My name is Connie Maheswaran, and the is my... colleague Mr. Steven Universe. We are here to-" Connie was rudely interrupted by a red haired woman at the back of the office.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY HIS NAME WAS?" Yelled the woman.
"Nice- I didn't hear a word any of 'em said either," a very old-looking man whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear. The red-haired woman who had shouted the question gave him a confused look, before turning back to the people at reception.
Steven stepped forward slightly, still grasping Connie's hand tightly.
"My name is Steven Universe," he said, almost proudly. He then stepped backwards again as the entire office stared at him.
Meredith, the red-haired woman who had spoken up before, looked almost as if she was about to question this statement, but decided against doing so when she received a look from Connie. Connie decided to continue with what she had planned to say.
"As I was saying, we are here to evaluate this branch on PDA, and also to give some presentations about why PDA is acceptable in a working environment."
When Connie had finished her short speech, she looked around the room as if expecting someone to dispute this.
When no one said anything, Connie spoke again.
"We will need some basic information for the evaluation bit- but would it be possible to conduct an interview with all of your employees?"
Connie glanced at Michael as she said the last part. He gave her a thumbs up, and gave Connie a list.
"Everyone who works in this office, all sixteen of us!" He said with a smile.
Connie was about to comment on the fact that she had been informed of seventeen people working in this office, when a sad-looking man entered the room from the other end of the office.
Michael groaned. He said "Toby no" and went over to push the sad-looking Toby out the door. Toby muttered something indistinguishable before letting Michael force his departure.
Connie blinked. This looked like it was about to be a long day.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Connie and Steven had been given the conference room to conduct the interviews. Connie needed to find out about everyone's relationships with everyone else which was turning out to be a tedious task.
The two had both learned the names of just about everyone in the office.
These were some... interesting characters, even by Beach City standards.
They had yet to interview every single person, but they were getting there. Only three to go: Dwight, Jim and Andy.
After that would be their time for lunch which would be followed by Connie's first presentation.
Steven stood in the doorway and politely asked for Dwight to enter for his turn. Steven then watched as Dwight put three ninja shurikens in the leather pockets hidden on his belt. Steven thought about stopping him, but figured that he could hold his own in a fight against a strange man and his ninja stars.
Steven sat back down in a chair beside Connie as Dwight came through the door to the conference room. The blinds on the windows that took up an entire wall of the room had not been drawn, as there seemed to be some shady characters in this workplace. The second shadiest- the shadiest by far being an old, old man named Creed- was now in the room with them and was eyeing them suspiciously. Connie was glad they had left the blinds open.
Dwight sat down opposite Steven and Connie. He nodded at them, as if telling them that he was willing to listen for a short amount of time.
Connie cleared her throat. "Right," she began "Let's get down to business. We are just here to find out your relationships in this office. We would also prefer to know about past relationships, but we understand if you are unable to speak about some things but please tell us as much as you can.
Dwight narrowed his eyes at the pair sitting across from him.
"Alright."
Connie handed Steven a pair of earplugs.
"Why-"
"Don't let anyone corrupt your innocent brain Steven."
Steven put in the earplugs.
Connie listened to what Dwight said, wrote it down, and was very glad of her decision to protect her boyfriend from these words.
When Dwight was finished speaking, he slid a piece of paper with a list of names on it across the table. Connie picked it up and glanced at the names on the list, almost everyone in the office. She looked back up at Dwight in confusion as Steven read the list over her shoulder.
Dwight gave a tight smile. "A list of everyone who has done it in the office."
It took a moment for Connie to realise what the man said, but when she did she turned red and folded up the paper. She put the paper in her bag and ushered Dwight out the door. She had many things from that man and intended to avoid him at all costs.
She motioned for Steven to take out his earplugs, and he did so. Connie sighed, then smiled at him.
"Can you call..." Connie checked her list "Jim Halpert?"
Steven winked at her and gave her thumbs up and smile.
Steven stood in the doorway again.
"Can we have Jim in here please," he asked cheerfully.
^^^^^^^
Connie eventually had information about everyone. She had heard... strange things. She had also seen pictures of a cute baby called Cece. She had spent about ten minutes watching Steven cooing and awwing. Connie had found his adoration adorable, and so had let him get it out of his system.
If she was being perfectly honest, Connie thought that there was very few people in the office seemed to be in a healthy relationship, but she did not want to dwell on that.
Her and Steven were now on their well-earned lunch break. They had brought a classic jam bud picnic, consisting of strawberry jam, biscuits and a carton of durian juice for each of them.
They had decided to have their picnic on the bench at the back of the building, where no one was likely to bother them.
There was a large amount of jam and biscuits, as this was to be their only meal between breakfast and the meal they planned to have at some sort of diner or restaurant on their way to their hotel.
Steven laid out the picnic, Connie took out two cartons of durian juice and the two of them sat down to eat.
"This is nice," Connie sighed, beaming at her jam-bud. She rested her head on his shoulder, and Steven left a kiss on her forehead.
"We really have to do picnics more often," he said, running a hand through her hair "And really, just meeting at the weekend isn't that much, I miss my strawberry."
He shifted his position until he had one arm around Connie's waist, and with the other he reached for a biscuit. Connie sat up slightly, a hand also reaching for a biscuit.
They both had a biscuit, humming at the sweet taste. "Almost as sweet as you," Connie said, giggling. Steven kissed her on the nose, then put a blob of jam on her nose, laughing at her resulting pout.
Connie wrapped her arms around his neck, nuzzling her face into his shoulder.
"I love you so, so much," she mumbled into his shoulder.
"I love you too," Steven responded, resting his chin on her head.
The two of them stayed like that until their lunch break ended.
^^^^^^
Pam was the office administrator. This meant that it was her job to take the old light fixture out to the bin behind the building. She had made her way over to the back of the building in time to watch the beginning of the jam-bud picnic. And she found it adorable.
Once she had put the light fixture in the large skip, she quickly made her way back up to the office and hoped she had not disturbed the two during their moment.
Once she was back in the office, she made her way over to Jim's desk.
"You'll never guess what I just saw," she exclaimed quietly "You know the ones who came for those PDA interview things?"
Jim nodded .
"They were cuddling and having a little picnic outside! It was adorable!"
Jim looked at the camera exasperatedly. "You know you ship people too much."
"You know you love it."
"That is very fair."
Dwight looked up from his desk suddenly, looking a lot like a meerkat.
"Would you say that they were partaking in Public Displays of Affection?" Dwight questioned suspiciously.
Pam and Jim looked at each other.
"Noooo......" Pam said carefully.
Dwight looked content with this, and went back to working.
^^^^^^^^
After the lunch break, it was time for Connie to give her first presentation.
It was not going to be a big presentation today, they would only be breaching basic things. But Connie was still nervous. Her Public Speaking teacher would be seeing a recording of the presentations, and Steven had been given the task of giving a report on her performance.
Not only that, but these were grown people. And not the free-spirited Beach City citizens that Steven and Connie were used to from their childhood.
All of the employees gathered in the conference room, sitting down in the chairs that had been set up facing Connie, who stood next to a projector at the front of the room.
Everyone in the room looked at her expectantly.
Connie looked at Steven, who mimed breathing deeply. Together they took a deep breath in. Then Connie began.
"So, as I said this morning, I am here to give you a presentation on PDA in the workplace. From what I gathered from my interviews with all of you, this office is not completely sure of what they should be doing in regards of Public Displays of Affection.
That or most of you could not care less. But there are consequences, which we will be going over tomorrow. Corporate recently updated their policies on PDA, so I do not blame you all for not knowing exactly what you should be doing. That is why I'm here to be fair. Anyway let's begin the presentation that I have here."
^^^^^^
The presentation was...not a complete disaster. Steven's innocence had remained mostly uncorrupted, only breached slightly by Kevin's questions after the presentation. That was the one part that had not gone so well. The questions.
^^^^^^
"So now that have finished the presentation, does anyone have any questions?"
Immediately Dwight raised his hand. Connie pointed at him.
"What is your relationship with that guy?"
Connie went slightly red at that point, before tilting her chin up.
Steven had turned very human shade of pink.
Connie replied with a curt "I'm afraid that is none of your business."
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH," cried Michael "Buuurrrrnnnn Dwight."
Dwight scowled.
Steven stared at Connie with stars in his eyes.
"Any other questions?" Connie asked hopefully.
A few hands went up around the room.
Connie pointed at Andy.
"How old are you both?"
"I am sixteen years old, and he is seventeen. But that is irrelevant. More questions."
She then pointed at Kevin.
"Is touching the butt allowed?"
"No Kevin, it is not."
"What about the boobs?"
"No Kevin."
"Okay, okay, I have a different question..."
"What is it?"
"Do you two fu-"
"OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH QUESTIONS, I THINK YOU ALL GET THE GIST- YOU CAN GO BACK TO WORK NOW."
Connie practically glowed red, and Steven was very confused.
As the employees of the office filed out of the room, Steven aisles up near Connie, and tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around, still red faced, he asked:
"What does that mean? You went all red."
Connie blushed harder. As she walked past them, Angela said "Good innocent child," which almost seemed to offend Steven.
Once everyone had left the room, Connie took hold of Steven's hand. "I think you need to ask your Dad the next time you ring him on the phone," she said gently. She smiled at him softly, a red tint still in her cheeks. Steven's cheeks mirrored her own, and the two went back to work.
^^^^^^^^^
The only work left for Connie to do was to see if the employees listened to the first presentation. Armed with a clipboard and pen, she had to write down any breaches of the rules on PDA.
Luckily, there was only about half an hour left in the work day, so no one acted up during that time. Connie only needed to report one incident, that involved Kelly and Ryan. Connie really was not sure if those two actually cared about each other or not, but it was none of her business and she did not intend on dwelling on this.
Connie and Steven finally got to head out for their meal, because really, some biscuits and jam are not enough lunch.
They had seen an advertisement for a place called Alfredo's Pizza Café on the drive to the Dunder Mifflin office, and had decided to have some pizza there after work.
At five o'clock, the two had piled into the Dondai, turned up the radio and driven there. They had arrived there to find that there was no fish pizza, and were disappointed by that. But then they tasted the pizza, they felt better after that. Afterwards they went the nearest shopping centre for Scranton souvenirs.
They arrived back at their hotel room with two keychains and a mug, all of which had the words "Scranton: The Electric City" emblazoned on them.
It was getting late, and they would be awakening early the next morning for another day of work, so the two decided to turn in for the night.
Connie had explained to Steven that her mother had specifically said: "You will get a room with two beds young lady."
Luckily Connie knew how to find loopholes. They had bought a room with two beds, and had the receipt to prove it. They had also chosen a hotel that did not have a no-pet policy. Lion had been called, and had appeared, and so one of the beds was taken up just like that. Connie and Steven were free to cuddle, and no one could stop them. Not even Dr Priyanka Maheswaran herself.
(Well, technically she could, but she wasn't going to bother driving that far)
Soon the two had changed into their pajamas, brushed their teeth and gotten into bed. Steven immediately wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her shoulders and the back of her head. Connie smiled softly at his affectionate manner and leaned into his touch.
She turned around to face him and grinned. Steven ran his hands through her hair and sighed happily. He pulled Connie closer to him and kissed her softly, before nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck. She smiled again and cuddled closer to him. They fell asleep curled up like this, Lion watching over them protectively from the other bed.
~~~
So yeah, thanks for reading and please vote for this chapter if you liked the story!
Emojimonty