A sequel to "A Room With A View"
Jim O'Rourke glanced up from the stack of papers he'd been feeding into the high-powered copier, just in time to catch sight of the smartly dressed young woman who'd just walked into Reproduction. That was one of the few perks of working here at Moore and Ryan, the twenty year old told himself, even if he was only doing so part-time while he went to college. The women you got to meet were in a class he normally didn't find in his native Brooklyn.
Or at least that was what all of his friends told him and for the most part, at least so far, he had to agree. Before any of the other copy drones could spot her, Jim put his assignment on hold and quickly headed for the countertop that separated the small reception area from the larger work one.
"Welcome to the lower depths," Jim smiled, making light of the departments basement location as he brushed a lock of his sandy hair out of his eyes, "what can I do for you this afternoon?"
"Is Mario around?" the twenty-seven year old Hispanic woman asked, a noticeable anxiety in her voice.
"I'm afraid he had to leave early today," the young man replied, trying hard not to be too noticeable as he checked out the attractive woman, "but I'm sure I'll be able to help you."
"I hope so," the black haired woman said, a look of concern on her face as she laid a large stack of folders and loose papers on the counter.
Jim listened attentively as the caramel skinned woman explained that she needed eight hundred copies of the pile of documents in front of her made into a report. Glancing through the material with the professional eye the college student had developed over the last eight months, he quickly decided that would hardly be a problem. With copying and collating, it would only be an hour or two's work at most.
"Even if I needed it before five?" the woman asked, the simple question explaining her predicament.
That, thought Jim, might be a problem. It was no wonder she had wanted to talk to Mario, who was the assistant manager responsible for the Reproduction Department. It was her bad luck to have come in on a day when his daughter had delivered his first grandchild and he was off at the hospital. Not to mention that there were three other projects already in the pipeline, all of them promised for today and none carrying less than the signature of a department head.
"That might be difficult," Jim admitted as he glanced up at the large clock over the door.
"Even if I said my job might depend on it?"
Jim didn't put it into words, but the look that flashed across his face said that he'd heard that one before.
"I know that sounds melodramatic," the woman said, "but it's really true."
She went on to explain that the report had originally been printed two days ago, in plenty of time for a major presentation to the company's stockholder meeting this evening. It was only late last night that she discovered that certain data her group has been responsible for had been reported incorrectly. It had taken her pretty much the entire night to redo the numbers and make all the corrections. Something her boss wasn't going to care about if it wasn't there to be handed out at the meeting.
"I don't know if I can..." Jim started to say, then stopped in mid-sentence as he looked into her face and realized that he'd seen this woman before. Or at least he thought he did.
He paused for a moment more, his face blushing a deep red as a long ago memory resurfaced. A condition evident enough to catch the woman's attention.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
"Maria?'' Jim asked in turn, "Maria Gonzalez?"
"How do you know my name?" she asked, sure that she hadn't given it and the work order with her signature was still in her hand.
"You used to live in an apartment house in Brooklyn, about four years ago," he continued.
"Do we know each other?" Maria asked, her question answering his.
"Jim O'Rourke, I lived just across the hall," he finally explained.
"Jimmy O'Rourke," Maria repeated as she tried to match up the memory of the skinny teenager with the much more developed young man in front of her. "My Goodness, I never would've recognized you."
With the growth spurt that Jim had gone through the year after Maria had moved out of the apartment building, it was easy to see how she wouldn't have made the connection. The opposite, however, was hardly true. With the exception of longer hair, the former waitress looked pretty much the same.
"Well I should've recognized you," Jim said, trying to banish any residual trace of embarrassment. "You look exactly the same."
Maria thanked him for the compliment, her face flashing a smile of appreciation. Her eyes, however, then glanced down at her report, still reflecting her need to get it done quickly.
"Don't worry," Jim said as he picked up on the hint, "it'll be ready in time. I promise, I'll take care of it personally."
A look of relief filled Maria's face as she took Jim's hand with both of hers and thanked him. He said it was nothing, the least he could do for an old neighbor.
Jim stood at the counter and watched Maria exit and disappear around the hallway corner. He then took another minute for his hard-on to go down before getting back to work himself.
"Damn Jimmy," Alex Willis, his best friend on the job asked him as he went back to the twin copiers both of them had been working at. "Why the hell did you promise her that report would be ready in time? We've got enough as it is to keep us busy until quitting time."
"I promised her, that's reason enough," Jim said as he turned his on machine back on and began to feed paper into it. "And I can get it done if I work on it through lunch, especially if you help me."
"You want me to give up my lunch and not get paid for it?" Alex said, his tone showing his reluctance.
"Do I have to count up how many times I covered for you on afternoons when you blew out of here early last summer?" Jim countered, his question putting an end to Alex's reluctance.
