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The rubbery bottom of Maureen’s left shoe was coming off.
This did not please her. These particular shoes were Maureen’s favorite pair of combat boots, and she was attached to them. She’d had them for years, a constant, reliable presence in the unpredictability of life in Night Vale. But now, with every step, she could feel the sole peeling off more and more, and she couldn’t help but feel like it was a betrayal.
She glared down at the offending footwear as she walked unenthusiastically toward the radio station. Now she’d have to spend a whole day at her internship hoping that her shoe held up until the end of the day. Normally, she would have brought the City Council-mandated extra pair of shoes with her in her bag, but she had been running late and thought she could risk it.
To make matters worse, the rest of Maureen’s clothing wasn’t really cooperating either. Since she started her internship, her mother had downright insisted that she wear professional clothing to work, even though Maureen knew Cecil couldn’t care less what she showed up in. She had tried reasoning with her mother. Maureen told her that skirts, cardigans and high heels didn’t really make running around the city after moving life-sized sculptures made of an unidentified gelatinous substance any easier, but she hadn’t budged.
Like most people who faced a completely unfair authority figure-issued decision, Maureen rebelled in small ways. Instead of nylon stockings, Maureen wore her favorite rainbow leggings under her pencil skirts. Instead of suit jackets, she’d pull on a a sweatshirt, even if it looked ridiculous with the slacks, and even if it means sweating on the walk there.
Unfortunately, Maureen’s untimely awakening this morning didn’t leave her much time to plan out her apparel-based rebellion (it was all she could do to grab the combat boots instead of the stupid dressy flats). She quickly threw on the closest clothing she could find, which happened to be a completely work appropriate green dress that she had promised her mother she’d wear. It was far too short for walking, and it kept riding up, forcing her to walk with one hand holding it down to be comfortable. All in all, Maureen thought, this was not one of her favorite walks to work.
Thankfully, the Night Vale sidewalks all led to where they were supposed to go this morning, and she arrived to the radio station right on time. Disgruntled, she pushed open the door, thankful that all the security measures could finally be done away with now that Strex was no longer a threat. It had been a rough few weeks when she had to start every morning with a trivia competition and a series of intricate chants.
She walked past the booth, noticing that Cecil was already in there, preparing for his show. Or, at least he was pretending to. From what she could tell, he was actually taking selfies on his phone, and judging from how many of them seemed to involve some kind of kissy face, Maureen would bet that they were going straight to Carlos.
Maureen turned into the break room, grabbing herself coffee and then got some for Cecil. She was glad his scientist was back. Cecil might not be the best boss ever in terms of giving her actual work experience, but she couldn’t deny that she had a soft spot for him. If nothing else, she was definitely impressed by his passion for Night Vale. She would begrudgingly admit that she liked it when he was happy.
She walked back to the booth, still vaguely aware of the floppy feeling from her left shoe.
Cecil greeted her when he saw her poke her head in the door.
“Maureen! Come get in this Snapchat, it’s going in my Story!”
She suppressed an eye roll but walked up behind her boss to get in the photo. She tried to manage a smile, but she figured it probably looked more like a grimace at best.
“Let’s see…how about, ‘chilling with Maureen!’ and then, oh, I know, the fried egg emoji, and then a heart, and then the two dolphins playing Tetris! How’s that look?”
He showed her the finished product. It was the most ridiculous photo Maureen had ever seen.
“Looks great.”
Cecil let out a happy squeal and uploaded it.
This is the guy that my mother wants me to wear nice clothes to impress, she thought, vaguely feeling like she might be losing what little control she had of her life.
“Anyway,” Maureen said, “I brought you your coffee, I’ll just leave it here.”
She went to set the coffee down on his desk, only to find that he already had a cup sitting there, half empty.
“Cecil…did you..get your own coffee?” She asked. This was an outlandish thought, because even though the man seemed to survive on very little besides caffeine and his Big Rico’s, she had never once seen him get it himself.
“What?” Cecil asked, his nose still buried in his phone. “Oh, the coffee, no, no. Dana brought it to me.”
Maureen internally cringed. Of course. Dana was returning today. And predictably, she was the kind of intern that got to work early to make sure Cecil had coffee before their scheduled start time.
“Oh, right,” Maureen said. “Well, I’ll just take this back then. I’ll be at my desk, Cecil.”
She hadn’t thought too much about the fact that Dana would be joining them. If anything, she was looking forward to it, because it meant less work for her. But from what she could tell from their interactions in the other desert, Dana was one of those over-achievers, and Maureen hoped to make it perfectly clear to her that she wouldn’t be joining her on any “above and beyond” activities. The regular internship itself was “above and beyond” enough, in Maureen’s eyes.
They didn’t get to communicate much in that strange, alternate world, but the fact that Dana had already brought Cecil his coffee was proving her theory correct. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to associate with Dana all that much. She could be polite, but she was resolutely not going to be dragged into any extra activities that are going to get her sent to another plane of existence. Again.
When she reached her corner of the studio, she saw that another desk had materialized next to hers. Somehow, there was the same amount of space in the room, even with the new addition. Dana apparently wasn’t around, but her desk had been neatly organized, a few photos neatly placed in line with stacks of paper and what appeared to be moving, shiny rocks trapped in a Tupperware container.
Maureen spent most of her morning calling sources, trying to avoid much of anything that would make her walk more than she had to with her deteriorating shoe. Cecil came by once and asked her opinion on the new way he was parting his hair (after she gave her positive opinion, he asked her to “pretend you’re a scientist, though, and now what do you think?”), but other than that, very little had happened.
She was fidgeting with her shoe again when a voice made her jump.
“Maureen! It’s so good to see you again!”
She looked up at Dana, and the first thing she noticed about her new co-intern was that… well, was that she was beautiful. Maureen wasn’t typically one to get all poetic, but looking at the other woman seemed to short-circuit her brain a bit. In the other desert, Maureen hadn’t given her much thought, too concerned with the task at hand. But now, in the relative safety of the radio station, it occurred to her how…soft Dana’s dark skin looked. Maureen was suddenly overcome with the urge to trail her fingers down Dana’s neck to see if it was as silky as it looked.
She didn’t, because that would be creepy. But she was tempted.
And the smile Dana was giving her…Maureen couldn't help but lift her own lips a little in return. She had a smile that lit up her entire face, like she was genuinely happy to see Maureen again. Maureen wouldn’t admit it, but she felt fluttery when she looked at it. And apparently Dana’s mother didn’t force her into ill-fitting dress clothes, because Dana was wearing grey jeans that hugged her figure spectacularly.
“Hi, Dana,” she managed to say somewhat normally. It wouldn’t do to start squeaking like a preteen. Just because Dana was (stunningly, amazingly, earth-shatteringly) attractive, doesn’t mean that she should give up on her earlier resolve on not getting to attached to her.
“I’m so excited we get to be interns together now! This is going to be amazing. I was just telling Cecil, I really think- oh, what happened to your shoe?”
Maureen had been staring at her eyes, and their sparkly, brown color, and hadn’t realized that Dana’s attention had shifted from her own face down to her left shoe, still slowly separating into two parts.
“Oh,” Maureen said. “They’re old shoes, I guess they started ripping this morning.”
“Hmm,” Dana muttered to herself. “I think I know a way to fix it. Just give me a second, I’ll go grab something from the supply closet and we should be able to patch it up in no time!”
Maureen groaned internally. The whole “avoiding Dana” thing was going to be really complicated if she was also going to be so aesthetically pleasing and so nice.
“Oh, no,” Maureen tried. “Don’t worry about it. Like I said, they’re really old, it’s no big deal.”
“Nonsense,” Dana said, already backing up toward the closet. “It won’t take a minute, and…” Dana trailed off, seemingly debating what she was about to say before finishing in a rush, “your legs look so nice in them with that dress.”
Maureen felt her face flush as she giggled in disbelief. Oh my…
The two interns stared at each other for a second too long, before Dana turned and quickly shuffled to the supply closet.
Maybe interning wasn’t going to be so bad this time around after all.