What Vincent saw made him even more speechless, a man who could be a model, his face was perfect, square and sharp like an greek statue, his body was visibly sculpted, in a natural and almost intricate way, not too flashy but still visibly strong muscles, his eyes were hazel, not light brown that get lighter when crossing light, hazel, just like his hair, stylishly messy, almost effortless, curls that did not reach his eyes, on a dark blonde colour, to make everything worse, his skin was olive and looked like it had been tanned, beach tanned, as if he had been part of the 'Mamma Mia! ' film. Vincent was left speechless and completely jealous, he himself was a completely ordinary man, he had a little belly, since never found time to work out or to eat properly, wasn't very tall, pale as a ghost, and with the mildest build ever on a man, He felt like a failure close to the man on the door.
" Alexander, hello, I called you, yes. Would you be a darling and show our new hire, Mr. Vincent Vanlore, the Call Center? " Mrs. Ooma said, sweetly smiling, Vincent's face dropped even more;
" Of course, Mrs. Ooma " Alexander, the model man left the door frame and walked towards Vincent, with a beautiful smile and a great employee attitude, " hi, pal, come with me, please " Alexander said, and waited for Vincent;
Vincent did a yes with his head, speechless, faceless, and stood up. Alexander just smiled and started to walk away, waiting for Vincent to just tag along, what he did, somewhat baffled for so many discoveries, including having to work at COSTUMER SERVICE of all places, he didn't know whether laugh or cry, his situation was terrible, and to be worse he had this absolute Greek God as a guide.
" Now that we left, hi, my name is Alexander Hawke, pleased to meet you" he said, smiling brightly to Vincent while they walked away from the office, on the corridor;
" Vincent Vanlore, it's my pleasure " Vincent said, very embarrassed and shy, he was never a talkative guy;
" How old were you, Vincent Vanlore? " Alexander asked, trying to keep the small talk, even joking a bit by saying the other's full name;
" Thirty four, and you? " Vincent said, daring to look at the other for some seconds, " vut me being old is not a reason for you to be formal, call me just by my first name " he added, trying to sound cool, but just embarrassed;
" I was twenty seven, living my best life " Alexander said, kind of angry, reminiscing his living time as they both walked in that long corridor, guiding Vincent, " and how did you get here? " He asked, seeming to be enjoying the talk;
" Apparently I was hit by a car while going home from work on a very rainy day " Vincent said, focusing on how foolishly he died, rather than on the other;
" Phew, what a shitty death, man! " Alexander laughed, as they stopped in front of some elevator's doors;
Vincent just stared him, partially hurt, but he couldn't blame the other, instead, he just scoffed and kept the conversation going.
" Indeed, it was. How did you die? " Vincent asked, curious and quite comfortable with the other;
" Drowned, on the sea " Alexander answered, his tone bittersweet, almost painful, but in a way that gets to your bones and kill them;
Vincent felt like the absolute shit, all his remaining dignity and face were lost because of his words, but, before he could anything else to make them less shitty, the elevator opened it's doors with a little ding sound, and they both stepped inside. Luckily, there were just the two of them there, so, no one else would have their day ruined by Vincent's shitty talk.
" We are on the 295th floor of three hundred, the Call center is on the 165th to 230th, and ours is the 187th " Alexander clarified, back to his usual nice demeanor, looking at Vincent with a cute smile;
Vincent's heart skipped a beat or two when he heard 'our' meaning he would work with Alexander the Greek God who he had just lost face with, he couldn't find a place to hide, but wanted very much, so, he just nodded and said something silly and generic like "oh, a lot of floors" or "we will need strength to climb so many stairs when we have a blackout hahaha" just so the other one wouldn't notice.
Talking about noticing or not, Vincent was so absorbed on his own deal that he didn't even notice that he and Alexander had stopped, the doors opened making a loud noise, which, added to it's annoying ding, announced that they had arrived. The doors showed a large, seemingly endless cubicle plantation filled with the sound of chatter, the noise of telephones ringing and a lot of typing.
" Is it here? " Vincent asked, already feeling his energy be drained away just by looking at this he'll;
" Yep. Welcome home, Vincent " Alexander said, quite sarcastic, standing beside Vincent, trying to keep a decent smile;
Vincent groaned and turned to the other, opening his mouth to ask about his workstation, but, a loud sound of heels started to approach them at an insane velocity and suddenly a very flamboyant woman appeared out of somewhere, jumping on Alexander, who hugged her tightly, lifting her on the air.
" Heeeeeeyaaaaaaaaaa! Alex! You are back! Is everything alright?? " She asked, less worried and more eager to hear something, her voice was loud and as shiny as her, Alexander put her down and scratched the back of his head;
"Hi to you too, Megumi, I am alright, thanks for asking " he answered, quite happy to see her, they seemed close, like old acquaintances, Vincent tried to vanish into air but was grabbed by Alexander's arm and pulled closer to both of them, " Mrs. Ooma asked me to grab this one, he's new here, Vincent Vanlore. Quite a good fella " he said, smiling as he pointed at Vince for the woman to see;
While he was on display and being kept captive by Alexander, who held his shoulders, Vincent took the time to look at the happy woman in front of him. She seemed shorter than him, her skin was strongly tanned, almost artificial, and her body was skinny, while having some curves here and there, her eyes held a lot of makeup on a flashy and almost weird way, since it was all white and string with something under the eye and huge eyelashes, her uniform was slightly open and her skirt was awfully short, she wore heels, high stockings and visible gather belts, her hair, obviously bleached or a wig, was all up on a high flowy bun with some bangs on one side, and like all of that was not enough, she had huge pink clip on nails. Vincent couldn't help but feel deeply uncomfortable by her look, and he didn't even try to hide it, but she didn't seem to care and just bowed down politely, making her hair fall to the front than get tossed back as she stood to her full height once more.
" Hai! I'm Megumi Okeshi, nice to meet yuuu! " She said, sweetly and cheerfully, and Stoke a pose, " so, how did yu die? " She asked, swinging on her heels;
" Hello... " Vincent said, smiling a yellow smile, trying to sound polite at least, " I was hit by a car after leaving work... " He added, not wanting to say much, staring at her outfit and trying to contain himself from judging the poor girl, " What happened to you? " He said, finally, looking at her with wide eyes;
Megumi looked at him, eyes wide open, Alexander looked at him, eyes wide open, they stared at Vincent for maybe three seconds before starting to hysterically laugh, finding Vincent utterly foolish and funny.