Chapter Text
The whole day was damned from the start. Not only had Sam’s coffee machine denied its services this morning, she also had to deal with her insufferable neighbour, who should actually win a price for “worst-time-for-asking-somebody-out-ever”, and a careless driver, who drove past her a little too close. Due to him and the heavy rain last night, which fortunately stopped but left some huge puddles, she reached the office completely drenched. On the way to her desk the bureau seemed to buzz with excitement and something else she couldn’t quite point her finger on. She decided to simply ignore the tension in the air because without her morning coffee she was way too tired to think about anything.
Before she could sit and calm down a bit, Terri stormed into the small room. She was out of breath and seemed to be quite nervous, which led Sam to only one conclusion.
“Please don’t tell me, Tucker is here…just…don’t.”
“Well, he will be in some minu…” She stopped in the middle of the sentence and looked at her bewildered. “What’s the matter with your clothes?”
“I know, I know…I’m sorry. There was this car and…”
“I don’t give a damn. Just change. NOW.” Terri turned around again and left in a hurry.
“Tell me something I don’t know”, Sam muttered to herself while looking for her emergency outfit. After she found it she rushed to the toilets, changed into her fresh skirt and blouse and wanted to leave immediately, but a short glance in the mirror stopped her. God, she looked terrible! Her hair was dripping wet, the mascara trickled away on her cheeks and under her eyes were deep shadows. Hectically she cleaned her skin with some water and tied her hair back. Being sort of presentable again she looked at her mirror-self one more time, breathed in and out, calmed herself down. She reminded herself that this was just another day at work. Whatever happened she would manage…somehow. She always did.
“Where the fuck are you, Sam?”, Terri screamed from outside.
“Coming!”, she said surprisingly calm back while leaving the toilets and meeting Terri.
“Here’s what you missed during your ridiculously long beauty session: Malcolm is already waiting in the minister’s office. He seems to be…well, he was shouting at some bloke at the phone, so I have no idea how he is and what he is here for.” Terri whispered to her like she was afraid Malcolm could hear her through the two rooms, that were currently separating them.
“You know, that you don’t have to whisper, right?”
Terri gave her a baffled look before she shooed her through the hallway to her desk.
After a couple minutes of sitting, starting the computer, opening her files and arranging her working space, she suddenly got startled by an especially loud scream from Tucker in the other room. Whoever was on the other line, he or she certainly had an even worse start than she had so far.
Funny thing she noticed just now as she listened to Tucker’s bollocking voice, she had never met the man, not until today at least. She knew him of course. He was hard to miss, when you worked for the government. Due to the fact that she had slowly worked her way up and quite recently became the new secretary of the minister for social affairs she had only heard about him. Not really good things. More bad things. Mainly bad things.
“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! He’s useless, absolutely useless. He is, he is as useless as a marzipan dildo! Even a marzipan dildo is more useful than he is.”
Interesting…that was really some interesting language going on there. Perhaps because it also came with a quite memorable voice. Deep, firm and certain of itself, maybe a bit too certain, borderline to arrogant.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a stressed minister running into her office accompanied by an even more stressed Terri.
“Have you got him coffee? No? Oh, for Christ’s sake…get coffee, get Danish pastries, croissant...no, get fruit, get a pile of fruit, lots of fruit and lots of coffee. Now.”
While the minister disappeared in his office, Sam jumped from her seat and rushed to the kitchen. The look of reproach Terri gave her she deliberately ignored.
Ten minutes later she returned with her famous coffee and tea, which both no one could make quite like her and a plate with all the fruit she was able to find. After taking a deep breath she pushed the door open with her shoulder and entered smiling.
“Would you like some coffee or frui…?” Sam was interrupted before she could even finish her sentence.
“Fuck off!”, the grey-haired man beside her said, not turning his head, attention fully on the minister.
“Tea?”, she asked further, still smiling, but demanding at least some proper reaction from the infamous Malcolm Tucker. Obviously that did the trick. Eventually he looked at her, slightly unnerved but still sort of friendly with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“You fuck off, Darling.”
Great! Sam loved the guy already.
“Coffee it is then!”, she said a tad bit too friendly. Sure, he was the almighty director of communications and she just one secretary of many, but she surely didn’t spend five years at university and completed her PhD to be treated like a bloody waitress. With ostentation she put the coffee down.
“You got a feisty one there, haven’t you? Who is she?”
The minister just looked perplexed from Sam to Malcolm. He hasn’t known his new secretary for very long, but she always seemed to be a very efficient, responsible and quiet young woman. Today of all days she had to act like a defiant girl, who looked not awful but also not as pretty as usual. Then again, her partially wet hair tied back, the contour of her soft curves underneath the thin blouse and the pencil skirt…this was definitely going too far…again.
“Hello? Anybody there? Oh no, fucking fuck me! Really? You want to bang the new one too as the first one wasn’t fucking enough? Do us all a favour, and take your cock for a walk in some fucked up private session or whatever. But please look for some cunt on your level, someone you can handle, because you surely can’t handle her.”
“You know that I am still in the same room, right?” Sam asked irritated.
“You didn’t really get the first two ‘Fuck offs’ so I thought you suffered from some sort of fucking hearing impairment.” Malcom retorted, while he was greatly amused by this little woman.
The positively embarrassed minister cleared his throat, but Sam cut him short.
“Well, you obviously know how to charm a woman, don’t you?” She crossed her arms and smiled sarcastically. Meanwhile her mind was running amok. What exactly was she thinking? She really wasn’t the one who liked to fight, especially not with someone who could ruin her career with one snap of his irritating long fingers.
The minister looked perplexed at Sam.
Tucker, now smiling dangerously, stepped closer and crossed her personal space. Probably his tactic to scare people, Sam thought. He stared down at her, as he was much taller than her, before he bent forward to whisper very quietly into her ear. “You can count on it, sweetheart.”
Yep, man with an enormous ego! She was right from the beginning.
“Good luck then, Mr. Tucker, and enjoy your coffee.” With a last smile she finally left the room and closed the door behind her.
After sitting at her table again she really didn’t know what had happened. Was she really just teasing the infamous Malcolm Tucker? Why on earth should she do something crazy like that? Shaking her head, she dismissed the whole situation and decided to concentrate on her work again. However, Terri suddenly rushed into the room.
“What the hell, Sam? Are you completely out of you mind?”
“Wow, I see. Word is travelling fast here.”
“What in seven hells possessed you to challenge the devil himself?”
“Ok, first of all, he is certainly not the devil. And secondly, I didn’t challenge him, I just wanted to make clear that I’d very much prefer to be treated like an actual human being.”
Terri just starred at her furiously.
“Tread carefully. You’re stepping on very thin ice.”
Sam groaned, before she answered. “Yeah, alright, got it. Don’t challenge the beast. Happy now?”
Her colleague watched her for a full minute, before she left again. Well, Monday morning seemed to be a quiet promising start, Sam thought dryly. The day couldn’t get much worse, or at least that’s what she thought till the shouting started.