Work Text:
Annie starts typing long before everyone has arrived at the office. She won’t get anyone calling until a little later on, except the occasional person calling in sick. She opens up her emails, checking for any important messages. There’s a slight buzz and the screen fades to black.
“Dammit!” She curses quietly, trying to turn in on again. Nothing. Jeff, from legal, notices her distress as he walks in. Leaning against her counter, he grins.
“What’s wrong, Edison?” Annie moans and rests her head against her hands, trying to will the computer to start working. She doesn’t want to deal with this crap today.
“My computer died.”
He whistles out in mockery, plastering a sympathetic look on his face, “Good luck calling IT.” She ignores him until he leaves her alone. It doesn’t take long for him to get bored and leave.
After an hour of pulling out leads, pressing buttons and kicking the bloody machine, she gives in and finds the number for the IT department. It’ll take a few hours before they’ll send someone up, she guesses. IT barely gets called out; most people know how to fix their own computers. She’ll wait for some rude jerk to turn up and make her feel stupid for not knowing what a mircofilladocument or something is.
Someone picks up on the third ring, “Troy & Abed fix computers.” The phone sings from the other end. He sounds ridiculously happy, which should be good for her. Might be able to get the PC fixed faster.
“Hello?” she asks, not knowing if this is their voicemail or an actual person singing when answering a phone. Cute idea though/
She gets a non-computer response, “Morning, you’ve got the pleasure of having Troy with you today. How can I be of assistance?”
“Yes, hi. My computer is not working.”
“Okay. Want me to send someone?”
“That’d be great?” It’s slightly surprising that they’re so happy to do so. “I’m Annie, on the third floor at reception."
While she waits, Annie starts filing work from yesterday, all the things she can do without her computer. The phone rings and she answers quickly.
"Fredaldous Inc. Annie speaking.” She says in her happiest tone, reserved usually for customers and her parents. The person starts telling her they have an appointment but cannot remember the time or person they’re suppose to be meeting with. Trying not to worry that she can’t look it up on the system, she grabs the written calendar she keeps from the side.
Adults may say that this people are too dependent on computers and electronics, but they certainly make things a lot simpler.
“ Do you remember what day it was on?” Someone walks though the door, “Could you hold for a moment please?”
The man continues to walks through, looking quite lost. He’s wearing a bright t-shirt - too casual to work in accounting or cooperate- and she smiles at him. “Hello. Can I help?”
“Are you Annie?” He asks, his voice soft and quiet. Must be from IT with that outfit on. It only took them a few minutes to get here! He’s got his hands in his pockets, looking slightly nervous. A few office worker look up towards them. Visitors usually dress in suits or dresses.
“I am. Are you from IT?” If he can fix her computer quickly, she might be able to do all her work today easily without staying late. He nods slowly.
“I’m Annie.”
“Abed.”
“From the song.” She remembers their super-quirky voicemail.
He taps the top of her computer. “This the one?”
“Yeah. I’m taking a call right now, can you have a look or do you need me…?” She trails off as he looks at her and she loses her confidence.
“I got it.”
“Thanks.” She steps out to give him space to look at the computer. The phones are still cord ones, so she has to stay at the desk to answer it and take the women off hold. “Hello? Sorry about the wait.”
She searches for the women’s appointment while watching the IT man work on her computer. He seems to do the same kind of thing as she was until he pulls a screwdriver from his belt and puts the box on her desk. Inside is a mess of wires she couldn’t imagine understanding. She concentrates on Abed rather than that. His face is motionless from concentrating, his dark hair falling over his eyes as he leans forward. Cute.
From the room, she spots Jeff waving his arms at her, ‘Who’s that?’ he mouths and points at Abed. She rolls her eyes and ignores him. Getting bored is not an excuse to be nosy.
“Okay. So we have Britta Perry meeting with people on that day? Britta sounds familiar? She has an appointment at 1:30 to discuss a school order? That’s yours? Great. Yes, that’s this Friday. Thank you.” Annie puts the phone down and it starts ringing within a minute. She picks it up, hoping today will not be a busy day.
“Fredaldous Inc. Annie speaking.” She catches Abed watching her and smiles politely. He glances away and tugs at some wires. She’s not sure how in a year of working here, she’s never seen him before.
“Who is that?” The speaker says. Jeff. She hangs up. Abed is watching her again.
“My friend thinks he’s funny.” She shrugs, “How’s it going?”
“Okay. Your CPU fan has stopped working. Easy to fix. Shouldn’t take long.”
“That’s great! Thanks, Abed!” Annie grins, she won’t have to work later after all. Or pay the company a fortune to get a new PC.
He doesn’t reply. She turns away and the corners of his mouth turn up into an almost smile.
“So how’d you get into computers?” Annie asks when Abed returns later that day to reboot her computer. She’s grabbed an extra chair so she can do her work while he sorts it out. Standing to answer the phone was awkward.
“This job’s getting me through film school.” He says, looking up “How’d you get this job?”
“They had an opening; it pays the bills.” She bits her lip, trying not to accept the truth that this is her job. Sure, she might have dreams but this is it for now. Had she thought about it more, chosen a less safe career, she could have been anything. Yet here she is, twenty-three, stuck working for a stationary firm at reception. Answering the phone and shredding paper. “I’d love to study forensics.” She laughs, soaking the dream in silly wistfulness so it seems less serious. That’s what she’d love to study given the opportunity.
Abed doesn’t take it any less seriously, “You’ll get there.” He smiles at her, his head tilted slightly to the side like he’s thinking. Annie brushes her hair behind her ears and out of her face, covering over her blushing cheeks.
The office is almost empty. It’s gone five, and most people are gone by now. Annie can clock out any time past six, so she has time to document papers from the day. When no one’s around, she listens quietly to music. Abed is much better company.
She scrunches up some paper and tosses into into the waste basket. Abed puts down his screwdriver. “Nice throw.”
She does it again, a little higher this time to show off. “Practice makes perfect.”
Abed takes a piece of paper and screws into into his fist.
“Oh, I needed that one!” He looks shocked, and starts to pull it apart, “Kidding."
With a flick of his wrist, he throws his mock ball right into the basket with ease.
"Bet you can’t do it twice.” She hands him a stack of paper. As he goes to throw it in, she pushing his wheelie chair and the paper misses by a mile.
“Unfair.” He says, pushing her chair away. “Best to five?”
Troy is sat, shoes off, with his feet on his desk watching the beat up TV they have in their office. He turns around when Abed walks in, “That’s like the fourth time this week that receptionist has called you up for help."
"Annie.” Abed corrects, “She needed help setting up her email.”
“No receptionist doesn’t already have an email. Is she cute?” Damn, Troy think, he’s got to learn how to fix computers so he doesn’t have to sit down here all day answering the phone.
Abed sits at his desk and doesn’t answer. Troy grins, slapping his thigh, “Oh man, that’s a yes! She likes you!”
“I-” Abed goes to speak, his hands out in front of him to argue this, “She doesn’t. She has a boyfriend.”
“She told you that?”
He hesitates, “No. There’s a guy in her office who’s always coming over and flirting. Jeff.”
“Jeff Wigner? From legal? That guys is nothing but smirks and flirts. She’s in to you.” It’s the only Jeff in the office if Troy remembers correctly.
“Okay.”
“Okay? That’s it?”
“How am I suppose to react?”
Troy is never shocked by Abed’s reactions or thoughts, although sometimes - often - is surprised. If a girl was in to him, he’d be on the desk dancing and singing. “Are you going to ask her out?”
“Where would we go?”
“To the movies? To dinner?”
“What if she doesn’t like the same movies as I do?”
“Let her choose the movie.”
“What if I don’t like the same movies as she does?”
Troy sets the phone to immediately go to voicemail. Him and Abed need to have a serious discussion about dating.
Annie hangs up after it goes straight to voicemail. She’s been abusing the system a bit so she can chat with Abed. She knows how Microsoft works and how to set up a spreadsheet. It’s not that difficult. Abed explains everything so carefully, it’s difficult not to want him to keep talking.
He’s animated when he talks about computers, but completely alive when he talks about movies. It’s like he steps out a comic book and is standing in front of her. She’s not sure if it’s his passion or his understanding of them that makes it real.
She’s never met anyone with so much love for their job. He could talk about film school for hours. She’d listen for hours. He watched forensic films so he could tell her a little bit about them which made her happy. The only thing better would have been if he’d invited her to watch them with him. Or to another movie. On a date. That would have been good.
She can’t expect much. Between film school and his job here there’s not a great deal of time he could spend dating. The phone rings and she picks it up. giving her default answer, “Fredaldous Inc. Annie speaking.”
“Hi.” Abed says. She brightens up instantaneously.
“Hi! How are you?”
“Good. Are you busy? Can I come and talk to you?”
“I’m very busy. So please come and talk to me.” Working is the worst thing to do at work.
“Okay.” He says, hanging up.
In a few minutes, Annie sees Abed coming through the glass doors by her desk. He’s wearing a lime green t-shirt with pixels on it, under a dark shirt. He looks out of place among suits and shirts. He looks new. Distinctive.
“Annie.” He sits down on the chair next to her that hasn’t been moved all week. There’s a pause as he attempts to find a good way to ask. “Would you like to go see a movie? You can pick it. I’ll watch anything you like as long as-”
She picks up a sheet of paper and crushes it into a ball, throwing it into the basket. “Best to five.” She says, cutting him off, “Winner picks the movie.”
He looks relived, his face lighting up as he takes a folder from her hands. “You’re on.”