Work Text:
…
It was no one’s dream job. Very few people graduated from college and said that they couldn’t wait to work in a cubicle with white, fluorescent lighting, have pointless meetings and training sessions to sit through, drink somewhat weak coffee and go through monotonous days that all blended in together. It certainly wasn’t anything resembling what Sansa Stark dreamt of doing with her life. There were some very big reasons a person would work in an office like this. A steady paycheck. Health insurance. A 401K plan. Was it what she wanted to do with her life? No. But she had college loans, rent, and other bills. She also liked to occasionally eat.
But despite her complaints – and really, what person didn’t complain about their job? – Sansa, for the most part, didn’t actually hate where she worked. Actually, most days, she really liked it. Her boss wasn’t too terrible, she absolutely loved her coworkers and they all got along, and every Friday was casual dress. There were a lot of other jobs that were a lot worse than the one Sansa had for herself.
Every Tuesday, there was a branch meeting where everyone gathered in the conference room – all vying for the seats near the back of the room, naturally – and their manager, Stannis Baratheon, stood at in front of the projection screen. Sansa sat with Jeyne Poole, her best friend who was much in the same boat as Sansa. This was her first job upon graduating from college and like Sansa, this had never been her dream career but there were bills to be paid. They were the same age and had started at the company in the same month. It was only natural that the two would immediately bond and forge a friendship between them.
Each week, these meetings were always the same. Stannis went over their sales numbers from the past week and depending on how they did, that could lead to them holding a discussion as to how they could get better. If their numbers were higher than the usual, Stannis gave them a rare – brief – compliment before moving on. Stannis was never one to waste time on “fluff”. Everyone in the office knew that Stannis was a bit of a cold man but when it came to managers, he was far from being the worst kind. He was like all of them. He had a job to do. Sansa actually liked Stannis because he did stick by his employees and if he felt corporate was doing something to jerk them all around, or doing something new he didn’t like, he would speak up and let his opinion be known. A manager actually being loyal to those who worked under him spoke volumes of that manager’s character.
After going over the numbers, there was usually some new announcement handed down from corporate that Stannis went over and more times than not, everyone in the room rolled their eyes at whatever protocol change that the higher-ups had sat around and thought of. It was usually a completely unnecessary or a useless change which someone with a too-high salary decided they all needed.
“… so starting this year, if you wish to not work on Good Friday, you will now have to use a personal day or one of your vacation days as our offices will no longer be closed on that day,” Stannis finished reading the corporate memo.
Sansa frowned. Three years working here and she always loved that they were closed for Good Friday. She was able to leave on Thursday night and drive back home to spend a long Easter weekend with her family. She could use one of her personal days but she only got three of those a year, in addition to her two weeks of vacation, and she liked to use her personal days closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas. She was going to have to sit down and figure out her whole yearly vacation schedule again.
Her other coworkers were not as quiet as she was. There was an immediate uproar from just about everyone and for a small office of just seven other employees, the noise was quite an accomplishment.
“This is bullshit, Stannis!” Davos Seaworth practically roared. He was the oldest in the office and had been working for the company for too many years now. He had absolutely no issue with voicing his opinions in matters such as this and it always gave his other coworkers the courage to voice theirs.
Stannis sighed, not at all surprised with anyone’s reactions, as he set the piece of paper down. He put his hands in his pants pockets and let everyone vent for a minute, allowing them to take their frustrations out on him as if this decision was his own and hadn’t come down from corporate.
When he did speak again, he did so with a loud voice so to be heard and the others began to quiet down. “Alright!” He exhaled a deep sigh. “Corporate feels like being closed on a day when so many others remain open is causing us to lose out on potential sales,” Stannis explained, his voice returning to normal volume once everyone was listening and had stopped complaining. Momentarily.
“Typical,” Jeyne muttered from next to her.
She was discreetly reading emails on her phone as she always did and usually listened to these meetings with one ear, knowing that Sansa would fill her in if something truly important was announced. Hearing corporate’s latest memo, she had paid attention long enough to hear the higher-ups demanding more work from the peons with no reward. That was all she needed to hear and now, it was back to emails. Jeyne had just been trusted with the Walgreen’s account and it had officially taken up any semblance of “free time” she might have had in her life. Sansa had considered putting her name in the hat for the Walgreen’s account when it came up before deciding that she very much liked the accounts she already had and didn’t want something as massive as Walgreen’s. Jeyne was aware that if she messed this up, she would be fired. That was far too much pressure for Sansa. She already helped Davos when there was an overflow from the Staples account and that was enough for her.
The ranting and raving continued from just about everyone until Stannis sighed heavily. “Alright!” He loudly let out one more time. Everyone settled and quieted down. “Will it help a little if I buy everyone lunch today?”
…
Another thing she really liked about where she worked was when the weather permitted, Sansa could walk home. She took the train back and forth in the winter but now that spring was, once again, here, Sansa was more than happy to be walking the few blocks again. Her apartment building was nothing spectacular. A two-story building with eight units. But it fit perfectly within her budget as well as being safe, clean and located in a quiet neighborhood. Her older brother, Robb, had an apartment downtown and his rent was astronomical. He had to have two roommates so it could be covered and after growing up with three brothers and one sister, Sansa was more than ready – and happy – to have a space that was just her own. Living downtown is overrated anyway.
Sansa unlocked the building’s front door, making sure it closed behind her completely with a click of the lock, and stopped at the post boxes. Opening hers, she smiled. There was no mail inside and Sansa always loved not getting mail. That meant there were no bills due. She then turned and headed up the stairs. Her apartment was 2C but instead of going there, she went to 2D, the door across the hall from her own. Smiling, she knocked, and was immediately greeted by a dog’s bark from the other side of the door followed by a man’s voice asking, “Want to see mom?”, which only made Sansa’s smile grow.
The door opened and Sansa’s Siberian Husky, Lady, came bounding out, practically knocking Sansa over in her excited greeting as she did just about every other day. Sansa laughed, petting and scratching her as best as she could since the dog wouldn’t stay still for her love and affection. And behind Lady was Sansa’s across-the-hall neighbor, Jon Snow, who was kind enough to dog-sit Lady for her every day while Sansa was at the office so Lady wasn’t cooped up inside of the apartment all day. And for that, Sansa considered Jon Snow to be a godsend. She had tried to pay him on several different occasions for his help but Jon always refused to accept any sort. She had taken to baking him treats as a form of payment and that was the only thing he would take. He was a kind and handsome man and he worked from home, he being a feature writer for a widely circulated magazine. He wrote both true crime and history stories involving their city and there was never a shortage of either topic for him to choose from. As he said, this city was ripe with both. Sansa, of course, had read his stories and not that her opinion mattered whatsoever or like she had any idea what she was talking about but she thought Jon was very good at his job.
“Hey,” Jon smiled at her once Lady had calmed down a bit, he standing in the doorway and watching the pair. “How was work?”
“Good. I have two things for you.” Sansa reached into her messenger bag hanging at her side. “My boss bought lunch from Panera for the whole office and I snagged you a M&M cookie.” She passed the cookie in its small paper bag to him.
Jon’s smile widened as he opened the bag and leaning in, he inhaled. “I love you.”
Sansa laughed while her stomach tightened. She certainly did not have a crush on her neighbor. That would be far too clichéd and too complicated and it was not a mess she wanted to invite into her life. She openly admitted, when Jeyne teased her, that yes, she thought Jon Snow was exceptionally good looking but there was nothing more to it. She could not be attracted to a man with a man bun though if anyone looked good with such a hairstyle, it was this man.
“Why’d your boss buy the office lunch?” Jon asked, returning his eyes to Sansa.
“He was trying to put out a fire set from a new corporate memo.”
“Must be Tuesday.”
“I also had a vendor come in and he gave me a few samples.” She reached into her bag again and pulled out a box containing one pen. “They’ve been working on their ink, trying to make it truly long lasting. Gel pen, retractable, black ink, and 1 millimeter tip size.”
As she described the product, Jon’s smile kept growing. Sansa sold pens. Pens of every name, of every color, of every variety. It wasn’t her dream job but it was her job. As she always answered whenever someone asked about selling pens, someone had to.
“Thank you, Sansa,” he said and he spoke with complete sincerity, his oddly-colored grey eyes looking into her set of blue ones. He took the box and prying open the top, he slid the pen into his hand to look it over.
“You’re welcome,” she smiled. “And be sure to let me know what you think. The vendors are always curious as to the opinions of my writer neighbor.”
She had been inside of Jon’s apartment plenty of times just like he had been inside of hers and she saw that he actually used the pen samples she gave him. He didn’t just take them and toss them into a drawer and forget all about them. No. The pens were strewn all around the apartment, tossed in the way that pens were when a person used it more than once. On his kitchen table, on the coffee table, he had sample pens everywhere, one always close by in case he was struck by sudden inspiration and needed to write his latest thoughts down. Sansa had never said anything to him about it but it made her happy when she went into his place and saw the pens she gave him lying around. It made her happy to know that he actually used them and didn’t just toss them away whenever Sansa gave him one.
“1 millimeter’s my favorite,” Jon looked at her, grinning now.
“I know.” She felt her face grow warm and prayed to God that her pale skin didn’t betray her by exposing her blush to his eyes.
“Do you want to go get some dinner?” He asked.
“Somewhere outside where Lady can come, too?”
“Of course somewhere outside where Lady can come, too,” Jon teased her while being completely serious and it made Sansa’s face rise in temperature. “I’ve been researching all day and eating actual sustenance in the fresh air could do me some good.”
That got a slight laugh out of her. “Give me ten minutes. I just have to change.”
“Take your time.” Jon gave her another smile and Sansa’s stomach tightened again. And again, Sansa was sure to ignore it as she turned to go into her own apartment across the hallway, Lady following.
…