The ride seemed to take forever. Tim spent the entire time wondering if the whole thing was some elaborate prank. He half expected to get dumped in front of some cheap fast food restaurant. But, finally, the cab pulled up in front of a high-rise office building downtown.
He got out of the cab and looked up at the tower. Well, this could be nice. Maybe the business world is worth considering. He turned around to pay the taxi driver, but the cab was already gone. Weird. He walked into the building and stopped. There was an empty lobby and a bank of elevators.
How was he supposed to know who he was shadowing if he didn't even know where to go? He looked down at the card again. Under the address some new printing had appeared. "8TH FLOOR" it said. This was getting weirder and weirder.
The elevator ride was long enough to make him wonder more about just who he would be shadowing. An accountant? Human resources? Maybe even an executive! The elevator stopped on his chosen floor and he stepped out into the office lobby. He noticed the sign on the wall - West & Rosen. That was a prestigious ad agency. Was he going to shadow a copywriter?!
He got a little more excited as he walked towards the front desk. There was a flurry of activity behind the glass doors, but the lobby was quiet and calm. His eye caught the receptionist behind the desk. She was, in short, a knockout.
And had all the assets a knockout usually had. Long, wavy blonde hair, huge breasts under a tight and slightly see-thru blouse. An even tighter grey bandage skirt around toned, tanned, smooth legs. Stilettos. Perfect nails. Long, beautiful lashes on top of all the other flawless makeup.
Tim was able to take in and enjoy the sight because she was hopelessly engrossed in an issue of Cosmopolitan. Finally, he cleared his throat and she looked up, slightly surprised.
"Ohmigod! Like, I'm so sorry. You weren't standing there long, were you? There's a great article about matching nail colors and lip color and I guess I just, like, got sucked in. You know how it is." She giggled.
Tim didn't know, but he smiled anyway.
"How can I help you, hon?" She asked sweetly.
"Well. I hope you can help." He held up his card. "You see, I'm part of this job shadowing program and..."
"You're the one that got picked?? Yay!!!! OMG this is so exciting!" The woman hopped out of her seat and came around the desk to shake Tim's hand. "It's so nice to meet you. I'm Candi!"
"I'm Tim," he said, glad that somebody else seemed to know what was going on. And he had to admit, he wouldn't mind seeing this sight every morning coming in to work. "So, who is it I'm supposed to be shadowing?"
"Why, you're shadowing me, silly!!"
"Wait, what?! No that can't be right."
"It sure is! From now on, you're gonna do everything I do! Won't that be fun? Let's get started!"
As soon as she said those three words, Tim felt a shockwave hit him in the forehead. His whole skull felt like it was vibrating, and time seemed to slow down. Confusion and panic were building up inside him. He wanted to turn and run back to the elevator, but instead he just stood there, staring at Candi. She stared back at him, smiling brightly.
Tim was still confused. Maybe he should smile too, like Candi was. He tried it, and it felt right. She was smiling, so he should be smiling too. Wait, no... that wasn't right. He tried to stop smiling, but couldn't stop grinning like Candi.
"We've got lots of work to do!" Candi said with a giggle. Tim giggled too. Why did he do that? She turned around to go back to her desk, and Tim felt compelled to follow closely behind her. The desk chair was now wider than it had been, wide enough to seat two people fairly close together.
The two sat beside each other. Candi crossed her legs, and Tim watched his own legs make the same move. He was scared, confused, but still smiling, because Candi was still smiling. They picked up the copy of Cosmo and started reading where Candi had left off. Tim wasn't sure how he knew to look at the same paragraph, his attention was pulled sharply into the makeup article.
He had to get out of this. Run away. Something was making him mirror Candi's every action. It was like... like he was literally her shadow.
