Moving On? Moving Forward?

This is the third segment of a longer story that I am working on. Feel free to read the first two entries: Entry 1 and Entry 2!

Crystal grinned as she leaned toward me, resting her elbows on her thighs. “Don’t get me wrong, Sarabeth. You’ve been a big help to me, but I like my privacy.”

She paused to gesture at the boxes piled between our desks. “Sometimes, I really need the extra space.”

“So how do you propose I get moved out of here?”

“I don’t understand why you’d want to work upstairs with the rats, but…” She pursed her lips 

impatiently before continuing. “If we work together, we can get someone else to quit and you can move up to push a lever for pellets.”

“Just like the Jeffersons.” I mumbled under my breath.

Crystal snorted derisively. “Not exactly.”

I cleared my throat nervously. “So how do we get someone to quit? Ask them?”

“I doubt it would be that easy unless you had a lead on a better job for them.” One of her eyebrows lifted quizzically as a half smile crept across the right side of her face.

When I looked at her blankly, she added. “Of course, you’d be smart enough to take that opportunity yourself.”

“So what do you propose I do?”

“I saw this in a movie once, so it might not work as well as we hope, but…”

“Yes.” I prompted.

“You just have to put something that smells atrocious where someone won’t find it and wait for it to scare them away.”

“But then I will have to deal with the smell.”

Crystal shook her head, flashing me a condescending smile. “You’d know where to clean when it becomes your cube.”

I shook my head slowly. The simplicity of her plan made it perfect. However, putting it into place couldn’t be as easy as it sounded. I mulled this over as Crystal turned back to her desk. She pulled a fruit snack out of the bag on her desk, placing it on her tongue as she waited for me to speak.

“Well,” she frowned at my silence.

“How do we get someone out their cubicle long enough to plant the ‘air freshener’?”

“That’ll be my gift to you, and this…” She turned around to open her desk drawer.

An evil grin stretched across her face as she held out a foil packer of tuna.

“Thank you.” I took her offering tentatively.

“Let’s get this started?” Her chair creaked as she stood up and walked out the door.

I followed with a feeling of dread slowly closing in on me.