Chris plopped himself down in his well-worn armchair and glanced around at his apartment with a grimace. It had fallen into such a state of disarray since he had started his new job. Empty pizza boxes littered the floor, dirty clothes clung to every surface, and the sink was stacked with dirty dishes. He groaned in frustration and pressed his fingertips into his temples. Any attempt he had made to clean up the past two weeks had ended up with him passed out in strange places.Tonight was much the same,he wanted to clean up but his callout at three o’clock in the morning had left him burnt out and all around exhausted and it was only Wednesday. A knocking on his door caused him to glance nervously in that direction. Due to the secretive nature of his job, he did not take 9:00pm visits lightly. He moved silently to the door and peaked through the peephole. A flash of red hair blurred his vision and immediately alert him to who it was. He opened the door and leaned against the door frame.
“What are you doing here?” He asked apprehensively.
“Thought maybe you could use some company.” Natalie Sokoloff stood with a hand on her hip and a grin on her face. “Plus I remembered you saying you were out of cherry Pepsi.” She remarked as she held up two plastic bottles in her hand. Chris smirked and opened the door a little wider to let her in, wondering how on earth she remembered that throwaway comment from well over sixteen hours ago. She quickly found her way to the couch, kicking an empty box which once held soda cans out of the way, and flopped into a heap before placing the bottles on the table with a thud.
“Your place is a pigsty, Chris.” She remarked as she untwisted her soda cap causing it to make a loud hissing noise.
“Yea, well I’ve been working really hard for weeks and I wasn’t expecting company.” He sighed rubbing a hand hastily across the back of his neck.
“Oh I wasn’t looking for an explanation; I was just stating a fact.” She grinned. Chris tried hard to keep a straight face but ended up failing and laughing anyway. He made his way to the couch and sat down before swiping his own cherry Pepsi off the table and taking a sip. He glanced at his co-worker and noticed her nicely done hair and her freshly painted blood-red manicured fingers paying with the bottle cap.
“You have a mission tomorrow?” He asked, trying to keep his voice rather neutral. She nodded.
“Yep. I would tell you the details but then I’d have to kill you.” She whispered dramatically.
“Ohoho, like I haven’t heard that one before working in a secret agency surrounded by secret agents all day.” She giggled once, her lips turning up into a smile.
“I figured since you’re still the new guy I could get away with it.”
“Well you can’t. Besides I hate being the new guy. Clark is constantly riding me for everything. ‘Chris you can’t stand there.’ ‘You need to follow orders to the letter.’ ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ 'Blah, blah, blah.'” He mocked. Chris huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. Natalie began giggling and he couldn’t help but furrow his eyebrows. It was well known that Phillip Clark was tough on new recruits, so Chris had no clue as to why Natalie was laughing.
“You know what happened to the last agent you replaced here?” She asked leaning forward in her seat. He shook his head. “He sucked.” She stated bluntly. “He was bad. He had no potential, no motivation, and Clark stopped caring way before even his second week here.” She half shrugged and leaned back against the couch once more. Chris blinked slowly as if working the information over in his mind. “Eventually he screwed up so bad he was fired by the director himself. He now lives in a trailer in New Mexico continuously followed by agents that keep tabs on him to make sure he doesn’t break his confidentiality agreement.” She watched slowly as Chris began to beam at her words, pride evident on his now smiling face.
“He doesn’t hate me?” Chris finally spoke. Natalie rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“I would even go so far as to say he likes you. He even brought you up in a conversation the other day.” She couldn’t help herself from mirroring Chris’ gleeful grin.
“You’re a good agent, Chris Barron.” She said, standing up to leave. “Phillip just wants to make you into a great one.”