Juice: Part Two (Juice #2) by Victoria Starke

Chapter One
    “… And I need all this by Friday,” he says while leaving a
hand on my shoulder a little too long. “Oh and I almost forgot. Make sure it’s
done right this time.”
    Ugh. My
day is ruined.
    I work as a
paralegal at Dunbar Williams and Williams LLP, a law firm in Manhattan, and
Barry, a lawyer with the firm and my boss, always makes sure I’m busy. Plus, a
little sexual harassment is thrown in as a bonus.
    “Sure,
Barry, I’m on it,” I say calmly.
    “You’re my
girl, keep it up,” he half-whispers in my ear. The scent of stale coffee on his
breath hits my nostrils like nerve gas and jolts me out of my mid-morning daze.
    He offers one
last parting blow for me as he walks off, “I better see you at happy hour this
time. You keep standing us up!”
    “I’ll try,
Barry!”
    Finishing
college with a management and political science double major, I felt like I
could hit the ground running in New York City. Now the world was hitting back.
    “Is Barry
back to his old tricks?” sympathized Denise, my office mate and only real
friend at the company.
    “Yes, he
just added six more cases to research on top of the fifteen I’m already
working. He’s such a creep sometimes, too.”
    “I know, he
really is… Don’t worry, Bronwyn, it’s probably because he just found out his
wife is cheating on him,” she confides with me quietly.
    Denise
always knows the right things to say to me. She works as a clerk alongside me
and receives much of the same treatment. A never-ending set of changing
deadlines, lying clients, and misdirected anger from stressed-out lawyers is
our daily routine. Welcome to New York.
     “At
least we have Thirsty Thursdays to look forward to. You’re coming right?”
Denise offers.
    I could
use a few right now.
    “Yeah, I’ll
be there” I say half-believing myself.
    “I couldn’t
believe how hot the guys were at Marquee last week, you really missed out. We
met this group of hilarious British tourists on “holiday”. They made me
laugh so hard, I didn’t feel like such a slut when I sucked one off in the
bathroom.”
    “Ha, you are a slut!”
    “At least I
have fun! When was the last time you even had sex?”
    “Ugh, let’s
not talk about it.”
    Oh yeah, Denise
is not only my best friend at work, but also my wingman when we go out for a
drink or ten.
    I get back
to my work for a moment, being careful to follow Barry’s directions despite his
rudeness earlier and overall creepiness.
     

Chapter Two
    My phones buzzes.
     
    Email: [New Order] Two (2) Cases Energize – Delivery to
432 Park Ave. | 8pm
     
    Shit. Why did we offer same day delivery?
    In the spare time I have not being Barry’s personal slave, I
started an all-organic juice cleanse project with my roommate Piper. We call it
Namaste. She usually handles the grunt work while I do the web design,
branding, and marketing.
    We’re starting small and delivering to addresses in
Manhattan. We’ve picked up over a hundred orders in our first three months and
having a lot of fun with it. Plus, at $9 a bottle, we’re pulling in almost a
thousand dollars a week from New York’s richest and finest.
    My phone buzzes again, it’s Piper. “Hey, can you take care
of the new order? I’d take it, but I’m covering a double shift at O’Malley’s
right now!”
    Making our Namaste juices is the fun part. The hard part is
everything else, and delivery is one of the toughest challenges. Today’s order
for two cases came just short of cut-off time, 4:59pm. How was I going to
finish my work, get the two cases of juice, and make the 8pm delivery time in
midtown Manhattan?
    Piper and I usually have our friend Jorge help us with
deliveries. He’s a bike messenger and can navigate the sea of NYC taxi cabs,
trucks, and pedestrians better than anyone. But, he’s home in Los Angeles for
the next two weeks.
    I message back Piper, “No problem, I’m on it!”
    In the next hour and a half, I fire off several emails, make
a few