Professional Duties, Professional Mistakes, Professional Confession

Accidents happen. Everyone knows this, but it doesn't make the situation any less embarrassing. This is especially true when it happens in front of a group of peers who get caught in your mistake. It made it even more likely that they weren't going to forget about this incident any time soon, possibly turning it into one big joke around the office.

Trying not to imagine her peers laughing at her, Alex had to bite back her tears as she sat on her knees, mopping away her biggest mistake to date.

Let's start from the beginning. The day had started like any other. Alex had been settled in after four months and was doing quite good for herself. The occasional coworker would pep in a greeting, and she would happily greet them in return. She was a summer flower having blossomed into autumn, bringing a warm and friendly vibe along with her.

Everything she did was done with genuine enthusiasm, from passing papers along to transporting fabrics, yet she still managed to come home feeling energized and accomplished with herself. She could laugh alongside her roommate as they gossiped about work while watching trashy shows, and at work itself she and Nami had become a fully functioning unit. Over time, Alex learned most of Nami's needs, preferences, and regulars she associated with. On multiple occasions, Alex would have whatever Nami needed before she even asked for it. Now it was Alex's turn to be smug while Nami, completely baffled, questioned whether or not Alex was a mind reader.

Yes, indeed. This was going exactly as she had originally planned. It had been rough getting on it and staying there, yet it was paying off greatly. It was only a matter of time before she got that fateful promotion. Then she could be out on the runways and seeing where the fashion world takes her.

The problem began when she got too ahead of herself.

There was a big office meeting about an upcoming photoshoot. From what top should pair with which bottom, to which colors to highlight, and even how the models should be posing were all considered. The people in charge of coordinating this were very visual people who needed to use all of the available space to obtain their vision. This resulted in the floors and walls all being covered in various fabrics, strings, pictures, and the like. It was like a magazine had exploded into a puzzle and the editors needed to help piece it together.

"Does anyone need anything?" Alex asked as she stood by the door, wanting to contribute but not really knowing how. "I was thinking of stopping by the break room really quick, so I can grab a drink or two."

"Black coffee would be great," said one coworker.

"Same," said another coworker.

"Actually, can you get one too? But with a little bit of honey?"

Alex eagerly nodded and mentally noted their orders. "Sure! No problem! Anyone else?"

Taking the opportunity, more people spoke up about their orders. These people were more specific, such as the type of drink they wanted and what to pair with it. Alex quickly realized this was going to be hard to remember and started typing notes into her phone. By the end of it, she had eight orders worth to take care of, and she wondered if this was done on purpose.

Concerned, Nami rose her head up from the rainbow-colored pile she was sorting through and asked, "You okay with all that? Need me to help you?"

Alex immediately shook her head and gave her a confident thumbs up. "Don't worry! I got this! You focus on finishing up what you need to."

Nami frowned in disapproval, but let Alex leave on her own regardless. Alex had a duty to assist where needed, and she wanted to be useful wherever possible. In her mind, having Nami help would go against that since her duties were elsewhere.

However, when Alex started setting up the coffee machine, she ran into a problem. How was she going to make all these drinks efficiently? Starting with the simple ones first would be easier, yet that would mean sitting around longer while she worked on the more complicated ones. So maybe she should work backwards? That was all she could think of as she tried to carefully maneuver through each one, triple-checking her phone to make sure each one was done correctly. She even used a marker to label each cup to prevent any mix-ups. It did feel though that she was taking up a lot of time doing all of this, and she avoided glancing at the clock to confirm her suspicions. At least some of them were teas instead of coffees, so that could be its own separate task during the coffee machine's downtime.

Finally, she placed all of the cups on a tray to carry back into the meeting room. It was a little heavy, but nothing she couldn't manage. Thus, she cautiously paced back towards the meeting room, attempting to both balance the drinks while being as swift as possible to avoid wasting any more time. Fortunately for her, the door had been left opened, so she was ready to just step right on in and put an end to this.

Unfortunately for her, this false sense of security caused her to drop her guard. Since her eyes were locked on to the tray, she failed to see that the reason the door was open was because it was being propped by a long, rectangular box. It had been carelessly discarded there after delivering some important items, which the coordinators snatched up without a second thought to add to the pile.

Just as she was about to exclaim her gracious return, her foot collided with the box, resulting in her body flying forward out of her control. Despite clinging on to the tray, the drinks themselves were not bound to it, and the loss of balance flung them as well. Yellow, green, and brown liquids spilled out of the cups and directly onto the ground, soaking and staining hours of hard work in an instant. Everyone stood there with mouths agape, left utterly speechless. They had been so busy watching the mess unfold that they hadn't noticed Alex had planted her face firmly on the floor during her tumble, with the one thing saving her from a broken nose being a soft, silk dress cushioning her face.

By the time Alex recovered from the shock and lifted her head, all of the staff were frantically scrambling to salvage what they could. Alex blinked once, confused, then looked down, and that was when it hit her. Her mind sank into a pit of despair, knowing full well how much damage she had created.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" she cried as she struggled to sit up.

Rather than help the others, Nami knelled down to check on Alex. "Are you okay? I kept telling them to move that stupid box! Now do you all see why this was a bad idea?!"

"Shut up!" shouted one panicking coworker. "You said it one time and we agreed we were going to move it in a minute. Help us get these stains out! We can still fix this."

Nami scowled and shot the coworker a glare. "Aren't there more important things to worry about?"

"No, it's fine," Alex said, not wanting to make it even worse by starting a fight. "I should have been watching where I was going. I'll help clean all of this up."

"Are you sure?"

Alex forced a smile. "Totally! We can fix this."

Nami had no choice but to go along with it. Through everyone's efforts, most of the materials were saved, and those that didn't could be replaced in a short time. This lifted some of the burden off of Alex, and she was glad Mr. Hironori wasn't here to see what happened. People were assigned to deal with the situation accordingly, and the meeting ended with the staff scattering to where they needed to be.

All that remained was the sludge brown stain on the floor. It was going to stain the carpet soon if nothing was done about it. No one knew how to contact a janitor to clean this mess since it wasn't really their department. It was simply expected that the janitor would come whenever and everything would be clean.

"I'll take care of it," Alex said. "I know where the cleaning supplies are."

"Stop," Nami said, tired and fed up at this point. "You've done enough. We can worry about it tomorrow."

While this was meant to be well-intentioned, it had the opposite effect, driving Alex further. "Let me at least put some stuff on it so it doesn't stain! Please. I don't want to cause any more trouble."

Nami sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Fine. Do what you want. But know that no one blames you for what happened. Accidents happen."

With that said, Alex was the last one to remain. It was the end of the day, so everyone else had gone home. This meant Alex could be alone with her shame as she worked on dealing with her mistake. She found the proper cleaner for the carpet, dumped plenty of it on to the mess, and got down with a sponge to start scrubbing. She should feel bad for lying to Nami, yet her guilt over this incident was much greater.

That was where she was now, desperately trying to redeem herself in any way possible. If she could at least do this, maybe it will all blow over in a week. People usually forget after a while. Then again, what if this means they never trust her with anything again? Will she be excluded from meetings and be stuck at her desk to take calls? That might as well be a demotion.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed someone approach her until she felt a large hand rest on her shoulder.

"Alex..."

"GAH!"

Alex jumped back from the touch, her gloved hands still wrist deep in suds. She then craned her neck up to see the person in question was none other than Mr. Hironori, the last person she wanted to encounter.

"O-Oh..." she said sheepishly as she recomposed herself. "Hello, Mr. Hironori. Did you need something?"

"The janitor is here. You can stop."

He then pointed behind him to reveal the man standing by the door, equipped and ready to go at it. Alex shyly smiled at him and took off her gloves before standing up. Too embarrassed to say anything, she dropped the gloves on the table and walked on out without making eye contact with the janitor. Mr. Hironori tailed behind her, matching her pace once he caught up.

"Nami told me everything," Mr. Hironori explained. "She knew you would do this, which is why I wanted to ensure the issue was settled."

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience," was all Alex could say in response.

"It's fine. This merely set us back a day, so we will be back on schedule soon enough."

Alex suddenly came to a halt, and it took Mr. Hironori a second to stop and turn to look at her. His eyes widened when he saw the state Alex was in. Black tears from her mascara dripped down her cheeks as whatever remained of her emotional stability collapsed, and she was quick to cover her face with her hands to hide her grossness.

"I'm so sorry!" Alex cried. "I just wanted to help, and I only made it worse! Now everyone is going to be stressed about the deadline, and it's all my fault!"

That was all she could get out before she devolved into a sobbing mess, her lonely cries echoing throughout the empty building. For a moment, Mr. Hironori stood there in silence, his face twisting with uncertainty as he debated on what to do. Eventually, he decided on placing a comforting hand on her arm.

"Alex, it's fine. I mean it," Mr. Hironori gently pleaded, his voice softer than usual. "It's because you've been working so hard that we're actually ahead of schedule. Losing a day won't affect the deadline in any way."

Alex sniffled and peeked a glance at him through her fingers. "R-Really?"

"Yes. We all know how diligent you are and that this accident isn't a reflection of your character. The real you is the one who considers other people's feelings, always gets a task done as soon as possible, and remembers a person's preferences down to the smallest detail. You are a smart, friendly, and capable woman worth respecting."

Alex lowered her hands, revealing the melting makeup behind them. Her sobs had ceased, and she hiccuped as she tried to breathe to calm down. Mr. Hironori pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. She accepted it and proceeded to blow all of her snot inside.

"Thanks," she murmured. "I'll... wash this and give it back to you tomorrow."

"Don't worry about it."

A moment passed without either one saying a word, which gave Alex enough time to pull herself together. She dabbed the handkerchief around her face to clean up her makeup so she could at least be presentable on the way home. Didn't want anyone to think she was some kind of sad clown. Aside from her red nose and puffy eyes, she was more or less back to normal. A little naked without all of her makeup, but back to normal regardless.

It was touching, once she thought about it. He didn't have to go through all this for her sake. It didn't sound like he was lying or exaggerating either. If that was true, then every day she had spent so far, all of the tasks she had done, each moment she put her fullest into, had been acknowledged by him.

That should be an accomplishment towards reaching her goal, yet there was more to it. It reminded her that she wasn't doing this for nothing, and that she was being appreciated. It wasn't something you saw too often in the workplace, so she wasn't going to take it for granted. Instead, she'll use it to encourage her to continue on, even if she made a thousand mistakes along the way. She would learn from and overcome each and every one of them.

"God, I'm a mess," Alex said with a laugh. "I keep bouncing up and down like it's either the best day ever or the worst. That's kinda dumb, huh?"

"I think that's normal," Mr. Hironori said, his hand still lingering on her arm. "We all have our good and bad days."

"But it's not really attractive, is it? Being so moody?"

"I don't see how it's relevant. You should handle your emotions how you deem best."

"That's the problem. I don't have a handle on anything. I want to make progress and I know how, but I can't get there."

Mr. Hironori tilted his head, staring at her quizzically. "I don't understand."

"Well, it's like..." Alex gazed down at her feet, knowing this was the worst time to bring it up, but she might as well be rejected now while her eyes were dry. "Like you, for example. I had to go through a lot of self-reflection all over again that I thought I finished ages ago, but wanting to get to know you better made me realize I had some unfinished business."

Mr. Hironori's expression was neutral, making it difficult to read. "And did you finish it?"

"That's the thing. I want to say the answer is yes. I said yes back then too in therapy. Yet what if I'm wrong? What if I missed something? What if I get worse? That's what scares me."

"It scares me as well."

Alex raised her head back up. "You too?"

Mr. Hironori nodded, his eyes glimmering with a hint of sadness. "I've hurt people with my mistakes, and the fear of doing that again haunts me to this day. I lost my wife because I failed her. I want to keep a good relationship with my son and I know precisely how to do it, yet I don't know if I've succeeded. I've worked and studied and learned, but I never know if it's good enough. Thus, I tell myself to do it harder. That way I can't doubt myself."

Alex was stunned, her heart aching after discovering someone who understood how she felt. The joy bubbling in her heart washed away the negative feelings inside, and they eventually rose to the surface in the form of laughter. She laughed hard. So hard that she had to clutch her stomach from how much it hurt.

"Wow, so we're both faking it 'til we make it, huh?" Alex said after calming down.

"I wouldn't call it faking..." He paused before giving her a playful smile. "I would say it's more like putting on a good performance in a play."

She grinned and put on a dramatic flair. "Ah, yes! The world is a stage, and we are all actors!"

They exchanged a light chuckle at that.

Mr. Hironori then did something that took Alex completely by surprise. He placed his other hand on Alex's other arm, basically holding her at this point, as he gazed deeply into her eyes and said the words she never expected to hear.

"I like you. Please go out with me."