The Meeting in Room 1224

Helena stopped in front of the door marked 1224 and gulped. She checked her phone one more time, verified that it was the correct address, and knocked.

She was a contributor for an online magazine, and it made her happy that her articles were usually chosen to be published. Last week, she got an invite to a face-to-face meeting with the other contributors of the mag, and despite her social anxiety, she decided to go for it. Her mom said she needed to be more social anyway.

She counted to ten, hoping no one would answer, then she could just run away and pretend this never happened. On ten, she turned to leave, but heard the sound of the handle getting turned and the door creaking open. She froze in place.

“Hey! Are you here for the web mag meeting today?” A lilting, friendly voice came from the door. She turned to see a girl in black clothes and black lipstick smile at her widely. Hesitating, she nodded.

“Awesome! Come in!” The girl in black lipstick led her inside the room, where a group of around 10 people sat around a long table. She looked around, not finding a familiar face, and started playing with the rings on her fingers.

“Hi, everyone! Please welcome- sorry, what’s your name again?”

She whispered, “Helena.”

The girl touched her arm and squeezed it. “What a lovely name,” she said with a smile. “Guys, this is Helena. She’s here for the meeting today.”

A few gave acknowledging nods, and someone shouted, “Hi Helena!”

Helena nodded shyly in reply.

The girl led her to an empty seat. She sat down, placing her bag on her lap, and watched as her hostess sat right next to her. “Oh, so you’re the Helena who has been sending us those thoughtful articles. They were very good, you know.”

She blushed. “Thank you.”

The girl suddenly smacked her forehead. “Oh, goodness me, I haven’t even introduced myself. I’m Amalia, but you can just call me Amy. I’m one of the editors, as you no doubt know.” Amy grinned at her. “But I’m really glad you decided to come along! It’s always nice when we see new faces and have new people join us.”

Helena nodded. “I’m glad I came too… Thank you for the welcome.”

“Of course! We are very happy to have you here. So just get comfortable, and we’ll start the meeting in a few minutes.” Amy tapped the shoulder of the guy beside her. He was kind of cute, with his curly hair and intelligent eyes, and Helena tried hard not to blush more.

“Hey Jay, brief Helena, will you? I just got to set stuff up so we can finally start. And Helena, once again, welcome!” Amy nodded as she got up and moved to the projector. Jay, in the meantime, sat next to her, smiling.

“So you’re Helena,” he started, saying the words with a hint of a Spanish accent, while looking intensely into her eyes. “Your last article on video game villains was great.”

Helena blushed and looked away. “Th-thanks. I do prefer a good villain over your typical chosen one hero.”

He laughed. “Oh, definitely. I do too. I plan to make an article about it soon too. I started doing research – if you could call spending three hours on a particular video game “research” – about…”

She leaned back as she listened to him, and relaxed into her seat. Maybe attending the meeting wasn’t so bad after all.

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Inspired by a PWOA meeting. Learn more: http://playwithoutapology.com/

For the people of the PC VC.

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Image source: pexels.com/photo/two-woman-chatting-1311518/
First written April 1, 2018.
#176