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Melanie had told Georgie by text to just wait for her in the ground floor’s waiting room when she came to pick her up from the Institute that evening.
Georgie had thought about replying “no, it’s fine, I can go down to the archives,” but ultimately decided not to. She didn’t want to overstep any possible boundaries, not now.
She was still thinking about the events of the night before, after she picked Melanie up from therapy. First the drinks, then the touches, then that conversation. The feelings finally admitted. The feelings, requited.
So she just stayed in the waiting room, and sat on one of the wooden chairs. There was only one other person in the room: a man, not tall nor short, not fat nor thin, with short brown hair, reading a magazine. He wore a checkered shirt, a dark blue bowtie and purple pants just a bit short that revealed his fluffy pink socks, as well as a pair of crocs. It was definitely an… interesting combination.
When the man noticed Georgie, he raised his eyes from the magazine.
“Are you here to give a statement?” he asked, polite yet curious, with an American accent.
“No, I’m just waiting for my girlfriend, she works here” she replied. It was her very first time referring to Melanie as her girlfriend in conversation with someone else. The word felt strange in her mouth. Girlfriend, girlfriend, girlfriend. She felt the urge to say it over and over again, but instead decided to continue talking to the stranger: “Are you? Here to give a statement, I mean.”
“No, I’m waiting for my husband, but I’ve heard some people come here to give statements.”
“Does your husband also work here?” Georgie wondered who it could be, but she quickly remembered she didn’t really know anyone who worked in that building outside the archives.
“No, he’s a scientist, he’s just here to contrast a few statements and reports to the anomalies he’s studying.” Georgie had no idea actual scientists cared about the Magnus Institute, but apparently at least one did. “We’re from America, we’re here in London on holiday, and when he heard about this place, he insisted we had to come here. However, apparently members of the public cannot access certain areas without academic credentials, so I have to wait here for him. I’m not an academic, I’m a radio host.”
It was obvious that the man felt like talking, but Georgie wasn’t annoyed. She was also quite in a friendly mood, actually.
“That’s kind of similar to what I do. I have a podcast,” she replied.
“Oh, what kind of podcast?”
“It’s about ghosts, for each episode I research a different ghost story. It’s called What the Ghost?”
“And how’s a job like that? I’ve considered dipping my toes in podcasting at some point. I have plenty of experience recording myself speaking.”
“It’s okay, I guess. Better than a 9 to 5, for sure, at least for me. If you do well, you can make some money selling merch, but obviously a lot of the revenue comes from ads, and sometimes there can be some… weird sponsors.”
“Really?”, the man asked, curious.
“Yeah, sometimes. For example, this morning I received a box from a subscription company with all these weird types of meat. Which maybe doesn’t sound that bad out loud, but I’m a vegetarian, so I have no idea what to do with it. And I’ve mentioned that fact so many times online. I mean, I don’t expect the companies that contact me to have heard every single of my episodes but maybe do a little bit of research beforehand, you know?” the man nodded. “But I have to pay the bills, so whatever, I guess, I can’t exactly choose to reject sponsors. You probably don’t have many weird sponsor problems in radio, right? I bet it’s all a bit better organized; you probably have an actual advertising department. I just have to do it all myself.”
“Yes, we have people doing that, I’ve never had to contact sponsors myself. And most ads are pretty normal, you know; also, in community radio we have to keep everything family friendly. So it’s all normal companies, many of them very well-known, and standard topics for the ads: the inevitability of death, the vastness of the universe, the loneliness inherent to the human experience…”
The man’s expression gave no clue of that being a joke, so Georgie was very confused for a second, but she finally caught that and chuckled.
“Yeah,” she said. “I think the weirdest sponsor I ever had was this dating site that matched people based on their browser history. It was so creepy.”
“Wouldn’t that go against the government?”
“I mean, yeah, you would expect that to be against data protection laws, but…” Georgie shrugged.
“No, I mean, systematically compiling personal data about people’s dating life is a competence of the government or the local city council. You know, the date reports and all that.”
“The what?” Georgie asked, but then their conversation was interrupted by the sound of two sets of footsteps. Melanie walked into the room, looking tired, and Georgie smiled and stood up. Behind her came a man in a lab coat with gorgeous dark hair, carrying a pile of photocopied paper in his arms.
“How was it, babe?” asked the radio host, walking up to who Georgie deduced was his scientist husband.
“Oh, this place is so interesting. I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, but I discovered a few statements about spiders that could be related to the throat spiders in Night Vale, and…” the men’s voices trailed off as they walked out of the room and towards the exit of the building.
“How was your day?” Georgie asked Melanie as she put her coat on.
“I had to deal with that guy,” she replied, sounding absolutely done.
“Oh, was he annoying?”
“I mean, he was quite nice, but he asked so many questions and there was no one else in the archives so I had to assist him… As much as I try to not do any actual work while I’m trapped here, sometimes this happens. I almost told him to fuck off a thousand times, but, you know, I’m trying to be… better.”
“I’m proud of you” Georgie said, holding her hand.
“Thanks.”
“Do you want to come to my house for dinner? I have some meat that I can cook for you.”
“Meat? You?” Melanie asked, confused.
“I’m not going to eat it, of course, but I have this box full of meat at my house and I need to do something with it” Georgie explained, as they exited the waiting room.
“Why do you have a box full of meat?”
“Okay, so there was this sponsor…”