Page 30 of Little Miss Fortune

‘Well, yeah, many things to make it work.’

I turn his face to the window on the finance system—an order for 1500 units of... everything. It went down the list, selected the maximum quantity we have set, and placed an order for everything.

‘Fukoh!’ Steven shouts from his side of the office, not with a reprimanding tone but with a concerned one.

Toby gapes at the numbers, eyebrows rising in confusion.

‘If this was filmed, it would’ve been huge for the Specsavers campaign.’ My deadpan facial expression sets Toby off in hysterical laughter as he walks with me to explain the situation.

It takes us about two hours to manually delete all the POs that have been sent out. After, the IT department looks at my laptop with absolute fascination, like doctors seeing something they’ve only read in textbooks. I’m in no trouble at all, because just like the doctors, they have never seen a bug like this before.

This situation raises the question—is there something out there that’s making my luck worse?

And why do I have a feeling it might wear tweed and glasses?

CHAPTER 9

Tricky tricky FM tricky

‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,’ Fawzia keeps repeating.

‘It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine,’ the two of us say back.

The girl who was on holiday in the Bahamas quit her job to marry a digital nomad she met three weeks ago and become a reiki therapist. Fawzia is so busy with press releases that she doesn’t have time to fill this role. So Toby and I are sitting together over a lunch break, making job ads for the position, and going through HR to get the job description and pay grade.

‘Welcome to internships. You never know what your next job is going to be. Recruitment today, bin woman tomorrow,’ Toby says with a slightly cheeky tone.

He is being normal today, not overly flirtatious. I’ve heard from Sashka that the date on Saturday went well. I was probably imagining things last week. Work was stressful and new; my period was coming; Saturn was returning; blah-blah, honya-rara.

My phone is on the desk in front of me, with a silent amulet attached. Since getting this job, I haven’t heard the bell ring. I don’t fully believe in it... but I don’t not believe in it, which is why I insist Toby check over everything twice. Then, I ask him to press the Send button.

‘Fuko, you will have to be a brave girl one of these days and send things yourself.’

‘I know, and that will happen. I just don’t want things to go wrong right now,’ I say, remembering the faux pas with the POs.

And because I want Fawzia to be impressed by me. Her being impressed might secure me this job, so I can’t let my bad luck ruin this right now. Later, fine—but not right now that my brain is steaming at all the different forms and requirements.

‘How would my pressing the buttons impact the outcome?’

‘Because you have better luck.’

‘Right, and you have?’

‘Small misfortune. Unless the bell rings.’ I point at my phone.

The comment startles Toby so much that he pushes my laptop away from me, his laptop away from him, and leans towards me, as much as is socially acceptable. ‘What could you possibly mean by that?’

He is getting bored and needs something to do. Recruitment is so tedious that even I, in desperate need of a win, bite on the bait to take a break. ‘I have small misfortune. Unless the bell rings.’

‘Pardon, sorry, can you repeat that again? Because I think I just heard you be... insane?’

‘All people have inherent fortunes. I have always had small misfortune.’

‘I need more. You are scraping the surface. Please proceed.’ He reaches out to my elbow and pulls me to face him.

I sigh; he looks eager and annoying.

‘Bad and good things happen to everyone, but there are patterns that help me recognise if someone has big luck, small luck, small misfortune, or big misfortune. I have small misfortune, as I’ve said three times now, which is why I keep socks in my bag, because even if it’s sunny, rain will get to me. One time, a crate of water bottles fell off a truck and completely flooded my shoes.’