A short piece about office life for this Halloween season

The utter drudgery of revising TPS reports sent Phoebe's mind wandering. She thought about the pumpkin bisque that was simmering in the slow cooker back in her apartment, and planned to pop a couple sourdough breadsticks from the freezer in the oven while she dressed for dinner and did her makeup, after taking a shower to wash off the day's worries. It hadn't been that long since her last laser treatment, so she didn't need to shave anywhere and the shower should go quickly. She wiggled her toes to be reminded of the deep cherry polish on her toenails. If it had been a Friday she'd be able to do up her fingers to match, but it wasn't. Maybe she'd just paint them with one coat of color without attaching the fakes, just so they wouldn't clash.

Phoebe realized that if she was sure her toes would be visible, she must have already decided which shoes she wanted, and her silver open-toed d'Orsay pumps immediately sprang to mind. So apparently she was going to dress for dinner more formally than usual. Of course the real motivator was that new blue dress that had arrived the day before. It had looked absolutely gorgeous on the webpage; she just had to get it! But it was a "body conscious" style, and that would mean wearing her most complicated foundation garments underneath to get the right shape. Ironically, she hated being conscious of her body but loved having to force her figure into curves.

She thought the dress would work well with her shorter blonde wig with the messy waves. Its bangs came down far enough that if she combed her eyebrows they wouldn't look too thick. She was pretty sure that she'd be able to nail the latest eyeshadow technique from her favorite artist's YouTube channel, so they'd be the focus of her look and she wouldn't want to draw too much attention from her eyes with a really bright lipstick or jewelry that was too flashy. Maybe just simple silver hoops to coordinate with her shoes, a couple wrist bangles, a simple crystal pendant pointing at her enhanced cleavage, and the diamond solitaire she'd bought to wear on her left ring finger because no one else was ever going to get her one.

"Isn't that great?" Phoebe snapped out of her reverie to realize that Josh was standing at the cubicle doorway and must have been talking for a while.

"Sorry, I was concentrating on these reports. What did you say?"

Josh smirked. "Zoning out over actual work stuff? I guess that's why they promoted you. Anyway, I said that the bosses decided that to improve morale, everyone can come into work in a costume next Friday, for Halloween. Won't that be great? Just imagine if Becky from Accounting shows up as a sexy tiger or something – it'll be awesome, dude!"

Phoebe shrugged, and Josh left to go share his news with someone who'd share his enthusiasm. Costume Day wouldn't be anything special for Phoebe, just like every other day she'd be coming into work pretending to be a guy named Harold.