The Work Hub was a beautiful if slightly eerie space. The entire thing was made up of five circular buildings, each three storeys high so as to remain unobtrusive and not rise above the surrounding homes. From the entrance you could see straight up to the domed glass roof while the offices on each floor circled the perimeter.
‘Every office looks onto this “nature space”. So you can hear the waterfall and look at all the green, see the sky. They’ve done all the research on how this improves productivity blah blah.’ Lindy rolled her eyes and led Finn over to the sloping ramp that gradually rose up to the upper floors.
‘It was inspired by the Guggenheim in New York, and the free-snack game absolutely slaps.’
‘Hey, Lindy.’ George, a guy from crescent F, greeted them as he passed going down.
‘It’s so crazy to be working near other people again. I left Heart Mind Solutions five years ago, like! And I was sleep-walking through the last one with everything that happened.’
Finn nodded gently. ‘Of course you were – Christ, you didn’t pause for a minute.’ She shook her head. ‘I always felt bad for not intervening and making you take a rest,’ she admitted.
‘No!’ Lindy stopped just as they came to the first floor. ‘I wouldn’t have listened to anyone at the time. What would I have done? I wasafraidto slow down. And, what? Be with my thoughts? Horrific.’
‘Sis …’ Finn leaned in for a hug and Lindy grabbed her arms.
‘Absolutely not, Fionnuala! This is not us.’ She laughed. ‘Slag me quick. Say something cutting – you’re weirding me out.’
Finn laughed. ‘From behind I can see that these high-waisted pants are absolutely riding you. It’s grotesque, frankly.’
‘I know! What is the deal? Everyone just goes around never talking about this major issue with high-waisted pants.’ Lindy feigned outrage. ‘Especially the swishy ones. They just glide up there. At least with the jeans there’s enough friction or something to keep them in their place.’
‘It’s got to be the patriarchy,’ Finn said solemnly. ‘I’m convinced they hold a summit every year to decide what debilitating fashions will be on trend next.’
They carried on, and a little further down the curved white corridor, Lindy opened the third door on the right. ‘Here it is.’
‘OK, this is gorgeous.’
‘They have a crazed mandate that everyone’s office is pure white but you’re allowed to use an “accent colour” to give a personal touch. Obviously I’m going with the pink and red to match the Snag List logo.’ Lindy stepped to the side to show off the large pink and red logo she’d had made and mounted on the wall behind the desk. ‘The’ and ‘List’ were done in cursive lettering in a dark red, while the ‘Snag’ was a pale pink with a few subtle cracks on the ‘g’ done in grey.
‘Oh, that is slick, I love it.’
They sat down on the white chairs. ‘A menstruating person’s nightmare,’ Finn remarked.
‘I’ll get the coffees.’
Finn watched with obvious fascination as Lindy tapped on the Monteray app. ‘I know you told me it was like this, but it really is amazing. I didn’t see a coffee place down there. I can’t evensmellcoffee. Offices always smell like bad coffee, but this place smells like citrus and – what? – eucalyptus. And money.’
A man in a startlingly pristine white suit knocked gently and came in to set the coffees down.
‘Thank you!’ Lindy called as he left again.
‘OK,wheredid he come from?’ Finn was incredulous. ‘That was creepy.’
Finn’s going to have a field day with this, Lindy thought but carried on nonetheless. ‘Sooo … There’s a network of underground tunnels—’
‘They LIVE UNDER GROUND?’ Finn thundered. ‘Oh my God, this isn’t an upper-middle-class enclave: it’s an upper-middle-classdystopia. Jean and Liam’s mildly socialist little hearts will give out when they hear this.’
‘The staff don’tlivehere,’ Lindy argued. ‘They live in their homes. The tunnels, subterranean corridors, are just so the whole place isn’t swarmed with staff all the time.’
‘The more you say, the worse it sounds—’
Lindy was immensely grateful when, at that exact moment, a compact man with glasses and very wiry dark hair ducked his head in through the door.
‘Finn! Howya!’
‘Hi, Patrick. Thank you so much for coming all the way out here. And well done for finding us – I thought you’d call when you got sucked into the beige maze out there.’
‘Lindy! Patrick, great to meet you.’ He waved across to Lindy. ‘I found it grand. Lindy’s website has very clear directions. The website’s looking great, by the way – Finn says it’s still early days with The Snag List.’
