Excerpt from The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Then input the date at the top of the form in the far right-hand column of the Database."

It made her nervous to have someone watch so intently as she performed such a simple, stupid task, typing 09072013.

But then she noticed that this was tomorrow's date. She weighed the benefit of catching an error against the rudeness of pointing it out, and mustered all her boldness.

"Shouldn't it be today's date?" she said.

"Place the file in Outgoing," The Person with Bad Breath ordered, pointing at the metal file holder on the desk.

Josephine was ashamed by the visible shakiness in her wrist as she pressed the file into place. The Person with Bad Breath took a step back and, presumably, eyed her, though it was hard to tell with those reflective glasses.

"Next file," The Person with Bad Breath said.

Josephine reached for the next file and opened it. JEAL/PALOMA/CHACO. She searched for the HS number; cross-checked (all correct); input the date on the form (09062013); placed the file in Outgoing.

"Flawless execution," The Person with Bad Breath commended.

Josephine felt a rush of tenderness toward her new boss.

"Perhaps you will find this work tedious," The Person with Bad Breath said. "It is also highly confidential. Not to be discussed with anyone at all. Including him." The "him" added suggestively, almost aggressively.

Josephine nodded. She would have nodded to anything.

"Good skin, good eyes," The Person with Bad Breath muttered, or maybe Josephine misheard, but, eager to please, she continued to nod. "HS89805242381, got it?"

"Yes," Josephine lied.

Hourly rate $XX.XX (not so very much, but so very much more than nothing), benefits, tax paperwork, the stuff of life, direct deposit in case of a change of address, sign here, 9:00 a.m. Monday, and off she went, employed, regurgitated by the concrete compound out into the receding day.

Excerpted from The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips. Copyright © 2015 by Helen Phillips. Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.