For today’s reading pleasure, Althea would like to rec The Cube by Sdfreeze.
REC SENT FROM INSANEMUM:
With so much heartfail and angst around at the moment (hello, have you read “Just Wait” lately!), I really needed a good laugh to bring me back to reality – and this little fic delivered in spades. It was quick to read and laugh out loud funny – really! – like other members of your household staring at you like you’ve finally cracked funny. It was a breath of fresh air and the one-liners are gold. Haven’t had so much fun in ages. I don’t know why this hasn’t been rec’d. It’s only got about 118!!! Deserves more.

SUMMARY:
Bella works in a cube, for a company, answering emails. She’s a squiggle, not a square – so the cube is not really her thing. Her brain filter is set to “off” and consequently the most outrageous things often come out of her mouth. Edward sure looks like a square, but can Bella get him to reveal his inner squiggliness? Edward’s sexual history comes back to haunt him and the hilarity ensues. No-one remains unscathed once Bella swings into action to claim Edward and preserve his honour.
ALTHEA’S REVIEW:

Bella brings us into the mind-numbing world of The Cube.
Those who have worked in the soul crushing environment of office life will delight in the world of this story, the quirky characters that inhabit it, and for the love of god, our crazy-assed, funny narrator, Bella.

Bella is truly a squiggle in a world of squares. Her days are so mind numbing that she finds little ways to liven them up:

I didn’t really have a dog, I found the picture online and thought it was cute, so I put it in a frame and called it my dog, Sami. It sits next to the picture of my two sisters, which I don’t really have, either. I tell everyone I’m adopted, but they love me as if I was their actual sister. In reality I’m an only child.

We meet her coworker Edward, who is so neat that Bella is convinced he is a serial killer. But he’s actually the son of the boss. And don’t be put off by the T rating — oh yes, there’s sex. It’s just not graphic and anatomical in its description. Following sex there is drama, but it’s captured through the quirky lens of Bella’s dry humor, where even pissed off, Bella is highly entertaining:

I struggled to find the perfect thing to wear. It had to say I was good in bed, and he would never experience it again. It also had to say I didn’t need him and some ugly, frigid woman could have his babies. And the final requirement had to be something that said, if it was all a misunderstanding I forgive him and wanted to do him in the car at lunch.

The whole gang is there: Alice is a coworker, Rose is her roommate, Jasper is her boss, Emmett works in the company’s warehouse. Bella seems to be the only one who can think outside of the box, so she is the go-to for hatching creative schemes. I love how everyone tries to confide in a Bella who is incapable of listening! LOL

“Bella,” Eric said as he rolled his eyes at me, “Don’t you listen to anything?”

I had an epiphany…I never listened to anything… But, surely it was an inherited problem, squiggles don’t listen, and forcing myself to do it would be the same as trying to be a square. My entire body shuddered at the thought. I heard laughter and looked over to see Edward, ah, and Eric laughing together, damn it, I should have listened to what they were saying.

Bella is infinitely entertaining. Girlfriend can never seem to remember where she works or what they do. Just that she’s a squiggle of a girl trapped in a world of squares.

Mr. Marcus smiled at me and shook his head, people do that a lot to squiggles, but we don’t mind because the joke is really on them, the stupid squares.

All you fellow squiggles will love seeing one of our own redefine the shape of the world around her. It’s a quick, fun read and it’s complete.

Sdfreeze has also written a continuation of the world of these characters called Tilt, which is also complete.

EDIT: She has just released a third part, Drift, making it a trilogy.