[ WP ] The entire world is colorless - unless you 're touching your soulmate .

`` Hi, I'm Shane Mathers. Welcome to the company! We're excited to have you! I'll be your mentor for the next couple of weeks, to help you get adjusted.'' 
 
 Big fake grin. Eye contact. Check. 
 
 Extend hand, shake twice, release. Check. 
 
 Idle chit chat as we walk to HR for on-boarding paperwork. I do n't even hear them speaking anymore. Nod, smile. Check. 
 
 Hand off to their HR rep. Friendly platitude. Never see them again. Check. 
 
 `` Human Resources Administrative Assistant'' is n't exactly a glorious title to begin with, but after 7 years, it's become something of a waking nightmare. Live by the schedule, day in and day out, each day more identical than the last. Sometimes weeks go by unnoticed. 
 
 08:00 - 11:00: New Employee Greetings 
 
 Employee turn over at a large call center is astronomically high. Our 30 day retention rate is 13 %, so we have to do a lot of hiring. That number went up to 15 % once. We had cake to celebrate, and spent 30 minutes patting ourselves on the back for doing such a great job, even though we had n't done anything different. It fell back to 13 % the next month. 
 
 Back to the reception area to wait for the next poor, doomed soul to walk in, so I can pretend to grin and welcome them to what will surely be an unpleasant week of employment. The lines in my face are deeper from the false grin than from the real one. 
 
 I'm on auto-pilot, not really thinking, when she walks in. A young woman, maybe 24, shoulder length hair, dressed smartly in a knee length skirt, billowy top, and sensible heels. She's not stunningly beautiful, but pretty in a real-life sort of way. I let my eyes follow her over to the guard's desk. The old guy is on duty today, and he's currently eating an orange. He barely acknowledges her presence as she announces that she's here for orientation. 
 
 I make my move, big fake grin and all. I extend my arm as I approach. 
 
 `` Hi, I'm Shane Mathers. Welcome to the company! We're excited to have'' 
 
 And that's when the world exploded. 
 
 Not literally, of course, but when our hands touched, something happened. Nothing changed, but everything did. I was still there, in the same old reception area, but something had happened to... everything. It all turned beautiful. 
 
 I glanced down at my hand, to find that my arm was... different. The words to describe it were there in my mind, but I could n't quite get hold of them. My arm, my hand, her hand, her arm - also different, but lighter. Her top, no longer lightly shaded, but a brilliant, aching version of the guard's orange. Her skirt, similar to the leaves on the ficus in the corner behind her, but much brighter, almost electric. Her shoes were almost identical to the guard's uniform, dark and soothing. The combination of the three was nauseating to look at. I wanted to stare at her forever. 
 
 It dawned on me that this must be what my parents had talked so much about. The Colors. When you touch your soul-mate, they'd said, The Colors happened to you, and that was how you knew you'd found them. They'd spent hours, days trying to describe what they saw when they touched each other, but I'd never really understood until now. These were The Colors, and this girl was my soul-mate. I suddenly wished I'd been paying attention when she introduced herself to the guard. 
 
 I'd heard about The Colors from others, of course, but it was n't a common topic of conversation. From time to time, I'd hear about so-and-so, who got The Colors with the manager at the grocery store, and they ran off to get married, or how a friend-of-a-friend got The Colors from a dental hygienist, and boy was his wife pissed off. Most people never found their soul-mate ( and with 7 billion people on the planet, the odds were beyond even false-hope ), so it did n't come up that often. But, staring wide-eyed around what had moments before been a bleak, featureless office building entrance, I was shocked that all of humanity was n't lined up to touch each other at least once. 
 
 A tug reminded me that I was sharing this experience with another person, and that I was still holding her hand while I gawked at the every day objects around us. I looked back at her beautiful, wondrous face ( I was delighted to notice that her eyes were a lighter version of her shoes ) to find it etched with confusion, and a little bit of fear. I knew how she felt, it was a lot to take in all at once. 
 
 `` I'm sorry, that was just... intense. So, do we get married now?'' I asked, trying to regain some sense of composure. 
 
 `` Excuse me?'' 
 
 `` Well, I just, you know, thought that was the next step.'' 
 
 `` Next step?'' She tugged her hand again, but I held firm. I never wanted this to end. 
 
 `` Yeah, I mean, we're soul-mates, right? Why not get married?'' 
 
 Anger replaced confusion and fear on her face. 
 
 `` Look, I do n't know what this is, but I do n't need the job this bad. I'm leaving.'' With a jerk, she pulled her hand free, and turned for the door. Immediately, The Colors snapped back out of the world, taking all the beauty with them. Their absence was crushing. I stood stunned for a moment as she walked out the door, whistling for the bus pulling up to the corner stop. 
 
 `` Wait! Please!'' I shouted, chasing her out onto the sidewalk, `` That was The Colors, I know it! We're soul-mates!'' 
 
 Ahead of me, she slowed and turned, still angry, still retreating. 
 
 `` The what?'' 
 
 `` The Colors!'' I pleaded `` You know, when you touch your soul-mate, you see The Colors? It was amazing, you had to have seen it too!'' 
 
 One foot onto the bus now, she finally stopped. 
 
 `` You saw The Colors when you touched me?'' She asked. 
 
 `` Yes, of course. Did n't you?'' 
 
 Anger drained from her face. She looked sad, sorrowful even. 
 
 `` No. I'm so, *so* sorry, but I did n't see anything. I have to go now. Good bye.''
