Before we became close, we fought. We fought for a chair, she wanted to use the comfiest chair and I wanted the same thing too. We fought with words, we dragged the chair but I overpowered her. She felt terrible and ashamed and I was touched by the expressions on her face. I gave her the chair, she refused to accept it. We never talked to each other even at the close of office. Being very emotional, I wasn’t myself…. Not because she meant anything to me but because the expression on her face showed she was very sad and I was that kind of person who likes to put myself in the shoes of others. I couldn’t sleep at night, I didn’t have her phone number as I would have called to say that I was very sorry.

The next day, I came very early to the office; swept everywhere, took the best chair to her corner and prepared her part of the table. It was around 7:55 am that she walked in, she didn’t greet me but I spelt out her name in a manner I had never done before

“Mercy” I called out, she stood for some seconds and turned back to look at me. She didn’t say anything; she just went on looking into my eyes with ambivalence. It was easy to notice she was just forcing herself to be hard on me, inside of her she was smiling. I continued “I am sorry about yesterday. I never really meant to make you feel bad. I just didn’t want to be the coward. Other colleagues were watching us.”

Well,” she smiled “don’t mind me… It did not get at me that much. I was only faking it” She said coming closer and taking hold of my right hand. I felt something and I liked the feeling.

That was the beginning of our friendship. We became very close that we started talking about private things. She told me lots of stories about her past relationships; she told me how her heart was broken and how she was able to find healing. Before I knew it, I was dialling her at nights and early in the morning just before we would meet at the office. I was becoming obsessed with her and I started sending innocent but very lovey-dovey messages.

Our closeness was no longer a code, the boss became aware, the entire staff including her crush became aware too and I started having issues with practically everyone. One fine Sunday evening, the director called me on the phone. He told me how much interest he had in Mercy, he said he tried to get her sleep with him but he surmised I am the reason she is rejecting him. He asked me to stop talking to her until he is done with her but I never considered that, I even warned him over the phone not minding my job would be terminated. As days passed by he tried so many tactics to insulate her from me but it never worked and most times I would quarrel with him in the public. People wondered why I suddenly loosed respect for a fifty-something-year-old man especially with the fact that I was always quiet, but they never knew what has been going because we all kept it hush-hush.

TO BE CONTINUE READING