“Cuppa?” he asked. “I’m making them for Sue and Helen.”
“That’s nice of you,” she said. “Okay, yeah.”
“Bit early for lunch, isn’t it?” He nodded at her sandwich.
“I’m bored,” she replied. “Needed a break.”
He filled the kettle water and raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, me too. Hence the tea.” After the kettle clunked back into its holder, Krish came closer to Penny and she took a step away. He had one of those wide chests that filled a room. Being short, she hated that sense of being blocked in. “Reckon we can find a way out of this evening invigilation? It’s bad enough that we might be staying late tonight.”
Penny’s gaze dropped to her shoes. She could smell his aftershave. It was an abrasive, masculine combination of citrus and spice. “I doubt it. Helen’s pretty excited about this solution.”
He made a disgusted noise. “Fuck’s sake. I’m this close to being done with this job. It’s shite. We get worked dumped on us like… like we’re just cattle, you know?” He lowered his voice and leaned even closer. “And we have people who don’t pull their weight. Sue. Crazy Justine.”
“Justine isn’t crazy,” Penny pointed out. “She had a nervous breakdown.” She leaned away from him, her fingers gripping the kitchen counter. Slowly they travelled away, back towards the fridge, and her body slowly followed.
“Right,” he said. The kettle boiled, and he moved away from Penny at last. She let out a relieved breath. “Why was that anyway?”
“I don’t know,” Penny said. “I guess Martin and Helen know, but they never said.”
Krish brushed up against her as he opened the fridge door.
“What do you make of this thing with Sue and the spider?” he asked, pulling the milk out of the door shelf, seemingly uninterested in Justine now.
“I don’t blame her for being upset,” Penny said. “Spiders don’t belong in an office. They should be outside.”
“Yeah, but it’s a house spider, isn’t it?”
“It’s still not a pet.”
“True. I guess I just want to see her taken down a notch.” He splashed milk into the mugs.
“Almond for Martin,” Penny said.
Krish slapped her on the shoulder. “Nice one, Pen. Almost messed up there. Don’t want to give the boss the shits now, do I? Anyway, this one’s yours.” He slid a mug across the kitchen counter, and Penny mumbled a thank-you with what she hoped appeared to be a genuine smile.
“Don’t mention it,” he said with a wink.
On the way out of the kitchen, she saw Krish hand Martin the tea. He stopped in the office for a joke. Whatever the joke was, it made Martin crack up. She heard his laughter all the way back to her desk. Meanwhile, Sue was still dabbing her eyes with a tissue at her desk.
11
12:30 p.m
Sue found another obnoxious note on the microwave: Humans shouldn’t live like pigs. She crumpled it up, opened the microwave door and tossed it inside. If it was Helen leaving these notes—as she suspected—then Helen, with her upturned little pig nose, could hardly talk. She snatched her tuna sandwich and éclair from the fridge and stormed back to her desk. Krish stood up almost immediately as she sat down. She flashed him a glare. She’d heard him giggling like a schoolgirl in Martin’s office. She knew he enjoyed her fear.
Across the other side of the office, Helen was putting on her jacket and picking up her bag. Another lunchtime date for miss snooty pants then. She wondered what Helen was like as a girlfriend. One of those who demanded designer bags at Christmas and took selfies on a spa day. Helen was the kind to give up her job as soon as she was married, force her husband into debt, and then cheat on them with an estate agent. That was exactly what had happened to her poor Christopher. What a waste of a daughter-in-law Fiona had become. Sue was still helping Chris pay off his debts. It was one of the reasons she hadn’t retired yet.
While tucking into her sandwich, Sue noticed Martin catch up to Helen at the office door, and the two of them left together. Oo-err. Could they be knocking boots? Martin never stopped complaining about his wife, so Sue wouldn’t be at all surprised. She took a large bite, still considering the potential office affair. She grinned to herself, then decided to share her ideas.
“Penny,” she whispered through the wall of her computer screen, cheeks squished up against the plastic rim. “Do you reckon they’re an item?”
Penny glanced towards the office door with what Sue reckoned to be a horrified expression, then her chubby cheeks went bright red. The girl lowered her eyes and shook her head. “No.”
Sue felt like rolling her eyes. She was only trying to have a bit of fun here. Justine would’ve had fun speculating about Martin and Helen’s love life. Even though Penny was in her twenties, she was such a fuddy-duddy.
Sue smelled Krish’s return before she heard him approach. She had to clip her nose with her fingers and stared at the white blinds, wishing the windows opened.
“I can see you, Sue,” Krish said, sitting down with a Tupperware box filled with some sort of lumpy orange food.
Sue removed her fingers from her nose. “I’m sorry, Krish. I just don’t like the smell.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s pretty obvious.”
She put her sandwich back inside its box. “Well, it’s quite inconsiderate. Don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I’m Indian. I eat Indian food. Get over it.”
Here we go, she thought, pursing her lips tightly together, trying to hold in the anger simmering deep within, threatening to overspill. She ate the rest of her sandwich in silence, her jaw working faster and faster with each mouthful. Derek would’ve had some choice words for Krish, she knew that much.
“By the way, I hate the smell of tuna,” Krish said.
“I’m English. I eat English food. Get over it,” Sue snapped.
“Oh, fuck off.”
“How dare you speak to a lady like that!”
“Lady?” Krish laughed loudly and obnoxiously.
Sue felt tears brimming in her eyes. She couldn’t believe the level of disrespect she was facing from this… this… young man. What happened to respecting your elders?
“Don’t pull the waterworks,” Krish said. “I’m sick of you racist white ladies saying this shit and then crying whenever you get called out for it.”
“I am not racist.”
“Yeah, whatever. I heard you telling Justine you voted for Brexit.”
“That’s none of your business! For what it’s worth, I don’t see colour,” she said, staring at the rain hitting the window, no longer willing to look him in the eye in case he saw her tears. “I just see good manners and bad manners.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she vaguely saw him shake his head. She took her éclair and moved over to the other side of the room where she could watch the flow of the river and eat without smelling his vile food. She noticed that the river level had risen since the morning. Shouldn’t the rain have stopped by now?