12
1:36 p.m
Krish had left the Tupperware container on his desk for almost an hour while he browsed phones on the internet. He was thinking of getting a second phone. Not a replacement but one he could use that Jas didn’t know about. He enjoyed watching the curry congeal as he scrolled through rows of products. In fact, he’d even left a bit to grow cold just to annoy Sue. And why not? He had to put up with her biscuit crumbs all over the desk. Some days she ate cheese and pickle sandwiches that smelled like death. Tuna he hated too. Why should she be the one to make faces and hold her nose? He was sick of it. Sick of all these people. Sick of this job. Sick of not having the money to do something worthwhile with his life. But what was the alternative? No matter what office he joined, there would be the same old story. Not that there were any jobs going anyway. It wasn’t like he had a talent or any business acumen. He was stuck.
When the door opened and Helen walked in, he quickly gathered up his lunch things and headed to the kitchen. She didn’t need to know he’d taken the full hour for his lunch or that he’d left dirty dishes at his desk.
Inside the kitchen, he cast a stern glare in the direction of the microwave. Sue had been in the kitchen before him. She must’ve been the one who screwed up the Post-it note and put it inside the microwave. It had to be her. When he came in earlier for the tea round, he’d seen it still there. Then, an hour later, a few minutes after Sue collected her sandwich, it’d been discarded. Putting it inside the microwave was an… What was it? A message? An act of defiance? War? Why couldn’t people just clean up after themselves?
Krish whistled a nursery rhyme as he scraped away the remnants of his lunch and washed up the cutlery. He felt his phone vibrate and removed it from the pocket of his slacks.
Can we talk? I miss you. Xxxx
He texted back: I’ll call after work. Then a moment later. Miss you too. He smiled to himself and carried on whistling.
He almost didn’t see it. In fact, he turned fully towards the kitchen door before realising he’d seen something different than usual. He had to swivel back to investigate more thoroughly.
Nothing ever changed in this kitchen. There were always mugs on the drainer, coffee grinds around the cafetière, and spoons in the sink. The bulletin board had not been updated since the 2015 Christmas party flyer. Since then—when Justine took over planning events—everything had been done online. Nothing ever needed to be printed again.
But there was a new printout on the board.
Krish leaned in to read it. He stopped whistling and raised his eyebrows.
13
1:38 p.m
Penny wandered into the kitchen to rinse out her mug. She saw Krish staring at a printout. Intrigued, she moved closer and read it over his shoulder:
Martin: Sorry bout before, babe. Just shits and giggles, u know. U OK?
Helen: Totally fine. Still think you should get shut of that spider though.
Martin: LOL. Hag feet will just have to put up with it. If it was anyone but her…
Helen: I know…
Martin: Was Penny late again today?
Helen: Yeh. 15 mins. And there’s a toothpaste stain on her top.
Martin: She’s been piling it on too. Fit to fat.
It was a printed version of a Messenger conversation. Krish straightened up and regarded her.
“Wow,” he said.
She didn’t respond.
“Sorry they said that. Pretty unprofessional.”
She didn’t know what to say. She moved towards the board and read it again.
14
1:40 p.m
Sue did not want to go into the kitchen, not when he was in there, but she had a telephone message for Penny, and she was completely stuck on how to transfer a student onto the database. She had a feeling she’d duplicated some students and created a bit of a mess, but she didn’t want to admit to it.
Helen had been extremely quiet since she’d come back from her lunch date (Martin was still absent). In fact, Helen was sitting at her desk, eating sushi from a plastic container. So, if she hadn’t been on a lunch date, where did she go instead?
Sue cast Helen a quick side-eye as she made her way to the kitchen, but Helen didn’t even notice her. When she entered, she saw both Krish and Penny staring at a piece of paper on the noticeboard.
“Um, I think you’re going to want to see this,” Krish said, pointing at the paper.
Sue leaned in. She saw a standard sheet of white A4 paper pinned into the cork with a drawing pin. Printed onto that paper were bubbles of blue and grey. On one side were comments from Martin. Their Martin?
She skimmed the comments and then she read them again. Hag feet? HAG FEET? She felt a rush of heat flash up from her collarbone to her temples. Martin was calling her hag feet. She glanced down at her bare feet and was sure that she heard Krish smother a laugh with a cough. Then she realised that Martin had also called Penny fat.
“Who’s the other one?”
“It has to be Helen,” Krish said. “Which one of us printed this out?”
“Well, it obviously wasn’t me,” Sue replied. She folded her arms, now extremely aware of her feet.
“It wasn’t me either,” Krish said.
“It wasn’t me,” Penny said.
Krish let out a laugh. “It can’t have been Martin or Helen!”
“Has anyone else been up?” Sue asked. “Someone from reception? One of the IT guys? That’s it, isn’t it? One of the IT guys probably saw the conversation when they were fixing something and thought it would be funny to print it out.”
“But I haven’t seen any IT guys,” Krish said.
“I did.” Penny raised a finger. “About an hour ago when you two were…” Her doll-like eyes widened as she trailed off. “I saw, umm, Kevin? Keith?”
“Kevin,” Krish said.
“Keith,” Sue said.
“Yeah. Well, he came in, did something to Helen’s computer and left the back way.”
There was a set of stairs at the back of the building not accessible to visitors. It meant the IT guys didn’t need to swipe in and out for a second time.
“Well, that must be what happened then,” Sue said.
Krish nodded. “Okay, that’s what happened. So now what do we do?”
15
1:45 p.m
Krish sat down at his computer. He did not look at Sue.
Sue put her shoes back on when she reached her desk. She did not ask Penny for help as she’d intended. She forgot to give her the telephone message. She opened the Stephen King book and began to read.
Penny avoided eye contact with Helen on her way back to her desk. She folded one leg underneath the weight of her body and hunched over her keyboard.
Martin walked in complaining about the weather. He hung up his sodden coat and said hello to the team. They barely responded. He hadn’t enjoyed his prawn curry lunch at the Wetherspoons down the road. In fact, he felt a bit sick.