Perks of Office by Liz Rain

Author:Liz Rain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Published: 2022-03-21T13:33:30+00:00

CHAPTER 16

I got to work an hour before Haromi and Jake arrived together, which was hilarious because I felt eleven hours had passed since Bridget kicked me out. They were both bright, probably from a blissful night’s sleep.

“Good morning,” I said to them as they walked in.

My voice to my own ears sounded like a siren blaring SOMETHING’S VERY WRONG BUT THIS PERSON IS DESPERATE TO SOUND NORMAL! But Haromi only paused for a second (did she even pause? It could have been in my head) before putting a double-shot cappuccino down on my desk.

“Gah, thanks, you’re a lifesaver.” I whipped off the takeaway lid and downed half of it.

“Hold up,” said Jake, pulling out a hugely thick piece of vegemite toast from a white paper bag. “Miss Thang here didn’t want to get you one because you didn’t reply to her text, and I’m the hero who convinced her, but…” His eyes narrowed, and he snatched up my keep cup from my desk and sniffed it. “Judas! You went and got coffee from Immersion instead of Lawrence? What the actual hell?”

In truth, I hadn’t been able to muster the strength an hour ago to talk to the lovely barista at Chatterbox, who I would have had to lie to about being “fine” when he inevitably asked me how I was, so I’d driven five minutes further to a swanky, converted warehouse space where the hipster baristas were way too cool for small talk. It was great, as in, I was able to wallow in peaceful and anonymous silence while I waited the very long time it took for the dreadlocked moustachioed man to make my coffee.

“You’ve sprung me, Jake,” I said, “but don’t tell me you knew that was an Immersion coffee just from the smell?”

“Brazilian Caldas Royale, and they use that gross-arse bitter chocolate powder for their caps. Yuk.”

“And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you, Sherlock Holmes.” I rolled my eyes at Haromi, who didn’t care, so had already switched her computer on and was working.

Jake moved away to his desk, but was still eyeballing me, so I had to continue. “I dunno, I wanted to spread the love around the independent Logan cafes a bit. Plus, I wanted one of those sugar-free rosella friands they do.”

He mimed throwing up into his mouth, and wrote me off with a look that said “you’re obviously having a stroke, so I feel sorry for you,” before thankfully focussing his attention on his computer.

“Haromi,” I said.

She didn’t change her pose at all except to swivel her eyes to me.

“I’m sorry I didn’t see your text.”

“S’cool. A phone break, mindfulness, I get it.” She gave me a big thumbs up before clickety-clacking away on her keyboard again.

I of course had been avoiding my phone, because I had driven myself crazy obsessively flicking between the apps on it; texts, e-mail, Insta, texts, e-mail, Insta (like Bridget was going to DM me on socials. Maybe I was

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