Joshua
"Mrs. Baker said you were available."
I lifted my head and saw Aaron standing before me. I gave myself a mental reminder to talk to Mrs. Baker. She had to announce all my visitors. I should have known that he would come sooner or later to my office.
"So the weirdest thing happened today. When I went to pick up our lunch I was told you had told them we were no longer having lunch together anymore.
I couldn't find you during lunch hour. Tell me, why are you ghosting me?"
"I'm not." I didn't look up from my laptop. From the corner of my eye I could see him pacing up and down in my office.
He couldn't keep his hands to himself. He had this annoying habit of rearranging the knick knacks in my office. Sometimes I would deliberately mess the order just to watch him sorting them out time and time again.
"I can see you are mad at me but for the life of me I don't know what I did wrong now. Dude I'm not leaving so pretending to type won't make me leave either.
Talk to me.
Is it the Samantha thing? I thought we were in a good place."
"Of course not!" I said a little too sharp. Of course it was. We hadn't got round to talking about keeping our distance when we were at work.
"Aaron, You are paid to work and not chat."
"It has never bothered you before whenever I used to come here. Besides if anything urgent comes up, they know where to find me." I could see he wasn't leaving.
"I don't think we should hang out as much especially at work."
"Why? Everyone knows we are best of friends. It would be even weirder if we stopped hanging out.
What's going on? You are acting weirder than normal and that's saying a lot."
"Aaron, could we talk about this at home. I have a lot of work. Its almost end of month and you know what that means for me."
"I know. Talk to me for 5 minutes and I will be out of your hair." I ignored him.
I picked up the report I had on my desk and started flipping through the pages. He suddenly grabbed the papers out of my hands and dared me to take it back.
"Give it back to me. I need that for my work." He waved it in my face.
"I'm holding these papers for ransom. Talk to me and you can have them back." He waved it in my face again.
I know that he didn't think I would chase him for them. I chased him around the office until I caught him at the door.
The only way to restrain him was to wrap my arms around his waist from behind. He was doing everything to wiggle out while holding the papers out of reach.
I clapsed even tighter and pushed him onto my door.
"Yes, he's here and from the noises coming from the office, I'm sure they are making up."
"They wouldnt have sex right? In the office?" Mrs. Baker laughed out loud. I stopped and listened to Mrs. Baker as she had her phone on loudspeaker.
"Mr. Joshua is too proper for such shenanigans."
"At least they made up. They have been fighting a lot these past few days.
Everyone could hear them yelling from the roof. I heard that they were also yelling at each other in the basement the other day.
Their fights have been really bad of late. They never used to be like this before. Tammy said that just the other day your boss ignored him in the foyer. Ignored him.
Do you know that your boss even told the canteen people that they were no longer having lunch together?
Two years having lunch together, every single day and they stop just like that? I think this time their relationship is over. Something big must have happened to break them apart.
They are what my daughter calls #relationshipgoals."
"Don't say that Dot. Those two have always been happy together. I heard Mr. Joshua proposed and Aaron turned him down."
"No, I heard Aaron wants to get married and Joshua wasn't putting a ring on it. I mean what else does your boss need to know. I wouldn't have waited that long for a ring."
"But Linda said that Mr. Joshua has been cheating on Aaron. She has seen him with the new guy twice. She said they looked so cozy. I am so mad on Aaron's behalf.
How could he do that to Aaron? That boy has been nothing but an angel to Joshua. I mean ever since they started dating your boss is now nicer and he turns around and cheats on him like that. Tsk, tsk all men can be dogs."
I let go of Aaron and he looked at me. I felt the colour drain out of me. Is this what everyone thought of me and Aaron? Aaron tried to come near me and I pushed him away.
"Joshua."
"Just go."
"Joshua please. Listen to me."
Oh my god what had I done? When those guys from Technical had made a quip about my boyfriend Aaron I had been annoyed and embarassed about it.
I had strongly cautioned them against making such jokes. I shouldn't have bothered. Everyone thought we were dating already. How was I going to face everyone at work when they knew how I felt about Aaron?
"Joshua. I'm coming over tonight by 8. Its not negotiable. I understand you are in shock. I will bring dinner and don't you dare shut me out."
I barely heard him talk. I didn't stop him when he left.
I was in a state of shock. How had I not known about this? Well I wasn't the most friendly person.
I firmly believed in separating the personal from business. My personal life was noone's business. Apparently everyone else had not got that memo. People had been speculating about my love life for years.
