Chapter 14
14
Thursday 10 March
8:02 a.m.
Woke up with a start and saw what time it was. Farrrrrrrrrrrrrrk!
8:05 a.m.
Must have slept through alarm because was up so late scrolling through dick pics and telling off sick senders of dick pics!!!
8:45 a.m.
So I realize that I might have a
slight
problem with impulse control. Especially with technology.
9:10 a.m.
Arrived at work really late and panicky, as I have to walk past Mong’s office to get to mine, before I realized that Mong was still incapacitated by dengue. Rejoice!
9:13 a.m.
I mean, not rejoicing because he’s deathly ill, but you know.
9:45 a.m.
Mong was in our, I mean,
my
office, chatting with Suresh, when I burst in. I gasped when I saw him, and my mind went blank. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Suresh smile beatifically. Urgh, great, Suresh was winning in front of the boss.
Mong gave me a look of disappointment. “You’re late,” he said, wheezing.
“I, ah, you see, my phone—”
“How was your client meeting?” Suresh piped up.
“Very, um, full of . . . potential,” I managed to say, confused, before I realized he was trying to help me out.
Mong’s eyes focused on me, laser-sharp. “With?” he asked suspiciously. He always wanted details of meetings.
I straightened up and mentally composed myself. A flash of inspiration struck. “I’ve, ah, developed a lead with, ah, the Dulit Group. With Eric Deng.”
Mong’s eyes flew open, which was always startling since they were shot through with broken capillaries, now more so than usual. “That’s great news, Andrea,” he said warmly.
“Er, are you still supposed to be at home resting? After dengue?” I said, desperate to change the subject.
“I missed the office.”
Of course.
He ambled off with difficulty and I breathed a sigh of relief. Grudgingly I thanked Suresh for helping me out.
He grinned and said, somewhat playfully, “Did I really, though? Or did I allow you to entrap yourself in a lie you now have to extricate yourself from?”
My God, he was an evil genius!
Saturday 12 March
11:30 a.m.
Success! Woke up today completely fine, not hungover at all. A miracle, considering all that had happened yesterday.
Went out for the usual post-work Friday shenanigans with the usual crew (plus two junior colleagues of mine, both female and married) to a swish whiskey bar. We were supposed to meet at 8:00 p.m., but somehow everyone except Linda was there by 7:00 p.m., even me. (Suresh and I now have an unspoken Office
Face-Time Battle truce on Fridays, where we both leave at about the same time from work; while I usually have no idea what he does after work, today I got a glimpse: I overheard someone on speaker asking him to make up the numbers for something called Kah-Tan, which is probably code for “swingers’ party where people dress as MMA fighters.”)
When Linda continued to be a no-show at 9:30 p.m., Jason started to get concerned since Ben had told us on group chat that he was buying (celebrating his bonus, a real whopper) and money was “no object” and Linda, who’s still Chinese enough at heart, would usually take advantage of such an offer (not that she isn’t generous when it comes to her own cash; she’s cool like that).
“She’s not replying to my texts, and I know she can’t be working. Linda would never prioritize work over drinks, plus she’s known as the queen of delegation at her law firm. And her WhatsApp time stamp says that she’s not looked at her phone since seven-oh-eight. That’s unusual.”
I shrugged. “She’s an adult.”
Oh, yeah, the reason I was restraining myself drinks-wise—at 9:00 p.m. or so I was meeting up with one of the Tinder matches, Alex the beer pun guy (he had the most attractive profile pic), at the whiskey bar for a quick drink. Meeting IRL was fun and he got along well with Val, Jason, and Ben, but my heart wasn’t really in it and I didn’t feel a strong physical pull toward him, so much so that when he proposed a second date I immediately rejected him, after which he showed his true colors: he switched targets and started hitting on one of my colleagues, the sole teetotaler of the group, who’s in her early thirties and the mother of twins. I was surprised when I saw them leave the bar together around 1:00 a.m., his hand unmistakably on her ass and her lips fastened to his. I thought she was happily married and a staunch Muslim—at least that’s what her Facebook profile told me.
She did however text me this morning and told me not to let slip to anyone that Alex had “given her a lift home, that was all.”
Right. I suppose he was also just giving her CPR.
After Alex had left, I hung around with Jason to keep an eye on Ben, who was past wasted, since Val was AWOL (she probably went home early without our noticing; she and Jason are hardly ever drunk—they “don’t believe in binge-drinking,” whatever that means); I myself was too disillusioned by what I had witnessed tonight to drink. So much for Tinder romances—I’m glad I have Orson to look forward to!