It takes ten minutes to pull myself together enough to drag my feet back out the bathroom door. The office is exactly the way it was ten minutes ago, but everything seems somehow different. Smaller. Confined. Cell-like.
I pull out my chair and sit back at my desk, but once again the blank white computer screen mocks me.
“Jules?” I tap on the top of our wall.
Julia’s head peeks over. “You okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
She rolls her eyes and shakes her head.
Oh, right she probably heard everything Gail said to me. “Um, do you have any gum?”
She narrows her eyes at me, then I hear as she rifles through her purse until she finds a pack to toss at me.
I stick three pieces in my mouth and tuck my legs back under my desk.
My screen still remains empty.
Watching the unmovable cursor makes my head throb with its steady blinking rhythm. I want to just go home and crawl back under my covers.
I need to busy my mind with something other than this project and Dex.
I pull out my phone and tap open Misanthrope. I don’t have any new matches, but I’m really not looking for any. I’m wondering is Match 1 is online.
Me:Hey
Match 1: Hey, yourself. How’s your workday going? I’m exhausted.
Me: I just got caught napping.
Match 1: Seriously?
Me: And got a foghorn to the face as a wakeup call.
Match 1: Harsh.
Me: How’s your workday? You must have a job that doesn’t require full concentration if you’re answering this message.
Match 1: Definitely not a brain surgeon.
Me: Me either.
Match 1: What happened after the foghorn?
Me: Boss told me and an entire room of people how easily replaceable I am.
Match 1: Your boss is horrible. You are not easily replaceable! Can you report it?
Me: She’s right, though. I can’t focus on what I’m doing at all. Remember I told you about the “events” she’s forcing me and my ex on? It’s too hard to write anything funny about it.
Match 1: Why?
Me: Because I think it’s killing me.
Match 1: Why?
Me: Nope. Not going there.
