I doubted he even remembered my name. I had been working there as an IT consultant for almost five years and I had barely shared a handful of words with most of the people around me.
They knew nothing about me.
But I kneweverythingabout them.
I glanced at Carl, his head propped up by his hand, idly clicking his mouse as he stared blankly at his computer screen.
I knew he wasn’t working but instead looking up gym memberships and weight-loss supplements. This was after he had checked his social media accounts, hoping someone had commented on the picture he took of his dinner last night, just so he could feel as if someone gave a shit.
Dark circles underneath his eyes indicated he had gotten very little sleep the night before. Poor Carl had just gotten divorced. I also knew that the ex-wife had taken him for everything. The house. The car. Even the dog. He had been exchanging heated emails with his ex-wife for months. They fluctuated between nasty and pleading.
I felt sorry for the guy. Even if we had never said more than hello to each other.
I turned on my computer and scanned the room. Everyone was in their own little world. It was easy to disappear in a place like this.
These people around me never thought to ask about what I had watched on TV last night or whether I had seen the new action flick that had just been released in theaters. I didn’t gossip about my boss’s pectoral implants or Sylvia in marketing’s affair with Gabe Johnston, the head of sales.
They didn’t talk to me. I didn’t talk to them.
But I knew their secrets.
I kept them to myself.
It felt good to hold on to these tiny pieces that no one wanted anyone else to know. Even if I never did anything with them, I stillknew.
And they had no idea.
Yeah, that sounded like a power trip. Maybe it was. But honestly, I didn’t care.
“There you are. You should have been here at nine. What took you so long?” The voice was low and raspy and a little on the excited side. I didn’t have to look up to recognize who it was. I knew only one person who sounded as if they’d smoked three packs of Winstons for the last twenty years when actually they were barely out of college.
His pushiness should have bugged me, but it didn’t. He wasn’t being rude. Or territorial. Kyle was someone who liked routine, who needed it to function, so I didn’t get pissed at his demand for answers that he should have known I’d never give.
“I didn’t know you were keeping track of my schedule, Kyle,” I remarked drily, opening my work email.
New messages popped up. One at the top caught my attention. “Audit” was in the subject line. It was marked urgent and appeared to be from the big boss man. Though the address was wrong. Warning bells started to go off.
My suspicions were piqued. But so was my curiosity.
I opened it….
Suddenly my screen froze. I clicked my mouse a few times but nothing happened.
I chuckled humorlessly at the amateur malware.
“Wait for it,” Kyle exclaimed with barely concealed glee.
I let out a long-suffering sigh. “I should have known this low-tech shit was you,” I muttered, annoyed with myself for falling for the phishing game Kyle had so childishly set up.
Kyle pulled an empty desk chair up beside me and leaned forward. “Don’t be such a killjoy. Just watch.”
“Kyle, I’ve got a lot to do—”
“Three more seconds. One. Two. Three.”
Suddenly my screen filled with over a hundred emoji poos. They popped up in droves, their smiling brown faces laughing at me.
“Seriously?” I shook my head. “Am I the only lucky one this morning, or did you share this with everyone?” I narrowed my eyes at the scrawny kid beside me.
