I go over to the IT cupboard and grab another mouse, then unplug the old one and plug in the new one, thinking that the mouse itself might just have given up, but again nothing happens.
‘What the hell?’ I mutter, baffled.
I bring up the task manager – maybe it’s the page that’s broken, rather than the mouse – and successfully shut down the browser using just the keyboard. But the page is still on my screen. I throw up my hands in exasperation, not fathoming what the hell is going on, and then I hear a suppressed laugh coming from Salman’s direction. As soon as I catch sight of him, the pieces start to slot into place.
This is another prank.
And this time I fell for it.
‘What did you do?’ I ask him, my gaze still on my screen, as if I can fix it in the few seconds between asking the question andreceiving an answer. ‘Did you hack my laptop or something?’
‘Is it really hacking if your password is that easy?’ Salman rolls his chair towards my desk. ‘You know, you really should change it from 1234. That’s a cybersecurity risk.’
My cheeks flare with heat. ‘Get on with it.’
‘Well, after I logged onto your laptop I took a screenshot of the page you were on and made it your background. I minimised the actual window so it would still look like it was running, and then I finished by making the mouse transparent.’ As he’s speaking, he reaches across me to fiddle with something on my laptop, his body so close to mine that the hairs on my arms stand up. He reverts the background to what it originally was and makes the cursor visible again. ‘And then all I had to do was watch you lose it.’
I don’t want to be impressed but I am, because that’s actually quite clever and a prank that would be funny if I had pulled it on him and not the other way around.
‘Well played,’ I tell him reluctantly.
‘Thank you, thank you.’ He stands up to take a bow and I can’t help laughing at his theatrics. I’m reminded of the boy who spent more time trying to make people laugh than he did anything else – the boy I fell in love with.
‘You sure you don’t want to check what’s underneath that mug?’
I look back at the mug, squinting at it as if that will give me X-ray vision. Despite knowing I probably shouldn’t, I lift it up, prepared to see something moving, but all I find is a piece of paper that saysinnocent notewith a smiley face.
‘Told you,’ he says with a smirk before rolling back to his desk.
As I touch the note, my chest blooms with warmth. I don’t know why he’s suddenly become comfortable enough to play not one prank on me but two. I chalk it down to guilt becausenothing has changed between us – not that I’m aware of, at least.
OK, there was that moment the other day when we almost .?.?. I don’t know. Almost kissed? Whatever it was, it doesn’t matter. Nothing’s ever going to happen between us.
Still, I don’t hate this new development.
Which is why, the next day, I decide to get him back.
Unlike me, he has a proper password on his laptop that isn’t easily guessed, so getting access to his account is impossible unless he doesn’t lock his computer when he leaves his desk, so instead I go in early the next day and tape a printout of a deranged cupid onto the backboard of his desk.
I wait patiently until he walks in at 9 a.m., pretending to be engrossed by something on my laptop.
‘Morning,’ he says, his voice gruff with sleep.
‘Morning,’ I respond, a slight pep in my voice that makes him stop and do a double take.
‘What’s going on? Why are you so happy? You’re never cheerful this early in the morning.’
I shrug playfully, enjoying how this is putting him on edge. ‘Oh, no reason.’
He narrows his eyes at me but all I do is beam in his direction. He shakes his head and takes a seat at his desk. He unpacks his bag, plugging his laptop into the monitor, then he sits down and taps his keyboard. It only takes a second before he sees the picture.
‘Motherf—’ he exclaims, bouncing in his seat from fear. I let out a loud cackle and he turns in my direction, understanding dawning on his face.
‘You did this,’ he says simply.
‘Maybe,’ I say, trying and failing to be coy.
He removes the picture from the backboard and folds it into squares. ‘You know what? Fair play. But don’t get too comfortable.’
