I was in my 30s, Sipping my coffee .

I was contented with my life but I was alone and that made a lot of
difference. I had everything ,every necessity but I could have bought a lot more things other than
necessities if only I had someone with me , if only I was alone with my people. I was an only child of my
parents , they weren’t active in my life. I had a caretaker but her attitude irked me, she always
complained about the money my parents gave her , she always wanted to get a raise in her salary. At
that point , I thought that maybe all the care she did for me was just fake? Or is money such a big thing
that can make you a whole lot of different person, I questioned her care , I thought I had someone but it
wasn’t her fault , I simply didn’t know that money has always been an importance, it’s the same money
that raised me and provided me with many things, good emotional and physical health is dependent on
money. Now that I am an earning individual, I have a 9-5 job , I have many people around me , many kids
, many elderly and some of the same age as me but despite all of this , I have no one to share this coffee
with. I wonder how much delicacy it takes to make coffee for someone. As I sat still with my lonliness ,
the feelings of wanting a company didn’t effect me that much. My heart used to feel sad but slowly it
accepted what my thoughts were , that I must be okay with being lonely and with this , my thoughts and
feelings became one and I became numb . Each day felt the same for me. I wondered how much effort
would it take to make a simple bond , even a friendship? But I knew that with the number of bonds you
have , the higher you are at the risk of being betrayed. I thought of how can people form bonds easily ,
that why am I okay with this hollowness? I had no other interests other than making money , it wasn’t
exactly an interest but the efforts I had made for it , I wanted to count it as one. It was Friday afternoon ,
1 pm , I was doing my task at my office as I did on daily basis. Suddenly, I heard two people shouting at
each other , both of them were my office mates. One of them being Erica , whose cabin was just
attached with mine and the other was Saira. I always had good observational skills, I didn’t talk to my
colleagues that much but I heard everything they said to each othe, knew how everyone acted with each
other. Saira had always been jealous of Erica, she was smart , tall and structured, well liked by every male
in the office, there were times when Saira would do some attention seeker behaviours to bring the
limelight to herself in front of the male audience. I didn’t know much about Erica but I knew she was a
hardworking independent lady and I appreciated her professionalism , I had never seen her being late to
any of duties as a employee. That day Saira accused Erica of faking allegations about the company and its
work ethics and posting them to newspaper articles because the person who wrote that had her name
written “Eriicae”. I was neutral about it because it didn’t matter to me . The arguments continued for 1
more hour and then it was almost 5 , everyone packed their bags and so did I.

I went to the parking lot to get my car and I heard my name . “Sir” It was Erica who called me . I turned
back to look at her “I need your help” Now , I was disinterested to help her because I wouldn’t like to be
put in or even help a person in a situation that has nothing to do with me . She said “I just want you to
be a witness for me as you are my team supervisor , I want you to tell the boss that I am doing my work
perfectly and I havent done any such work that brings harm to the company” I sighed and said “I don’t
know what exactly has happened between you two and how it is affecting you , but I hope you get out of
this situation but I think I am running out of time , I need to hurry to my place for some important
occasion” I lied , I had nothing to do , I always slept for a while when I reached home and woke up just
before the dinner arrived by delivery man . She had tears in her eyes , she didn’t let them fall but I was
unsure if I had hurt her more. I didn’t let that thought get all over me and I just slept as I reached home.
Just when I woke up I saw 3 missed calls from an unknown number , I thought it must be Erica. I called
back “Hello , Steven Sir, this is me Erica” , I replied “Yes , as I expected” she continued “I am sorry for the
way I behaved but can you please help me? I have always worked efficiently and honestly , if Saira wins
over this , my job is over, I am not sad that I’ll lose this job but I have someone that I work for” I wanted
to tell her that many people work for someone , like parents do for their children but I didn’t say this to
her. I said “I am not sure if I can be a great help to you but if you have any idea how to make things work
then I think I can help you” , she said “Thank you sir, thanks a lot for this” I bid her a goodbye, ended the
call.