What Nobody Knew

Part 17

You know, it's true what they say, you don't know you have a good thing until it's gone. Okay, calling Mr Knight a good thing might be a bit of a stretch.

I've spent a whole week without his presence and I'm bored out of my mind. His conversations were usually in mono-syllables or grunts, but still, it was some form of social interaction. His office was so far away from everybody else and I was starting to feel really secluded.

I even, at one point, considered calling Mr Knight out of desperation to ask something about an email, but then I figured out what the right way would be to address the situation and felt it would be silly to call him thereafter.

He hasn't called. Not once. Whatever business trip he was on was certainly taking up all of his time.

There was one bright spot in this whole situation. At least Julie was home. This meant that although I didn't have any social interaction at work, at least I had someone sane to talk to after work.

It felt like when we were back in school. We used to share a room back then, just like we were bunking together now. Our house was a four-bedroom house and you'd think the two eldest daughters would get to have their own rooms, but that wasn't the case in the Bennet house. Cat, being spoiled and as mentioned my mother's favourite daughter, got her own room. And since Julie and I got along so well, we shared.

Now we were back to our routine of late-night chats and watching series.

Part of this has flowed over to my work life because today Julie has decided to come to visit me at work during my lunch break. This was one of the parts where Mr Knight being MIA wasn't all bad. Without the demands of working alongside him every day, I could finally take my lunch like a normal employee.

A soft knock sounded on the door.

"Come in," I called as I was shutting down my laptop.

Julie's head appeared through the door.

"Hi, are you ready to go on lunch?"  She asked, still standing in the doorway.

She looked almost afraid to enter the room further than that. In all honesty, I couldn't blame her, there was a kind of vibe in the place even in Mr Knight's absence, that kept you from feeling like you were meant to be there.

"Yes, we can go now." I gathered my belongings and met Julie at the door.

I locked the wooden office doors. This was now one of my tasks. I was used to Mr Knight always being in the office, it felt weird to have to lock up every time I left the room. But, I was not going to disobey Mr Privacy-is-everything. If something were to go missing or information was to leak while I was the only one here, I would most definitely be out of a job.

"Do you want to go to the coffee shop? There's a pretty good one just across the corner." I said as we reached the elevator.

"Why don't we just have lunch here? I want to see where you spend the majority of your waking hours. It feels like you have this whole separate life that I don't know about." 

I chuckled at her statement.

"Well, I can tell you that it's not all that interesting. Honestly, I basically spend the whole day cooped up in that office with Mr Knight." I frowned.

I haven't realized before that for the past month we have been in each other's company for nearly 10 hours each day. That's a whole lot of time to be spending with one person. It wasn't social time, but still.

"You still haven't heard from him yet?" She looked at me concerned.

I think she might have misread my frown.

"No, but that's alright. He left so suddenly, I guess, that's why it feels kind of weird. The fact that we fought beforehand doesn't help. I don't know."

Instead of reassuring her, Julie now seemed more concerned. Bless her soul, she would make herself sick trying to look out for and make sure that everyone else is alright.

"Enough about that, let's get back to our lunch plans. I can take you to the staff kitchen? I spend a little of my waking hours there." I winked teasingly at Julie.

That seemed to perk her up again.

We entered the kitchen and Julie gave a soft gasp.

"How is it possible that every room we enter looks more lavish than the one before?" She was gazing with admiration at everything around her.

I followed her gaze. I never really noticed that the kitchen was anything special. Maybe because I was usually rushing in and out so as not to be away from the office for too long.

There was a large fridge that was always stocked to the brim for the staff members, there was the complicated coffee machine (which I was already well acquainted with), a few tables and chairs set out throughout the room as well as bar stools lining the kitchen counter. If you think you might need something from the kitchen, it will be there. As far as I knew there were one of these on every second floor of the building.

"I guess it is pretty amazing." I mused.

We walked behind the counter. It was still kind of early for lunch, so the place was deserted. I opened the fridge to show Julie the contents.

"What would you like? We've got some chicken Caesar salad wraps, muesli cups, BLT sandwiches, oh and we've got some muffins and croissants over there." I pointed towards the baked goods stand.

Julie's mouth was agape once more.

"This is ridiculous. Is all of this here for the staff?"

"Yeah, it's one of the perks of the job. I must admit, I have very rarely made use of this particular perk."

"Are you sure it's fine if I take something, I mean, it's not like I work here or anything?" She looked at the wrap hesitantly.

"Of course, go ahead." I grabbed a muffin and went over to the coffee machine to brew two cups.

I was foolish, an absolute idiot to think that the blooming machine would work along with me today. Every time someone changes one setting, I get stuck all over again. After fiddling with a bunch of knobs without success I was nearing the point of smacking the machine. Experience has taught me that this would do nothing to make it work, but it would certainly make me feel a whole lot better.

"How is it that I always find you in this position." Laughter came from behind me.

Ian walked over to the machine, placed another cup underneath, pushed a few buttons and the coffee started brewing.

"I'm telling you, this bloody thing has it in for me. It knows how much I need coffee to function and it keeps being uncooperative."

Ian threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh.

"I have honestly never seen anyone struggle this much with the coffee machine." He smiled.

His eyes landed on the coffee cups.

"Feeling extra thirsty today are we?"

I chuckled, "No, not exactly..." I trailed off looking in Julie's direction.

"Okay, I have decided on the wrap and I will try my utmost not to feel guilty with every bite I take." Julie came towards me, wrap in hand.

She made eye contact with Ian, only noticing him now. He was already staring at her and I swear, at that very moment, they both forgot I was even there.