Friday Night Labyrinth

The first thing I noticed was that the light bulb in my desk lamp was flickering. Not a good sign.

I’d been working late again, as usual. The deadline for the design proposal was tomorrow, and I had to be sure to get every last detail right. It was brand new territory for me, but there was a reason I’d been hired for this job. I just had to do my best, and things would work out.

I glanced over at Matilda, the girl who sat across from me with her headphones on, tapping away at her laptop rapidly.

She looked so focused and intense. Her dark hair fell in curls around her face and her full lips were pressed together firmly in determination. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-two or twenty-three, but she seemed older somehow… wiser even. It made it hard to believe that she was fresh out of college like me. She knew exactly what she wanted from life, and she had no qualms about going after it.

I watched her as she continued to work furiously on her own project. How did they even allow people to work at home? Our employers seemed like they were a bunch of crazy old guys who didn’t know anything about how real people worked anymore. If only they could see how much time some of us were logging into our projects these days! How did they expect us to get anything done if we were chained to desks all day?

After several minutes of watching Matilda’s fingers fly across her keyboard, I heaved a sigh and pulled out my phone to check the time again. It was nearly ten o’clock at night… when had it gotten so late?

I groaned inwardly as I realized that I shouldn’t have gone to happy hour with those guys from Marketing after work today. I didn’t want anyone to think that I wasn’t dedicated enough, but… well, sometimes too much fun is just too much fun.

Just then, there was a voice over the intercom system: “Is there anyone still here at this hour? We need an extra pair of hands in the Copy Room on Floor Three! See you tomorrow!”

A wave of relief flooded through me; that meant that the building would finally be closing soon!

My eyes returned automatically to Matilda again, but this time she wasn’t typing away quite as eagerly as before… instead, she looked like she was listening intently for something… or someone? A look of confusion crossed her face for a moment before she turned back towards her computer screen again, looking determined once more.

She must have heard that announcement too… maybe she really didn’t want to stay any later than necessary either? Maybe we could even leave together? I began tapping on my phone screen anxiously… trying not to look like I was staring at her… but the movement caught her attention anyway. She glanced up at me briefly with a questioning look on her face before turning back towards her own laptop again without saying anything.

I groaned quietly under my breath as I felt myself starting to grow uncomfortable again. Why hadn’t she spoken up? Didn’t we work well together? We always talked between breaks or whenever we got coffee together downstairs at lunchtime... why didn't she want to go home with me now? Was it because of what happened last week? My stomach sank as all kinds of horrible ideas raced through my mind all at once... I could feel myself growing increasingly frustrated and upset all over again by the second. What if we never spoke again?! What if... No! This couldn't be happening! Not now... not tonight... not when we worked so well together!! Suddenly feeling desperate, I started banging away on my phone screen even more frantically than before in an effort to get her attention back again--but nothing seemed to be working! The text messages wouldn't send... the calls wouldn't connect... nothing was working! Suddenly overcome by hysteria, I threw down my phone in frustration and stared helplessly over at Matilda's beautiful face one last time before returning my gaze downwards towards the desk in front of me in defeat--and that's when everything went black.