drinking coffee. The barista with the twisty moustache was there, serving coffees with little flowers and hearts sculpted into the foam. A group of my co-workers were standing around laughing and talking as they sipped their artisanal coffees. I moved closer to listen to the conversation.
“Yeah, we should totally do something for Gareth’s birthday. He’s turning thirty,” Ash, a blonde-haired girl with big, black-framed glasses, said. She always wore these seriously oversized glasses. A couple of months ago they were pink, but she’d accidentally stood on them at the office party to celebrate the company’s win at the SA Advert Awards.
“Totally,” Dave, the guy who was wearing purple eye shadow, said. He always wore eye shadow, and now that I was looking, he really did pull it off.
“We should do a surprise party!” Nonhlanhla piped up. I noticed that her braids were now blue. Last week she’d had red braids. The blue was really cool against her dark skin.
“Oh my God, we should do a nineties-themed party, cos he was born in the nineties!” Ash said.
“OMG, that’s brilliant,” Nonhlanhla, or Nonnie as everyone called her, replied. “I’ll come as Beyoncé, but Destiny’s Child Beyoncé.”
“I’ll come as Britney. ‘Slave for You’ vibe. With a snake!”
“Oh, that would be awesome if you got a fucking snake!” Dave said, jumping up and down.
“That’s a nice idea,” I said, “Gareth deserves a party. He works really hard. He clocks more working hours a month than anyone else.”
Silence. A weird one as everyone turned and looked at me. Their eyes swept over me, up and down. Left to right. Up and down again.
“Uh . . . yeah. He does,” Nonnie mumbled, looking a little confused.
“Also, ‘Slave for You’ came out in 2001, so either you must have a noughties party, or choose to come as someone else,” I said, smiling at all my co-workers. And then I turned and started walking towards my office. They must have thought I was out of earshot, but I wasn’t.
“Uh . . . who was that?” Dave asked.
“No idea,” Ash replied.
“Like, literally, who is that?” Nonnie added.
“And did you see what she was wearing?” Dave said, and then they all laughed.
A pit formed in my stomach and knotted so tightly that it made me want to be sick.
“Hey, I wonder if Gareth will get a mystery birthday card this year?” Nonnie asked.
“I’m sure, everyone in the office does,” I heard Dave say as I pushed the door open behind the kitchen and raced downstairs to the basement, where my office was. On the way down Cynthia rushed past me. She worked on the same floor I did, on the good side, though. The side that wasn’t next to the hot server room and storeroom.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey, Zen.” She stopped and looked at me.
Finally, someone that knew me! Cynthia was in charge of accounts here. She did all the billing, sending of quotes, getting purchase orders and then invoicing. It was a long, tedious job. Especially at the end of tax year, she often pulled all-nighters around that time.
“So much work to do today,” she said. “What with all the load shedding this week, I am so behind. You probably have a lot to catch up on too.”
“Probably,” I said. “But not because of the power outages. Obviously, I was away this last week.”
Cynthia’s face scrunched up. “You were?”
“Yes,” I said flatly. “I was away the whole week. Didn’t you notice?”
“No. But I mean, you never really come out of your office during the day and your door is always shut so . . . Did you go on holiday?”
“No. I was in an accident,” I said, starting to feel hurt and offended.
“Oh no, shame.” She said it, but I could hear there was no real concern in her voice.
I pointed up at the mark on my forehead. “I’m sure you noticed this.”
“Oh, wasn’t that there before?”
“No.” I couldn’t hide the anger in my tone now. “It wasn’t.”
Cynthia shrugged casually. “Okay. Coooool. Have a good day.” And then she trotted back up the stairs and out of the door. I stood there for a while, holding onto the staircase railing. I felt like I was in that elevator again, falling. Only I wasn’t. Had I really worked here for so long and no one had noticed I was gone, or worse, even knew me? The thought made me feel like crying again. I rushed down the rest of the stairs to my office. I opened the door and slipped in.