NEW FRIENDS

The following day Lyrical woke up and checked her phone to see in case she has missed a call or a text from somebody, but there were none.

She got up, to get ready to leave and just as she reached near the street outside her building to take a cab, she received a call from Melody.

Lyrical took her time before answering the call. Not because she wanted to avoid, but yes delay it for a few seconds. If she had to be honest, Lyrical was still feeling a little embarrassed about what had happened in the last two days. First at Joey's art galllery and then last evening at Melody's cabin. She had made a fool of herself and now, she didn't know how to act in front of her boss.

"Good Morning, Melody." Lyrical greeted, as she answered the call.

As soon as Lyrical's voice came over the phone, Melody instead of returning the greeting with 'Good Morning', ignored it altogether and got directly to the point. "Lyrical. Can you remind me on Monday that I need to see Mr…" She paused, before asking, "Umm.. where are you now? Are you travelling, by any chance?"

"Yes. I am." Lyrical replied. "I just left fo-"

"Hey sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you." Melody awkwardly apologized and just as she was about to disconnect, she heard Lyrical say, "Oh, No. I-I'm on my way to the office. Can I call you.."

"What?" Melody shrieked, as if Lyrical had just confessed of committing a murder and she was on her way to hide the body. "Why are going to work today? Didn't you realize, it's a weekend?" Melody asked, still sounding like she was terrified of Lyrical. Or maybe the body supposed non-existent deadbody.

"Yes. I know that, ma'am. I-I mean Melody." she corrected, "But, I work on weekends too. What I mean is.. Gisselle and I often came to the office even on weekends." Lyrical said, as if stating a fact that Melody clearly wasn't aware about.

"What? Why?" Melody was still shocked by what she had heard Lyrical say just now. "Why would Gisselle do that? Hold on.. just be on the line. I'll call her right now." Melody so fast in her actions, that Lyrical felt incompetent to keep up with her. She was still trying to understand what made Melody sound so exasperated, while Melody was already dialling the other number.

Lyrical could hear an engaged tone, which told her that Melody was trying to call Gisselle. Then she heard the phone ring and before she knew Gisselle was already on the other line.

Instead of a "Hello" Gisselle answered with a "What?" and her voice was angry.

"Gizz. Lyrical is also on the line. So, I want you to tell me why would you make her work on a weekend?" Melody spoke in an equally angry tone.

She, was 'no-nonsense, just cut to the chase' mood today. Every time she spoke, it was directly to the point. "Answer me why is she on her way to the office on a Saturday morning?" Lyrical could hear a low growl in Melody's voice. Lyrical was sure that, soon, in place of the 'non-existent' deadbody would be either be hers or Gisselle's body that Melody would be burying.

"How would I know that Melody? And No, I did not make her work on the weekend? Why would I do that?" Gisselle instantly replied in her defence, her voice toned down into a softer one, and it sounded like she was equally confused.

Lyrical did not know what to say. Did she misunderstand something here? "But Gisselle.." Lyrical started to say, but just then Gisselle spoke again.

"Oh, yes. I remember now. Actually, I just had a month's time to train her and there was so much to work and huge download to give her, so we met on weekends too." She clarified.

"Oh dear.. Lyrical, are you seriously going.. I mean." Gisselle was perturbed. Lyrical could hear Gisselle slamming her face with her palm. This was another moment of embarassment and Lyrical wanted to dig that hole and get buried in it.

Melody couldn't help but burst into laughter and Gisselle kept telling her to stop, as it was rude of her. She had to scold Melody to make her stop laughing, but it was a huge failed attempt. Lyrical had already made a fool of herself twice in past two days, this was just another feather to her crown of embarassment.

"I'll call you later, Gizz,"Melody said to her and Gisselle hesitated a little, but eventually disconnected.

Lyrical did not speak for a long time, but neither did Melody. She had already stopped laughing though, right after Gisselle had disconnected the call. Melody knew she was being rude, but then again, she did not know how else to react. Lyrical's innocence was cute, but at the same time too funny to not laugh.

"Lyrical! I'll see you on Monday then. Happy Weekend." Melody gave a simple reply before disconnecting. Saying anything more would only make them feel even more awkward.

Lyrical received two texts later that evening. One was from Gisselle. She apologized for the misunderstanding, then instructed her that she does not have to go to office on a weekend, unless Melody tells her to, and also told Lyrical that she can call her anytime, as and when she needed any clarification.

Lyrical replied to her saying, 'It was not your fault. I am used to working even on the weekends, therefore it did not occur to me that I should ask you. But, thanks anyway, for always guiding me.'

The other text was obviously from her boss. Lyrical had dreaded something like this would happen.

For some odd reason, Lyrical always embarrassed herself in front of Melody. No matter how much she tried to avoid from such situation from happening, eventually she did something extremely foolish that resulted in Melody laughing at her.

Lyrical still hated Melody's guts and did not forget how coquettishly she had behaved with her. It still angered Lyrical whenever she was reminded of those incidents. But, to her dismay, Melody turned out to be her boss, even more unfortunate part in this entire thing was, Lyrical needed this job.

She needed an experience in a full-time job with a good salary. Moreover, it should also be nearby to her house, so she would be able to take care of her aunt and uncle. And Knack Dreamz provided her just that. A perfect fit for what she wanted right now, minus the boss.

Lyrical knew sooner or later, she will be moving back to her countryside house with her father. She had to. After all, Lyrical is all Mr. Fernando had left. Lyrical wanted to take care of her father and to do that, she knew that she needed a good amount of savings in her account.

Furthermore, she knew secretly her family had been looking for a match for her and planning to marry her off. Before that, she needed to work hard and save more.

Anyway, Melody's message was simple. "How can you still be so cute?" Which was expected of her boss, but unexpected at time like this.

"Cute. My foot." Lyrical cursed out loud, sitting in her room, beating her fist on her bed. Because, for Lyrical what happened today was embarrassing and enraging. So much so that she wanted to either drill a hole into Melody or dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it and never... never have to see Melody again.

The weekend went by like the wind, in a blink of an eye and Monday came reminding Lyrical that she had to go to work.

Leia, the girl who had greeted Lyrical on the day she had come for the interview at Knack Dreamz, was calling her phone right now, just as Lyrical stepped into the entrance of the office building. She informed Lyrical, that, she will not be able to come to the office this week due to some personal emergency.

"Sorry Lyrical for informing this at the last moment. But, it really was an uncalled emergency." Leia said. Having no other option, Lyrical accepted her leave. But, she didn't know what else to do either. Leia insisted that she needed this leave and would be fine if they made any deduction in her salary, but there was no way she would be able to come to work.

Lyrical called Gisselle to check, who should she contact to find a replacement, who can temporarily handle Leia's responsibilities while she was away. She called up the manpower agency, Gisselle had given the contact details of and arranged for a person for a week.

That morning a man in his fifties, came to the office to visit Melody. He introduced himself as Mr. Evan Parkinson, a lawyer in some company, Lyrical had no idea about. He didn't reveal much details about himself, even after Lyrical asked him several times. He simply replied saying, Melody knows him.

Since her boss was not in the office, Mr. Parkinson did not stay for a long time. He just said one thing before leaving, "Can you please tell her to stop doing what she is doing. I mean, just close this office and sell everything and leave all this behind. Fighting would do her no good. So if she is smart enough, she knows what her option is. Just leave."

Lyrical fumed with anger, "I apologize in advance, if what I'm about to say sounds rude Mr. Parkinson. But, why should she listen to your order, if I may ask?  Firstly, I-I don't even know who you are, where are you coming from and what makes you think my boss should listen to you? In addition to that, you come to our office and have the audacity to tell me to pass on your message, that my boss should abandon everything, she has worked so hard for?"

"Ms. Fernando. I can't answer your question, whatever you need to know you will have to ask Melody. I am just acting on behalf of someone. But because I've known Melody for a long time, I just said what I think is good for her. Rest is upon her to decide." Mr. Parkinson nonchalantly replied.

There was no hint of annoyance or anger on his face or the way he spoke. He must have expected this reaction, so he was not at all affected. However, Lyrical was enraged.

"As I said, don't mind my impoliteness. The door is that way, please. I won't be seeing you out." Lyrical spat in anger.

Lyrical was late for her lunch again. No matter how hard she tried, she always missed out on spending her lunchtime with her colleagues. Since the day she had joined she either spent time with Gisselle or alone. Lyrical wanted to get to know the people she worked with, but she missed out. Everything she knew about them was just professionally.

She knew nobody on personal level and nobody knew her personally as well. And Lyrical wanted to change that.

While Lyrical was having her lunch, Mia and Carol walked in to refill their coffee mugs and smiled at her.  Lyrical knew this was one great opportunity to interact with them, once they are back at their desk they'll be busy again.

'If they don't say anything, why can't I be the one to initiate the conversation? This seems like the perfect chance to get to know these people. Say something.. anything, and see how things goes?', she firmly decided.

"Hi! How's it going? Stressed much?" Lyrical blurted out, then nodded her head as she tried to make casual talk. But they looked rather apprehensive of her.

"Oh, I-I think this is the fifth time I saw you refilling your mug, are you guys stressed?" she added futher to clarify herself. "Too much work?" she let out a giggle.

"Oh, No-No ma'am. Absolutely not. We're just.. we like drinking coffee." Carol replied bashfully.

"Sit down here. Take a break" Lyrical suggested aand patted the seat next to her. At first, they hesitated, but then agreed and sat down.  Lyrical racked her brain to come up with something to continue on with the conversation, instead of sitting and smiling awkwardly at each other. Then Lyrical suddenly remembered something and smiled to herself.

"Carol, right? Umm! Would you laugh at me if I ask you a question? It's a little weird, but just my observation." Lyrical awkwardly smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears.  "Sure. Please go ahead." Carol replied.

Lyrical was still unsure if this is how she wanted to start her converstation with them. But, she couldn't think of anything else right now, so she decided to say whatever first thing came to her mind, "I- Actually I've worked in different places with different people and everywhere I went there was this one thing I observed. Girls--Beautiful girls like you, loved to maintain their appearance. Like their hair, the make-up… and all, until the end of their shift and so they frequented to the restroom." A nervous laugh left her throat.

"You know what I mean, right?" Lyrical paused, but neither of the girls said anything, "But here I don't see anyone of you girls doing any such things. Especially when all the staff members here are females." She grinned sheepishly.  They both looked at each other and Lyrical was sure she has said something to embarrass herself again. When they both started giggling, she wanted to leave and hide somewhere.

"Ma'am you are different from Gisselle," Mia answered. "What I mean is, Gisselle was good, no doubt about it. But you are... cool. She never at with us, let alone make small talks like this. "

"I think, it's because of Melody.." Carol blurted out. "Actually, Gisselle is Melody's friend and so we had to stay a little distant from her, just in case. Not because we had a problems with her, but she was boss's friend, after all." Carol clarified, then further added. "And to answer your question, Melody is kind of a perfectionist and so was Gisselle. All they cared about was work and results, which is fine by us."

"I see." Lyrical nodded. "So you were all the time busy working, right?" she asked and Carol nodded, jutting out her lips a little. Lyrical was glad, they were breaking the awkward ice between them.

"And Ma'am!! Who do you think will look at us anyway? As you can see, we only female staffs working here. There is no way I would want to show the slit of my skirt or a deep neck cut of my dress to any of them." Mia snorted. "For all I know, their's might be better than mine. And I'd be horrified if that happens."

They fell into a fit of laughter.. "Well, that's true," Lyrical managed to reply between laughter. Her stomach started to ache and she gasped for breath. "Phew! Funny."

"And by the way, will you stop calling me ma'am. You call your boss by her name but not me. How rude is that?" Lyrical feigned anger.

"Got it, Lyrical," Mia replied. "Ma'am" Carol added with a tease.

Lyrical was glad she at least made two friends. 'Being friends with people you work with makes it easier to work together.' Mr. Parker had told Lyrical.

Before working with Mr. Parker, she mostly interacted with her brother and his friends. They were her only friends. Gradually, she learned to interact with her co-workers and spend more time with them and realized Mr. Parker was absolutely right.

The next few remaining days of the week flew by quickly and Lyrical tried her best to avoid her boss. Though hardly possible, but Ms. Assistant managed to do so.

She stuck to the text conversation with Melody, instead of calling her. Most of the days, Melody stayed out either for a meeting, went on a business trip or she worked from home and this week was no different.

For this whole week, Melody worked from home. She did come to the office twice, but that was only for a few hours.

Since her boss was not in the office, Lyrical had a lot of free time to chit-chat with other girls. She soon became friends with everyone. Almost everyone. There was a of team three girls who, if not hate, but definitely disliked Lyrical, for reasons she wasn't sure of. Neither did she care.

A few of her newly found girlfriends decided to go clubbing on Friday evening, but Lyrical had to turn them down because she had to be at home by ten that evening.  Her uncle would be leaving on Friday for work and would be gone for two days, therefore Lyrical had to take care of her aunt. Her aunt had recovered fully, but both Lyrical and her uncle still wanted to avoid taking any risks.

Jenny, another staff member from the accounting department, and Mia decided to drop the plan and just have dinner together. They could go clubbing anytime on a later date, maybe next weekend or the weekend after that.  "Cool. So it's decided then." Lyrical said feeling relieved.

They went to a restaurant, not so fancy and affordable. They gossiped, joked, and laughed throughout the dinner. A few of them had wine and beer to drink along with the food and even got a little tipsy, by the time they were leaving the restaurant.

Although it was getting late, and Uncle Simon had already left for his business trip while Aunt Marissa was alone at home, yet Lyrical volunteered to drop Mia home, as her house was nearby to hers. While they were in the cab, Mia began feeling nauseaous and wanted to vomit. They had to stop the cab in the middle of the road, as Mia couldn't hold it in anymore.

While she was throwing her guts out, Lyrical held Mia's hair to stop it from falling on her face or even worse on her vomit. Her luck or the timing couldn't have been worse, as in the midst of this mess Lyrical received a call from Melody. Because both of her hands were busy holding Mia and her hair from falling, she let her phone ring and avoided the call twice already.

Lyrical did not know how to handle the situation anymore. She made Mia sit on one side and bought a bottle of water for her to drink, whilst calling Melody.

"Where are you? Not reached home yet?" Melody began her interrogation. She could hear the noises behind Lyrical, "Why are you still wandering outside?" she questioned.  Before Lyrical could answer, Mia began throwing up again and made all sorts of disgusting noises.

"What's wrong with you? Where the hell are you? I'll come to pick you up, just send me your location." Melody squawked over the call, but her voice indicated concern.

"I'll call you later, Melody. I need to go." Lyrical disconnected the call without further discussion. She was getting tired, yet she was aware that being rude with Melody wasn't the solution. They could talk about this later, because right now Mia needed her undivided attention. She was immensely grateful to the cab driver who did not abandon them in this situation.

Melody was very annoyed and mad at Lyrical. 'How can she not take care of herself and she did not even send me her location. God only knows where this girl is?' She snarled inwardly.

Without putting much thought into it, Melody just drove.. literally raced her car, and rushed towards Lyrical's house. That's when she saw Lyrical trying to pull Mia out of the cab and dragging her inside her house.

'So, it was Mia's voice she had heard over the phone' Melody thought. Now that she saw them together, Melody instantly recognized Mia's faint voice calling Lyrical's name while they were on the call.  Melody clicked her tongue and shook her head, 'My stupid Assistant.' she said adoringly and a smile tugged on her lips.

On her way back, Melody called Gisselle, only to tell her about what she just witnessed. Melody knew Giselle never interacted much with the team members, but Lyrical had already made friends with one of them and that too, so quickly. Melody doubted Gisselle would have ever managed to be that quick in making friends.

Also, Melody and Gisselle haven't spoken to each other that much, since the day Gisselle had flown back to her husband that morning. It was time to call her buddy, Melody was missing her today.

"What?" Gisselle answered the call.

"Hey there Gizz!" Melody drawled. "Guess what? My new assistant has already made friends with that girl, Mia. They went out to have fun friday, I think. And that girl, Mia, she got drunk. Lyrical had to bring Mia to her house." Melody laughed.

There was no response from Gisselle, so Melody jested her "Am I disturbing you, my dear Gisselle? Were you in the middle of something, huh?"

Gisselle still did not reply and this time Melody did not jest anymore. "Is everything alright G?" She was worried that Gisselle wasn't replying to anything she was saying.

Silence.

"For fuck's sake say something, Gizz. I'm getting worried now." Melody bawled and stopped the car. Her heart pounded waiting for a reply from the other end.

"I knew you've always been careless and forgetful or maybe you didn't care and intentionally did things that would hurt me. But, this is too much. First, you forget when am I due and had the audacity to ask me? Shameless.  Now, you even forget to call and check on me everyday. And when...ever you have the time to finally call, you yell and shout at me. Amazing!!" Gisselle scoffed.

"Do you know Melody, what time is it right now? Don't you think a pregnant woman would be sleeping at this hour? What the hell is wrong with you, Melody?" Gisselle let out an exasperated sigh. "You fucking wake me up, so you can brag about how good is your new assistant? How inconsiderate of you." she spat. "I was the one, who stood by you all these year? Did you forget that?"

"I'm sorry Gisselle." Melody facepalmed herself. She went on to defend herself, "I did remember when you are due, just not the exact date. As for not calling and checking on you, I was a little tied up with work that I hardly ever go to the office. No one better than you know how things can get busy at times. Apart from that, Leia met with an accident, and luckily I happened to be nearby and took her to the hospital." she went on to explain. "This entire week I kept her company, working from the hospital. Not that it can be an excuse for my negligence. You deserve all my attention and I should've checked on you every day." Melody replied in a calm tone as she knew she was wrong.

Gisselle seemed to calm down immediately after what she heard Melody say. Maybe even forgave her for everything she had said and done. 

"Oh, that explains her emergency for taking leave. What happened to Leia? Is everything alright with her now?" Gisselle inquired.  "She's fine. Just a small accident, she's already discharged. I'm hoping from Monday, she'll be able to resume." Melody explained.  "But tell you what, tomorrow onwards I'll call you every day. Ten times a day. How does that sound?" Melody laughed.

"Sounds good to me. You better call me ten times or I will have to kill you." Gisselle threatened her gravely. Gisselle was truely an angel sent from above in Melody's sad life, and soon she was going to be a mother too.

Before, going to sleep Lyrical sent a text message to Melody to apologize for being rude and disconnecting the call. She explained the situation and then went to sleep in her aunt's room, as her room was occupied by Mia.

The next day was a Saturday. At around nine in the morning, Mia woke up on Lyrical's bed in her basement room. Mia was stunned to realize she was not on her bed and also noticed that she was wearing clothes that were not hers.

She had an urgent need to use the restroom, also her mouth was dry. Once she relieved herself, washed her face and came out of the washroom, she found an elderly woman in the room, smiling at her. She smiled back, processing what happened last night. She jogged through her memory trying to remember who this woman could be.

"Did you have a good sleep, Mia?" the elderly woman asked.

"Y-yes ma'am" Mia replied, smiling awkwardly. She was still trying to remember something- anything in her vague memory. 'Who is this woman, she even knows my name.'

"Why are you being formal dear? Call me aunt." Then she figured Mia might not remember her.

"Oh..k. I think that you don't remember me. I am Lyrical's aunt. She had to leave early morning, but she told me not to wake you up. I just came to check on you." Aunt Marissa said.

"Ahhh… I see. Hello!" Mia didn't know why, but she waved at her. " Where has Lyrical gone?" She enquired.

"That, I am not aware. But, since you are already awake. Take a bath and come out to eat breakfast with me. Lyrical would be late. Let's wait for her after we are done having breakfast? I'm sure, you must be really hungry." Aunt Marissa smiled lovingly.

Somebody was pounding on the door also rigourously pressing their finger on the doorbell. Melody felt her head was exploding, and the noises were not helping her case. She sluggishly got up from her bed, stumbled over a few things scattered on the floor when she came to open the door.

"What the fuck do you want so early in the morning?" she barked, whilst opening the door.

"Wh-what are you doing at my door?" Melody stuttered, pleasantly surprised yet shocked to see Lyrical knocking on her door so early in the morning.  "Don't tell me you were missing me? Aww! Are you that attracted to me?" she jested flirtatiously.

"We need to talk. Can I come in, please?" Lyrical totally ignored the urge to throw a perfect reply at her boss, 'I'll miss you when pigs starts to fly.' She had better things to do. And right now, there was something more important than their banter. 

Lyrical hated this attitude of Melody but chose not react to her flirty comments. Because considering what she came to talk about, Lyrical wasn't sure how long Melody would let her work with her. It all depended on how she reacts once she hears what Lyrical had to say.

'I'm sure you'll kick me out today' Lyrical thought to herself and braced herself whatever happens.

Melody was standing at the door, blocking her from coming in. She shifted a little to give her access so Lyrical can come inside the apartment.  "Welcome home", Melody slurred in her ear, as Lyrical passed by her while entering from the door.

Lyrical could smell the alcohol in her breath and that was confirmed once she entered her apartment, because Ms. Cleanliness freak had a few bottles scattered on the floor, near her couch.  She must have been drinking till early morning, as her eyes were still bloodshot red due to sleepiness or maybe sleeplessness.

Melody closed the door behind and turned to face Lyrical, who was still standing with her back facing her.  Melody moved forward. "Sit down, will you?"

"Can you just stand right there… Please" Lyrical pleaded earnestly.

Melody stood right there with her arms crossed across her chest and brows arched.

"I am sorr.. y, Melody. Please forgive me." Lyrical closed her eyes, her back still facing Melody.

"What's wrong with you today?" Melody frowned, she was concerned about the way Lyrical acted. Something about her voice rang alarm bells in her head, but  Melody could figure something was bothering Lyrical. If not that, Lyrical wouldn't be here, this early in the morning, and that too on a weekend.

"I completely forgot to tell you about an important incident. On Monday.." Lyrical took a deep breath and Melody stood there, patiently waiting for Lyrical to say what she wanted to say.

She was in no hurry and didn't want to rush her.

"..on Monday. One Mr. Parkinson came to the office." She spoke swiftly then paused waiting for Melody's reaction. When Melody still did not move or react Lyrical continued, "He said.. he said, you should stop what you are doing and leave."