Stop and Stare

7

The morning started off just like any other for Mahony, the morning commute then the obligatory cup of beverage at the office watering hole before sitting down in front of his computer to continue working on yet another unfinished report. Like clockwork, Lisa appeared just before the clock struck seven.

"Good morning," Mahony greeted.

"Morning," Lisa floated in, wearing a low cut, loose chiffon dress, that fluttered as she moved. She sat down with a contented sigh as she dropped her purse in the bottom drawer of her desk.

Mahony noticed the bling around Lisa's neck, more accurately, just above her cleavage. The low-cut nature of the dress didn't allow one to linger on the cleavage, especially in an office setting. Naturally, the line of sight had to be adjusted higher, which would rest squarely on the diamond pendant necklace, if one was trying for a polite ogle, or just didn't have enough time to shift the eye sight higher to Lisa's face, of which was presently split into a self-satisfied smile stretching a mile wide. "Nice bling," Mahony commented at Lisa's expectant demeanor, since she hadn't move to get her cup of morning coffee, but instead was sitting facing Mahony.

"Isn't it delicious?" Lisa said in a Marilyn Monroe-esque way.

That was ... weird, Mahony thought. "Ah, diamonds are a girl's best friend?" Mahony said, comprehension bobbing him square upside the head.

"Isn't it just?" Lisa fluffed her hair, tossing the ends artfully forward to allow them to rest around her shoulders. "Dan gave it to me this weekend. It isn't the diamond ring I wanted, but it's very close."

"I guess, something to look forward to next time," Mahony said. Thinking of Dan, Lisa's husband, poor sod. Here's a woman that was not only cheating on him but had just offered sex in exchange for keeping her secret. Here he was, buying her exorbitant gifts as if rewarding her bad behavior. The world was such a fair and just place. Mahony had to look away and back to his screen, he didn't want any more unkind thoughts to surface. Fair and just or not, it's not his place to right any wrongs, especially things of this nature. The universe had it figured, one way or another, things will balance itself out.

All week, Lisa floated. Wearing outfits to showcase her diamond pendent, which had garnered compliments all around the office. As with all things, it was eye catching for that good fifteen minutes, any longer it became an eyesore. And, life returned to normal for Lisa. The floaty-ness was gone from her steps, as work load amped up, her mood dipped inversely. Leland dropped a presentation meant for the upcoming shareholder's meeting for her to work on and she was in no mood to be doing his job for him. She complained loudly when it was just Mahony and her in the open office. "I'm only the secretary, I don't get paid enough to do this kind of work. Like I would know what the future outlook of the company is."

"I don't think he would expect you to come up with the projections and the outlooks. Probably just wants you to clean up the formatting, make it look neat and nice," Mahony said.

"Then he should've gotten IT to do it," Lisa tossed her hair back indignantly, "they know this software stuff better than I do."

Mahony shrugged. He didn't want to get into it with Lisa, he knew there's no convincing her that if Leland wants her to work on the presentation, it was her responsibility to work on the presentation. He turned back towards his screen and started typing again, ignoring Lisa. Lisa's work and lack thereof, was Leland's problem, of which, if he had wanted to rub two brain cells together might want to question what exactly Lisa does all day and how was it that Leland never seem to have any issues with her performance. Then again, Lisa did look out for Lisa, maybe she covered her tracks well, then how was it that only Mahony alone could see what Lisa was really like? That couldn't be. He had to stop himself right there, this was one rabbit hole he's just as soon avoid, poking his head into it had zero benefit whatsoever.

It was late afternoon when Mahony dragged himself back to his desk from the last meeting of the day. He sat down and found himself alone in the office and wondered where everyone had gone. The company Mahony worked for occupied several floors of the office building. The open office plan was cordoned off by dry walls that were skillfully designed to give the impression of sectioned off areas where different departments occupied. If the walls were all taken down, you'd have one giant open space. If Mahony was more into office politics and social happenings, he might have gone to investigate but both tiredness and a genuine lack of interest had him going as far as the watering hole to get himself a fresh cup of coffee.

As soon as he poured himself a cup he immediately regretted doing so, the tale-tell hint of soy sauce wafting out of the coffee pot told him that the pot of coffee had been heating on the hot plate for quite some time. It also told him that in this state, the coffee would be strong enough to dissolve his stomach lining. Mahony wasn't sure why he identified stale, heated coffee having a close resemblance to soy sauce, but it never failed to tell him to stay away from the coffee when it took on that scent. He contemplated making a fresh pot but he checked the time on his cellphone told him that it's half past five, majority of the people will be leaving the office in half an hour. He poured out the stale pot of coffee and opted for a healthy cup of water instead.

When Mahony made it back to his office area he was surprised to see Lisa at her desk. She always clocks out at five on the dot and it's already half past, it's a fantastic sight to say the least. However, Lisa's puffy eyes and red nose screamed that there's definitely a story behind the fantastic sight. "Are you ok, Lisa?" Mahony asked.

"My diamond pendant," Lisa wailed, fresh tears welled in her eyes, "it's gone." She pulled a couple of tissues in quick secession from the tissue box and held it to her nose.

"Did you lose it just now?" Mahony asked, surprisingly finding himself not at all bothered by the disappearance. Instead, he found himself feeling slightly gleeful that she had lost it, karma served at it's very best.

"I don't know, I was freshening up before clocking out, that's when I realized it's gone," she continued to wail.

"Did you take it off at any time?" Mahony asked.

"No, I didn't take it off, why would I?" Lisa blew her nose and tossed the tissue in the waste basket before grabbing a couple more fresh tissues.

"Are you sure you were wearing it before you came in to work?" Mahony asked.

"I'm pretty sure I did," Lisa paused her sobbing, "I was so busy today I never checked. What am I going to do?"

"If it's lost in the office somewhere it'll get found, and if you had left it at home then that shouldn't be too hard to verify," Mahony said dispassionately.

"God, if that's the case the sitter might make off with it, and if it's lost in the office, why would anyone return it. It's a valuable piece of jewelry," Lisa said with a heavy dose of suspicion.

"It's a bit scary that you immediately drew that conclusion, have some faith," Mahony said.

"Easy for you to say, it's not your stuff that's lost," Lisa retorted. "Let's see how you'd react when you lose something valuable."

Very much wanting to tell Lisa to go suck an egg. Mahony held back the urge. "Be that as it may, sitting there crying and panicking isn't going to help you find the pendant, is it?" Mahony said instead.

"But I can't go home like this, Dan'd find out immediately that it's gone," Lisa said.

"You don't know that, maybe it really is at home, then there's really no problem at all," Mahony said finding himself losing patience.

"I don't have a choice do I, it's not like the pendant is just going to magically materialize in the next minute." Lisa pulled open her lower drawer none so gently and grabbed her purse. She started rummaging through the content of it hoping for a miracle. Unfortunately for her, there were no miracles today. She kicked her drawer shut and got up to leave. "Just keep an eye out, would you?" She said desperately.

"Of course, I'm sure everyone in the office will help look," Mahony said.

"Theydid already," Lisa said and stomped out.