Office Mates

Marian the Grump

Despite her best efforts, Marian still hasn't found a good time to talk to Kris about Liam. She is worried that Kris is going to be upset with her. Marian is very well aware that Liam has been leading her on for years. She knows that nothing will ever come of this relationship. But she can't seem to give him up. Just when she is about to move on, he does something to convince her to stay. Marian keeps coming back because she hopes that Liam will be ready to be official with her. But it's just a dream at this point, Liam has never introduced her to his family. He has never invited her to his work. He treats Marian like a side chick. If Kris found out that Marian put up with this for years, it would have changed Kris's impression of Marian. Who wants to be the clueless girl who can't take a hint? One person other than Liam knows about this, and Marian likes it that way. People would pity her if they found out about Liam.

Liam texts Marian about once a month, at the most. She rarely hears from him. And this month he canceled their plans to meet up. Marian assumed that this meant she wouldn't hear from him until next month, but Liam has suddenly contacted Marian to reschedule things. Liam texted that he would check his work schedule and get back to her on when would work best. It's now been two days since that text. Marian knows she shouldn't text him first after he said to wait, but it's hard waiting. She spent the whole morning at work staring at her phone. Suddenly around lunch time, she got a message from Liam. Finally! After, the two spent the rest of the afternoon messaging each other. Marian turned up the notification sound on her phone to avoid missing anything. For the next three hours her phone rang in her office at the highest setting.

Robin could tell that Marian was having a bad day when she got to work and didn't try to talk to him this morning. Usually she would be asking a million questions about his date tomorrow, but she didn't. Robin figured something was going on. When her phone started ringing he assumed she was texting Theo about something. But Theo never bothered Marian while she was at work. She kept getting these super loud messages to her phone. Then she would tappity tap a response message. While Robin would be okay normally, the fact that Marian's phone was intentionally turned up to the loudest setting annoyed him. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. "Why keeps texting you? Is it Theo?" Marian doesn't want Robin to know about Liam either. Robin had more conservative concepts of dating and he would not understand Marian's choice to be with two people. And it wasn't her choice, she ended up in this situation after Theo fell madly in love with her despite her many explanations that she didn't want anything serious. She decides to keep her dating life private. Marian, "It's not Theo." Robin has grown frustrated with the noise level in his office. "I figured. He usually doesn't both you while you are at work." Marian snaps back quickly, "Well. it isn't him."

Robin pauses and waits for Marian to explain. Marian loves talking about herself. But she doesn't say anything. Robin looks over at her and she is once again staring down at her phone, completely ignoring him. She must not feel like talking today. With this, Robin puts his headphones back on. He tries to put on music and get back to work. A few minutes later Marian gets a phone call on her cell. She answers and starts talking loudly to the other person. Robin can hear her over the sound of his music in his headphones. He waits for her to finish up quickly, but after 5 minutes she keeps going. Now he is getting annoyed. He starts to get frustrated with Marian. She never acts this way. Finally, after a few more minutes of the phone conversation, Robin pulls his headphones off dramatically and drops them on his desk. It makes this loud clanking sound. Marian looks up at Robin and says into the phone, "I am going to call you back, later." And she hangs up.

Now it's Marian's turn to get upset. Sometimes Robin can be so extra. He just had to pull off his headphones the loudest possible way. Robin is giving Marian a piercing glaze. Marian can tell what he is thinking. "Really Robin? I am not allowed to take a phone call in my own office?!" Robin gets angry. With his face growing red, "I can't get anything done today. You are distracting. I can hear you over my headphones." Robin points to his headphones that are now sprawled out on his desk. Marian folds her arms and starts speaking loudly, "This is my office too." Robin retorts, matching her loud voice, "You are being too loud." Marian rolls her eyes. "Robin, you are such a drama king," she says. The two start to stand up and get closer to each other. Robin has his arms crossed. Just as they are about to continue Marian's phone gives another loud notification. Marian looks down at her phone and mumbles, "Okay, that's pretty loud." This breaks Robin. He cannot believe Marian is acting this way. He starts shouting, "They can probably hear your phone next door!" Marian matches by shouting back, "You need to get your ears checked."

Just as the two are about to start tearing into each other, the office door opens. In walks Kris. She looks so confused. She has never had to deal with a problem between Marian and Robin. Kris looks from one to the other and then asks quietly, "Guys, what is going on? I can hear both of you in the hallway." Robin looks to Marian for a response. Marian says shortly, "Robin is complaining about how loud I am." Kris looks confused, "Just now? I mean, you two have shared an office for a year and had zero issues." Robin looks at Kris. He doesn't want to look at Marian right now because he is embarrassed his boss had to come in to deal with this. "We normally don't have any issues. But she has been in a bad mood all week. And she keeps getting notifications on her phone and talking on her phone super loudly." Kris looks confused, "that sounds like normal office behavior to me, Robin." Marian takes this as a cue that she is in the right, she starts getting riled up again, "I am to have my phone in the office. Get over yourself. The world doesn't fucking revolve around you, Robin."

Robin's face goes white at this. Marian has NEVER acted this way. All of the sudden he starts to wonder if something else is going on with Marian. Kris however looks completely appalled at Marian. Kris was trying to be understanding to her friend, but she just blatantly crossed all the lines. She looks directly at Marian and says, "That was unprofessional." It was the worst thing Kris could call Marian. Because Kris values professionalism over anything else. Marian grumbles, "Is there any chance I could get my own office." Kris shoots it down, "Only supervisors get their own offices. If you want your own office you should apply for a position that comes with one." Robin cheekily confirms what Kris just said, "yeah, apply for one that comes with one." Marian looks at Robin angrily, "I am not the problem. Plus" She starts counting on her fingers aggressively, "One you are way smarter, two you are faster, and three you are better than I am at work so why don't YOU apply for one? Since you are so much better than me at everything." Marian starts pointing aggressively at Robin.

Kris steps in between the two. She could have given Marian a pass for the one swear word, but Marian is on the warpath. She looks directly at Marian and says quietly but forcefully, "Marian, you cannot talk about Robin this way. I think you need to take the rest of the day off. I think you should take a few days off. Come back when you have calmed down." Marian attacks Kris next, "Are you seriously telling me to go home? Who do you think you are?" Kris responds calmly and starts to lead Marian back to her stuff, "I am telling you that you need to leave, right now. Gather your stuff up and go. I am telling you as your boss, not your friend." Marian angrily gathers up her stuff and storms out of the office.

Robin to Kris, "she has never acted like this before." Kris nods her head, "I know, she will hopefully go back to her normal self after she blows off some steam. I will text her tomorrow to check in with her. Honestly Robin, I don't think today was about you." Robin doesn't know what to make of Marian's behavior today. He likes to be drama free, but Marian definitely was ready for a fight. But maybe Kris is right, this could be about something not all all related to him. He decided to give Marian a pass.