Office Mates

Night Out with Kris

Kris and Marian have a makeup night out planned. Kris arrives early to scope out the place. It has been a week since Marian and Kris talked about her situation. Marian had promised Kris she would tell Theo and end things with Liam. Kris is curious about what happened. Kris saw Theo leaving the office building one morning this week and he didn't look happy. Kris tries to remember what Liam looks like, but it's all one big blur in her head. She is mostly worried about how her friend is going to get out of this sticky situation she put herself in. Kris takes a sip of her Martini and then starts eating the olive off the toothpick. She does this whenever she is perplexed.

Marian arrives soon. She sees Kris already has a Martini and so she orders her whiskey from the bartender. The two friends start nervously laughing while looking at each other. Finally Kris's curiosity gets the best of her. "So, did you drop Liam yet?" Marian stops and shakes her head no. Kris looks at Marian with frustration. "What happened to our plan?" Marian starts to explain herself, "I have spent almost every night this week with Liam." Kris shakes her head in frustration, "No, this is the opposite of what I wanted. I thought I saw Theo at the office this week. Did you at least tell him?" Marian shakes her head no again. Kris looks Marian squarely in the face and asks, "Fine, just pick one..." Marian doesn't respond. Kris asks another question, "Do you want to dump Liam?" Marian sheepishly responds, "No." Kris asks next, "Then you want to dump Theo, right?" Marian again with a, "No." Kris, "Oy vey friend, we are going to need more drinks."

The two friends order another round, after the drinks arrive Kris comes up with an idea that could help. Kris looks at her and then declares, "You can't decide? Then lets pros and cons this shit. We are freaking engineers." Marian starts laughing. But next, Kris grabs two napkins and pulls out a pen. One one napkin is Theo and the other is Liam. One side has all the pros and the other side has all the cons. She looks up at Marian and says, "I am ready. Let's start with Theo." The two spend the next 20 minutes arguing over pros and cons. Marian thinks things are pros but Kris disagrees. The two debate, eventually both sides of the napkins for both Liam and Theo get filled up. Kris shakes her head in frustration. This was supposed to help them. Kris complains, "Fine, if logic doesn't help, let's just go by your gut. I am going to count to three and after that you are going to shout the name of the one you want to be with." Marian nods in agreement. She can do that. Kris starts counting. "One.....Two.....THREE!" Marian just sits in silence.

Kris tells her friend in frustration, "You were supposed to say a name." Marian is at least 4 whiskey sours in at this point, her brain is fried. Marian gets a notification on her phone, she pulls it out and stars smiling. Kris notices and asks her friend who the message was from. Marian puts her head down on Kris's shoulder and says "Liam." Kris looks at Marian and asks her, "What are you going to do?" Marian shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know. Liam is finally making an effort to see me, rather than the other way around." Kris nods in understanding, "Which is why you are imploding." Marian continues her thought, "I am. Liam is starting to take up more time and so I am seeing Theo less and he is getting salty." Kris looks off to the distance, "I wish I had the problem of two men wanting my attention. I can't even get one." Marian doesn't know what to say. She honestly never expected to be in the situation she is in. "I don't know what changed for Liam. He never texted me first, ever. It was easy to just fit him in when I wanted. But now I am trying to fit him in when he wants, and it's cutting into my time with Theo." Kris asks her friend what has been bothering her since she found out about Liam, " I still can't believe you have been dating Liam for longer than I have known you. How has this never come up?" Marian looks down feeling bad. She doesn't want Kris to think that she doesn't feel comfortable, "It's not like we have anything worth bragging about." Kris sits back and takes a deep breathe. If Marian didn't think it was worth talking about, then that was her choice.

Kris pats Marian's head and then asks her friend the second question she has been wondering this whole time. "What does he have that keeps you so interested?" Marian thinks for a minute and says, "I guess that I met him five years ago and no one else has ever measured up." Kris starts laughing and says, "Measured up how?" Marian gives her friend a knowing smirk. The two girls descend into giggles. They are both feeling drunk now. Marian gets another message and sits up straighter. "Liam is coming here to meet up with us. Is that okay?" Kris nods her head, "I want to meet him anyway. I am going to ask him all the hard questions." The two start laughing again. Kris looks at Marian and asks, "Before he gets here, tell me about him."