Hint of disappointment - Luke Hemmings

4.

After I had thanked my mates for being such great friends and we had exchanged some good-intended curse words: "see you later, you wanker", I tried to look very dignified as I walked out of the toilet, aware of the fact I had been in there for exactly-

'Five minutes and eight seconds, Hemmings. Were you doing crack?'

I had once timed Jones when she was going to the toilet on her period, because I knew it would take her longer than usual, and ever since she was more than happy to return the favour.

I smiled at her as my eyes screamed "die, you bitch!' and took place at the spot next to her. We spent a lot of time together, since Cavanaugh liked to see us suffer and made us sit where he could keep an eye on us.

'No, I just lost track of time when I was going over some Hindi grammar in my head. How's it going with contacting the regional contact?'

The small glimpse of victory she had in her eyes after the 5 minutes and 8 seconds died quickly.

'It is going just fine. Thank you.'

I dared to take a peek at her computer screen and saw she was already translating the fifth sentence of her text. I could only hope it was wrong.

Unfortunately, we were a lot alike. We didn't get things wrong. All our work was absolutely perfect, which is why we were still in competition for Cavanaugh's blessing. He most certainly was not going to change the whole situation, I had an awful feeling he enjoyed that we were in continued competition with each other. Anyone who did not believe in evolution theory and survival of the fittest should walk a day in my shoes.

I was done with the rapport around lunchtime, which was impressive because it had been 70 pages of notes, Cavanaugh just gestured for me to lay it on his desk and then made me sit and wait for Jones, who was ready a small five minutes later. Although her job had been harder, I still felt the satisfaction of finishing earlier, and by the look she gave me, she felt like the loser.

I almost gave her the finger when Cavanaugh turned in his chair and gave us a stern look.

'I have a feeling the both of you aren't really getting along.'

I covered my laugh by coughing, which resulted in Jones handing me some water. I could tell she would rather throw the cup all over my face, nonetheless I thanked her.

'Well sir,' I was happy she took it on her to speak, because this was a precarious situation that needed to be handled with a lot more tact than I had in my body. She paused, looked at me and maybe hoped that I would help her out. Instead, I decided on letting her dig her own grave.

'We have a very professional relationship,' she concluded, clearly happy with herself. Cavanaugh smiled. Anytime he did that, you best took cover.

'Naturally,' he said and gave her the creepy smile again. Sometimes I was scared that he would give her the recommendation because he wanted that sleep with her. It would be logical considering she wasn't ugly, but also really gross since he was older than my dad. Thus far, I only had suspicions; which resulted in me working harder to get where I wanted to be.

'I just wanted to make sure,' he continued in his best impressive voice. No doubt that he used that one when he had a conversation with the president, 'that we all are on the same page. We are all here for the same reason after all...'

He stared at us as if it wasn't obvious what he was going to say.

'To provide clean water worldwide?' I tried carefully.

He nodded. 'And while we are at it, make a shitload of money.'