ENTRY #4: The Comfort Zone Hives

Dear diary, you know the feeling you get on that first bite into a bar of chocolate or cheese cake during indulgence hour? That feeling of absolute perfection and rightness! At that moment, all is so well and right with the world that ‘Al-Qaeda’ simply becomes the name of a crèche where kids go, ‘Boko Haram’ the name of a research facility that focuses on agricultural development, ‘ISIS’ a rock band with the hottest rock music and stars, and Adam and Eve still in the garden, walking around naked, eating fruits, and staying in shape. Well, that was the feeling I

didn’t get when I walked into the office on Monday morning! Don’t get me wrong, I was happy- who wouldn’t be? Everything’s been working exceptionally fine at the office the past few weeks; we’ve been meeting our targets, our profitability had spiked, my team was more of a team than ever before; summarily, my work life was a breeze- effortless, colorful, and happy! Then I walked into the office on Monday, and it all didn’t feel right anymore. I felt as though something was wrong, something was missing but I couldn’t place my finger on what it was.

After drifting in a haze of discontent all through Monday morning, I attributed my foul mood to fact that I had had an overly active weekend; maybe I was just tired (this is why one should never spend all of their weekend in the company of adventure thirsty female friends; especially if you have a 9-5 job, and you are not twenty-two years old!). I dragged myself around the office, doing my regular job which somehow failed to hold my interest or enthusiasm longer than thirty minutes at a stretch; and by mid-afternoon, I was spent, I could take no more. Having no important deadline or pressing tasks to complete, I sent Mr. Olivier a lengthy mail concerning a doctor’s appointment (which I knew he wouldn’t read because he knew I was lying), grabbed my bags, and ran off; turning off all my mobile phones (after all, my doctor always wanted me to do that) as I drove home blissfully. Well if there was anything I learned from ditching work on Monday, it was that running away from a problem never ever solves it; as I was soon to realize when I walked into the office on Tuesday and felt the same crappy way I did on Monday. I spent the first few hours of Tuesday responding to emails, fixing daily reports, updating spreadsheets and charts, and executing other regular office duties; and by mid-morning, I was bored. Bored! That was it! I had identified what my issues were! Plain boredom.

That was acceptable; boredom. It was something I understood and could deal with and it was way better than loony. It was even easy to see why I could be bored. My department had quieted down to one of those lull periods before the mad rush of year’s end financial closings. Those long autumn days without specific deadlines, as though we were being given time to indulge in what little rest and fun we could afford as all our waking hours were soon to be dominated by numbers crunching. I decided I needed a project to occupy my spare time. Now don’t get scared or queasy dear dairy; my understanding and application of the term ‘project’ have long evolved; so no, I didn’t turn up with a tattoo, a bright blue hair, or anything too adventurous for my ‘project’ this time around. As a matter of fact, I simple settled for some basic investigation.

You see dear dairy, I was a bit thrown of balance by some of the less official activities occurring in my department. To simplify, I was a bit thrown by some stunts pulled by Uche (or pulled around Uche?) in recent times. I had already mentioned the little Friday night rendezvous between Uche and Mona which I stumbled upon right? Well I could tell that it kind of went beyond Friday nights even though they remained very discreet.  Little tell tail signs like a meaningful looks here, a reserved comments there, coded language now and again, and words loaded with fifty five shades of interpretations, were all pointers; but when Uche began handing over his ATM card to Mona for her lunches (with the excuse that she forgot hers; everyday, as though I was supposed to believe that!) I knew it was a done deal! Mona and Uche were officially an item! Well, this was serious office ‘scandal’ for want of a better word (actually there was nothing scandalous about it, they were two consenting adult; but in times of boredom, a girl’s got to pick her scandal gist where she can find one).

In line with my nature, I didn’t divulge their ‘secret’ to anyone; I almost felt privileged as I thought I was the only one in the know until Temi flopped into the chair beside mine at lunch that Tuesday, sighing and rolling her eyes at once. Dear dairy, this was Temi’s gossip signature- sighing and rolling her eyes simultaneously. It was her code way of saying ‘I have juicy gist for you but I want you to ask for it so it doesn’t look as though I came all the way just to gossip’ so I prompted “Temi? What’s up?”
“Just when I thought having a secret couple in the office was news, a secret couple breaker turns up; that’s frigging headlines Ari!” she snorted and rolled her eyes once more.
She had my full attention now “Secret couple? Secret couple breaker? What are you talking about Temi?”
“Oh please! Don’t play dumb with me Ari” she retorted in mild disgust “you know, everyone knows, that Uche and Mona have made themselves an item even though they try to hide it. With all those sly behaviors and heavy looks they always exchange, who wouldn’t have guessed?”
“Okay?” I answered carefully “they are adults and they are not particularly breaking any rules here” I shrugged
“Oh, don’t get me wrong Ari” Temi replied passionately “I know they have the right to be a couple if they want to, I even kind of like the idea of the both of them together; but with Caustic girl in the picture, forgive me, I can’t help but foresee doom!”
Whoa, ‘Caustic girl’? Not only was Temi in the know, she even knew more than myself! The only ‘Caustic girl’ I knew was Dara; that is the nickname Temi had given her after their last disagreement which had stemmed from Dara’s conclusion that Temi only had a ‘perspective beauty’ which was why Mr. Brazil (the one from my earlier entry; the one in need of English lessons) was stuck in a ‘wooing limbo’ (and he truly was; but that’s gist for another day). Dear Dairy, beauty was Temi’s special thing, what she was known for. Just as Mona is known for her smarts, or Macy for her nurturing nature, or Dara for cynicism, Temi was the beautiful one; thus anyone who dared to down play Temi’s beauty was stirring up a storm. What I couldn’t understand however, was how Dara fitted into the Uche-Mona fairy tale; I obviously needed an update.
“Forgive me Temi, but I don’t see how Dara fits into all of this” I threw out the bait, waiting to see if she’d bite. Off course she bit, deep
“How could you not! That girl is totally unpredictable, she’s toxic and she’s a self-centered attention junkie, it’s obvious she’s set her sights on Uche just because she’s seen him with someone else! She has zero respect for personal boundaries or spaces! God, she gets me so worked up!”
Stunned! Dear Diary, I was stunned by Temi’s tirade. I knew Temi did not like Dara, but not this much. I was careful to keep my facial expression neutral especially as Temi’s face flushed with embarrassment; she hadn’t intended on an outburst. To save us both the awkwardness, her phone began to ring; she gratefully grabbed and skipped out of the cafeteria.

I hadn’t noticed Dara’s involvement in the Uche-Mona fairy tale; but then again, I was big on not noticing such things. Just last week, Jerry had surprised me with an accusation “Ari, you shouldn’t always turn a blind eye to people’s shortcomings just because you want to have the false sense of security that you are surrounded by good people”.
Jerry wasn’t a philosophical person, he was more empirical; thus his statement had me worried (and that was before I noticed he had begun to behave wired). Anyway, I watched Dara (voluntarily or involuntarily) for the rest of Tuesday and most of Wednesday, and true to words, Uche seemed to be a major new interest for her (and it was Sam only last week; and Dele before him). What was more baffling to me however, was Uche’s receptiveness to the attention. I rationalized that he was either flattered by Dara’s attention or out rightly scared of her and didn’t want to get on her bad side; but as the pair roamed the office in giggles daily, I realized Mona was not on ‘team rationale’ as she became increasingly curt with Dara. We officially had a potential ‘time bomb situation’ on our hands. In other circumstances, Sam and I would have come up with a plan to diffuse this, but in this case, Sam was particularly uninterested in diffusion; I think he was still smarting from Dara’s sudden shift in interest.

I was alone in this; and I came up with a game plan (which I’ll later regret): a group activity! We were all bored and restless and a group activity outside work would be good for all of us and hopefully Dara’s interest would shift again; I even went the extra mile to invite JT (yeah, the sales rock star who never fails to get on my nerves); and with Temi’s help, I finalized plans for bowling after work on Friday, and kept my fingers crossed.

Dear Dairy, I shouldn’t have bothered my phalanges because the disaster still occurred; in one swift succession too! Dara fawning over Uche at the bowling pit, Mona’s soda somehow spilling all over Dara, a ladies rendezvous in the bathroom to clean Dara up, an exchange of angry heated words between Mona and Dara, Mona in tears, Mona leaving, Uche going after her, Dara in a black rage, everyone else making excuses to leave and skip the drama, and poof! our night out cut short. So here I am dear diary, in my blue pyjamas (yes, the one I wear when I’m in the mood to wallow in sorrow) with one moral lesson: walking all over someone else turf (professionally or otherwise) in a bid to ease your boredom always end in disaster. I’ve decided to stir clear off this little circus show ran by Mona, Uche, and Dara before I get burned. As a matter of fact, I’ve decided on a new project to occupy my free time; one tough enough and targeted at self-development. I’ll learn a new language, very a difficult one; high Valyrian! That should be difficult enough to keep me sufficiently busy; so valar morghulis dear dairy.
Peace, out…

(Disclaimer: Aria's Note is largely fiction; as such, names, characters, businesses, organisations, associations, places, events and incidents are product of the author's imagination. any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, events, locales, associations or organisations is entirely coincidental.)