Unwind

He was sitting in the corner almost directly in my line of sight, if I stared ahead of me he would be gone, but this was a formal event, why was he dressed so plainly ontop of that it looked like no one bothered to take note.

I shrugged and went back to half-listening to the tables chatter, it was the usual mixture of gossip, personal anecdotes and work banter. None of it was nearly as interesting as the seemingly unnoticed and yet completely out of place man in the corner.

     "Did you hear about Jenny? Her daughter had a miscarriage, and oh she was so excited for her first grandchild." The CEO's secretary asks and tells me, as she places her hand on my arm as though I am the one that needs consoling.

I fain concern replying to the wretched old woman "Oh, no. that is very unfortunate. I do hope she took some time off to be with her family. I did not see any leave applications on my desk, maybe I missed them."

As much as I disliked the chatty secretary I have always respected how cautious she was of me. She tended to pick up on my cold disregard for anything related to "compassionate leave" as they would have to tick that box when providing me with their leave application. Although I am not able to deny them in many cases I can however considerably shorten the leave period.

I don't think that makes me a bad guy, I am just trying to teach them that work is work and family is well at home, they do not provide these people with anything if anything they are a cost.

To be fair, I have a pet and when times were tough I fed my kitty instead of myself. People are different though, and they do not deserve the same level of compassion as an animal. That is not to say they deserve cruelty. There he is.

I somehow lost track of the man while the lady so rudely told me her little bit of gossip and lead me down the inevitable maze of thought. I have not seen a waiter approach him, maybe he got a drink at the bar.

Very strange I think, I wonder why he perplexes me so much.

---

Getting up to head to the bathroom I am happy to see that his table is right on the way.

     "Hi, I am Mike, how are you tonight?" I try to sound casual and friendly. This is a work conference after all and we all are supposed to know each other if even just through recognition. Many are even meeting for the first time, with the inclusion of some satellite branches joining head-office this year.

     "Tim." He says looking up for a brief moment before going back to surveying the crowd. I am not one to be given the cold shoulder, because firstly that is what I do and secondly I wanted to know what I wanted to know. "Which branch are you from?" I asked ignoring his silent plea to be left alone.

     "I am not from any branch. Hey, could you do me a favour and get me another whisky? I snagged this one from the table over there because the help here seems to not want to serve me on account of me not being invited." He said, in a tone that clearly means do what I ask or fuck off.

So I did what he asked and sat down opposite him. He ignored me for a good minute before asking what I did for the company and I told him I work in human resources at which he snorted a bit of his whisky back in the glass.

     "Well that sounds absolutely horrible, how about another whisky?" He announced slamming the tumbler down. "Sure, how about I get us a bottle," I said thoroughly entertained. This man gets it. It is absolutely horrible. He nods in agreement as I leave the table amused with this person I have just met.

That is the thing about me, it is not that I dislike everyone and everything so much that I reject any and all connection. Sometimes, I welcome the distraction and over the years I have learnt not to expect anything else. No years of friendship or unbreakable ties, just moments of something different. "An honest laugh will always fade." popped into my thoughts, and with a smile, I concur. "Bartender, please give me a bottle of Jameson and a bucket of ice. Oh, and a bottle of water to start."