Friends

It was 6:50 in the evening, everybody was winding up their work. Most of the people had already left. "Let's get going," said Nora as she turned off the computer in front of her and packed her bag. "Yeah, just give me a sec." Penelope was still busy arranging her things. She cleaned her desk, put all her belongings in her bag, and shut down the computer.

She paused for a moment and looked at Nora, “You really think—”

“Yes, yes! For the love of cheesecake, yes. You should go with us.” Nora grabbed her shoulders and shook them. “All right…” Penelope removed her hands from her shoulders.

"Let's go." She said and put her bag on her shoulder.

"Penelope?" someone called from behind. They both turned around to find Nate standing there.

"Now what does this asshole wants?" Nora rolled her eyes. Penelope hushed her. "Yes?" She replied politely. "Miss Conner wants to see you in her office." He told her.

"After working hours?" Nora made a disgusted face on the mention of Marissa.

"Yeah." He nodded his head. Nora looked at her wristwatch. “She better hurry with whatever shitty talk she had to do with you.” She said to her.

She becomes really dangerous when she is hungry. Penelope thought to herself.

Nate had already left. “I’ll be back soon.” She didn’t want to go. “Only if she lets you leave.” She rolled her eyes and dropped herself on the chair.

"Why don't you like her?" Penelope asked. Nora waved her hand in the air and dismissed her. "I'll be waiting for you here. In case you need any medications after you come back." She started scrolling on her phone.

Penelope walked towards Marissa's cabin. She stood in front of the door for a second and took a long deep breath. She was tired of working all week but what possibly she could do? She knocked at the door and entered. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, please sit." Marissa smiled. "I saw your work. You did a great job." She opened a file in front of her and said after Penelope sat. "I want you to read all these files, they all are rejected ideas. Find the reason why they were rejected and come up with better or improved ideas." She skimmed through the pages.

"Okay..." Penelope said.

"Turn it over till Sunday morning." She shut the file and hand it over to her. "Sunday?" She asked in confusion.

"Yes, is there a problem?" She said calmly. "No, yeah, no... uh-- it's very... um isn't it quite less time for a complete report? Also, it's… weekend." She said hesitantly.

Marissa sat straight. Her eyes went dark and her smile dropped "Miss Bloom if you wanted to enjoy your weekends why did you come to this firm in the first place? You could've done sightseeing and went back to Washington. If you are not able to work under these conditions you may leave at any point." Her face showed no emotions.

Penelope's mouth hung open. She had not expected her to say such kind of thing.  "I didn't mean..." She was cut off Marissa "I'm not sitting here to listen what do you mean and what you don't. I just want that work done. If you are not willing to do it tell me now." She curtly said.

"I- I… I'll do that." She clenched her fist under the table and took the file. "Better. You may leave now." She was calm again. Penelope started to walk outside the office. “Have a great weekend,” Marissa said, her voice filled with sarcasm. Penelope tried extremely hard to not say anything that she would regret later. She gave her a tight-lipped smile and left the office.

"God!! She's such a bitch. Now I get why Nora hates her so much. What would I do now? That's a whole lot of stupid things to do in one day." She hit her head with the file and groaned in frustration. She spotted Nora at the end of the hallway and slowly walked towards her.

"How did it go?" She chuckled. "Stop it. Okay." She said and pouted. "She gave you work to ruin your weekend?" Nora said when she saw a file in her hands.

Penelope pouted sadly. "She is such a bully." She said as they entered the lift. "Oh wow. Now you get it, huh? Too good man!" She said sarcastically. "Now let's go." She said and dragged her towards the parking lot.

*

"Where are we going?" asked Penelope as they exited the parking lot. "Dinner," she replied. "Very informative." Penelope rolled her eyes. "I know." She chuckled. Penelope leaned in her seat and sighed. "She gave me a hell lot of work to do. And on the weekend!! I mean... who does that?" She whined and kept ranting for the whole fifteen minutes.

"Aw, baby girl. Now cheer up we are here." She said and pulled her car in front of a kinda-fancy but no so fancy-fancy restaurant. Penelope raised a little from her seat and looked outside the window. It was a nice Japanese place. “We’re already here?” She asked.

“You were ranting since forever, honey.” She said as she got out of the car. Penelope rolled her eyes and shut the door. She had her wallet and phone in her hand. She swallowed as she looked at the front door and adjusted her dress. "Is he here?" She looked around.

"Ow! Missing him already." Nora nudged her and chuckled.

"What? WHAT? NO!" She smacked her arm away. “Why are you saying such embarrassing things? God!” Her neck turned crimson red. "Relax. He'd be here in a minute. He just texted me." She laughed at her. They both entered the restaurant and walked towards their seats. Damen had already made the reservations.

Penelope put her head on the table. She was tired because of all the work she'd been doing the whole week and now her weekend was occupied as well.

"She slept again?" A male voice came. She lifted her head and saw Damen sitting in front of her. She cleared her throat and looked away "She is just tired. Your girlfriend ruined her weekend." Nora said without moving her eyes from her phone.

Girlfriend? Marissa is her girlfriend? Wow! She thought to herself. Well, he deserves her. She rolled her eyes in her thoughts.

"You know what? You are talking like James, right now."

"I know, right. You only have like two smart people in your life." She said and waved her hand in front of his face. "When did you meet him?" She put her phone on the table and asked. "The night I went to Hawaii. He drove me to the airport." He said and looked around for the waiter.

The waiter came to take their orders. Penelope looked confused when she looked at the menu. Nora looked at her confused face and said, "Lemme help you." She skimmed through the pages.

“Have you ever had sushi before?”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Okay, so you are in for a treat today.”

“No… I don’t like… raw fish.” She said in a small voice.

“You are going to love it. Trust me.” She gave her hand a little pat.

“We would like to have Spicy Tuna Roll, California Roll, Shrimp Tempura Roll. And, um… crab legs, cheese bread, and uh-- crab salad sandwich.” She smiled at the waiter and handed him the menu. “And for you sir?” He asked after noting down their order. “I’ll have one Sukiyaki.” He handed him the menu.

“All right. Your order would be served shortly.” He said and walked away in another direction.

"So? Have you adjusted to the office environment?" He looked at her. Tried to make small talk. "Mm-hm.” She said without looking at him.

"Except that your girlfriend is giving her a really tough time." Nora snorted a laugh.

"For God's sake stop calling her my girlfriend." He wheezed. "How many times do I have to tell you guys?" He looked annoyed. "Calm down, sweetheart." She was still laughing. Penelope was just sitting there trying her best to stay out of that conversation. Damen looked at her. She was scrolling down on her phone. Her face resting on her hand. He didn’t know what else to say to her. He tried to make conversation but nothing came to his mind.

"How long you guys have known each other?" Penelope finally asked. "We went to the same college." Nora started. "I wasn't studying to be an architect at first. For a short period, I tried… um - switching fields. Then, um, two years later I didn’t feel like doing that anymore. So, I switched my degree.” She paused for a moment. “He and I had some classes together.”

"Woah! You must be really smart." Penelope looked at her with wide eyes. "Not really, but from both of you, yeah." Nora flipped her hair and then they all laughed.

The environment was light, they were joking and talking about regular stuff when their food got served. “Before starting this,” Damen pointed his spoon towards Penelope, “Are you sure you are not allergic to any of it?”

“Um… yeah?” She raised her brows in confusion. She looked at Nora with a quizzical expression. “Oh, about that…” She put a sushi roll in her mouth. “Once in college, Damen and his lab partner went out on a date.”

“What no! Stop!” He tried to stop her. “The girl was allergic to sunflower seeds. She didn't know it at that point. She had a severe attack after having only one bite from her salad. He got so scared. He thought she was dying, and he almost started crying.” She said between fits of laughter.

“What?” Penelope laughed.

Damen was so embarrassed. He covered his face with his hands. “I hate you. I hate you so much.” He shook his head. “Ah! It's fine we are all friends. And friends should know about each other's embarrassing moments.” She patted her shoulder.

“I will get back to you on this one.” He narrowed his eyes at her. They started eating their food. Nora told Penelope the details about all the sushi rolls. “Congratulations! You are not a sushi virgin anymore!” Nora clapped her hands when Penelope finally ate one roll.

Penelope laughed. “What? What is that thing?” She was laughing way too much. Damen sipped his drink and said, “It’s a thing, like, when she and I, and our friend- James, went to eat sushi for the first time she stood up on a chair and said, ‘We are not sushi virgins anymore.' She was way too happy about it."

Penelope laughed again. She liked how Nora and Damen were so close and they were giving her good company. She hadn’t felt like this in months. To have friends like this. To enjoy hanging out with people. To laugh. To enjoy. To be carefree. She finally had made friends who were not throwing snarky remarks at her and trying to freak her out. She felt happy. She felt relieved.

***