Day Thirtyfive

I sleepily writhe around in bed for a good 15 minutes before deciding that one morning's worth of sleep isn't worth losing my job.

Mirjana is horribly sick. Her temperature is 38 degrees and she continuously coughs a very wet and very hacking cough that makes my skin crawl. She sits at the desk for nearly the entire day with her face in her hands, emerging only to measure her temperature. I feel sorry that there's nobody else to work in her place. Freda is in Melbourne, Jim is sipping long island iced teas on a boat somewhere, and John is gone and won't tell us where he is.

I deal with irksome customers. Everybody seems to be on edge today. I find that we're out of my favourite facewash and there's a single drop left at home. I settle for L'Occitane cleansing jelly which lacks both the foam and the antiseptic properties of the lavender gel that I so totally like can't like live without like.

At 4:00 pm I finally crack and munch chocolate-coated coffee beans.

I bump into Victor and Andrew while waiting for my train. Too much eye contact has been made not to acknowledge each other, so we do, and then it's decidedly awkward. Apparently my alliance to Jenny doesn't sit well with Victor. I slither away as soon as I'm on the train, and he sends me a SMS when I'm home to apologise for being so cold. I tell him I understand, but I don't.