He smiled as he teased me ceaselessly. Finally cosy in the silence of the conference room and working on something together after quite a long break from each other. It was maddeningly cold, and the day, afternoon, evening, night blended into one hallucination. I nodded absently, poring over a sheet of incomprehensible numbers in thin rows, flanked on either sides by equally blotched words on photocopied paper.
That comes from taking the time to consider the folly of one’s own actions.
“You were vicious,” he said, not looking up from his own set of printed matter and troubles. He shifted and reached for the ruler in front of him. I paused a moment from paper to laptop; I was out of gratuitous comebacks and quips. My throat was sore from Saturday night, and I didn’t bother fighting through the haze of my medication.
“What did I say this time?” I asked, my lips pursed. He was for some reason extremely smug; he must look like all bearers of secrets the world over, I thought, and had on my lips the a vicious reply in turn.
“You don’t remember?” he said, this time a smile in full bloom. He leaned back on his chair and breathed a deep sigh.
“I’d prefer if you tell me,” I said, turning back to the laptop, fiddling idly at the ’save’ button.
“You were particular vicious with K. that night. K. wasn’t there, no,” he said after a while. That I remembered clearly, without apology. My medication kicked in and the bright back-lit words became a blur as I yawned again. “And K. wasn’t the only one you bashed,” he said, laughing.
“I know, I know,” I said, and placed at the foot of the altar all my rehearsed misdemeanors from yesterday morning.
