Overtime - A Short Story

Disclaimer: This is a work of Fiction. Name, characters, places and incidents are the products of author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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It was 10.30 PM and I was sitting in my office. Alone.

Due to three days of field work, I had lot of pending work at my office. I decided to stay after office hours and complete the unsettled work, so I don't have to work on weekends. Our official timings are upto 5.00 PM. After that, only some people stay to work. Some stay by their own will, while some are forced by the seniors. Today also, few colleagues joined me for overtime. But one-by-one, all of them went by 7 o'clock.

From boisterous in office hours to quite and soft, the office atmosphere changed after everyone left the office. I made a phone call to my home informing them that I will be running late. Then worked for 3 hours straight. Feeling exhausted, I went to the coffee vending machine to grab a cup of coffee. While drinking coffee, I looked at the entire area of office. The other end of office area looked different without the lights. The darkness and silence made it frightful. I also noticed one light is turned on. Looked like someone forgot to turn off lights before leaving. I felt like I should go there and save some electricity by turning the switch off, but was too tired to walk.

I returned to my desk and continued my work. After half an hour, my entire body was feeling drowsy. I couldn't concentrate on my work. I checked again my work and calculated that it still require one more hour to finish the task.

"You sure you want to finish the task by today? I asked myself.

"Of course." Myself replied.

"You can do it tomorrow."

"A big No. Today is Friday and I don't like to work on weekends." My Don't-Spoil-Weekend soul replied.

"But, it's impossible to work one hour straight at this time." A battle started between mind and body.

"But I'm not going without finishing this." I declared to myself.

But the fact was I was too tired to continue the work. So I decided to take a short nap. I pulled a chair from next desk and placed it in front of mine. Lowered my back little so my head can rest on neckroll and stretched my leg on opposite chair. I know this is not the correct way to sit in an office, but I was alone. Well, that's what I thought. I closed my eyes.

"Excuse me? Can you help me on this?" I heard a female voice from behind. Those words were spoken so softly and beautifully that you can create a picture of a beautiful girl in your mind uttering the sentence.

Suddenly I realized the position I'm sitting in. I immediately straighten up, revoked my legs from front chair and turned back. My imagination was not wrong. A pleasing combination of delightful face with olive complexion was standing in front of me. Holding laptop in her both hands, she was looking at me. I had never seen such beautiful girl in my office. As a result, I kept staring her and forgot to reply her question.

"Excuse me? Can you help me on this?" She asked again.

"Oh. Ummm. ya." I fumbled while searching the words. "Show me."

"This." She put her laptop on my desk so I can see the content. "I have to prepare a presentation and I want to know whether this is correct or not."

"Ok. Lemme see." I diverted my gaze towards the screen. But I couldn't concentrate on it. And the reason was obvious.

"I've never seen you here." I asked. Wanted to know more about her.

"Actually I've joined this Wednesday. Sales department."

"Oh. That's why I haven't seen you. I was on field work."

"You always work this late?

"No no. It's just today. Covering up the pending works of three days. Don't want to ruin my weekend."

"Any special plans?" She asked. She started to take interest I guess.

"No. Nothing much."

"Ok."

"By the way, What's your name?"

"I'm -" Suddenly her phone rang. She looked at it and signalled me that she had to take it. She picked up the phone and walked a little distance from me. I looked at her. Around five and a half feet height. She was looking purely professional in Petal Pink shirt and Navy pant with medium pump heels. Her leather black hair was blowing as she stood directly in front of AC vents.

"Stop checking her." My Inner voice shouted.

"But she's beautiful." I almost mumbled.

"She's your colleague."

Inner voice was correct. She was a colleague and I have to maintain dignity. I turned to my desk. As soon as I turned I heard her voice.

"Sorry. It's from home. I had to take it." She said as she was standing behind me.

"It's ok. Sit." I offered her a chair. I didn't pay attention to the fact that she covered fifteen to twenty feet in just one second.

"So what's your problem?" I asked, looking at her laptop.

"I want to know that this presentation I made is correct or not."

I checked her presentation from start to end. It was poxy.

"Well.. It looks.. Umm.. amateur.." I said. Tried to being diplomatic.

"Is it?" Clearly, she didn't like the word 'amateur'.

I kept looking at laptop screen. I just called a beautiful girl amateur on face. I didn't dare to look at her.

"Can you help me to make it perfect?" She asked after a long pause.

"No. You have still lot more work to do. Don't ruin weekends." My Don't-Spoil-Weekend soul instantly told me.

"Yes. I'd love to." I replied to her. She smiled.

"What are you doing? Are you not going to finish YOUR work?" My Inner-Me asked me.

"It will take only fifteen-twenty minutes to complete her presentation." I replied to Inner-Me.

Next one and a half hour, I helped her to improve her presentation. Totally forgot that I had to work on my pending stuff too. She looks happy with the improvement of the presentation. After finishing her job, I tried to re-engage the conversation.

"You didn't tell me your name." I said.

My phone rang up suddenly. It was on charging, so I stood up to reach the phone. When I looked at the screen, a strange feeling passed inside me. There wasn't any name or number displayed on screen. I picked up the call. All I heard was some strange noise from other side. It was like someone was whispering in my ear but couldn't hear any word properly. I tried to communicate with the other side, but couldn't do it. I cut the call after around thirty seconds.

I turned back, and to my surprise, the girl was not there. She's gone with her laptop. I looked around entire area of office, but didn't see her anywhere. I also noticed that one light which was on when I was drinking coffee, was turned-off. I thought she had left the office. I felt bad. After all the helps I did, if not more, I deserved a simple 'Thank you'. But here, she didn't even wait to tell me her name.

I returned to complete my desk. And started again my pending work. But couldn't concentrate. Her beautiful face was hovering in front of my eyes. I know, that probably we can meet again on Monday, but couldn't wait to know her name. So I called my friend in HR department.

"Hi." I said when he picked up the phone. I heard dialogues in background. He was watching movie or something.

"Dude, it's 12.30 in the midnight. Everything's okay?" He asked.

"Ya. Absolutely. I'm in office. Need a favor."

"Still working?"

"Ya."

"Ok. What can I do for you?"

"Don't tell anyone. But I want to know the name of the girl, who recently joined in sales department."

"Who?"

"The girl, who joined our company this Wednesday."

"Are you dreaming?"

"No. I just met her. And helped her improvising her presentation. She was beautiful."

"Dude, we didn't hire anyone in last two months. Any department."

I shivered as panic set in.

"Are you sure?" I asked in serious voice.

"Of course man. I'm in HR."

I cut the call. And looked around. I started to feel terrorised from the place. My heart was beating fast and I started sweating even in AC. My phone beeps. I pick it up to read the message. It was from my HR friend.

'You must be dreaming. Why someone who joined just two days before, working this late? Upto midnight.'

He was right. My mind started oscillating between "I've joined this Wednesday" and "We didn't hire anyone in last two months".

Lots of questions were started to emerge in my mind. Why no one told me about this girl in day time? Looking at her beauty, she must had been hot topic of the office. Why she was working late on her 3rd day? How she covered fifteen-twenty feet distance in just one second? How she disappeared from this large office in just thirty seconds? Why I got call without name or number? Why every time someone's phone rang when I asked her name?

It was 12.40 AM and I was sitting in my office. Alone.

-- Purvit Soni

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