Office work; the normalized cubicle of modern torture. Despite the evidence indicating work from home is more efficient, the corporations must have a reason keep their lights on. He didn’t really need this job, but it kept him occupied from his own thoughts and he enjoys the timed intervals of his friends’ presence. The boss, being well aware of his stature, offered Sémillon numerous promotions. He declined them all instead providing recommendations of fellow employees for the respective available titles. The only thing he wished for in the dreadful office was a nice window view. The ability to view sky was a simple beauty he’d learned to appreciate. Blankly staring at his computer screen he heard a faint

seh, seh, Seh, Seh, SEH, “SEM!”

His coworker, Indigo, noticed the look of gazing into the void.

“Hey, are you all right? You’ve been checked out lately. Not that it’s hurting the boss’ pockets or anything. You’ve been absent for a while and we miss you at our monthly bar nights. We’re having another one tonight, Boss is going to do standup… or karaoke?  Anyway it’s at that pub. You should—“

Sem smirked, “So they sent you to convince me?” He emphasized in snarky tone.

Indigo paused in subtle confusion, surprised he didn’t simply receive an agreement.

“Did you want to join us or not?” He asked, pretending his best not to be agitated.

Sem’s smirk eroded into a stoic, dim look.

“I can’t. You all know the drill; my wife and I have plans every weekend. Unlike most people who say that as an excuse, I actually look forward to it more than anything. For the last time, no; it’s not a control situation, it’s not a… whatever you morons will ask again.”

“No, that’s not what we’d ask,” Indigo replied. He was slightly red in the face, apparently distraught and upset now.

“We’d ask how you both have had consistent plans that overlap our opportunities to hang out with you for almost TWO years. We’d also ask why the hell we haven’t seen her. She used to check in all the time, and NOW WE BARELY EVEN—“

“That’s enough out of you.” He exclaimed firmly to Indigo. “Crawl back into your prism and tell the others it’s a no. Again. My wife is extremely private now, it’s personal, and none of your damn business. You’re too much of an idiot to understand. Fuck off.”

Now considerably angry and hurt, Indigo retreated to the elevator. He welled up with sadness and ire. He knows he shouldn’t have cut so deep like that, but at the same time everyone in the office ignores Sémillon’s seclusion and possible roots of the reason. Indigo internally wanted answers materialized, now. He’d been patient, understanding, and as compassionate as one can be. Windhoek, Sem’s wife, was Indigo’s friend before even they even knew each other. They talked frequently even after they married and had outings together. Had he not been okay with our closeness for some reason? But that doesn’t make any sense… I’ve known him even longer than her. I introduced them to one another, separately I—“

The elevator doors opened. The clock on the wall displayed 5:09. Indigo walked to his coworkers trying to mask his raw emotion.

“Well, that’s another no I take it. Judging by the ‘very, super, subtle denotations of human…disparagement’—“

“Oh shut the fuck up, Genevieve.” Cezve said in her semi-joking, semi-serious voice. “Not even what ‘disparagement’ means you dumb bitch.” She trailed off comically.

“Well it’s no real wonder why he doesn’t want to hang out with us anymore. We’re stale; we’re too predictable.” Viscount expressed, suspending some ulterior motive.

“Vic, we’re the most batshit funny people this world will ever fucking know. Sem knows that, he’s spent so much time with us— he’s obviously got a lot going on. But we don’t need him to have fun.” Said Genevieve.

“Is anyone even going to ask me what he said?”  Indigo chimed in. Everyone stared at him.

“Well, you took too long and we almost lost interest. You killed the moment. Anyway, what did he say, you big baby?”  Vic asked.

Eagerly, Indigo exclaimed, “He condescendingly said ‘Oh, they sent you to persuade me?’ Then he told me aggressively to fuck off after I asked him some basic questions.”

“Well, what did you ask him?” Cezve inquired softly.

“I mentioned Windhoek. Why she stopped checking in, why we don’t see her and how can after two fucking years straight he always have plans the same nights we do.” The group turned towards Indigo like he committed a grave sin.

“Damn, Indi, why were you so rude? You know how tight-lipped he is, how much he values his and his wife’s privacy.” Cezve replied. Her statement was met with a dumbfounded reaction.

“Point-blank you accused him of… what exactly? Why were you so hostile?” Genevieve stated with shock.

What the fuck?

“Let’s just all go out to the Irish Pub as planned, all right. Indigo, just drop it. He didn’t mean anything. And you two, forget about it, we’re going to have a fun night. Plus we get to see Barry make a fool of himself.” Said Vic.

Here it is again. The same dilemma for the past six months. Sémillon gets away with anything he says. I was treated with the most disrespect a few minutes ago, almost the highest level of disregard, asshole-ishness, and unacceptable behavior from Sem and they’re all siding with him. All the excuses, all of the ignoring, all of this… fakery… and I’m the one who’s the fucking bad person?

It was best for Indigo to ease his mind and drink. These social conflicts and moments of group friction don’t have a solution in sight yet and the workplace was an awful locale to figure it out. Maybe the bar was ideal for shifting into serious gear, maybe then he could get a straightforward answer.

“Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking. I just haven’t heard from her in a while and miss her a lot.” Indigo twirled his ebon curls in an innocent manner. There was truth in his statement, but he was desperately hoping no one would dissect undertones for what he really planned.

“Okay let’s go! I heard they have a rhubarb cider that Ireland just allowed to be shipped outside the country!” Cezve exclaimed with a mixture of excitement and eagerness to move on from the topic.

“Rhubarb cider! You should’ve led with that, you big bitch!”Everyone laughed at Indigo’s sudden joke and they all stepped into the elevator to walk downtown.Sem had already packed his briefcase and his workplace stood empty.