“Attention! Attention all staff,” says the manager over the P.A. system. Why do we even have one of those? What are we, children in school? He continues, as I begrudgingly stop my work and listen to his nonsense

“Today’s lunch special is pepperoni pizza with Caesar salad. Also there is a meeting with all department heads at one today. And to the person who is writing profanity in the woman’s bathroom please stop. You will be caught and you will be punished.”

“Good luck with that,” I utter with a grin. I’m so bad sometimes. But of course he wasn’t done yet.

“And to end my announcements, the world is going to end today. Thank you and have a nice day.” With an annoying crackle, he stops talking and we all go back to work as if nothing happened.

I should probably explain. You see a normal person would have jumped out of their seat, rushed to their vehicle, and rushed home to be with their loved ones before the end. Well that did happen… the first three times that they announced the end of the world. After that anytime they said the world was going to end, we all just shrugged it off and said “screw it.”

So as the slothful hustle of the office resumed, people began to discuss their weekend plans. Which meant that Mary was coming over to talk. As if having the thought summoned her, her curly red hair popped over my cubicle wall, a dumb look on her face.

“Hey Ciara! Big plans for the weekend?” she asked.

I gave her my most insincere smile and replied,

“Just the usual stuff, Mary. Watching Netflix, exercising, and just taking some well deserved me time.”

She smiled, as if she really cared, which to be honest I think she did.

“Well doesn’t that sound lovely. I’m going to take the kids to the park for a picnic. Supposed to be a real nice weekend. Anyway I best be off. Talk to you at lunch.”

I waved as she walked away and once she was gone I dropped my fake smile which meant that Bobby was about to get his two cents.

“You should be nicer to her,” he said as he rolled over to my cubicle. I glared at him.

“I’m nice enough,” I sneered not wanting to have this conversation once again.

“You could be nicer. You at least could have least made a comment on her picnic. Or even offered to go with her. She…”

“Enough!” I snapped, maybe a bit louder then I wanted. “Look Bobby, I like Mary. She’s nice and somewhat tolerable but I do not want to hang out with her outside of work especially when it means hanging out with her two Yorkies, one of which peed on me when I hung out with her the last time.”

“You mean her ‘kids’,” he snickered.

I gave him my look and he slowly wheeled away.

“Good choice, Bobby.”

Thinking about it all now, I really should have been nicer to Mary. After all the world did end, she did hold a grudge and she now has mutant Yorkies that are about to use me for a chew toy.

Hindsight’s 20/20 right? But hey this is just another Thursday during the apocalypse right?

(PS. I started going in one direction with this and then decided on something else near the end. I apologize if it seems confusing.)