MOAB

Chapter 11: Galene @ 0.7x nhs

Chapter 11: Galene @ 0.7x nhs

Her phone screen said, ‘Gregoris Raptis is calling you,’ and she just stood there and stared at it.

She was in her flat, which was a complete and utter mess by the way. It was Friday night, she had nothing to snack on, her paycheck was gone already and she didn’t want to ask Nat for more lending money.

The phone rang and she placed it carefully on the coffee table. Why was he calling her? Did he need something urgent with his workstation? Then he should call IT like the rest of them and get whoever was on duty at that hour. It was Petros, Galene thought.

Yeah, he should take care of whatever they needed. Not her. Not on her off-duty hours.

The phone stopped.

Galene pulled her feet close to her body, hugging her knees. She kept staring at the phone. After a while, she glanced at her printout of her thesis. She needed to finish it to get her degree. But it was gathering dust at the same place for nearly a year now. She wouldn’t normally have it printed, but her professor had told her it would help her with revision. Or maybe he knew the physical object would taunt her in silence.

She kept saying she’d put in the time to finish it but something always came up.

She called Nat. “He keeps calling me.”

“Who, Greg?” her friend said over the phone.

“Yeah. What do I do?”

“Answer it, silly!” Nat chuckled.

“There he is, third time in ten minutes.”

“Galene, listen to me carefully. I’m going to hang up and you are going to move that finger and tap answer to his call, and talk to the guy. 3, 2, 1, go.” She hung up.

The phone kept ringing.

Galene didn’t pick up.

A message came. It said, “I called but you must be busy. I’m Greg by the way, you fixed my computer earlier.”

Another message. “I realise now that your day job is full of people that have computers fixed by you. So I’ll be more specific, I’m the guy at the penthouse.”

Galene smiled, but did not respond.

A third message. “I also realised, three messages in, that I haven’t said what I meant to. Do you want to go out with me tomorrow night?”

Galene called Nat, then immediately cancelled the call.

No, this was something she had to do alone.

A fourth message. “I am in no way pressuring you due to work. I just thought it would be nice.”

Galene left the phone on the table, pulling her fingers away as if it would somehow burn them.