They say laughter is the best medicine. But it didn’t seem to be working for Pip who was binging comedy TV series every afternoon after she got back from work, and still seemed to be as anxious as ever. Mr Bean, apparently, made her laugh more now, in her late twenties, than it had when she’d been ten, but it still didn’t change how she felt on a day to day basis. The past two weeks were even more awkward for Jacob; his work seemed to have gone back to its boring old way. He passed Pip several times a day, sat behind her in meetings and even had to talk to her from time to time for work related purposes - yet there was no social elements to their interactions; and Jacob, who still maintained a cold demeanor towards her, felt like things were already too far gone to fix.

  ‘Things are never too far gone to be fixed,’ said Chloe as the two of them walked side by side through Royal Botanic Gardens, each of them with a coffee in their hand.

  ‘You know when you’ve made a trade that keeps going down,’ Jacob started.

  ‘A trade? Like… in stocks and stuff?’ Chloe asked.

  ‘Yeah what else would I be talking about?’

  ‘I don’t know. A trade in one of your Pokemon games?’

  Jacob laughed.

  ‘I don’t play the new Pokemon games. They keep getting worse and worse.’

  ‘Okay, so you make a bad trade in a stock that drops a bit?’

  ‘Yeah. Except sometimes it doesn’t stop dropping. You find yourself down fifty bucks, and then a hundred. At that point, you kind of feel like you’re in too deep to sell; you feel like the only option is to wait it out.’

  ‘Sorry, I can’t say I’m familiar with that.’

  ‘Well that’s really the only way I can describe how I’m feeling right now,’ Jacob said.

  ‘And how does it usually work out for you? Your trade I mean.’

  ‘It usually just keeps going down. Sometimes two or three hundred bucks.’

  ‘How much money have you lost on stocks Jacob?’

  ‘Don’t even ask. The point is that things are awkward at work now. There already seems to be an intraversable gap between us, and I’m wondering if the distance between us might be for the best.’

  ‘No gap is intraversable, Jacob, and weather or not it’s for the best - that’s up to you to decide.’

  ‘Yeah I suppose,’ Jacob said looking around at the birds that flew past and perched themselves on the green and glorious tree branches that were so numerous in the park. It was hard to take notice of how beautiful the day was when Jacob’s head was so fixated on work.

  ‘It’s just that…ah…I dunno,’ Jacob continued, ‘feelings suck. You know’

  ‘The way that you’re feeling,’ Chloe interjected, ‘I guarantee you she’s feeling it worse.’

  ‘You think so?’

  ‘Yep, I do.’

  They continued along the path in silence for a few minutes. Eventually Jacob looked up from the path; he could see the skyline of Melbourne in the distance.

  ‘What do you think I should do?’ Jacob asked.

  Chloe shrugged her shoulders.

  ‘I’m not sure. There isn’t really anything you should do, but there are many things you can do. For example - you could just be friends with her. There’s nothing wrong with that; you work with her so it’s understandable that you’re going to have some interaction on a day to day basis. Or you could talk to her about it. Or you could just keep doing what you’re doing, but I don’t think it will have the best outcome. What exactly did Maria say to you, anyway?’

  ‘All Maria said was that she hated when I went out for coffee with Pip, and ahh, when I spent time with Pip just the two of us.’

  ‘Jacob,’ Chloe said in a reprimanding way, as she punched him rather hard in the arm, ‘you were going out for coffee with your work crush!? Just the two of you?’

  ‘She’s not my work crush. And yeah. Just the two of us.’

  ‘Well that’s a no no. For someone so smart, you sure act surprisingly dumb sometimes. Even I would feel weird if my boyfriend started doing that.’

  ‘You have a boyfriend?’ Jacob’s jaw dropped slightly as he said it.

  ‘Woops. I guess the cat’s out of the bag now.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

  Chloe didn’t reply straight away. When Jacob looked back up at her, he noticed that her cheeks had gone a bright rose colour.

  ‘Nobody knows. It’s pretty new.’

  ‘Nobody?’ Jacob repeated.

  ‘Nobody. Except you now. Please keep my secret.’

  ‘Wow. Looks like you’re pretty nervous about the whole dating thing; worse than me. So much for all that making fun of me when I didn’t want to sit next to Maria at church’ Jacob winked, ‘don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. I pinky promise,’ Jacob held his pinky finger out to Chloe who hooked it with her own pinky finger, to seal the promise.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  ‘Anyway,’ Chloe said, ‘back to the situation at hand. You’re being your own worst enemy Jacob. Don’t be an idiot. Just talk to her. Be normal around her. Treat her the same way you’d treat any other girl. Don’t overthink it.’

  ‘Oh sure, you want to change the subject now that we’re talking about your love life. Fine. But I suppose you’re right, anyway. I might be an idiot, but that’s why you’re here. To keep me in line.’

  ‘You’re only an idiot sometimes. Other times you impress me with how smart you can be.’

  ‘Mum says exactly the same thing.’

  ‘By the way; how did things go last Sunday without me?’ Chloe asked.

  ‘Stupendous. Nunna told me lots of old stories about when she lived in Malta. Including how she met Nannu.’

  ‘Well I’m glad you had fun without me.’

  ***

  Jacob resolved to talk to Pip. Though it proved to be easier said (or thought in Jacob’s case) than done. Every time he walked past her cubicle, she either seemed too busy to be disturbed, or a voice in Jacob’s head told him it was a bad idea and he quickly backed out. He had a bad history of listening to that voice. The voice wasn’t always bad. It was the thing that had kept him from trying drugs and shoplifting when he was younger. But at times, especially times like this, it was a real pain in the ass.

  It took him three days to silence the voice. He walked into work on Wednesday morning with a coffee from Tierra Madre, and was resolved to break the ice with Pip. But when he walked past her desk, on his way in, he noticed that she wasn’t there. And neither was her bag, or her things - and her computer wasn’t turned on which meant she wasn’t there at all. He went on with his day as normal, keeping an eye out just to see if she was wondering around, and even pretending he needed to use the photocopier just so that he’s have an excuse to walk past her desk.

  Pip didn’t get in into the office until twelve thirty, just as Jacob was heading out for his lunch break. She passed him as he walked out with nothing but a quick glance, a brief gaze; Jacob could tell when their eyes locked for a second that she wanted to talk to him, but he knew she probably had that same voice speaking to her, telling her to just keep her mouth closed. And so he passed her without saying a word, and she passed him too.

  ***

  Jacob made his way to the rooftop balcony with his container of leftover spaghetti, where Daniel had already half finished his lunch and Thomas was leaning over the balcony with a smoke in his mouth, despite the ‘no smoking’ signs plastered all over the walls and the fact that he was supposed to have quit (for the fourth time). But there were no cameras around the rooftop, and when there was nobody around but them, sometimes, Thomas just couldn’t help himself.

  ‘Stand on the other side,’ Daniel said waving his hand in the air, trying to shoo away the smoke, ‘I don’t want that crap blowing in my face.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Thomas said and switched to his other side.

  ‘Hey guys,’ Jacob said leaning up against the railing of the balcony next to Thomas, ‘thought you’d quit?’

  ‘Tomorrow,’ Thomas said as he threw the butt of the smoke onto the ground and stepped on it.

  ‘You might want to get rid of the evidence,’ Jacob said, ‘before you get issued a fine.’

  ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry,’ Thomas said as he picked up the smoke butt and threw it into the small bin, ‘our little secret boys.’

  ‘Does Sally know?’ Daniel asked.

  ‘Nope. But it doesn’t matter. I just needed this one ciggy to get me through today. Tomorrow I’m done. For good. ’

  ‘Chewing gum bro. And some deodorant; she’ll smell it on you for sure,’ said Daniel.

  ‘It’s true,’ Jacob chimed in, ‘my mum was a chain smoker and I didn’t really notice it until I moved out. When I went back to visit her I could smell it from a mile away.’

  ‘This isn’t my first rodeo,’ Thomas said pulling out a packet of extra and slipping one a piece of gum in his mouth.

  Jacob opened his container of Spaghetti and began twirling the pasta around the fork he’d stolen from his office’s tea room. The ambience of the city was loud; Jacob could hear the honking of horns in the distance and the sounds of train wheels grinding against tracks.

  ‘You okay Jacob?’ Daniel asked, ‘you seem like you’ve been a bit out of it lately.’

  ‘Yeah man,’ Thomas agreed, ‘you didn’t come to poker night last week?’

  ‘I’ve been better; but times like these always pass. But I skipped poker night because I thought I’d let you guys have a win for once.’

  ‘Haha. Righto,’ Thomas said slapping him on the back, ‘You keep telling yourself that. But seriously, you need to chat, we’re always here.’

  ‘Thanks. But there’s nothing really to chat about,’ Jacob lied.

  ***

  His lunch break had been a brief, but welcome respite - and hanging out with his mates had done well to ease the tension he’d been feeling. Jacob still had full intentions of talking to Pip when he returned at around one in the afternoon. His heart was beating fast as he dumped his empty container on his desk; it made him look like a slob, and he guessed Martha would probably have something to say about it, but to be frank, he hardly cared. The office was quiet, and he wondered if Pip would even be at her desk. He strolled across the office floor, until he was almost passing Pip’s cubicle, and had a clear view of her workspace. It turned out she was there. But she was hunched over in her chair, with her face cupped in her hands, and soft sobs echoing around her. If it had just been her on her own, Jacob might have asked if she were okay. But there were two other older ladies with her, each with an arm around her shoulder. Jacob had only ever thought of his older co-workers as plain and boring, but suddenly, seeing them in a situation like this, they seemed anything but - in fact they came off as kind and motherly.

  ‘I…I don’t know what’s wrong,’ Jacob heard Pip sob under her breath, ‘I just feel…so emotional for some reason.’

  Jacob felt his heart sink. He wanted nothing more than to walk over, pat her on the back and spurt some ridiculous joke. And regardless of if the joke was good or not, he knew that he’d at least get a sympathy laugh and the act of trying would put a smile on her face. But the voice in his head was back, and in full force, telling him to move on, and so he did, before anyone could notice his presence - resolving to return later on when there were less people around.

  Needless to say, he didn’t get any work done that day. He spent most of the afternoon looking at a word document on his screen, barely touching it, occasionally playing some mindless mobile game when nobody was looking. He was continuously flicking back and forth between tabs on his browser, trying to motivate himself to work, but really, his mind was fixated on what he’d seen earlier. Pip with her face in her hands and tears running down her cheeks.

  At four thirty, Jacob decided that he wasn’t going to get any work done. He put his computer to sleep and wandered directly over to Pip’s cubicle. Of course he was expecting the voice to speak to him again; things gave it power, and other things took it’s power away. At the moment, Jacob was barely giving it any attention - seeing her so upset earlier had strongly motivated him to clear things up with her. But as he neared her cubicle, and caught sight of her computer screen, he noticed something that would give power back to the voice. A bright green form that he was very familiar with, as he’d considered filling it out a number of times in the past. A transfer form. It was half full with writing, and Pip was busy tapping away at the other half. Pip was planning on moving back to her old department. Jacob knew it. And he also knew that a transfer would be better for Pip. Much better. So he walked right past her computer, pretending that he’d been heading towards the photocopier.