Today is the day of comebacks apparently. Shoaib Akhtar (a fast bowler) announced that he was coming back to play cricket, erm - league cricket, and bragged that he will “show today’s kids what speed is”. I don’t know Shoaib, the “kids” these days hump each other as soon as they see each other. Birds spend more time courting. I don’t know how much more do we need to tell them about speed. Let’s try to spin that around (pun!).
As I read this news, my manager sent our team a message on messenger that Xin Li is coming back to join our team (not a cricket team).
Wha-? When had he gone? Didn’t I see him a few days ago? Isn’t he the guy who sat next to me and would chew a gum all day long? It had distracted me initially but I got used to it and I didn’t even realize that I missed it until now! I looked at the desk next to mine - a monitor in matte black sat blankly, staring boringly - offering hardly an insight into whether the desk was occupied or not. Then there was a green post-it book with more than half of it still intact along with a pen. No one had claimed the pair yet. Clearly, he hadn’t been gone very long. ‘Rehaj’ reacted to the message with the celebratory party emoji - the one that of a colorful conical party popper with confetti bursting out.
I did not want to lag behind in letting Xin Li know that I am not as happy - after all he was my neighbor. I reacted with the party blob and a shuffle party parrot. Beat that Rehaj. Also, my manager should have noticed that I am already active at 8:10 am in the morning.
A bombardment of reactions followed - the team was clearly super excited to have Xin Li back. This was a happy news in ages! I felt a bit ashamed that I didn’t miss him while Xin Li was gone. Also, how long had he been gone? Nonetheless, he seemed a good guy. One time he picked my pen and handed it over to me.
Would we go for a happy-hour today? Would it be sponsored by the company? Manager sent out a message - he must be in a good mood today. Is today a good time to tell him that I will be taking 3 days off the next month? Also to ask him about team offsite? Happy hour at coin-op - with those arcade games? My head was buzzing.
Then I saw the man himself, the man of the hour, Xin Li, walk towards his desk from the kitchen area. I followed him the whole way from kitchen to the desk next to mine with my eyes wide open and searching his face for any sign of a smile - did he think it was a special day? He did the perfect morning zombie walk, took a right turn and walked behind me (the brief moment I was not able to see him, what are the chances that he did a moonwalk in that instant out of his unabated happiness at being “back”?) and landed thud! on his chair.
I swerved around to look around who else was excited that Xin Li was back! Party-dinosaur had just landed on the Slack party. Things were getting hot! A party blob and a party parrot and now a party dinosaur! I even smiled at that engineer girl who always sits with her back arched and her behind sticking around. I agree that she is the perfect geek, but she always rubs it in. I took a bite off my everything bagel toasted to dark brown smeared with chive spread. I was beaming with joy - I wanted to show that it meant the world that he was back without saying it. He’d know how difficult it is to say things.
Xin Li finally noticed. He moved his face slowly like a cow disturbed in middle of all the chewing that it had just gotten to and looked at me. I realized that was exactly how I was looking at him. I rolled my eyes upwards and instantly started biting the skin off my left hand thumb. He went back to munching placidly.
Was I the only one who was getting distracted by all this hoopla? Would we go for a free happy-hour today? I tried to work but it was simply impossible. Why was he back? Is our workplace better than the place he had gone to where he thought he would be happier?
I grinned at Xin Li even though he wasn’t looking. I think he saw me grin through corner of his eye but continued to munch. The manager walked in with his sling bag and ran off with his laptop - another one of his meetings I suppose.
Another guy came in - he took the seat opposite mine. No one noticed; and I too didn’t care. May be a transfer from another team. At lunch time, I stretched my arms and looked over my shoulder once more towards my left. By now, Xin Li had covered his ears with huge headphones and turned slightly the other way so that I could just see his jawline at work. Maybe I will get company at lunch today? At least. I asked, “lunch?” He glanced askance, said, “Thanks - uh, I will have it later.”
Over the course of the day, my enthusiasm faded. Didn’t seem there was a happy or even a happier hour even. People were all engrossed in work.
At 5 pm, I started to pack my bag. I saw my manager walk in - damn it, he will know that I was leaving at 5. Oh! Don’t worry. You are an independent worker, no hours. You are allowed to come in and out anytime you want.
He was leaving as well. He left his laptop on the table and grabbed his sling bag. About to leave, he turned to the new transfer guy and said, “welcome back Xin!” Then he turned to me and said, “Tashi, have you met Xin? He had left us before you joined the team I believe. He is a rockstar developer.”