It was in mid-November that the message first came on her phone's Whatsapp. "Nar, what if you come with me?"
Despite knowing the context vaguely, for a split second, Nara thought it was just some kind of joke. "Come? As in, come to have a lunch with you?" She added a smiley icon just to make it seemingly more lighthearted. You know, in case the recipient didn't get that she's joking. Of course she's joking.
"No. As in, you're coming to work with me." The sender was Sarah, Nara's former boss in her current office. It's only been 4 months since Sarah's departure—a sort of heartbreaking, sort of ecstatic farewell that ended up with Nara vomited in the office's restroom at 3 in the morning because of the booze. And yet, a woman like Sarah asking Nara to join her? Nara couldn't believe it. Not that she's not capable of doing that, she can—although deep down she has this big pile of self-doubt ready to creep in anytime; she didn't think of it as something serious.
Nara replied, 'Nah... I think I'm not ready yet to do that.'
But in mere seconds the reply got in, 'Then I think..." The next chat arrived. "...we should meet first.'
Seven days after the messages, the two women (which one of them thinks she has yet to learn how to function as a woman) met on a breezy night in an intimate, quiet coffee shop in Melawai (when both of them aren't even a coffee drinker).
***
Nara is a junior in an industry that enjoys telling a captivating story, as much as selling it. Her interest in this industry has brought her to many places since her college, so it wasn't a surprise when she got hired in one place that celebrates young blood like her. There, she met Sarah.
(to be continued)