Dali was having another busy day at work, skittering around from one task to another, from assisting one person who needed her to review their email to negotiating on this extra sensitive agreement with a new business partner to actually arranging for their new packaging - Dali did it all. Her whole day was spent taking care of this startup- a friend's, but she was the manager- and by the time she got home she would be too tired to do anything but lie down.
And she wouldn't have it any other way.
"Well sir, you couldn't be bothered to pick up the call for delivery! Two days in a row! Of course the driver returned the package! What do-"
Dali rushed around the open floor office- whose idea was it anyways?!- to take the receiver from Nim, who huffed in frustration before conceding, "-hello sir, this is Dali. Yes, I am the manager. Yes, yes, I understand your situation. Absolutely. I apologise but this is standard procedure, if you can't pick up the call 2 days in a row, your shipment is returned to us.
We understand that you need the item, and we will deliver it to you, but we need to charge the shipping fees. Uhuh. How about this, we charge you only for the shipping of the return, and we will shoulder the cost of the original shipping on our own? Thank you, yes, at once, have a good day!"
She put down the phone, and sighed almost imperceptibly. She pushed back her open jacket to reveal the silk blouse underneath (dramatic, this is what she had been going for with this outfit choice), put hands on her waist. With raised eyebrows, she slowly turned towards Nim, who at this point was looking decidedly at the cubicle wall and only sneaking glances at her supervisor. She alternated between clenching her jaw and licking her lips, as if deciding whether she should stick with her stubbornness in this situation.
A fond smile crept on Dali's face at seeing her normally boisterous colleague act so unsure of her actions. Whereas before she would have stuck by her behaviour, she was now speculating on whether she could have handled it differently- a definite improvement. She was very young after all, and prone to mistakes.
Her shoulders eased and her hands relaxed.
"He didn't swear at you did he?"
Nim only looked up from underneath her lashes, twisted her fingers around, and slowly shook her head.
"Good. No need to take abuse. He was just frustrated, is all. Will you be alright?"
Nim was now openly smiling, and enthusiastically nodded her head, sure that she wouldn't be scolded.
Dali smirked conspiratorially at Nim, and sashayed away to her office- even on the open floor it was still a separate space.
Her sashay was cut short however, only a few steps in, at seeing just who was waiting for her inside. She looked at the table next to where she was standing, for a context, at her old friend- Vicky. He shook his head at her with raised hands. He too was shocked at who he saw, knowing the two very rarely saw eye to eye.
"Pretty sure it's not any anniversary or birthday." He spoke around the lollipop, swaying in the office chair with his legs crossed at the ankles
Dali raised one hand to her face, and brought the other underneath the elbow for support. She sucked her lips, and narrowed her eyes, "Hmm, carrying a file, should be quick then. Yup, this will be over soon. Wish me luck"
Plastering a smile on her face and sneaking a candy from Vicky's always available pile of candies- "Hey!", she resumed on her a-little-less-carefree walk to her office
Throwing the door open, she smiled her best 'This is an awesome day!' smile and greeted the guest with a small lift of her voice and eyebrows
"Hey! how are you doing? What brings you by?"
The man in her office did not answer or look at her, instead drifting his disinterested gaze around her small space, anywhere but at her person. His expressions did not flit from the perturbed look that he had been sporting the entire time as he sat down opposite her. It was as if he would rather be doing anything else than be here.
Her smiled dimmed. 'As expected.' She caught her sigh before it escaped. Previous experiences with him should have taught her not to expect even the most basic niceties towards herself, but a small part of her somehow always ended up hoping anyways.
Maybe because growing-up, they had been the best of friends. His parents treated her like her own parents would have, had she not lost them so young.
That felt like another life entirely. They had stopped being friends more than a decade ago now, though his parents never let their rift keep them from sending her homemade food and inviting her home on special occasions. They were the best kind of people.
"This is a message from father. He would like you to provide him a list and details of the manufacturers of Product A that you had been in business with when you were working with us."
Saying this, Dale put down the folder on the table separating them, still not bothering to look at Dali. He looked at his hands as he leaned back in his chair, clearing expecting her to comply promptly.
She didn't spare a glance at the file and instead kept looking at the man ruining her day. An easy and patient smile on her face as she regarded him. She waited and waited and watched as Dale grew more and more frustrated, finally raising disgusted and incredulous eyes and said in a deliberately slow speech, as if speaking to a particularly stupid person, "I need the names and details that you have, father asked for it."
She waited some more, contemplating. Her small patient smile still in place.
So demanding. Hmmm, should she listen? Well Uncle Andrew was family, even if he was family to this brat as well...
Let's make him wait though.
Dale huffed in impatience.
Dali, still unhurriedly, picked up her phone and started sifting through it.
"You need to check with father! After all we did for you! You ungrat-" Seething, Dale stood up.
"Sit down before you make a bigger fool of yourself." She said, very much unbothered. "My contacts are in my phone. Surely you didn't expect me to have memorised them?" She lifted an eyebrow, as she paused. Without waiting for an answer, she went back to her phone and continued whatever she was doing.
She purposefully took her time, unhurried. Her legs crossed and moved to a beat in her own head while she toyed with her phone
"There, sent. To your father." She said simply, and put away her phone. Dali continued to neutrally observe Dale as she sat back.
It was funny how similar their names were, small things like these are amusing when you are children. It is what brought them together.
Didn't matter now though.
Dale looked at her as if she had somehow done exactly what he expected her to, as if she had somehow reinforced his beliefs that she was not worth losing time on. He picked up his file, pushed back the chair and stormed from the office in an almost run, but he didn't quite manage.
She watched him go. How had they gone so wrong? Looking back, she couldn't even point to a single instance when their relationship had soured.
Her gaze averted to the right, where she saw Vicky looking at her with his mouth and eyebrows raised in a frown- she always wondered how he did that. His lollipop was still sticking out of his mouth, and he was slowly getting up and approaching as soon as he had confirmed that Dale had left the office.
Vicky leaned on the doorframe, somehow managing to pull off the unbothered and stylish look all at once with his open boots and too large beige jacket, traditional knit ski hat and the lollipop that had now become uniquely him.
"There is a new place down the street, Singaporean rice, I hear, is amazing there. Be ready in 15, I do not wait when it comes to food."
He pointed the lollipop at her, stressing the point. Then he turned and left, closing the office door behind him
She hid her smile. The door was made of transparent glass, and she was surrounded by people on all sides. She would have no privacy to feel bad for herself here.
Well, it was the thought that counted anyways.
Going back to her work, she answered emails for a while, sorted out the papers on the desk, and set up a few meetings. When she saw it was lunch time, she hurriendly closed her laptop and picked up her phone and put it in her jeans.
On her way around the desk, she saw Vicky was getting ready to leave as well, and a smile came on her face at the thought of her friend, and the Singaporean rice.
With a smile she crossed the office, and opened the door. She stumbled when she stepped out and looked at her feet instinctively.
And...she was not wearing her thick soled slippers, the one with intertwining green straps.
What? How? She was sure she was wearing those, they were very comfortable.
Also, now she was wearing something else, it looked like leather sandals? And was she standing on dirt?
Suddenly, she heard what sounded like horses, and very close to her. Horses? In the middle of the city? On the 10th floor?
She looked up, and what she saw was not the rest of her office.
It seemed like a very busy day at a village market. The streets were full of people buying whatever caught their fancy, and selling what looked like rich, silky cloth, and baked goods, and earthen ware. There were plump older women and men with laugh lines around their eyes, some were missing a tooth, little children running around the streets, and trying to nick whatever sweet they could until they got caught in the game, and young men and women simply enjoying their day out in the market.
Bewildered, Dali blinked her eyes, then pressed them shut. She slowly opened them, and looked aroung. It was still the market.
She brought her hands up to pinch her cheeks, when she caught sight of her sleeves. Astonished, she looked down at the dress she was somehow in when she had just been in her office casuals, as she called them.
She shook herself (another sign that this was not a dream?) and pinched her cheeks anyways. No change. She was still here, somehow different from the here of before, from her office, her life.
Where was she?