Good Story

“Look, I’m not even trying to come at you when I say this, but we really don’t have no business dealing with each other,” Rebeca said quietly into her phone as she sat at her work desk. “I should not be arguing with a man I am not in a relationship with.”

“I am not arguing. You’re the one arguing with me. It’s like you don’t see logic,” Michael barked into the phone. “You over there talking about if you get pregnant, you’re keeping it. That’s dumb.”

“Like I said, you don’t have to deal with me. You can literally find someone else,” she said, looking around the office to make sure her voice wasn’t too loud.

“Rebeca, I want to have kids. I just don’t want to have kids right now. That’s all I am saying. You’re making it seem like you can’t take care of it if you were to get pregnant.”

“Michael, you do realize that this is a hypothetical conversation, right? And if I am telling you this is what I would do and you don’t like it, you really can just move around.”

“Yo, you pissing me off. We could be vibing and shit, but you wanna stress this hypothetical shit.”

“Whatever, Michael. I’ve got to go.”

Rebeca hung up on Michael and took a deep breath.

This can’t be my life. I am arguing with a motherfucker that I am not even fucking over hypothetical dick.

She blocked his number and continued entering the data from the report. She was on her last entry, and she needed to get out of the office. She knew Peter wouldn’t mind because all he did was watch his home security system and order shit online using the company card.

“Peter, I am going down to get the mail. You need me to bring anything down?”

“No, I am good. Thanks.”

“What you gonna do if you catch your girlfriend cheating on you?” she asked.

“I am not watching her,” he said, trying to deny it.

“Yeah, okay. You keep looking, you gonna mess around and see something you don’t like,” she joked.

“Don’t jinx me,” Peter said, laughing.

Rebeca made her way downstairs, and just like clockwork, there was a party because someone was retiring. She made her way in, eyeballing all the snacks. She pulled out her phone to call Peter and ask if he wanted anything from the party.

She paused and took a deep look at her phone.

What the fuck? How is he texting me?

A message from Michael had come in saying that his mother was not doing well. She opened the contact to check whether she had blocked him. She had, but apparently the block hadn’t gone through.

Her heart caved in as she unblocked him and texted that she was going to stop by. She knew his mom had been in the hospital for a while, but for him to reach out and tell her, it couldn’t be good.

She regretted sending him that text. The feeling of obligation lingering in her fingertips was enough to make her want to cut her hand off.

She reopened her phone to try to delete the text, but it was too late. She saw the read receipt, followed by the three little dots. Then a message came through.

Rebeca read the message and scoffed before replying.

After she hit send, she walked back to the office with the intention of enjoying the sheet cake from the party. As soon as she walked in, Peter stood up and waved her over.

“Yo, Joe was looking for you,” he whispered, looking around.

“The fuck he looking for me for?” she said in a dismissive tone.

“I don’t know, but he was looking on your desk.”

“What you tell him?” she questioned.

“I told him you went to the bathroom. You probably should hide the cake.”

“Facts,” she said, laughing as she handed Peter his party goodies.

She walked back to her desk and opened her email to see if Joe had sent her anything. She saw a message asking if she could stay and work overtime. The email annoyed her because he always asked her, and whenever she said no, they stopped giving her overtime.

She took a deep breath and replied.

She sent the email and started packing her things. She felt guilty about lying, but technically, she wasn’t lying because someone was in the hospital. She just wasn’t related to them.

But she was going to help a friend.

That should cancel out the lie, she rationalized.

Journal Entry One