Work In Progress - The Drama

When she woke up she was not sure if she was still dreaming. But seeing name on the display of her phone she knew it was not a dream. Her boss was calling her on a Saturday morning?!. Due to recession fear, head-count reduction rumors or most importantly the missed deadlines, most of the staff was working on weekends for the last few months. And Diana too was working on weekends except for that day. She was to see an Ortho Doc, for an injury that she suffered during one of her work-out sessions. In spite of everyone telling her to go see a Doc, she has been postponing it till that day. She had informed this to Jay already that she will not be in office on Saturday. Like all her emails this was ignored too.

She was still staring at the display, wondering what is it that Jay is calling her for?! Cuddles snorted at her as if he was irritated with her phone ring tone, and as if to say, 'Will you pick it up already?'.

She took the call and said "Hello Jay?".
"Diana, are you going to be in office today?"
Well, how about a 'Good Morning Diana', to start with she thought.
"Umm...no. What is it Jay?"
"I realized our buddy Mark is not here this week and I want you to take up his column", said Jay.
Mark? Our buddy?. "But Jay, I am already running behind my schedule, I don't think I can take up his work", Diana said fending.
"My question was not if you can do it or not, it is will you do it or not? And I hope you the  know schedule, I want this done before 3 pm today", said Jay with his raised voice.

That upset her. 'He does not even know that I am on leave today and he expects me to work and gives me a deadline? And a work that is to be done by someone else?', she thought. She had no issues with authority per se, but she had very few situations where someone dictated her what to do. And in such cases, she always resisted. Taking orders and rules was something that she was not  acquainted with, unless she knew that it was in her best interests. One thing she could not compromise on was her self-respect. Someone giving her an ultimatum. A choice between 'Yes or No', 'Will you or will you not'. And her usual answer was negative, which was goaded mostly by her ego!
 

'Is he commanding me? Am I to say yes to everything that he asks for?

There was a long pause, and Jay was waiting for Diana's response on the other side. People taking her for granted is something that she really really hated. She pulled up all her courage to say 'No'. But she was surprised to hear herself say, "Okay! I will do it". And she regretted saying it before Jay could hear the half-hearted okay.

'What the F**k? Why did I say okay? Did I think saying yes to this will change Jay's behavior towards me? What was I thinking? '. Right then, Jay looked like a heartless cruel sadistic person that she ever met.

"But, 3 o'clock deadline seems to be next to impossible".
"Sure, take your time, but this has to go on Sunday's special. So you have time till midnight", said Jay.
Diana was thinking about her appointment with the Ortho...when Jay did not get a response, he  mellowed and said, "Diana? Are you still there? I do understand its a Saturday, but we have all been working over weekends and I would really appreciate it if you can finish this up".

All Diana could say was, "Ummm". 'Yeah if only you had seen me limping all around the office for entire week, if only you knew how overloaded I am with all the work, if only you knew that I too have a life...you would understand!', she thought.

Jay continued to say that he too has been working hard for the last few months and that it is really been hectic lately,  all of which Diana failed to listen. She realized that none of it mattered now and all she needs to do is to get over with the work. She stayed silent for the rest of the conversation except for saying Umm's.

"Okay, so I will see you in office today and we will work on this", Jay said before saying bye.
'We', she wondered. And like she thought Jay was never in office the entire day. She left office at 11 in the night after emailing him the column for review. That was her Saturday.

By Monday, Diana had many regrets for taking up job at The Dawn. For chosing to work with Jay. For ignoring Jay's hostility all this while, for saying yes to work on Mark's column.

"Diana! Oh gosh, you look awful, let me guess you had a horrible weekend?", asked Sofia.
"Don't get me started about how my weekend was", Diana replied.
"By the way, looks like marriage did good for Mark, his creative side has come out, did you see the reviews on his column on Sunday? This is the first ever appreciation that he ever got in his entire career!"
"What? You mean last Sunday's column?", Diana asked surprised.

She went back to her desk and wrote a one liner email to Jay asking for a meeting, to which he replied saying that he was busy most of the day and that he could not meet her, but he was free the next day. That reply enraged her that she pushed back her chair to leave office for that day. Right then, she spilled the coffee on  her table which was all over her shirt.

On her way to the wash room she hit her already sprained ankle against the fire extinguisher which aggravated her anger more than her pain. With all the humility, disappointment and feelings of betrayal she banged the wash room door. She cleaned herself up and looked in the mirror. Tears. There were tears running down her face. She did not realize until then that she was crying. And she had no control over those tears. She kept wiping them off her cheeks, but they were not stopping.

Her phone was ringing again. It was Ethan. Her tears became loud sobs when she saw that name.
"Yeah", she said on phone, with a gurgled voice.
"Hai Dee, wait a minute. Are you crying?", asked worried Ethan.
"Nuuooo", she said, still sobbing.
"What is it? Problem at work? Home? Someone said something to you?"
Diana response was jsut her weeps.
"Alright. Are you at work? I will be done in 15 mins, will come and pick you up. We will talk. Is that ok with you?", asked Ethan.
"Ok"
"Now stop crying and pack up. Will be right there with you soon", said Ethan rushing her.
As if she found a temporary solution to all her problems, she sighed and stopped crying at once. She washed up and was ready to meet Ethan and let out all her miseries of her pathetic weekend.

She broke up with Ethan Covey 4 yrs back. They met in one of the photography workshops and they instantly hit it off. Back then they hardly had any discussions or talks between them. Words really played no role in their relationship. It was as if they knew what the other person was thinking or was about to say. They had so many similar tastes, preferences. Life was so easy and simple with Ethan. As if it is a party to enjoy with no worries, tensions.

Diana had to move to the City to work at The Dawn and leave her small home town, and that is when Ethan professed his love for her. Though she knew that it was coming she was in a fix when it came to what her response is. She had high hopes and dreams of her own. She did not know how he would fit in those dreams of hers.

Yet, she loved all the care, attention and each moment spent with Ethan, that she reciprocated, with an SMS after a late night dinner with him, that said, "I love you too :-)". Later Ethan followed Diana to find job in the City. But things changed for them once they moved here. She was always so caught up with her own goals, aims, and grandiose thoughts and she could barely involve him in any of these. Ethan felt left out. First thing that Ethan liked about Diana was that she was always in the right. And the same is what he was hating her the most - for always being right.

She was always in a race. Apart from her job nothing else seemed important to her. And all this was drowning for Ethan. And she was trying to rub this on Ethan too. She was making plans for Ethan's career too. That was the only way she knew to show her love. That was the only way she knew to show that she cared for him. But to Ethan, this looked like she was trying to control his life.

A relationship where there were no words, there were arguments now. And eventually they both decided to end the relationship for their own good. With time they lost touch until a year later where they happened to meet in a cafe.

Since then they have been friends. Good friends. They were in and out of many relationships later. But their relationship as friends stayed. Many of her friends asked her the possibilities of getting back with Ethan. But she knew that it would never happen. If something good like moving to a City with promising careers could not keep them together, then they do not stand a chance with a life full of unexpected turns and twists. May be Ethan knew this too.

"Tell me about it", said Ethan.
"It's my boss!", said Diana.
"What? Boss? Ha ha ha...you are kidding right?"
"No", said Diana firmly.
"Okay. Go on...am all ears", said Ethan.
"Well, first of all I don't think he likes me and I don't know why!"
"Did he tell you he does not like you or is that your assumption?", asked Ethan.
"He says it in each of his actions. He simply hates me".
"Okay, so now am talking to the great interpreter of actions is it? You know what your problem is, you assume. And you over-analyze!", said Ethan and he regretted those words immediately.

One thing he learnt from all these years with her is, that when she is sad and trying to share something, he is only supposed to listen to her and not pass judgements, advises or comments. He knew that he had upset her already. And only two men knew the crankier side of hers. Her Dad, and Ethan. And it is absolutely impossible to deal with her when she is cranky. Unfortunately both of them get to see mostly the petulant side of hers and they seemed to be fine with it. Her Dad cause he has no other option. Ethan cause he preferred this to otherwise, obsessive, aggressive, highly-opinionated, wise women. Her emotions made her dumb and he liked that. It was easy to deal with her stupidity than her wits.

Before, she could react, he said, "Dee, I seriously think you should talk to him and stop over-thinking".
To which Diana replied with her about-to-cry voice, "I did, I called him for a meeting and he said he is not free today."
"So, who is dying tomorrow? You or him? You can still talk to him tomorrow. Now. If you really think I can help you, you have two options. We watch DVDs of your favorite TV show and order a pizza or go to the movies and have a dinner".

That is one trick of Ethan's that always brings smile to Diana. They chose to go to the movies.

That night after she came back from dinner, She replied back to Jay's email saying that she was okay for a meeting tomorrow. And to her surprise she got an immediate reply from him.

"Sure Diana".