Mona Liza Lies

2 | Be Busy, Avoid Jerks

"Why are you here so early?" Kevin asked, frowning. Dennis shrugged.

"Why are you so late?" He asked, his eyes focused on the paper before him.

"Fucking LGBTQ parades or whatever." Kevin took off his handbag and sat next to the desk beside Dennis, who abruptly looked up.

"You do realize you're talking to a trans man?"

"I got nothing against you!" Kevin said quickly. "I just don't like the parades, like the traffic ain't bad enough."

Dennis brushed his dyed black hair off his forehead before speaking.

"You're an ass."

"My ass is perfection," he stated firmly, adjusting his tie before sitting down.

"Is that why it comes with a stick?"

Kevin responded to this with a roll of his eyes and took out his laptop, signalling the end of the conversation.

Dennis worked as a news researcher for Larnwick Times, while Kevin was one of the copy editors. They tolerated each other, mostly because their desks were adjacent. Besides the occasional lunch together, there was no sign of a budding bromance anytime soon.

"Uh, I heard about your girlfriend." Kevin started awkwardly.

"Can we not talk about that?" Dennis had a sharp edge to his voice, "I'm busy."

"With what? We're done with tomorrow's issue."

"I'm polishing up the Debold Enterprises article for Sunday's special column."

Kevin sighed and turned sideways.

"You're supposed to not come in anyway," he shrugged. "Your girlfriend just died-"

"I'm aware of that, thank you very much."

"Are you though?" Kevin folded his hands over his chest like a disappointed parent. "I think you're deflecting from the pain by keeping yourself busy. Wouldn't be the first time."

"I'm fine." Dennis snapped harshly. His co-worker nodded, letting him know that he gave up.

An uncomfortable silence filled the air for the next few minutes, only to be interrupted by Dennis himself.

"I'm sorry."

"It's 'kay, none of my business."

"I'm still sorry." Dennis was trying hard to not sound rude but it didn't work. "Keeping myself busy is not the worst way to deal with...everything."

"It's still unhealthy man," Kevin started clicking his pen, bored out of his mind. It was clear his workload was a lot less today too.

"I know. Not as unhealthy as refusing to come out of the apartment for a week, though."

Kevin looked at him, confused.

"Liza's roommate and closest friend, Mona, had a weird reaction to the whole incident," Dennis explained, "Someone told me she went incognito, not even going to her work."

"Grief is understandable but that sounds like a bit much."

"They were like sisters," Dennis said defensively. "And the part where Liza died of overdose, maybe Mona felt like she could have done something."

"Crazy stuff."

"No, the crazy part was how she showed up at Liza's parent's house with a goat, fully happy, like nothing happened."

Kevin was only able to scoff at that, not even believing it completely. This was understandable given the circumstances.

Dennis sighed.