At Least We Have Good Weather: A Life of Love and Loss

Chapter 11

While I was working at Intekom, we were constantly looking for new staff, as is the nature of the industry. With me now being in a position to help change people's lives, I looked forward to each interview. We interviewed many people, some good, some great and others hilarious bad. A particular girl from Durban also applied for a job with us, she drove up to Johannesburg just for the interview, this was in itself impressive, and I immediately found myself attracted to her as she walked in the door.

Dark hair, and a devilish smile, I was smitten. There was no doubt I would play a pseudo nepotism card.

So regardless of how the interview went, she'd get my vote for the job. Luckily, the other decision makers there agreed (maybe just wanting to make me happy), and she got offered the job. Then after sorting out her big move from the coast to the big city, she started about a month later.

We got to know each other, and the more I got to know her the more I fell for her. It was a typical office environment romance - being into a co-worker and not being able to do anything about it. Obviously her being fairly new to Joburg, I went out of my way to make her feel welcome. I was the guy who was always there. If she needed to get somewhere I took her, if she was sick I brought her lunch to her home, if she got a flat tyre, I'd go find her and change it. I became that reliable guy who was always there in a time of need. Looking back, I immediately put myself into the friend zone.

I tried constantly to prove my worth as a good decent guy to her, but she started to become friendlier with other people in the office who were also into her, and I felt myself as the guy being pushed out the romance equation, while she flirted back with them. It was hard to watch.

Then, as her birthday was approaching, she mentioned she was going back home for her 21st. Much to my surprise, and secret joy, she invited me to drive down with her (along with her roommate - a creepy, cross-eyed guy she met online, who happened to be in love with her too), and stay with her family.

It was a fairly long drive, and despite yet another flat tyre I would change, I was excited to arrive in Durban, where I was welcomed so kindly by her family, who seemed to really like me. Vicki, on the other hand, almost instantly flipped on the bitch switch. And she became a completely different person to me. She was insulting to me the entire time we were there, and I couldn't quite understand it. I ended up spending more time with her mom than with her. Even her jealous ex was nicer to me than she was.

On the night of her birthday, I gave her an expensive porcelain fairy statue (as she was into that sort of Wiccan stuff) which would take me about 3 months to pay off, but while the family oohed and aahed over it, she just placed it to one side with nothing more than a "Cool. Thanks". Ouch.

On the Saturday night of her party, I was so ostracized that I left early and went to the bar to drown my sorrows by sipping my diet coke through a straw, while I watched the movie, Office Space on the broken TV perched on the wall. It was all very "woe is me", a feeling I was more than used to.

Nobody noticed I was missing till it was time to leave. Mercifully, we would return him the next morning.

We drove back to Johannesburg in total silence the Sunday, and I wondered to myself what the point of all that was.

Eventually I told her my feelings, she was very non-responsive to it, as most people were it seemed. But she eventually revealed to me that there was someone in her life she considered her soul mate. He had moved overseas a few years ago and she lost touch with him, not knowing if he was alive or not, or what he was doing.

Me being me, made the ultimate promise.

I promised her I would find this guy, because the only person I was prepared to lose her to was her soul mate.

With a smile on her face she said I was crazy, but I felt this was a great way to reconnect with her after our disastrous weekend.

She gave me a few details, like his name, where he was from, the fact that he moved to England and his interests etc.

So began the search.

This was before the days Google was the ultimate search engine, so it took me a while to find any leads.

I asked my contacts around the UK to search the telephone directories to see if he was registered with a phone number there. Nothing.

Eventually I found a post online from the then defunct company he used to work for posted in a Linux newsgroup. It felt like the most random thing I could find. But it was a start.

I contacted that person and explained I was looking for this guy. I didn't get much from it, other than an email address the guy used to have.

Searching yielded no results, I was hitting dead-ends. But I made a promise.

Eventually, I found an account on a chat program called ICQ that had been registered to that email address.

So with little hope of even being accepted, I added him. After a few weeks he eventually signed on!

It was indeed the right guy. Then came the news, he was in Cape Town, and had been for the last few years. And he was engaged.

This would surely end Vicki's hopes of being with him. After all, the reason they parted ways was because he left the country, he'd been back for ages and had clearly moved on.

I put her in contact with him so that she could have some closure.

I know what you're thinking, and you're right. Silly me.

They began chatting, and he began offering her hopes of being friends again.

She, in the meanwhile, became nastier and nastier to me. (Sensing a pattern yet?) Eventually we had a major falling out...

Meanwhile, on the work front, our division was bought out. Retrenchments were looming and I was one of the first ones on the chopping block. My role had of course been created to make up for me not getting the position I was meant for. There was no avoiding it. The management, not wanting to lose me though, hired me back as a senior call centre agent. I was back at the bottom. This sucked beyond compare, and soon my feet were itching...

During that time, I had been chatting to a friend on the aforementioned chat program ICQ throughout my stay at Intekom and had mentioned my job situation. (ICQ was that era's WhatsApp, just in case you have kids who ask you what it is).

She contacted me a few weeks later and said the Microsoft help-desk was looking to hire a new agent. I thought wow...Microsoft...that's the big leagues! A fluffed up CV, and a "sick day" later, I was in the interview room, where I once again charmed my interviewer. And got offered the job.

I left Intekom almost without anyone even noticing. The turnout at my farewell showed me who actually cared. Vicki was not there either.

We slowly began to get back in touch after about a year. And in passing, she told me how she needed a better job.

Once again, I used my influence to get her a job at Microsoft.

It all began again...

...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

A lot was still to happen before my reunion with Vicki.