Claustrophobia

ONE

Bima looked onto his own reflection on the mirror as he washing his hands. He wet his hands and tidied his messy hair. Apparently working as a customer service representative isn't as easy as he think it is, despite him having a degree in communication. Perhaps it would be easier if he wasn't working for Oto, the national leading ride-hailing company.

Besides him, he heard the basin tap turned on, and the sound of water running against the basin filled the toilet. Bima glanced sideways on the mirror to see Arya, his colleague, washing his hand.

"Arya," Bima greeted.

"Bima." Arya greeted back, without averting his attention from his hands. Without even looking back, Arya left the toilet. Bima decided that something must have been in Arya's mind.

"Huh," Bima mumbled and dried his hand. With that he left the toilet and walked back to his counter.

On the way back, he passed the office's pantry. He saw a slender figure with dark hair on the counter, stirring a mug while lost in her thoughts. He decided to drop by to greet her.

"I think you've stirred that coffee long enough," he startled her, then proceeded to kiss her head. She was Nadya, his girlfriend.

"Jesus, you startled me." Nadya hit Bima on his arm.

Bima shrugged and laughed. "Sorry," he said. He saw the coffee she had made. "I thought you don't drink coffee."

"Ah," Nadya saw what he meant. "It's not for me. It's for Mrs. Luciana. She told me to bring coffee for her when I see her in her office."

Mrs. Luciana is their head manager. "She called you in?"

Nadya lifted the mug up and started walking away. She waved her hand at Baim. "Yeah! She asking me for opinions regarding for her coming third child. She's expecting in 2 months you know!"

Bima looked at her until she disappeared behind the wall. Nadya and Mrs. Luciana were really close. Even before Bima started working there one and a half year ago, Nadya and Mrs. Luciana were already close. Maybe it's because Nadya's dark hair and dark eyes reminded Mrs. Luciana of her first daughter.

"It's a gift from my mother," Nadya explained to Bima once, while she twirled her hair. "It's one of the few things my mother left for me."

Nadya's mother had died from anemia four years ago. Since then, Nadya lived with her unmarried aunt who had been taking care of her. Nadya's father had left her since she was still little.

"Yes, Mr. Susanto. Understood. We are deeply sorry for your inconvenience." Bima replied to the man on the other side of the phone. "We have noted down your problem, and will get back to you again once the problem is resolved."

"Yes, I will look onto it as soon as possible." Bima continued. "Thank you for calling us; we hope you are pleased with the solution. It's a pleasure helping you and have a good day, sir." Bima hung up the phone. He sighed.

"You okay?" A familiar voice from the next counter called him out. It's Nadya. Bima looked over to her and tilted his head.

"Nah, it's okay." Bima shrugged. "It's the usual stuffs, a customer not pleased with our services."

"Oh," Nadya replied, then returned her attention back to her computer screen. "Yeah, I've been getting a lot of complaints lately. Most of them regarding our mobile app. They say it's been problematic lately."