Chastity didn't know what to do.

Her office was on the fifteenth floor, showing the once stellar view of the Nairobi skyline. Once, when she had been green and wide-eyed, her breath had escaped her at the immaculate sight of the whole thing. It was her first proper job - a proper government job at that. There had been something wonderfully cushy about the whole thing. Coming to the office, dressed in an official outfit that probably dated her quite a bit even though she puled inspiration from her favourite TV characters. She'd always wanted to be them then there she suddenly was, carrying a thermos filled with much too sweet coffee that she would struggle to finish because coffee was simply not something she liked but felt she needed to. Gossiping in the photocopy room with the colleagues she was probably going to be working with for the next thirty years. She needed a posey, you see, because this was what modern working women had at the office, and it could only be achieved via controlled and giggle-filled gossiping.

It had all been stellar - when she'd been a low-level employee. Then it all changed the moment she became a manager and they roughly remained in the same positions. She'd not even considered what it would mean to get an office at the corner of the building, looking at the skyline and having mysterious tea appear in her office before she did. At first, it had been sort of normal; she could still giggle with them. She had thought she was young and cool enough that it made sense that they would still see her the same way, but then the gossip fizzled out. They seemed to avoid the photocopy room during the time they were all used to huddling over. 

Then one day, still naive in the way someone would be when they saw the Nairobi skyline for the first time from the fifteenth floor, she wandered to the photocopy room, face split with the widest most incredible smile. They were all gathered there at the same time - she knew because all the usual gossips were missing from their desks and it was almost lunch hour - their time. She hadn't meant to stop at the door. Sure enough, she hadn't meant to turn her face to the side, getting her ear the latest scoop of what the office thought. Incredibly enough, had not meant to hear her once most trusted colleagues, think her a stuck-up bitch who probably slept her way to her position because she was much too green. Or hear tales of probably being the child of a tycoon who wilded the Kenyan economy in his hand. 

It was then that she decided she'd had enough of those fuckers. She could do well alone.

She had not become a maniac at the office right away. Actually, she would have referred to herself as stern - she liked things done a certain way and she expected everyone to comply. She did not care for any other font other than Times New Roman in size twelve and when someone lazily handed her an Arial size eleven, it made sense to chew them out. They knew this, for fucks sake. 

She became the lioness (derogatory) of the office. 

It had been two days since the disaster that had been her and Ivy. Two since her friend had decided she needed to go see the family she hated so much, completely out of the blue. She had looked over at her, all silly-like, as she bounced on the balls of her feet, not knowing if she was supposed to help her pack or ask her to stay. They could figure something out. It was completely uncalled for to abandon her apartment for a house she had been so eager to rid herself of. All because they'd had a spectacularly bad turn of horny events.

"I'll call," Ivy had said. 

She had not and this meant that Chastity was going to take it out on her work. 

For those two days, the floor had been quiet, pin drop when Ivy left her office for something absurd like sugar for her watery tea or to look for Frank the accountant who still refused to use Times New Roman size twelve because he had a system and she was not old enough to understand it all. Including her assistant, they parted, letting her flow about like some hot Moses who was never going to let her people be taken back. 

"Where is Anna?" She called out. "Anyone who sees her, tell her I want her in my office immediately!" With that, she slammed the door to her office shut and leaned against it. 

She was well aware that she was being more of a cunt than usual. Usually, she would have the proper aim of a snipper. She was not aimless when it came to honing down on the weakness of those around her. Yet, for those two days, she had hit just about everyone. And even in her state of unbridled anger, she felt a bit sad and embarrassed about making Chuka, the janitor, cry. She was a bitch, she knew it, but it was like she couldn't stop. 

Her phone had not left her hand and she kept on looking at it every minute. She kept on waiting for a call - for anything really - to come from Ivy. Nothing. Just silence and with every passing second, it boiled and terrified her all the same. She wanted to break things in the same way she wanted to cry in the shower until her eyes were swollen and her throat was fried. She wanted to turn back time and take back all they had done. If it were not for her, she would have had her best friend with her and she wouldn't have been stressing as she was. 

Because she was who she was, she looked at her phone again. No new notifications. Just the same as it had been a minute ago. She sighed and clutched at the darn thing as hard as she could. She slid down the door, sitting on the carpeted blue floor and dipped her hands in her braids. She had not been diligent about tying them back to a low bun. She'd not had the strength to look herself in the mirror in the first place. 

"I should probably call her," she said to no one. "She's obviously not going to call me so I should do it, right?" She raised her head and looked at the window - not past it but just at it. 

Relaxing her shoulders, she resigned to her fate, opening her phone, navigating to her contacts and calling the one person who was, apparently, the bane of her existence. 

One ring, two, four, eight, then it cut off. She tried it again. Same outcome. She was not being ignored. Ivy would never ignore her. She was probably occupied with chores or something. Even a person who was constantly on her phone needed a break from the damn thing and she was just unlucky enough to call her at that precise moment. 

Someone knocked on the door. "Miss Kioko?" They called out as they tried to push the door. 

Chastity had to get herself together. She got to her feet, straightened her skirt and pulled the door open. "Anna," she said with a smile, "why is the memo not in Times New Roman size twelve?"

Even she knew she was going to get a warning letter.