The company party had been scheduled for Friday, and everyone had been talking about it since Monday. Quite a few people who had said at first they would go, eventually decided it wasn’t worth it and changed their minds. Others wanted to rest, others wanted to spend time with their families, and some simply had other plans.

 José had scanned that barcode and said he would go, though only after a lot of pushing and encouragement from Anna, who insisted he should go “blow off some steam.” José didn’t understand her. Blow off steam from what, exactly? From work and from “staying inside,” she had replied.

 She knew she wouldn’t be able to come with him, and yet that Friday morning she practically pushed him out the door in a hurry, reassuring him that she would find a way to enjoy herself alone. José was more worried about what he had just heard than about the party. Who knew where she might wander off to, get lost in some metro line, and then he’d have to go searching for her?

 The party was scheduled from five in the afternoon until eleven at night. Employees could arrive from four, but the buffet would open at six. The email they had sent to those who had signed up had been very detailed about how exactly everything would work.

 But until five, everyone still had to work.

 The party would take place in another building nearby, close to the company’s own. In that hangar they already had two airplanes undergoing C-checks* at the same time. Where were they supposed to move those poor things just so they could throw a party here?

 For the contractors, this was the first time Street had allowed them to attend a company party. No one knew why this sudden change had happened. Still, out of the almost twenty contractors who had scanned the barcode, only six had actually decided to come.

 The space was quite large and dim. Lamps and little lights had been hung around for better illumination, but the place looked more like a bar than a corporate venue.

 White, blue, and purple lights glowed across the room and over the people. A crowd had already gathered by around five twenty, when José stepped inside the building with Ruben, Aaron, and the other Bruno—the bald one, as many called him to distinguish him from the younger dark-haired Bruno with the same name. They had all come together in one car.

 As soon as they entered, three blonde women in suits welcomed them and asked for their names. Then they handed them little name tags to hang around their necks and a glass of champagne each.

 Ruben frowned.

 José smiled. He knew the short brown-haired man would start complaining and grumbling any second now. None of them actually wore their name tags. They simply stuffed them into their pockets.

 José looked around.

 A stage stood in one corner of the enormous space, bathed in purple light. Some people were standing there arranging musical instruments. Next to the stage was a long row of white-covered tables. Behind and on top of them were countless glasses filled with different drinks. José could see red wines, white wines, champagne, various kinds of Belgian beer, even tea and coffee. Above the makeshift bar, several glass cups hung upside down from metal rails for display.

 Along one side of the hall there was another long row of white-covered tables with steel food warmers and platters covered with lids. The buffet was there, it just hadn’t opened yet. Several people were standing around it, and many more behind it ready to serve.

 There were only a few tables in the room, but no chairs. Just three large wooden tables near the center where someone could sit. And in the opposite corner from the stage there stood a brown-and-white fake cow mounted on a spring. Plenty of lights had been set up around it.

 A man walking past with a tray of champagne glasses stopped them and suggested they leave their jackets on the coat racks near the entrance. It was fairly cold inside the hall, and many people didn’t even bother taking their jackets off.

 Aaron immediately went to drop his jacket off. The bald Bruno did the same.

 “Why is there a damned cow in here?” Ruben said a bit loudly. “Can you tell me why?”

 The music wasn’t very loud yet, but he still had to raise his voice slightly to be heard. The band hadn’t started playing. The music was coming from some computer through the speakers. José wondered if they would play metal. He chuckled quietly. He had never seen a corporate party where they played his kind of music. But this party already seemed different. Pretty strange, actually. Who knew what they’d end up hearing later.

 “I don’t know. First time I’m seeing something like that too,” he said. “But relax, Ruben. It’s fake.”

 Ruben muttered something again, but the music swallowed it before it reached José’s ears.

 José looked around the room again. In the darkness and the crowd, he couldn’t spot the others anywhere.

 “So you did come after all?”

 They turned and looked at the relatively young man behind them. The tall man placed a hand on José’s shoulder. “I thought they didn’t allow contractors.”

 Ruben looked at Mark, their manager, the married man with three kids who looked like he was in his forties even though he was fifty.

 “This time they did us the favor.”

 “Is it just you two?” Mark asked, adjusting his black prescription glasses on his nose.

 “Aaron’s here too. And Bruno—the bald one,” José said, raising his voice slightly.

 “Good, good.” Mark removed his hand from José’s shoulder. “Have fun, guys. The buffet’s opening soon, better get in line. With all these vultures here, you won’t get anything otherwise.”

 “Wait. Is that young girl here too?” Ruben asked.

 “Which young girl?”

 “The dark-haired one.”

 “He means Evi,” José added.

 “Oh, right. Yeah, she’s here somewhere. Lost in the crowd. An old colleague came, last I saw she was with him.”

 “Then we’d better get in line for the buffet if she’s here,” Ruben said, swirling the champagne in his glass before taking a sip.

 José and Mark laughed.

 Everyone had seen Evi eat. She ate politely enough, but the amount of food she could eat while staying so thin was indescribable.

 The evening passed calmly until around ten o’clock, when quite a few people started climbing onto the damn cow.

 Ruben turned his head away, saying he couldn’t stand watching that spectacle. José and the other two, whom they had eventually managed to find in the crowd, stood there watching and commenting. The bald Bruno suggested they start placing bets, not with money but with beers.

 Right now a man around fifty, maybe older, completely drunk was on top of the bull-cow, trying to stay seated as it jerked mechanically back and forth and up and down. The crowd around them cheered while others shouted. The music had gotten much louder.

 “I bet two beers he falls.”

 José looked at Bruno. “One beer he falls.”

 “You cheap bastard!” Aaron shouted over the music. “Just for the fun of it, I say he wins. I’m betting three!”

“With all the beers you’ve bet tonight you’ll be set for a year!” Ruben shouted, glancing quickly at the man on the bull before grimacing. He felt embarrassed for him. Terrible second-hand embarrassment. Why would people do something like this?

 The man nearly tipped sideways to the left.

 “He’s gonna fall!” Bruno shouted.

 “No, don’t fall!” Aaron blurted.

 “Fall, fall,” José murmured quietly like a mantra.

 But the man held on.

 Many people applauded, while others groaned in disappointment. A lot of them had expected him to fall—he looked completely plastered, his cheeks bright red.

 The bull finally stopped.

 Aaron jumped a little. “Yes!”

 The bald Bruno grabbed his head, and José buried his face in his hands.

 “I’ve got three beers now. Plus the seven from earlier.”

 “You had six,” José said, raising an eyebrow.

 “I had seven.”

 “You had five,” Bruno cut in.

 “Wait—who’s that getting on now?” Aaron nudged Bruno beside him.

 The blonde woman wore a beige cowboy hat and adjusted herself on top of the bull.

 “Dear God,” Ruben exclaimed. “These Belgians have completely lost it. Especially when they drink. Like they’ve never had alcohol before.”

 “Nice. Pretty nice,” Bruno said, stroking his smooth chin.

 José sighed. Ruben had a point.

 “How many beers are you betting?” Aaron asked, wrapping an arm around bald Bruno’s shoulders without taking his eyes off the woman.

 “I say we go stand over there and encourage her,” the brilliant Bruno suggested.

 “Encourage her to stay on or to fall?” José wondered aloud, rubbing his chin.

 Aaron grinned.

 “I say we play good cop, bad cop.”

 “If she wins, I’m asking her out,” the bald man declared.

 Ruben shook his head disapprovingly. He didn’t know how he had ended up—a married man—surrounded by these idiots.

 José took a sip of his beer. It was his third drink. He had mixed champagne, wine, and now beer, but he had eaten well at the buffet so it didn’t bother him. He had particularly liked the tomato with tuna. A Belgian from the military department had explained that it was usually tomato with shrimp. Probably for budget reasons they had served tuna instead.

 The bull started moving again, and Aaron and Bruno were already heading towards it.

 José took another sip and glanced at his phone. He then stepped closer to Ruben and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. “I’m going outside for a bit. You staying here?” he shouted into his colleague’s ear over the loud music.

 Ruben nodded and gestured for him to go.

 José headed toward the exit.

 The three women were no longer there, and no one was really monitoring the entrance anymore. Maybe he could have brought Anna earlier after all.

 His ears were ringing and the music still echoed in them when he stepped outside.

 The entrance of the building faced the road. Many cars were parked in a row outside the building, beside the small sidewalk that separated them from the street. The road itself was empty. Orange and white streetlights cast their mixed glow over a silent, dark surface. The contrast between the noise and life inside the building and the calm quiet outside was striking.

 He shivered. He shouldn't have kept his thick leather jacket on while being inside.

 With his ears still ringing, he walked to the left and leaned his back against a metal railing. He took his phone out of his pocket and looked at it. He unlocked it and typed a message to Anna.

I WON’T BE LATE. I’LL TAKE A TAXI BACK. LOVE YOU.

 The reply didn’t come from Anna. In fact, the message hadn’t even been delivered.

 José wondered if he should call her, but after thinking about it he dropped the idea. She might be asleep. His girlfriend went to bed quite early and woke up early too.

 The ringing in his ears faded slightly, and faintly he caught a voice, like he was at the bottom of the sea and someone was speaking to him from above the water.

 He turned to his right and saw the broad back of a short light-brown-haired man. He couldn’t hear what he was saying. The man was talking on his phone while walking to the right. Then he made a sharp turn and started walking left—toward José.

 José looked at Carlos and took another sip of his beer. Carlos seemed to notice him and raised the empty glass in his other hand as a greeting.

 José nodded.

 He knew Carlos and Chris would come too, but he had no idea where they were or even when they had arrived. None of them had sent any messages. José wondered where Chris might be.

 When he looked again toward Carlos, the man had already ended the call and was walking toward him with a serious expression.

 “Oooooh!”

 Three people burst out of the entrance, singing a terribly off-key version of I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston at the top of their lungs.

 “Hahaha! Did you see how she fell?”

 “Dude! I was ready!”

 “Ready?”

 “To help!”

 Chris adjusted Aaron more securely over his shoulder.

 “Alright boys, I think it’s time you head home.”

 “Home?” bald Bruno protested. “I’m not drunk. I’m still good. He’s the one who’s wasted,” he said, pointing at Aaron.

 The young Maltese man with the beard grinned widely. “I’m still going!” he said, thumping his chest. “Made of steel!”

 “Anyone want to keep the night going?” Chris suggested, looking at José and Bruno.

 “I’m going home.”

 Everyone turned to see Ruben standing there after coming out of the building.

 “And I’m taking the drunk with me. You guys go on.”

 “You sure?” José asked, raising his thick eyebrows.

 “Yes.” Ruben took Aaron from Chris’s shoulder.

 José thought about it. Where would they even go?

 “I know a nice place up on a hill,” Chris said, as if reading his thoughts. “I went there once with my cousin when he was visiting and we were driving around. It’s not crowded, and the view is great. There’s a river down below. If you’re up for it, we can go drink a beer there.”

 “Bruno and José owe me bee—” Aaron stopped abruptly as his body jerked. A hiccup took him.

 “Next time, buddy!” Bruno slapped his back before Ruben dragged him away.

 “See you Monday!” Ruben shouted.

 “You’ll be okay? Need help?” José asked.

 Ruben raised his free hand to refuse and waved goodbye before hauling the drunk Aaron along with him. Short and skinny as he was, he was surprisingly strong.

 “And you, Carlos? Coming with us?”

 Carlos nodded. “Yeah. Why not?”

*C-check: Airlines and airworthiness authorities casually refer to the detailed inspections as "checks", commonly one of the following: A check, B check, C check, or D check. A and B checks are lighter checks, while C and D are considered heavier checks. The C check is performed approximately every 20 to 24 months, after a specific number of actual flight hours, or as defined by the manufacturer. (Source: Wikipedia 'Aircraft maintenance checks').