The conversation over, Aaron looked at his watch. It was 3:30 PM already. “This should be fun” he thought. The last part of the day usually seemed longer than it actually was. It was like time entered in a slipstream of sorts and a single hour felt like three lifetimes in the 4th circle of hell.

His inbox was full by the time he got to his desk. Most of it was bullshit mail, someone had used a large distribution list to send some personal e-mail and all the other people in the list started complaining individually. There were a couple of e-mails from his supervisor, apparently he had forgotten about the end of the month report.

By the time he had finished the report in question it was already closing time. He mailed it with the appropriate excuses and decided to leave. Dan popped out by his cubicle. Aaron was amazed how Dan managed to materialize out of nothing. His smile also gave Aaron a eerie feeling.

“You ready for those beers mate?” asked Dan. There was no sign of the shyness or embarrassment he had exhibited just three hours ago.

“Yeah, sure. Let’s go.” said Aaron regretting his overzealousness in convincing Dan in the first place.

They went to the same bar. The music was loud, playing some millennial post-rock babble something. It was crowded with corporate hamsters trying to drink the past week away.

The pub had a special 2 for 1 offer on beer pitchers for the customers who produced a corporate badge. The beer was shit. Stale, flat and tasting like rust. Aaron bought the special anyway.

“After all it’s two beers.” thought Aaron in the back of head, like he was trying to justify something.

...to be continued...