What Separates Me and You

She took the plate of spaghetti to the dining table, sat down, and ate in silence.

The plate opposite hers was still steaming hot. It gradually cooled down, turning into a ball of sticky

mush.

Josephine showered, took her medication, and curled up on the sofa to sleep. When she woke up the

next day, she was covered in a blanket. It seemed that Lewis had already left.

Josephine headed to the dining area. The spaghetti was still there, but it looked extremely cold. She

did not know why her heart ached to look at that plate of spaghetti. It was as if something important of

hers was lost.

A stabbing pain suddenly arose in her head. She started to see black again, so she hurriedly grabbed

the corner of the table and sat down. She waited for the pain to pass. She had already lost count of the

times she would felt to inexplicably dizzy before she passed out.

Josephine sat, waiting for the dizziness to pass before changing her clothes and heading to the office.

She could not take the bus from where she was, so she hailed a cab. She took her phone out and

looked at her social media. The color drained from her face. An overwhelming sense of fear enveloped

her. Chills ran down from her scalp all the way down her back! That was because there was no

notification from the messages that Mr. Wade had sent her. That meant that her messages had been

read.

Only she and Lewis were in the mansion. Since she had not read the message before, it was very clear

who had touched her phone.

She tapped into the message with trembling fingers. Mr. Wade sent a message. “What is it? If you feel

it is inconvenient to communicate via phone, we can meet up and talk.”

Josephine felt suffocated. Her phone slipped from her hands to the floor of the car. She shut

her

eyes in disappointment. The cold air from outside made her face hurt.

“Miss, we’ve arrived.”

Josephine came to her senses. She picked up her phone and dejectedly arrived at the office. She

checked in and sat in front of her desk. She switched on her computer and saw messages from Conrad

about her duties for the day.

“Hey, newbie. Get me twenty copies of this. It’s for the meeting later.” A stack of documents

landed in front of Josephine. She looked up to see a woman with curly hair. Her tag read ” Hilary

Crawford – Secretary”.

Sierra used to sit where Josephine sat. All of them had been bullied by Sierra in the past, so even

when Sierra’s place had been replaced by Josephine, they retained their hatred for the person in her

place. They treated Josephine as if she was Sierra, and poured their hatred on her.

Josephine looked at the document for a short while before standing up to head to the copy

room.

Hilary crossed her arms and side-eyed Josephine. A colleague next to her came over and asked softly,

“Hilary, she looks like she doesn’t know anything, but she’s still working here. I don’t think you should

go too far.”

The colleague’s meaning was obvious, that perhaps Josephine the newcomer was a second

Sierra

Hilary sneered. “Didn’t you hear about what happened yesterday?”

“What happened?”

“Josephine helped Sierra move her things, but she accidentally dropped them, and they ended up

fighting. President Alvarez was so worried that he missed a meeting and ran straight down. Josephine

was reprimanded. Didn’t you notice that she didn’t come back to work yesterday?”

Rumors had been spreading around so much that this had become the definitive version. In fact, it was

not too far from the truth.

Hilary continued, “So, there is only one Sierra Woods in this world. Don’t overthink this. Josephine

likely got this position from some feat of nepotism. We don’t have to be polite to people like them.”

In the secretary department, other than President Lewis, no one else mattered. Hilary did not. care

whose relative Josephine was.

Josephine went to the copy room to make copies, but she did not know how to use the machine. She

did not understand the difference between printing and copying nor did she know which way was the

right side. After a long time, she could barely make a single copy.

Josephine was once again doubting herself that, if she left Lewis, could she really survive?

While she was engrossed in her thoughts, someone called out from behind her. “Josephine.”

She jumped and turned around. She saw Seth standing behind her with some documents in his hands.

He said with a smile, “Do you not know how to use the copy machine?”

Josephine looked rather flustered; she clutched the papers tightly. She did not even know how to use

the copy machine, yet she was working there. What a joke.

Seth took the papers from her. “Come, I’ll teach you. Place the papers along this line. There’s a button

for you to press here. This shows you whether you are copying front and back or just a

single-sided page. This here states the number of copies that you’ll be making. Key in the amount you

want to make ”

Seth taught her step-by-step.

“When the timer counts down to zero, open the lid and flip the papers over and make a copy of

the other side ”

He pressed the button and sure enough, a copy ejected from the copy machine to the floor. Josephine

quickly bent down to pick it up. That was the first copy. She had 20 copies to make.

“Here, you try it.” Seth moved aside and got her to try it on her own.

Josephine nodded and placed the second set of documents into the copy machine.

Neither of them noticed Lewis, who was passing by and stumbled upon them, looking at them

intensely.