Chapter 7 HARRY'S CARGO

• "School is such a bitch, I'm telling you." Clarissa pouts as she squints at her books.
• Ever since she stepped through the doors of Harry's cargo, she's been this way. Tense and bitch-mouthed. I'd offer to help her with her calculations but this girl is pretty much like me. Stubborn.
• "I'd offer to help, but you'd just turn me down, so. . ." I shrug. From the corner of my eyes, I see her head turn towards me, so fast, I think she'll have a crick in it later.
• "Would you really. . . help me?" She whimpers. I take back my words. It must be pretty bad if she needs my help. That means only one thing- something else has her upset, blocking out her lack of concentration.
• "Yeah, sure." I shrug once again, already moving towards her.
• I pick up the huge binder in front of her and check out what has her so frazzled. My eyes widen as I take in the figures before me. Calculus has never looked so complicated than it does right now. I bite my lip as I try to make sense of what I'm seeing.
• "See. . . I told you. It's fucking gibberish. Why Dr. Caleb thought giving this shit to us as an assignment would make any sense beats me."
• "Shh!" I wave her quiet with my hand. I'm trying to make sense of it and I need her to be quiet in order to do that. I stare at the numbers until they begin to blur.
• After a few seconds, I take the pencil from in between her fingers and begin to write on a plain sheet of paper beside the binder. After half a minute, I turn to her and carefully explain how I got the answer. Once I'm done, a smile lights up her face and her green eyes crinkle at the edges.
• "You're a fucking genius, Alicia. If I didn't know it before, I certainly do now."
• Pride fills my veins and I smirk. Numbers have always come easy to me. It's why I'm working as an accountant at Harry's cargo instead of inside a hospital.
• "You know, we really should have swapped courses. You get queasy at the sight of blood while I hate mathematics.."
• I silently agree with her. I should have done that instead, but when you promise your dying mother to study a course she was not able to, literally stepping into her own shoes, there's little or nothing you can do about it. I turn to Clarissa now, snapping out of my reflection. "Yeah, well, you know how that happened."
• She says nothing except to muse silently. Clarissa and I have always been besties right from high school. We decided to fill in the same college application forms when it was time. Unluckily for us, we both got taken into separate schools. She, into the University of California while I went to UCLA school of nursing.
• But look at us now. Working in the same establishment during summer holidays. Fate or coincidence. I wonder. Whatever it is, I'm happy we get to be together again, even if it's just for a short period of only a month. We get to do stuff together.
• I shrug as I hop down from the desk and hit it twice. "Chop chop, I don't pay you to sit around doing nothing."
• Even though I don't see her rolling her eyes, I can feel it, judging from her whiny tone. "I just hate it when Mr. Harry tells me that."
• "That's because you allow him catch you fiddling with your phone." I tell her over my shoulder. "We'll meet during lunch break, for now, let's do some work."
• I walk away from the front desk which Clarissa mans and go back to my office. It's not big like other offices in the building but it's mine and I have it all to myself. No prying eyes except when I have to give feedback to the head accountant. I sit on my chair and put my hand behind my head. I catch sight of the file on my desk and sit up straight. "Work now, relax later."
• I sigh as I get to work. Time passes and before I know it,the door of my office opens and Clarissa sweeps inside with a smile. "Oh, do come inside, Clar, no need to knock."
• She laughs happily and sits on the edge of my desk. "I'm famished. I'm craving a double sized burger with pickles and steak and all the grease sliding off it."
• I almost puke as she mentions the grease. "That's gross, Clar, I don't know how you never put on any weight. If I were to eat one tenth of what you stuff yourself with, I'd definitely become a whale."
• "You can thank my mum for that, she's never put on weight a day in her life, although. . . " She looks me up and down as I pick up my purse from the table and cram it under my arm. "I wish I had your exotic features, your tanned complexion and those full hips of yours. I'm flat as a pan, front and back and -"
• "You're a size six and easily able to fit into clothes, but me. . ." I shake my head as we make our way towards the front desk. I stop dead when I catch sight of Mr. Harry, the owner. "Duck, Clarrissa."
• But she doesn't hear me and it's too late as Mr. Harry sights us. "Miss. Clarissa and Miss. Alicia, where are you two off to?"
• The smile on Clarissa's face slides off faster than a rocket launch. Why now of all times does he have to show up?
• "Hello, Mr. Harry, we were just going out for lunch." I say, slapping on a fake smile. I can feel the tenseness oozing from Clarissa.
• "But there's a canteen in the building, why do you girls have to go out to eat?" He doesn't give me time to reply, he just launches on. "In any case, I need your help with some accounting, Alicia, so wherever you go, please come back soon."
• He walks off with his personal secretary right being him and I groan. "I swear that man is out to ruin my life." Clarissa says, the whiny tone back in her voice.
• I sigh, knowing fully well we can't go out at this rate. "Let's just go get some snacks at the canteen."
• All the way there, Clarissa whines about it. Bitches about it, more like, and I'm about ready to pluck out my ears out from hearing so much curse words.