The months passed and Amy settled down happily into the job, finding that she liked her work more with each day. She was also relieved to see that Matt was becoming less antagonistic towards her, and the days when cries of 'uni grad' filled the air were long gone. He would also take the time to guide her on itinerary planning and tour package marketing.
Once, Matt noticed a male client with a substantial beer belly oozing towards Amy and putting a pudgy hand on her thigh. Seeing Amy squirming in discomfort and unable to deal with the handsy customer, Matt swept in and requested that Amy get some travel brochures from the storeroom for the client. Amy fled thankfully and took a moment to calm down in the storeroom. On her way back to the discussion, Amy saw Matt speaking to the client firmly. Come to think of it, she had not seen the client in their office since that day. Had Matt given the client a warning? She surprised herself by blushing at the thought of Matt saving her.
Occasionally, Matt would include her in impromptu lunch gatherings with other colleagues. Outside of the office, Amy found Matt to be witty, leaving everyone in stitches when sharing amusing stories of trips that he had led, or of unusual requests from clients. Once, a client even asked, in all seriousness, how he could cycle from Asia to Australia. "With great difficulty," Matt had dead-panned. His sneering expression seemed to have all but disappeared from his face and Amy realised that he was quite easily the best-looking man that she had ever met.
Amy's heart started thumping when she had to meet him for discussions or if they bumped into each other in the office. What's happening? Am I falling for him? She asked herself.
Of late, there had been multiple discussions as the agency was preparing to take part in a travel fair. Travel fairs had been disallowed in the past year or so due to COVID, but recently, the government had acceded to the travel industry's request to have a small-scale travel fair with safe distancing measures in place. The agency was going all out for the fair and hoped to entice more people to travel.
It was all hands on deck, and everyone in the agency worked hard to do their part for the fair. at about 11am in the morning on the day before the fair, the printer called Matt to inform him that although they could finish printing the leaflets in time for the fair, they did not have sufficient manpower to complete folding them into the right size.
Amy, who happened to be at Matt's desk finalising the duty roster for the fair, overheard Matt's side of the conversation and quickly got the gist of the issue.
Taking a piece of paper from Matt's desk, she wrote, "I can fold leaflets at printer. Will leave now." and placed it within sight of Matt.
Reading the note while still on the phone with the printer, Matt smiled at Amy, giving her a thumbs up. He informed the printer that Amy would be with them soon to give them a hand with the folding.
Grabbing her handbag, Amy made her way hurriedly to the lift lobby while booking a taxi with the phone. She was stopped at the office entrance by Maia, who tried to persuade her that someone else could take her place.
"I'm the one who liaised with the printer, so he's most familiar with me," argued Amy. "Besides, I was late in appointing the printer with the job so maybe that's why he can't finish the folding in time. I feel responsible for causing this state of affairs, so please let me try to make good."
"Folding 10,000 pieces of paper is no joke," protested Maia.
"Thanks for your concern but I've got strong arms and fingers!" Amy chuckled. "And now, I'd better go."
Amy dashed to the building lobby, where the taxi she had booked was already waiting.
The rest of the day passed in a blur for Amy. Together with an employee from the printer, she folded the A3-sized printouts into A5-sized leaflets until her arms and fingers ached, and still she carried on, mindful of the need to complete the folding in time for the opening of the fair the next day. Her legs were stiff as well, from being seated in a constant position for so many hours. It was close to midnight when the folding was completed.
Leaving the printer's office, Amy staggered towards the main road to hail a taxi. Her shoulders and arms were screaming in pain and her fingers were full of paper cuts. She tried to take her mobile phone out from her pocket to book a taxi, but she had trouble doing so due to the multiple paper cuts. She was about to try again when suddenly, everything started to spin around her and then went black.
The next thing she knew, she was lying on a bed. Turning her head, which seemed awfully heavy and difficult to move, she realised that she was in hospital, and that Matt was seated on a chair beside her bed. Seeing Amy awake, Matt stood up, asking, "How are you feeling?"
"Water," said Amy, whose throat was parched.
Matt hastened to help Amy drink some water using a straw.
"Thank you," Amy whispered after taking a few careful sips.
"You probably want to know what happened," said Matt.
In response to Amy's nodding, Matt continued. "The security guard at the printer saw you leaving the premises at around midnight. As the area is not well-lit and it was very late, he kept an eye on you. That's how he happened to see you fall. He called for an ambulance immediately and here you are. The doctor says you've got a mild concussion but other than that, you seem to be all right. No broken bones. You're probably exhausted. Did you forget to eat yesterday?"
Smiling wanly, Amy nodded. "I went to the printer before lunch so I missed lunch and dinner."
"Work is important but health is even more important," Matt chided Amy.' Don't skip meals or miss out on rest just for your work. When you're healthy, you're actually more productive at work."
"Sorry, Matt. All I could think of was completing the folding in time. The travel fair! It's today!" said Amy, sitting up abruptly.
Putting one hand on her shoulder and another on her back, Matt guided Amy gently back onto the pillow. "Lie down, please, and don't worry, we've got it covered. Maia and Jane are manning the booth now, and I'll be going over there soon to take over from them, along with a few other colleagues. I was supposed to be on duty in the morning but I switched my shift with Jane so that I can see that you're all right before I start work. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to concentrate," he said, his eyes twinkling at Amy. "Oh, Larry's very grateful to you. In fact, all of us are. Without your hard work, the leaflets wouldn't have been folded and delivered in time. It would have been a lot more difficult to promote packages to visitors without the print-outs."
As Matt's hands touched her, Amy's face reddened and she turned away so that Matt could not see her blushing.
"You had better get a move on, then," said Amy. "Thanks lots for visiting me."
"No problem at all," replied Matt. He grinned, adding, "I take very good care of all my staff."
Taken aback at what he said, Amy forgot to be self-conscious. Sniffing in mock disgust, she said, "Are you being ironic, or did you really mean that? I don't think calling me 'uni grad' and giving me pop quizzes left, right and centre qualifies as taking very good care of your staff."
"I'm serious!" Matt protested. "Anyway, I'm sorry for not treating you well when you were new to the company. I don't know what came over me."
"This doesn't sound like the Matt I know at all. Have you been possessed by aliens?" Amy said, staring at Matt wide-eyed. "I can't deal with this now. My concussion is giving me a headache, and you're adding to it." Looking at her watch, she said, "You'd better go. I'm sure Maia and Jane are tired from manning the booth."
"No matter how tired Maia is, I'm pretty sure she'll be making a trip to the hospital to visit you," said Matt. "She wanted badly to come this morning, but Larry insisted that she take the first shift at the booth."
"Thanks for giving me a heads-up. I'll be fine, please go," Amy urged.
As Matt was walking towards the ward exit, he turned back, saying, "Oh, I called the human resource manager for your personal particulars. I got your home number and called your mother last night so she wouldn't worry when you didn't go home last night. The hospital called me about your admittance in hospital because they found my contact details on one of the email in your handbag. You must have printed an email from me for follow up."
"Oh, thank you so much! The concussion has really made me bonkers. I completely forgot about letting my mum know about me being in hospital," said Amy.
"No worries. Your mum sais to let her know when you'll be discharged. She'll take leave that day to take care of you," said Matt.
"Thanks again, and bye!" Amy waved at Matt as he left. She smiled as she settled down for a nap. She was relieved to find herself being able to hold a conversation with Matt without blushing, at least not too much.
When Amy woke up, it was evening. Long rays of sunlight entered through the window, casting a golden glow over everything in the ward.
Maia arrived as Amy was having her dinner.
Waving Maia to a chair as she swallowed her food, Amy said, "Oh, you didn't have to visit me. I'm sure you must be tired after manning the booth at the fair for practically the whole day."
"Of course I must visit you. I want to see for myself how you're doing. You had all of us at the office worried sick," said Maia. Taking Amy's hands in her own, she breathed, "Especially me."
Amy gasped but did not remove her hands from Maia's grasp. Emboldened by what she saw as progress, Maia continued, "I'm glad that you seem to have recovered. I met the doctor in the hallway. He says it's just a matter of lack of food and exhaustion," said Maia. "So, just have a good rest. The doctor says you can be discharged tomorrow. I'll come at lunch time to help you with the discharge."
"Thanks for your offer, Maia," said Amy. "I hate to trouble you. I was planning to ask my friend Ella to help with my discharge but I just remembered that she's organising a webinar these few days, so she can't step away from her laptop at all."
"You're not troubling me at all. It's something that I want to do," said Maia tenderly brushing her hand against Amy's cheek.
This is moving too fast, thought Amy nervously. I don't even know how I feel about Maia.
Amy decided to change the topic.
"So, how were things at the travel fair? Amy asked brightly. "Were there a lot of many visitors? Did we get many enquiries for tour packages and ticketing?"
Maia plopped herself down on the edge of the bed near Amy's shoulder and updated her on the leads they had obtained that day. "The fair will last three days, and Larry's planning a lucky draw on the last day. Hopefully, that'll draw more visitors," Maia ended the update.
"You'd better go home, Maia. Don't you need to be on duty the next two days too?" Amy pushed Maia gently on her arm.
"You're not getting rid of me so easily," laughed Maia.
"Well, I am a little tired," Amy prevaricated. It wasn't a complete lie, she reasoned. It was true that she tired but she could have continued the conversation if she had wanted to.
"Oh, then in that case, I must let you rest," said Maia. "I'll come again tomorrow. Sweet dreams!"
After Maia's departure, Amy thought long and hard about her relationship with the lady. Amy was very grateful for Maia's support and friendship in the office but did she necessarily want a relationship with Maia? She had not considered a female partner before and was not sure whether it was the same as having a relationship with a man. In fact, she had a dismal dating track record, having only been attached once before in her life, and then only for three months.
Besides, some parts of society were not ready to accept same-sex relationships. Was she ready to take on naysayers who discriminated against such people, even when they kept to themselves?
However, Maia was really very kind to her; in fact, she was the kindest among the colleagues.
The thought of colleagues brought, unbidden, Matt's visage to Amy's mind. She was confused. What was this fluttering she felt in her chest when Matt was nearby? And did he consider her only as a subordinate or something else? Colleagues do visit other colleagues in hospital but would they switch shifts so that they can see them as early as possible?
With all these thoughts swirling in her mind, Amy slept fitfully that night.