Alex stared coldly at the other side of the bed. Two years ago, the very same spot had brought him absolute joy. Even though suspicion and fear had crept in a few months later, soon to be followed by the deep sorrow and hurt that had hit him the past two months, he still hadn’t ever thought the day would come when the only emotion he would feel for his matrimonial bed and anything–anyone–it represented would be this mere numbness.
H
e picked up his phone and did what he had been contemplating for some days. The automated response after a few seconds confirmed he had dialled the right number as he didn’t have it saved on his phone. The customer care line had its digits corresponding to the letters that formed the company name on a keyboard–smart move for ‘living in customers’ hearts’, as Helen often put it whenever she was advocating for her new-found passion. She had needed to get shopping stress off her mind so she could ‘focus more on work’, hence what had led to her obsession with online shopping. And focus on work she had, mused Alex emotionlessly.
A female customer care representative soon came on the line, and Alex told her briefly after she introduced herself, “I need a vacation. What travel packages do you have for next weekend?”
“May I know your name, please?” The CCR asked politely.
“Alex.”
“Thank you for calling, Mr Alex, but travel deals aren’t part of our services here at Nudot.com. We’re a retail company specializing in clothing items, household appliances, gadgets and books. May I suggest that you contact any of the travel agencies for that, please?” She said, cheery.
“Can you get me a number?”
Slight pause. “Sir, I wouldn’t have any of their numbers at the moment as we don’t render such services.”
Alex sighed and told her, exasperated, “You work at an online company, I would think you could just search the web and get me an address or a number to call. I can’t access the internet at the moment and I really need this!”
He had to mentally caution himself after he had spoken. She had done nothing but her job. Helen was the reason why he felt so bitter, so angry with the world. Deep inside of him, he had known her boss couldn’t just have been that extremely generous to her, like she had claimed. And of course, she never told him the Abuja trip was a getaway for two. Unfortunately for all, the plane returning them home had crashed, and out came the roll call. And the truth.
If the CCR was any less friendlier than she’d been before, he didn’t notice it in her voice as she calmly replied, “Alright, Mr Alex, while I’m checking for some travel agency contacts for you, may I let you know about some fantastic buys you cn get from us this weekend?”
“Ok.”
“If you’re interested in household appliances, there’s an excellent, affordable toaster going for just two thousand naira. Also, with the World Cup just around the corner, there are good quality jerseys available at low prices. So if you’re a fan, you could just order a…twin set, for you and your wife, if you’re married, or–“
“My wife’s dead. Please just text me the numbers.”
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“I’m so sorry about your loss, Mr Alex–“ Lola began, before she noticed he had hung up. She swallowed and quickly looked around to see if anyone had heard her conversation with the customer.
The Quality Assurance (QA) team would have, of course. They got paid for snooping in on calls, and one of them would soon show up to tell her how she could’ve better handled the call.
“Did I hear you mention travel deal now?” Bolaji, her older colleague sitting next to her, asked.
Lola nodded, updating her report on the monitor.
Bolaji hissed and said in her usual loud voice, “Some customers can be so funny. Does this look like a travel agency? And he cut the line on you, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, but I guess I upset him. He probably just lost his wife and I was going on about the set of jerseys–“
“Well, you’re not a fucking psychic now, are you? You were only doing your job!”
Lola wished she’d tone it down abit, but after three weeks on the job, she was getting used to the fact that quiet wasn’t exactly the word to define her mentor on the job with. She reached for her phone in her bag.
“What are you doing?” Bolaji asked, watching her every move with narrowed eyes.
Lola shrugged. “I feel like I owe him an apology. I want to text him the numbers he asked for too. It’s not really official, so I can’t text him using the company account, right?”
She cringed as Bolaji laughed a little too loudly and said, causing everyone in the room to look their way, “Well, you’re still new at this. Soon enough, you’ll learn to not let customers get to you. By the time you sell on credit out of pity and get into trouble with the management, oh you’ll definitely learn!”
Victor from QA walked into the room then, just in time to see catch Lola typing away on her S4. “Tell me you’re not texting that Alex guy on your phone,” he said, standing behind her with this hands at the back of her chair.
She turned and gave him an apologetic smile. It was against company policy to give out personal information, she knew that.
“You’re giving him a free, direct access to your mobile number for speaking to you like that, and you still won’t let a nice guy like me buy you lunch?” He told her, feigning annoyance.
Bolaji, who had been talking to another customer, muted the call she was on and told Lola in a mock-whisper, “That is to say, you’re still on his to-do list, so help you God. Amen.”
The call centre erupted into laughter, as loud as could get without being heard by the customers, and Lola smiled. Victor had been on her case sine her very first day at work, but she had been quick to learn of his reputation as office playboy.
She thought about Mr Alex again before the next call on the queue came in. How had he lost his wife? Did he wake up crying in the middle of the night because the pain was almost unbearable? Did his chest tighten and his heart threaten to stop beating like hers still did two months after losing Lolu in that ill-fated FT 719? Did he notice how she almost didn’t want to say the word ‘twin’ because it brought back memories that almost brought tears to her eyes?
“Helloooo!” came the voice of the baffled customer, who was wondering why her call had been picked and no one was speaking.
Lolu would always live in her heart, she only had a few more hours’ work for the day–she might as well make it count. Momentarily discarding the grieving thoughts, she injected a full dose of smile in her voice and spoke sweetly, softly into the phone, “Welcome to Nudot.com, your favourite online marketplace. I’m Omolola, how may I help you..?
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Morountodun is a writer and a microbiology graduate of
University of Ilorin.
Twitter: @Morountosweet
http://morountosweet.wordpress.com
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Awww can't wait 4 the second part……