‘So? Will you help us?’

Joan was pissed off, and she might actually be able to get me fired for ‘interfering’.

‘Please?’

I realize that I don’t really care if Joan is pissed off. Part of me wants her to be pissed off.

‘Sure. But we’ll have to do it a bit clandestinely.’ Because I do care about being fired. I have bills to pay. Card supplies to buy. Plants to water. ‘We can do it over lunch-time. There’s a cafe round the corner that never has anyone in it. I’m sure we could take over a table for an hour.’

‘Great! Can we start today?’

Turns out we took over three tables. There were a lot of people behind the eager eyes, and a lot of questions.

My favourite was definitely the question ‘Who are the big dogs?’ Turns out one of the newbies had unknowingly emailed a member of the advisory board asking him to come fix the printer. Unsurprisingly she didn’t get a response.

But the illicit session went well. The keen beans took so many notes and nodded so enthusiastically that I couldn’t help but feel like some sort of weird oracle.

The only issue was, we didn’t have enough time. The hour sped past faster than any other hour in the day, and there were still many questions left unanswered.

I look at the clock on the wall. It’s analogue, so takes me a shamefully long time to tell that we need to be getting back. By the time we all return to our desks we will have been away for over an hour and a half. Someone is bound to notice.

‘OK, guys – I know you have more questions, but we need to go. I promise I’ll find a regular time for us to meet up. I’m also very aware that the conversation was really meandering today, so maybe next time we will focus on a specific area. If you guys want to email me over some things you’re unclear about, I can come up with a plan, or a list of topics, and we can go through them one by one. Sound good?’

The nodding heads make me smile. I came up with a plan and people liked it.

Something catches my eye and my smile goes stale, turning into more of a grimace.

My boss is at the counter. I’m very surprised to see her here. This isn’t the type of establishment I would think she frequents, which is partly why I chose it. I have also never seen her look more like a meerkat. Her head is tilted slightly to the side and her eyes are watching me very carefully. My mouth immediately goes dry. I wonder how long she’s been watching us for.

Despite the total lack of saliva, I go over after everyone has filed out. There is no way I can hide from this, so I might as well confront it.

‘Hi, Mansi.’ I cough and swallow at the same time in an uncomfortable effort to find my voice. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but we were just going over some questions and issues they’re having. We’re not about to do anything like start a revolution.’ Oh God, mentioning a revolution makes me look even more guilty.