Thoughts by Oleksandra Taratunska

It was a fatiguing Friday,

fraught with the deluge of hundreds of calls and messages, accompanied by an avalanche of paperwork that occupied my workspace. An intake of no less than thirty cups of coffee, hastily gulped throughout the preceding week, contorted my stomach to such an extent that the consumption of food became an insurmountable task. I was yearning for respite. Nevertheless, some filling of excitement and exhilaration suspended in the air. At long last, I had an opportunity to recline and enjoy the blissful solitude of a Friday evening.

Having concluded drawing the last agreement, I poured Merlo into the crystal glass, turned on my favourite song of Amy Winehouse "Back to Black" and gracefully reclined upon my new settee, enveloped with serene tranquillity. Abruptly, a buzzing phone shattered the atmosphere of serenity. Once more, my colleague Tom summoned me with a late-night invitation for dinner, his timing predictably aligned with the ending of my evening. 

What an annoying habit of giving such invitations at the eleventh hour, thought I. Looked like I was always the last chance. Did my appearance paint a portrait of a call-girl who is just waiting for those late invitations from a hungry man? Definitely no. It’s just a specific type of humane being who doesn’t respect personal boundaries of others, especially of the opposite sex. Tom has never aspired to tender gestures like sending flowers or inscribing names in the sand. His desires do not extend towards building a joyous family or pursuing a long term relationship. Rather, he prefers to spend his existence in the company of a different call-girl each Friday, seeking transient pleasures. He is so entitled and conceited that he permanently reaches out to me late on a Friday evening, inviting for a dinner. His self-centred nature and unwavering confidence lead him to believe that, with a mere call, all women will arrive to his dirty bachelor flat at Harbour 60. What nonsense to be so self-confident.

Sipping my wine, a sudden realization dawned upon me: even if he had presented the proposal earlier, my response would remain unaltered. There has yet to emerge an individual compelling enough to make me relinquish the tranquillity of my cherished Friday solitude.