I was in the company for three years before Anita joined. When she joined, she was almost always lonely and because I shared office space with her, we became friends. I was the one telling her about everyone and everything that happened in the company. I was teaching her how to use the office software too. It wasn’t my job to teach her but when I realized she was struggling to use it, I took it upon myself to help her.

Along the line, feelings developed. I took my time to interrogate the feelings because I knew what it took to fall in love with your colleague. The company’s policy frowned on it, especially with someone you’re in the same department with. Annie wasn’t only in my department. She was in my office. Everything was against us falling in love so I took my time to really understand what I was going through.

One morning at work, I proposed to her. She told me, “You’re using company hours to propose to a woman you’re not supposed to fall in love with. Where did you buy your audacity?”

It was the way she said it. It was funny so we both burst out laughing. In the evening when we got home, we continued. She loved me too but the question was; how’s the future going to be for a relationship like ours? “Are we just doing it for doing it sake or there’s a future in mind? If there’s a future, who then resigns When the time comes?” She asked me.

The easiest answer I had was, “We shouldn’t worry so much about that. There are so many places to work but finding a woman like you doesn’t happen often. I will take the fall if I have to.”

She didn’t believe me but she was ready to give us a try so love started between us. We had to hide our love so we stopped doing a lot of things we used to do freely when we were just friends. Everything became official between us. If it wasn’t about work, we didn’t talk. If it wasn’t an official errand, you wouldn’t see the two of us together.

We dated for only six months but one day, the two of us walked to the HR office and tendered in our resignation. Our colleagues were shocked.

My friend in the office came attacking me, “Noah? You can’t be this silly. Why would you do that? Do you think it’s easy to get a job like this out there? You’ll let this salary and huge benefits go because of a woman?” I answered, “It’s love we are talking about here. Isn’t love worth more than money? We’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us.”

“Of course, I’m worried about you!” He screamed at me. “OK, if it’s about your relationship with her, then why are you both resigning? The policy said one should resign to avoid conflict of interest so why are you both resigning?”

I think he asked a question everyone around the company was asking. Why not only you or only her but the two of you? My friend went ahead to remind me about the opportunity ahead of me. “The next promotion is just around the corner. Noah, you can become the technical lead or a line manager. Why leave all these because of a woman?”

He didn’t get it and I could understand him. It didn’t make sense. The resignation. The timing. The fact that it was both of us. Nothing made sense but we managed to convince everyone that we were leaving because we fell in love with each other. We told them we were leaving for a place where we can have the space and time to grow our love without affecting the company negatively.

We packed whatever was left of us and in the month of August 31st 2021, we said goodbye to the company that gave us every opportunity to grow our career. Anita was crying that day. I held on tight to my emotion so I don’t let down a tear.

We resigned, got home and broke up. The relationship didn’t survive because the foundation was weak. I don’t even want to blame the foundation. We didn’t take our time to build a solid one. We allowed our emotions to lead the way and it destroyed us. The truth is, we didn’t resign. We were made to resign because we were caught having sex in the office.

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One night, we talked the whole night as new lovers usually do. We didn’t want to hang up. It was like we wanted to know everything about each other that one night. Usually, when you talk for that long, the conversation can get off-hand and go into territories you didn’t plan to go with it. We talked about sex. It got the two of us yearning to do it but we were far from each other so that wasn’t possible. I said, “Let’s do something crazy. Come to the office very early tomorrow morning. We can do it before the rest of our colleagues report to work.”

She laughed and called it dangerous. I said, “What’s love without danger? That’s what makes it exciting.”

I was in the office around 6:15am. Five minutes later, she also came around. We had no time to waste so we locked the office and right in the middle of the office, it happened. We did it like we were not under any pressure. After the first, we dressed up and went to our desks. Fifteen minutes later, we were back in the middle doing it again. I messed up her hair, she messed up my shirt. After the second, we polished up and opened the door to allow the air in. We begged the air to carry away the traces of our sins.

Two months later, I was called to the HR office and I met Annie already seated. My heart started running. I looked at her face and she looked away. She looked beaten. Like someone who had cried for so long. After I took my seat next to her, the HR started; “Annie already knows why you’re here so I’ll take you through things quickly.” She turned her monitor to me and said, “Watch this.”

We were there live and clear in HD, doing the do in the middle of the office. I stopped watching after a few seconds. I knew our life in the company had come to an end but the question I asked in my head was, “When did the CCTV start working that we were not told?”

Those cameras had broken down for ages that we even forgot they existed. We called it white elephants and because nothing monetary went on in our office, the company didn’t care to fix it. It had broken down long before Annie was employed. It was the reason we didn’t care about its existence and went ahead to do the do.

After the clip, HR asked me, “What’s your defence?” I didn’t have one and it looked like Annie also couldn’t put up any defence so the HR said, “I’ll do both of you a favour. Top people want you sacked but I’ll ask you to rather send me your resignation letters as soon as possible. If you don’t tell anyone, no one would ever know about this.”

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To date, everyone knows we left because we found love. The truth is, we were sacked because we couldn’t control our emotions. I’ve been home since. I’ve started my own company. It’s hard getting easy money like I used to but all is not bad. I’ll call it 40/100. It’s better than none. Annie is working in a different organization now. When she got the new role she called to tell me. I wished her well and again apologized for what happened. We are not enemies. The relationship didn’t work because of what happened but we are cool. We know it’s not the end of life and are grateful for the way HR treated us. It’s the reason Annie could get a job again.

—Noah

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