As she walked the halls a week later, it felt more familiar than the interview day. Many faces she predicted were here again. The atmosphere made her feel free, but it was her first day. Slowly she made her way to the room they were all told to go, with the rest of the new employees. The person in charge was a man in his thirties.

There were few men in this small office. But she didn't hate all of them. Just the two on the top of the hierarchy. As he went on about what the roles were, the ethics, the culture, the family of this newly founded publishing company, as if it was the legacy of a century. It was hard for Carol to listen but she kept her eyes right on him.

He was an assistant of Dr. Debbs a year ago. Supposedly when he started writing this book. They have the audacity to claim that this amazing masterpiece took less than a year to write. They could not have given her more clues than this. She knew Dr. Debbs didn't write it. So she knew that he, who is standing in front of her talking about morals and duties, is also lying.

It was hard for her to keep her calm when she tried to listen to what he was saying, so she stopped trying at all. The people around her seemed to believe him. So does the whole world. When the news came out that the hidden writer of 'A Lone Girl' had finally decided to come public, She knew the world would turn upside down seeing the MAN'S face.

But it didn't.

When she met him at the events and meet-greets she waited long hours to see him to listen to him to find out what was so special about him that he could have written a masterpiece like that.

There was none.

He was just a normal Psychiatrist who wrote some of his patients' stories. And now claiming he has written 'A lone Girl' too.

"How can the world not see the difference in the writing of this, and this? Is everyone BLIND?" Carol poured out her feelings slamming her 'A Lone Girl' and another book she picked from the shelf in the living area. But Rez did not share her enthusiasm at all. She cared nothing about the book. She was in HR. She had no relations to the books he had written. The work he has done. Or the patients he had cured. The difference of departments made it hard for them to meet but not hard enough.

"Are you listening?" Carol swallowed her sandwich when she asked Rez the most obvious question in a low canteen appropriate voice.

"I am. So you are a fan. And you felt the writer had to be a woman. So you met him many times. And that was not enough. So you are working for him now. You are a stalker, Carol." She is talking about this too lightly.

"Ahhhh nooo.... Don't you see, he might be a fraud." Carol tried all her manipulation to convince her and get her interested in the gossip, but Rez was on vervain and her compulsion bounced right through.

"So you want to expose him? Is this a mystery thriller novel trope you have read. And now you want to execute it." She is loving the fact that she is torturing Carol with her words this much. "You are more fun than I thought."

"I am very fun, first of all. And secondly, I don't care about him at all. I just have to prove to myself that I was right and he is a liar."

"Wow. You could be the next patient he would be writing about if you keep up with the crazy energy." She was so good at playing with peoples nerves.. Only if this was not a professional setting, and she was not soo fun to talk to, and she was not the HR of her very important first job, Carol might have done some physical stunts on her.

"I hate you." She told her but Rez just sipped her drink so carelessly as if Carol was not sharing her life's biggest mission right now. "How can you be so cruel but so sweet at the same time?"

"Years of practice."

"What course teaches you to be bitchy."

"Good question. You totally need that."

"I could learn from the best, why would I need college for it."

"Because.... the best is busy." She looks at her phone and gets up. "Lunch's over darling. Let's get back. We have some more smart heads to speak to us about work ethics and this huge 50 person family of theirs."

"Ours." Carol corrected her followed by some giggles and Rez chuckled so sweetly making her forget how bitchy she was some moments ago.

Carol got the message too when she picked up her phone to get up and catch up to Rez. The demand for lift went high when all of the newbies were called up by their departments at the same time. Rez was ahead of her in the crowd for the elevator, so she stopped trying to reach her too.

It was nice to talk to her. She is surely a bit crazy but she was just fun. They both were crazy. Carol was left behind for the next elevator as the crowd filled the one that came, so she unlocked her phone.

"What you looking at" Rez peeked into her phone making Carol blush in surprise.

"You got left behind too?"

"I left IT behind. For you. You are my friend"

"Aww, were those sweet words coming out of this mouth? I should have recorded that man."

"Start recording, I'll say it again."

"Oh yeah, I'll actually do it." They laughed at their stupidity when Carol opened her voice recorder and the people around them started giving them side eyes, wondering what fun they were hiding inside their phone.

"Say it again." Carol started the recording and looked at her. She leaned into the phone.

"Dr. Robert. Debbs. wrote. 'A Lone Girl'". Rez cracked out a giggly smirk and went into the elevator that just opened up. Until the door closed she enjoyed the look of betrayal on Carol's face, as she stood there like a body just shot right across the chest.

Carol smiled through her pain as she watched Rez leave after playing with her so badly. She loved pulling her nerves unaccounted. She enjoyed it too much. But it was true. Everyone else around her knew it.

Everyone else around her believed it. But she only knew one thing.

She would prove them all wrong.

Very soon.