My mate known as me a number of weeks again (that’s a lie, he texted, as a result of it’s 2025 and we’re males — precise cellphone conversations are reserved completely for wives, mums and random callers who’ve ‘detected a virus’ in your Home windows laptop).
“Mate…what the fuck??…is that this regular??…name me I want a sanity examine…” the message learn. I may sense the exhaustion in his extreme use of ellipses and the 4 query marks. This was real man-code for ‘I’m having an pressing existential disaster.’
So, three days later, I known as him. (What? I used to be busy. It’s how mates present we care, by demonstrating calculated unavailability.)
“Keep in mind that stylish startup I used to be so enthusiastic about?” he requested. “The one with the polished concrete flooring, Edison bulbs in every single place, and that ridiculous nap pod formed like a large avocado?”
I did keep in mind — he’d been clutching that supply letter like a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate manufacturing facility. Plus, I used to be the one who’d spent months encouraging him to ‘take the leap’ and ‘escape the soul-crushing company machine.’ I helped shove him out the company nest, assuring him he’d study to fly within the startup world with its progressive tradition…
